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.