The 22nd century

Continued environmental destruction, a booming space industry, advanced transhumanism and enormous advances in robotics all mark the 22nd century.

Practically all the world's energy comes from either fusion or renewable sources now. Global warming shows no signs of abating however, due to positive feedback loops that were triggered in previous decades.

Artificial intelligence - having begun to merge with human intelligence in the previous century - now surpasses it, reaching whole new levels of cognitive and intellectual capability. Though still lacking raw emotions and subtle traits of organic human minds, the sheer depth and power of AI begins to profoundly transform the course of history on Earth. Many high-level decisions by governments and corporations now come directly from these sentient machines. There are vast swathes of virtual employees everywhere, and heavily automated systems in almost every industry. All of this makes for vastly improved speed, efficiency and productivity.

Science and technology in the 22nd century reaches levels of development that would be almost beyond the comprehension of 20th century observers. Quantum teleportation; direct matter-to-energy conversion; femto-scale engineering; spectacular VR environments; radical new materials and substances derived from automated evolution; nano-scale robots for a whole range of applications; biotechnology and genetics able to cure almost every ailment imaginable... in the 22nd century it seems literally anything is possible.

Among the most significant developments in space during this time are numerous permanent, manned settlements on the Moon and Mars; regular manned trips to the gas giants; commercial asteroid mining; and the first probe data from Alpha Centauri. Space tourism also booms during this period, with trips to the Moon's surface becoming relatively commonplace for citizens.

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