A Brief Timeline:
2000-2020: Retroactively dubbed the Second Enlightenment, a period where Secular thought flourishes. Though secularism remains a minority worldwide, it makes strong gains in the first world nations, and becomes generally tolerated.
2014: Thorium based miniature fission reactors perfected.
2017: Semi-intelligent robots introduced to the world, and are quickly manufactured to act as Soldiers, bringing renewed hope to victory in the War in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the War on Drugs
2018: The Iraq/Afghanistan war ends in cold peace. The PAramilitary Robotics Corporation, PARC is assigned to a peace keeping role in Afghanistan
2020: First Supercomputers to simulate the human brain are developed in a cooperative effort between IBM, the Pentagon, and PARC.
2026: The United States' withdraws from the War on Drugs, Mexican Government declares martial law and orchestrates total warfare to stamp out the drug cartels. By 2030, Mexico is stabilized.
2031: First life extension treatments begin, predicting more than thirty years added to the average life expectancy. Further extension is limited by gradual genetic deterioration.
2060: Fully Sapient computers introduced. PARC introduces their new mascot to the world, Al. In secret, the Pentagon produces Beth, and IBM produces Gami.
2066: Touting it as a feature that diminishes the possibility of an accident, PARC begins producing a line of robotic police and military units that are fully sapient, thus able to determine friend from foe with added precision and swiftness. The Mind/Machine interface is invented by IBM.
2070: The Artificial neural network of a robot is removed successfully replaced by the brain of a chimpanzee. After a few moments of stillness, the humanoid robot leaped from the operating table, screeching and howling, and had to be terminated. The status holders of society begin adopting a Mind/Machine jack port behind the left ear. Reliance on the internet is at an all time high. Printed material is almost no-where to be found.
2080: At the height of the dominance of the internet, a sudden catastrophe. Information infrastructure collapses, erasing a huge swath of literature from digital archives. Old and worn books are suddenly worth their weight in gold. By chance, the complete works of Friedrich Nietzsche are sold to a PARC researcher.
2081: Phred and Zeta are quietly produced in a PARC laboratory
2100: A replacement for the internet is introduced. The Cloud allows for a direct connection between any two or more computers via what might be called a National Wi-fi. But it is not merely information that can be shared with it. With it's massive bitrates, and mind/machine interface support, people look through each others eyes, feel with each others fingers. People share experiences in a very real way.
2114: Death is abolished. New gene therapies combined with full brain transplants or, as most prefer to call them, full body transplants, into mechanical bodies, the upper limit on a possible human lifetime may never be reached naturally.
2126: Cold Fusion
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13Toasteroven: Mankind is something to be Surpassed.
0000: What have you done to surpass mankind?
0000: Once you were ape, and much within you remains ape. Once you were Worm, and much within you remains worm.
0000: --Zeta