NeoWorld : the earth in 2079
The future
When I was little, the future was written: society, technologies, religions, the whole world was going to evolve, year after year, in soothing peace, in perfect balance between all men, women and machines. Of course, some had more catastrophic scenarios in mind, but they were often relegated to pure science fiction, fantasy for geeks.
Today in 2079, the project wasn’t carried out the way it should have been, to say the least: 9/11, Middle East wars, financial crisis, Islamic State, global warming, plastic continents, Big Crush, Black Christmas… As many events and phenomenons that ended up tarnishing the ideal image of a brighter future.
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Besides, the Internet, which was supposed to gather the nations all over the world, also had some perverse effect in strengthening communities, especially communitarianism: young, old, atheists, believers, conspiracy theories supporters, lobbyists, fanatics… They all found some kind of echo to their ideas — extreme sometimes, and even if social platforms changed their algorithms around the end of the 2010s, it did not enable to contain that phenomenon of idea concentration. Debates got lively, violent, and any topic that used to be innocuous always found its vehement detractor, slowing down any progression of ideas.
“Today in 2079, the project wasn’t carried out the way it should have been, to say the least”
This phenomenon left the way open for many populist movements, on all continents. Even if at first they were satisfying to a part of the population, by soothing the most tenacious concerns in a demagogic way, and by pointing out some easy culprits, those movements showed their limits very quickly. Radical protectionism in our increasingly globalized world can hardly work, and sidelines the most isolated countries. Besides, between corruption and arbitrary decisions, social tensions crippled entire populations that could only notice the accumulated delay in all areas during several years of neglect.
In this new social and meteorological climate, a new order was established over time. The NeoWorld term showed up in 2032 in an article of the New York Microsoft Times, describing precisely what many people had been living daily for many years.
The Houses
In the early 2020s, the populations felt forlorn: after trying everything, and after the great disillusionment of populism, who to turn to?
The answer would come from the big technology companies of the early 21st century — that is the famous GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft), soon joined by other giant organizations, the NATU (Netflix, Airbnb, Tesla, Uber), or BATX in China (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi). If each of these companies were originally specialized in a particular area (transportation, accommodation, online business…), they quickly diversified to offer their customers a very wide range of services, able to cover most of a family’s needs, classified in six departments: Home, Health, Transportation, Consumer Goods, Media and Hobbies.
The first “House”, as we call them now, was Amazon: any family could have access to the various subscribed services, in return for a part of the household income. The goods usually purchased, such as cars or housing, then become services like any others, with unlimited access during the subscription period. Everything is included, maintenance, insurance, and even regular upgrade to benefit from the latest news.
“[…] any family could have access to the various subscribed services, in return for a part of the household income.”
Amazon’s employees themselves were the first ones to subscribe to this new contract: department after department, they were invited, from 2022, to join this ambitious program, called “NeoLife”. The quality of service did the rest, topped with a pinch of meticulous communication. Seeing the success of the formula, the other technology giants came up with their own Houses, one after the other, bringing their number to 21 in the early 2030s. Thus they colonized the planet. Some states tried to forbid them, or at least regulate their expansions, but the slow tidal wave hit the planet in just a few years.
The NeoPharaohs
Leading these famous Houses are the “NeoPharaohs” — most of the time, they are direct descendants of the first teams that worked in those big technology companies, in the early 21st century.
Having control over almost everything, they rule over their different empires without sharing — which can include up to 400 million people, for the most important ones. 400 million people redistributing a part of their income automatically, in order to have access to their NeoLife.
The term NeoPharaohs was invented following a discovery by an independent journalist in 2029: the article mentioned that most Houses’ leaders had adopted transhumanism. Namely to increase someone’s capacities thanks to technology and enabling them to significantly extend their lifetime, despite the different laws set out in many countries about this. This capacity increase was systematically followed by a digital clone, which helped them process data instantly and in the end, take quick and relevant decisions. A surprising announcement that was about to entrench the Houses and their owners forever, progressively dismissing the hold the states had on populations. Those news also wreaked havoc for all the believers around the world, immediately causing virulent movements from fanatics.
Nearly invisible in the media, the NeoPharaohs often live apart, on an artificial island situated offshore from San Francisco (unfortunately very damaged following the earthquake of 2032), or in their orbital stations. They let their “NeoViziers” handle the tough task of communication.
The NeoViziers
As NeoPharaon’s right-hand man, each NeoVizier is leading one of the major services of a House: Home, Health, Transportation, Consumer Goods, Media and Hobbies. They are often six and constitute the Houses’ boards, they regularly meet to manage their activities. A second board, the most discreet one, also meets to discuss subjects related to finance, military and research.
The most famous NeoVizier is undoubtedly Maxima Chan Zuckerberg, daughter of Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg, who led the Health department of her father’s House masterfully, enabling millions of people to benefit from a unique and efficient healthcare program, and who built the positive image of the Facebook House, especially during the huge H5N8 flu epidemic of 2036.
The NeoViziers are the Houses’ spokespersons, and regularly appear in the media to update on the status of the House and the improvements to come. Year after year, they increasingly replaced statesmen in societal meetings, especially when the Houses helped improve our everyday lives. Thus, when the Tesla House brought a technological solution to nip a giant hurricane in the butt in the Caribbean Sea, millions of people showed their love to those new organizations.
“Year after year, they increasingly replaced statesmen in societal meetings, especially when the Houses helped improve our everyday lives.”
This recognition allowed the NeoViziers and their families to go unnoticed with the fact that they often get called “possessors”, because unlike most people, they own their goods and more: lands, houses, civilian buildings, companies… A major difference that emphasized social disparity, also causing huge protest movements.
The NeoMakers
The “NeoMakers” are the Houses’ workmen — nothing more, nothing less. Overqualified workers, with a mission to never stop improving NeoLife’s services. NeoMakers are of course the first ones to enjoy those services, at very preferential rates, which makes them a privileged class.
Among the big projects begun in the 2020s, the fight against global warming became the major concern, especially given the incapacity for the states to overcome industry lobbyists. Thus, the first CarboSensors was introduced during a presentation at the Alife House (formerly Alibaba) at the end of 2019, and quickly and massively invaded the big cities of the world: in the size of a shoebox, the CarboSensors filtered ambient air and confined CO2. A solution that was widely condemned, since it seemed laughable compared to the problem’s scope. However, the first signs of weakening of the CO2 concentration increase emerged around 2025, as a result of a combination of actions, including the notorious CarboSensors.
Another major event: the planet held its breath during seven long hours on September 21st, 2021, when hijackers tried to crash an airliner into an american power station. The plane ended up being rerouted by NeoMakers from the Alphabet House, who somehow landed the aircraft onto some local airstrip. It was indeed one of the very last attempts of an attack on a plane, with technology becoming too present and independent to even try to bypass it.
The NeoServants
Artificial intelligence was the child of the 21st century, going through all stages until it reached full adulthood a little before 2030. Even though it had been completely operational for several years, laws had to be legislated and adapted, which took long months of debate.
If Elon Musk was one of the first to raise the alarm bell in 2016 about the utmost necessity to regulate this new form of technology, it was only in 2033 that mentalities really moved. An out-of-control attack robot of the Chinese army killed 2,380 civilians and 133 soldiers around a base camp near the Russian border, an event that spelled the abrupt end of the armed robots legal construct, even though clandestine creations still persist, mainly in Siberia.
Lawyers found inspiration in literature, more specifically in science-fiction writing: thus, Isaac Asimov’s various laws served as the foundation for this new era of robotics and artificial intelligence. This forced the manufacturers to set up a parent program in all control chips, resulting in the emergence of graveyards of first generation machines.
Robots thus invaded our daily lives, but above all, our factories. Any activities related to quality issues were quickly replaced, and robots became a way of avoiding to deal with real workers. The first (and the only, so to speak) manufacturers of those robots are, of course, the Houses that hire a lot in this department, and in doing so, make more people join the ranks of NeoLife’s fans.
The NeoLuddites
Society’s robotization didn’t happen smoothly. From the 2020s onward, a movement known as “NeoLuddites” (from Ned Ludd, an English worker and protester from the 18th century, who fought against society’s mechanization), began to bloom in western countries, mainly in the low wedge segments of population. The slow agony of western heavy industry, combined with intensive robotization, created a technology rejection year after year, accentuated by the fact that the states couldn’t find a real solution to mass unemployment caused by this transformation.
“The slow agony of western heavy industry, combined with intensive robotization, created a technology rejection year after year […]”
Universal income, long touted as a possible solution to remedy the lack of income for non-employable families, has faced the conservative streaks for a long time all over the world. If the first trials were proven successful, the states didn’t assess the extent of the edge effects in the medium term: boredom and idleness. The number of suicides skyrocketed shortly after the implementation of this system, and all public actions to occupy the populations failed to appease the anger of the working class. People started to force their way into automatic factories, and destroyed many machines and demanding human activity back.
This global resistance lasted several years, but did not worry the Houses. They strengthened their factories following each attack, making sabotage even more difficult. The movement ran out of steam in a few years, and while some tiny groups still resisted, a large number of NeoLuddites joined the “NeoGuardians” movement.
EcoTerrorists & NeoGuardians
Every revolution creates an imbalance that needs to be quickly fixed. The technological impetus that took hold in the early 2000s was very quickly compensated by another opposite movement.
At first it was a simple reunion of vegan food lovers — some quickly radicalized given the lack of political actions related to climate changes and other pollution excesses. The turning point came in 2021 with the reveal of the 2015 Paris Agreement open secret: as of 2009, most of the insiders sources knew that the CO2 production inertia would sentence us to suffer a rise in temperature of at least 3 degrees before 2100. Because of this manipulation, several tiny violent environmental groups from different countries (mainly affected by the rising sea level) started heavy actions from 2025. Starting with their sabotage of the most polluant multinationals, even succeeding in making some surrender.
“Some of them radicalized at the lack of political actions related to climate changes and other pollution excesses.”
Those actions built public support, despite some outbursts that had people killed. The most serious accident happened on May, 23rd 2029, when a power station in Germany got blasted, taking the lives of approximatively 200 people. The “EcoTerrorists”, far from demonstrating any compassion, claimed their actions on social media, stating that it was the price to pay in order to change the multinationals’ mentalities. It was the breaking point, and a large majority of activists created a new trend, the NeoGuardians, more pacifists, focused on three actions: agriculture, decontamination and recycling.
The NeoGuardians, who were partially retreated from the technological world, decided in 2030 to only live in self-sustaining cities, based in part on the model of Auroville in India. Millions of people joined the movement, and decided to dedicate their lives to protect the planet. The craze was such that the NeoGuardians became in a very short time the main source of fully organic food production with fruits, vegetables and cereals. The Houses soon realized that this part of the population would never join the NeoLife program, and instead considered their presence as being crucial to the survival of the human race. Thus, they decided to sign a pact: the Houses bought their necessary food from the NeoGuardians — in return, they could benefit from the technological advances for medical treatment.
The NeoIdles
Lastly, an important and far from trivial group: the “NeoIdles”. Representing about 1/3 of the global population in 2079, they are eligible for universal income, and chose a simple life, under one of the Houses’ protection. They spend peaceful days raising their children and going about their routine: supporting neighbors, tinkering, art, sports… The only constraint is that they must stay away from alcohol and any type of drugs, to avoid spiraling into depression. The most motivated ones may pass competitive exams to get into the NeoMakers category, and thus have access to some better everyday comforts. Others may decide to dedicate their lives to the planet and join the NeoGuardians movement.
NeoWorld, the earth in 2079
Today is August, 2nd 2079, I’m about to turn 100 years old in just a few short weeks. Like many others, I chose to schedule my death, which will take place on the very day of my birthday.
Many things have happened over a century.
Some beautiful and some awful ones.
Summers have been unbearable for 30 years now, and we can no longer live in some areas of the world. But little by little, we regain control over the situation.
I’ve dedicated a large part of my life to technology as a NeoMaker, before joining the NeoGuardians around 2028. A simple life, but full of satisfaction and meaning.
It is impossible to precisely predict the future.
But we can do everything in our power to shape the best future possible.
