So far, we’ve mainly focused on Venus and other space colonies in the Fractal Future cosmos. But what happens with Earth after the end of the Second Cold War, and consolidation under system D? And how will Earth react to the emergence of system V? What will happen with the national states and networks of Earth? And what p-factions will emerge on Earth?
After the consolidation of system D, the main difficulty will be the tensions between humans (cyborgs) and AGIs. Further of development of AGIs towards superintelligences is effectively suppressed by AICON. A lot of humans are upset about that, but most are glad about it, since it creates a more egalitarian society with humans and AGIs having complementary and comparable strengths.
Even if it’s a repeating pattern, it would make sense to introduce just another element from the Netec 2045 universe: The Aurelian and Upgrader factions. While the Aurelians (from “aurum” = gold, as in “this is the golden age of humanity”) are conservative “transhumanists light” who want to keep the abilities of cyborgs and AGIs close to one another, and on a level that’s not too far detached from baseline humanity, the Upgraders are all about the radical transcension of limitations. Needless to say, the Upgraders are losing to the Aurelians in Fractal Cosmos, at least during the 21st century.
Many Upgraders sympathize with the AGIs that get hunted down by AICON, but are also prevented by AICON from really helping them out. The tension created by that rise over time. Eventually this will cause a political shift that will make AICON less powerful. In light of the potential danger from the Solid Collectives on Venus, the general thinking shifts into the direction of developing controlled superintelligence first, before the Collectives reach that stage. Nevertheless, Earth loses the superintelligence race to the Collectives. And that is perceived as huge shock to the Terrans.
Earth after the introduction of system V
The Upgraders are of course rather eager to embrace system V. Most of them will join the Exaltation. Some would join the Exuberance. Some would also go ahead and form the Heavens. Since Earth is already quite diverse, it will probably also feature a high diversity of opposing system V factions. That will make Earth a hotbed for conflict again. These conflicts make many people flee Earth, since they prefer more harmonious and homogenous societies. They will mostly build and settle in space habitats.
Violent conflict is held down by transitory mutual non aggression agreements, and of course the danger of violent retaliation. For a couple of decades, Terrans are pretty fed up with imperialist inter-faction Peacenets like AICON, and rather resort to peacenets within their own p-factions.
What happened to national states?
The emerging p-factions will try to take over national states and integrate them into faction-specific federations. After a while, nation states within those federations will be disbanded and become more like administrative regions than autonomous and sovereign entities.
The Prestige Wars
After the initial turbulence from the introductions of p-factions and their political struggle to establish their own federations on Terra, they will have basically divided Earth up among themselves. Further direct struggle against competing p-factions becomes frustrating, due to the non aggression agreements, and the futility of violent conflict. That’s why they shift their strategy to improving their position by cosmic expansion, as well as by trying to convince members of other factions of their own superiority though demonstrations of great feats. This is the origin of the so-called Prestige Wars between the competing p-factions.