Technology

The greatest developments in technology in the last sixty years have undoubtedly been in the field of automation. The development of artificial, acid-reactant muscle tubules around electrically-reactive graphene nanotubes have allowed the creation of machines as variable in motion as organic beings but with far stronger and more efficient working power. Simultaneously, machine learning and AI processing have advanced in leaps and bounds, to the point where an AI will almost always outperform a human on a specific and limited task. Vast swathes of human jobs have thus been automated – including virtually all agriculture, manufacturing, mining, logistics, police and military roles as well as substantial shares of white collar jobs.Drones – self-propelled machines – are visible every day performing deliveries, as self-drive cars and in homes, where robotic pets, cleaners, domestic servants and administrators are commonplace.

Transport developments are not limited to self-drive cars – now increasingly slow and vulnerable to gridlock in the overpopulated cities. Maglev trains are now ubiquitous and are the primary means of getting people from one part of a city to another without leaving their tier. For the richer, personal helicopters are available – devices like large and ungainly jetpacks powered by battery and kept safe by an onboard AI. Flying cars – though the technology to build them exists – remain dangerous and expensive, as they require a minimum speed to guarantee lift.

Computing has advanced relentlessly with the invention of reliable quantum computing, which at a stroke destroyed old methods of cryptography. Quantum cryptography and quantum hacking are now in an arms race against one another. Increased computing efficiency also allowed the creation of a Virtual World, which has over time become known as Arcadia – an immersive synthetic world hosted in the data cloud. While many people connect using a puck and headset or glasses, some wear retinal lenses and neural laces for increased accuracy of stimulation, while others go all in and have implants in their eyes, ears, nerve stem and attached to an onboard neural processor. This provides total immersion, where the user experiences the sights, sounds, touch and movement of the virtual world as if it were real.

Other implants and prosthetics are common too, from replacement limbs to artificial eyes and a dizzying array of onboard computers. Replacement limbs are now usually a choice rather than a necessity, as entire replacement limbs can be printed as required – replacing a now-antiquated system of growing brain-dead clones from which to harvest donor-compatible organs. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes are all curable for a price, while genetic and genetic therapies can be delivered via retroviral engineering even to living adults. Disease is effectively a thing of the past – for those who can afford the treatments.

While humanity adopted clean technology far too slowly to avoid the destruction of our biosphere and rampant climate change, in time it transpired this was more cost effective to corporations than the alternative. While some material extraction from Earth still takes place, most common materials are generated from efficient recycling, while 90% of all water consumption comes from purified water and desalination plants. Virtually all power now comes from renewable sources – be they the orbitally-connected echelon mirrors, tidal harnesses or Aeolian arrays lining mountains and hills. Humans also cracked fusion technology, for the fuel of which robotic mining bases have been set up on the moon, while rarer elements still are acquired and shipped all the way from Mars. The first human probe, powered by a prototype Twin Ion Engine, arrived at Alpha Centauri in the 2070s.

Materials science has moved forward, in the realm of graphene and silksteel, while as much manufacturing is via 3d printing as it is from mechanical assembly. Nanotechnology, despite its long lead in and heritage, is still not a highly developed or commonly encountered technology.

Science and Innovation are now two very different things. Large scale basic science has more or less ground to a halt, leading to a stagnation in learning, because basic science is a public good and those are anathema to the establishment. We have returned to the 18th and 19th Centuries, where gentleman scientists rich enough to fund their own investigations are responsible for discoveries, employing teams of people where necessary. Some government basic research takes place but not much. Conversely, technology – that is, using extant knowledge to develop new products to sell – is rampant.

Two things that have not been developed are true AI – an artificial general intelligence like ours – and gravitonics, which might allow for proper antigravity. The former is now considered virtually impossible without an understanding of consciousness that still evades students of neurology; the latter is being actively pursued, but given that gravitons were only detected in the second decade of the 21st Century, being able to artificially generate them without mass is some time away.