Dark Years

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> “The penalty for harboring an unsanctioned artificial intelligence, whether corporeal or digital in host, will result in a minimum sentencing of twenty five years and a maximum sentencing of life in a Coalition-level prison...”
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> — *Revised Coalition law on owning artificial intelligences, c. 2179 (Coalition Code, Title 10 § 2115)*
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The **Dark Years**, also known as the **Luddite Years** or the **Forgotten Years**, is a period in human history following the Machine War, from the late 2170s to the 2220s, where all scientific advancements and employment of sophisticated artificial intelligence and robots halted. With nearly a third of the Coalition's population having been killed during the thirteen years of the conflict and more wounded, billions more had died in the aftermath as a result of the loss of infrastructure and subsequent colonial logistic failures, famines, disease, and drought. Draconian repopulation laws were introduced by Coalition member nations, including the sanctioned usage of womb farms in the United States of America, European Federation, and colonial administrations, alongside mandated insemination for adult females with sufficient genetic health in Earthborne nations such as China and the Soviet Union.

Any private, unsanctioned ownership or employment of AI or large robots was criminalized as a Coalition-level felony, with scientific advancements in the fields of metamaterials and advanced biology stopping almost entirely as a result. Neo-Luddism became a powerful force in the collective psyche, as a diverse array of religious and ideological figures alike called for the culling of technological progressivism with the Machine War being a clear supporting argument. Cybernetics and augmentations proliferated throughout civilized space (despite intense cultural disdain for anything resembling robotics), as their mass-production during the Machine War left millions of units circulating within the underworld. Many colonial administrations and Solar System governments had to revert to mostly human bureaucracies with only basic, subturing AI support. In addition to these setbacks, the Coalition economy had entirely collapsed, stopping all future colonial ventures and officially ending the Planet Rush phenomenon. Corporations that had previous vested interest in artificial intelligence had already collapsed or were shut down by the beginning of the Dark Years.

The quality of human life had dropped significantly for all societies, and would remain poor for the entirety of the Coalition until the Decade of Resurgence that heralded the rise of the modern megacorporations. With the obliteration of numerous cities across the Coalition, a massive demand of infrastructural repair signaled the beginning of nomad culture as billions of unemployed humans migrated between and within worlds, taking jobs where droids once worked in bitter irony. These gigantic shifts in demography led to numerous battles, both literal and cultural, between different groups of humanity. It would also lead to the rise of the first shanty-cities, with modern Maogang on Hyperion being one of the oldest surviving examples.

The first major insurrectionist movements rose during the Dark Years, consuming modern Core star systems such as al-Battani and Chesed in ideologically or religiously-motivated civil war. METASASIS remnants still existed in small, decentralized holdouts on frontier worlds and in deep space; combined with the insurrections and civil unrest across human-controlled space, this led to the continuation of the Coalition Forces Authority's large-scale deployments for thirty years after the war's end.

Even with all of the terrors and darkness of these decades, some positive changes still emerged within human civilization. Compassion with fellow man increased amongst the poor, with charities of religious and secular alike blooming. Volunteer missions across the Coalition brought much-needed relief to different worlds, and many surviving colonies began to greatly invest in self sufficiency and the ethos of community amidst hardship.

The Dark Years ended with the Decade of Resurgence, starting in 2220, and was punctuated by the rise of modern megacorporations such as Kanetomi and the Chen Wu Corporation. These corporations, although existent and rich before the Machine War, now had the ability to exert full financial domination and expand to monolithic levels as a result of a string of pro-corporate laws that were introduced in the years prior. These laws were introduced with the intention to "revitalize" the ailing Coalition economy, shifting the workload of many industrial and financial sectors back into private hands. Although the Coalition would see an astounding increase in human development and quality of life, the lines for the Corporate Wars would also be drawn.