conflict.
New philosophies were instilled – those of atheism with an emphasis on science, progress and capitalism. The results were staggering in terms of technological advance – with moral barriers stemming from religion gone, so much had become possible.
Cities were rebuilt with new technology, producing bigger and better buildings, smart and forward thinking infrastructure, the most state of the art public transportation world-wide that connected the world’s population in ways few thought possible. Everything was faster, smarter and constantly improving.
Yet, the trade-off was privacy. Very quickly, the bio-stamp that only the wealthy could afford in the beginning was introduced as mandatory. Large subsidies had been provided to ensure compliance and the initiative was marketed as a peace-keeping effort, along with a quality of life improvement.
A bio-stamp was a paper thin film with tiny circuitry that was inserted just under the skin on the recipient’s dominant forearm. It was powered by the body’s natural electrical field and could hold as well as transmit data or work as a relay. The stamp had several benefits – many of them lifesaving. They were originally designed as medical devices to read and monitor the body’s vital signs in high-risk patients and log them in an OMNI. Bio-stamps would notify a host of a heart attack hours before it happened, report blood sugar levels and even scan for cancer and chemical imbalances associated with dementia and depression. Life expectancy skyrocketed and with data contributed world-wide, breakthrough after breakthrough emerged until many of the diseases that plagued humankind were wiped out of existence. With its medical function depleted, other uses began to emerge – connecting humans to technology directly. It integrated flawlessly with all personal technology, making internet security impenetrable. Hacking personal data became something that only happened in past generations.
It was a flashpoint for human networking and soon, bio-stamps were used to capture every piece of data a human could produce, uniquely identifying them and allowing mass observation of the entire population of Earth. The stamps worked as tracking devices and, with the correct clearance, were easily accessed to gather information about people immediately – their age, origin, any criminal records, service records, drug screening, travel activity – and much, much more. In summary, the stamps represented a record of an entire life past the age of eight years old.
While the stamps were advantageous for most, the lion’s share of the benefits were largely collected by those who had instituted the framework – World Corp. Almost everyone on earth had a baseline level of comfort and security – that was essential, but with population booming and consumerism following, resources became scarce at a dizzying pace. Everyone could benefit from the available technology – every home had a viewer, for instance, but refrigerators were not always full nor the living space around the viewer plentiful.
Worse, the advanced level of automation developed over decades of research forced unemployment to intolerable levels. As a result, production zones were implemented – a place where unskilled labor projects were used to keep much of the population employed. Technology had outpaced social evolution and the class system that existed before the war entrenched itself even more as a result – laborers and military making up the majority, skilled tradesmen and women in the middle, and the corporate executives consisting of the smallest percentage.
The production zones supported major industries and revealed themselves to be a surprisingly successful investment, critical to the profit margin of the corporations of earth due to the low wages but enormous worker base. Population was still outpacing the capacity of production zones, though forcing the world’s leaders to look for other solutions –
New philosophies were instilled – those of atheism with an emphasis on science, progress and capitalism. The results were staggering in terms of technological advance – with moral barriers stemming from religion gone, so much had become possible.
Cities were rebuilt with new technology, producing bigger and better buildings, smart and forward thinking infrastructure, the most state of the art public transportation world-wide that connected the world’s population in ways few thought possible. Everything was faster, smarter and constantly improving.
Yet, the trade-off was privacy. Very quickly, the bio-stamp that only the wealthy could afford in the beginning was introduced as mandatory. Large subsidies had been provided to ensure compliance and the initiative was marketed as a peace-keeping effort, along with a quality of life improvement.
A bio-stamp was a paper thin film with tiny circuitry that was inserted just under the skin on the recipient’s dominant forearm. It was powered by the body’s natural electrical field and could hold as well as transmit data or work as a relay. The stamp had several benefits – many of them lifesaving. They were originally designed as medical devices to read and monitor the body’s vital signs in high-risk patients and log them in an OMNI. Bio-stamps would notify a host of a heart attack hours before it happened, report blood sugar levels and even scan for cancer and chemical imbalances associated with dementia and depression. Life expectancy skyrocketed and with data contributed world-wide, breakthrough after breakthrough emerged until many of the diseases that plagued humankind were wiped out of existence. With its medical function depleted, other uses began to emerge – connecting humans to technology directly. It integrated flawlessly with all personal technology, making internet security impenetrable. Hacking personal data became something that only happened in past generations.
It was a flashpoint for human networking and soon, bio-stamps were used to capture every piece of data a human could produce, uniquely identifying them and allowing mass observation of the entire population of Earth. The stamps worked as tracking devices and, with the correct clearance, were easily accessed to gather information about people immediately – their age, origin, any criminal records, service records, drug screening, travel activity – and much, much more. In summary, the stamps represented a record of an entire life past the age of eight years old.
While the stamps were advantageous for most, the lion’s share of the benefits were largely collected by those who had instituted the framework – World Corp. Almost everyone on earth had a baseline level of comfort and security – that was essential, but with population booming and consumerism following, resources became scarce at a dizzying pace. Everyone could benefit from the available technology – every home had a viewer, for instance, but refrigerators were not always full nor the living space around the viewer plentiful.
Worse, the advanced level of automation developed over decades of research forced unemployment to intolerable levels. As a result, production zones were implemented – a place where unskilled labor projects were used to keep much of the population employed. Technology had outpaced social evolution and the class system that existed before the war entrenched itself even more as a result – laborers and military making up the majority, skilled tradesmen and women in the middle, and the corporate executives consisting of the smallest percentage.
The production zones supported major industries and revealed themselves to be a surprisingly successful investment, critical to the profit margin of the corporations of earth due to the low wages but enormous worker base. Population was still outpacing the capacity of production zones, though forcing the world’s leaders to look for other solutions –
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