Starting from within the next ten years, this is a timeline for PsyClones (which is still a working title, but it's growing on me. It's a bit silly though.)
By 2045, most factories only had a small human contingent of engineers as robot workforces took over. Even the factories that made the robots had automated assembly lines. More than that, robots were used in mining operations, undersea oil drilling and farming. One of the major robot-creating countries was Russia, beginning by using cheap human workforces and then switching as soon as possible. Unemployment, steadily rising in all countries over the previous decades, hit an all-time high. With it came mass homelessness. The areas most strongly hit were the US, which suffered a massive population boom, and Europe. China became the most tightly-controlled country in the world, as they were already closely controlling population. By 2050, it was clear that humanity was close to consuming itself. While large portions of the world’s overpopulation had been moved to relatively barren areas such as Central Australia and parts of Africa, most of the democracies of the world had elected leaders who promised harsher controls and management. Police forces were given more power in most countries, becoming repressive.
As well as food and water riots, there were massed attacks on robot workforces. Attacking a robot became a crime akin to attacking a human, giving robots their first rights by proxy.
Enter a man called Garth Cutter. Born in the US in 2022, he was raised there until he was fifteen. His family, already aware of the rising tension and risk of terrorism in the faltering US, moved to the UK. Garth Cutter held great political aspirations. He was able to gather enough support, both financially and socially, to run for Prime Minister of the UK, sweeping to victory as an independent in 2051. His policies were markedly similar to those instigated by the Chinese in ages past; one child per family and loyalty to the state, complete surveillance coverage and a brutal police force that was double the size of any other. The relatively small size of the country only made things easier. His ambition, though, was much wider. With its people under control, the UK became a closed nation, closing its borders. During Cutter’s first term in office, the UK went from being a riot-torn wasteland to a fear-ridden but peaceful island. Terms of working in the Armed Forces were altered, reducing the pay but improving quality of life. Soldiers were given better equipment, housing and, above all, training. In his final year, Cutter announced that the UK’s abandoned space programme would restart, and began to induct large numbers of people into training. With some of the social pressure eased, and many of the disaffected elements either members of the police, the army or the space programme, he ran for PM a second time and was re-elected with a landslide.
The US, now completely anarchic, reached out to the UK for help. Cutter responded by running for president in the US. Every part of his presidential campaign was able to use a facet of the UK’s changed face as an example. Hungry, homeless and fed up, the US made history by voting in a non-American for the first time. Cutter wasted no time in unifying the two countries under one banner. He began to roll out the same basic system as in the UK, closing both countries for the duration. The State, as they collectively came to be called, began to grow into a hive of activity and scientific advancement. The first teams of workers launched from the UK towards the Moon and began to build what would become Tranquility City.
In the East, China had similarly opened its tightly-controlled borders to Japan, but not in friendship. Japan proved to be an easy target for the newly militarised China, and it wasn’t long before the two countries were one, controlled from China.
Eastern Europe was suffering its own share of tragedy. For decades Russia had slowly annexed more of its neighbouring countries until, with one decisive thrust, it moved in to and occupied all of its neighbouring European countries.
Africa, meanwhile, had grown together into a rough tyranny. It hadn’t taken much for fragile democracies to break down and for insurrection to become the norm. Warlords sprang up on all sides, controlling their own portion of each country, and the massive influx of refugees from European countries threatened to overwhelm the continent.
It took a scientist, by the name of Golbin, to bring the States of Earth together. In 2063 he created an algae which could be tuned to consume local minerals and excrete organic compounds, effectively turning infertile areas into lush oases. The Nevada desert was chosen as the testing ground, and the world watched with bated breath as the algae did its work. Grass grew, flowers bloomed, water flowed where once there had been only sand and rock.
Cutter promised the algae to many of the countries of Africa and was able to gain control of those that accepted his terms. Those that didn’t had their leaders killed by the armies of the State, and then were terraformed anyway. Cutter, now in control of North America, the UK and Africa, had little problem in convincing Australia which side it wanted to be on. Meanwhile, Russia continued to push further into Europe. European countries, too concerned with their own problems to mount any kind of defence, were consumed one by one. China responded by taking India in a bloody takeover, and both North and South Korea. By 2070, the world was roughly split into three powers: Russia, China and the State.
War seemed the only outcome.
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