2017: The Pirate Party of Iceland wins the elections, forming a coalation government with the Bright Future party. Citizinship is granted to Edward Snowden and the parliament starts seriously discussing copyrights reform.
2018: The majority parties of Iceland promote an initiative in which the deputies decide their vote on a certain policy according to the results a a referendum organized through electronic means. Popular participation surprisingly high.
2019: The first copyrights reform laws are appreoved by the Icelandic parliament. Although they are not very radical, those laws make Iceland the most liberal country in world regarding copyright issues. This leads many pirate websites to set there their domains.
In the same year, elections are held in Greece. After failling in the task nof renegotiating public debt, the SYRIZA government promisses that, if reelectet, it will take Greece out of the Euro. They win the elections by a small margin.
2020: Edward Snowden is named head of the Icelandic intelligence. He starts a campaingn to protect Iceland from CIA and NSA, who try to depose the Pirate Party government.
The EU cuts off all financial aid to Greece and starts an embargo. The greek government turns to Russia and China for help, quickly shifting into their sphere of influence.
2021: After reelecting the Pirate government, Iceland anounces a program of economic reforms which aims to turn the country’s economy into a reputation economy. The reforms advance shyly.
2022: Edward Snowden prevents and exposes a massive NSA operation against the Icelandic government. The United States are firmly condemned by the international community and promise to refrain from attempting other operations like that.
2025: Iceland formally transiotions to a mainly direct democracy. The Democratic Intelligence system is adopted to perform public polls.
Later, in the same year, the first signs of economic depression become visible, as many multinational corporations start having some real troubles.
2025: A Hurricane devastates New York and most of the US east coast, leaving many key economic areas inoperable.
2026: A Massive earthquake happens in California. The US government confesses its difficulty in dealing with natural catastrophes and economic ressession at the same time.
2027: Wall street crashes.
2028: Movimento X is founded in Brazil, promoting a set of radical reform inspired by the policies of the Icelandic government. The party grows extraordirarily fast.
2029: Anticipated elections in Sweden have surprising results. Not only the Pirate party has its best result ever, acheiving a pretty signifficant representations, but also the transhumanist party elects its first deputy. In the following years, simillar results are obtained in Norway and Finland. Scandinavia is finally revolting against the status quo.
2030: Massive protests happen in Brazil, forcing the president to resign and call for anticipated elections. Movimento X wins those elections.
And this is when the second cold war really begins. Now, I think we need to decide a few details before we continues the timeline:
How exactly will X countries perform their transitions to the X economic model?
How will capitalist countries surpass the depression without changing their economic system?
Who will be the leaders of the two Blocs? This is something we really need to think about, we need to add characters to our story.
That’s not a bad start. I would be careful about predicting anything before 2020, though. That may be a bit too soon. Alternatively, we might say we are not describing a potential future scenario, but an alternate timeline that is similar to ours, but in which things turned out to be more fractally futuristic. I’m not sure which setup is the best, but I prefer the alternate timeline idea. It enables more liberty to paint a radically different future without having to look incoherent with the current reality. Actually, we could date back the time of bifurcation between our world and the Fractal Future timeline back to 2010 or something.
Using Edward Snowden as prominent influencer is an interesting idea, but I’m not sure we should base our story on real world persons. They might not like that. And there might be legal issues connected with that. This may be another reason to prefer the alternate timeline scheme: In an alternate timeline other people would have done similar actions, but they would be fictional persons.
The economic crisis scenario that you propose seems to be rather incomplete. Economic crises are rather complicated and the natural catastrophes would just be the drop that finally makes the barrel spill over. So, let me try something more complicated that might make more sense:
2024: Peak fracking happens in the USA. It’s the end of cheap oil for the USA. From now on, oil prices are steeply on the rise, because the rest of the world can’t compensate either.
2025: Suddenly rising oil prices globally cause economic pessimism. Everything becomes more expensive. Banks become less eager to lend money. Corporation profits crash. To compensate, governments start printing money like crazy.
2026: Hyperinflation of the US dollar and the Euro. China must follow the hyperinflationary course in order to sell its products to the USA and Europa at reasonable prices. Global mistrust in conventional currencies makes people opt into cryptocurrencies in masses. Most non-X countries try to outlaw cryptocurrencies, because they undermine their own power. The conventional economy crashes hard. Those who use cryptocurrencies manage to stand more or less afloat. Everything else is massively screwed due to the massive economic crisis.
2027: The conventional economy is in free fall with most governments being unable to react appropriately. Unemployment reaches unprecedented levels. Conventional social security systems are failing. This leads to widespread protests. Many people lose everything due to sudden unemployment and the collapse of social security systems. Only emergency foot stamp and housing programmes stave off outright starvation and revolution. Cryptocurrencies are illegal in non-X countries and many people get imprisoned for using them. The black market based on cryptocurrencies is booming nevertheless, because it’s much less affected by the general economic malaise.
2028: Some countries have to default on their (foreign) debt, because their economies have eroded too much during the crisis. Government programs stop working. The situation for the unemployed gets worse. Private, network based charity steps in to provide some relief. The problem is that this charity is illegal, because it’s based on cryptocurrencies. People start revolting about the leaders of the charities being arrested. Governments get overthrown and massive revolutionary chaos emerges on all continents. In moderate countries, people elect democratic governments that implement X-like policies. In repressive countries, party dictatorships cooperate with private security corporations to fight off the protests with drone armies. Bloody civil wars break out, but the most ruthless dictatorships prevail. Millions of people die, but public order is quickly restored under regimes that rule with an iron fist in conjunction with the corporations that sponsor them. 2029: After the restoration of order, the economy starts restructuring itself and recovery is beginning.
Well, that’s perhaps a bit dystopian, but I fear it’s a realistic scenario. A global economic crisis will be a real cluster fuck that could be about as destructive as a non-nuclear third world war.
Your global depression scenario looks great and I think we can easily compensate for it’s pessimism by making much more optimistic predictions for the 2030s and 2040s.
What kind of economic restructuration do you have in mind? Countries can’t all transition to X, so, how will capitalist countries get over the depression?
I think that a project can perfectly start as a future history and then start descibing itself as an alternate future history (or whatever) once it becomes clear that it’s early predictions won’t become true.
I would like to base this project primairily on current trends. Of course that no one is gona complain if we take a liberty or two in order to make the story more interesting, and our creative liberty will certainly increase exponentially as we move further into the future and things become harder to accurately predict.
Do you have any good ideas for fictional events prior to 2015? If you do, and these ideas are aweasome and have interesting implications for our futuristic scenario, than maybe we should consider making this an alternate future history. Otherwise, it maybe be better to keep this a future history, even if we take some liberties.
In regards of using real people for our story, I’ve seen future and alternate history projects doing that all the time and, as far as I know, nobody ever complained much. Have you heard of anyone who got into trouble for a non-offensive portrayal of a public figure in fiction?
Anyone, we can try to be moderate, by using real people only occasionally and keeping the action centered on fictional characters.
Start moving towards a hybrid representative democracy and direct eDemocracy system
What will the centralist countries do?
Probably introduce their own “legal” pseudo-cryptocurrencies that are actually under government control but outlaw all competing cryptocurrencies
Use a workfare system where unemployed people are effectively forced to work for big government / corporate economic stimulus projects. Upgrading the infrastructure, transitioning towards a post-fossil fuel economy. They will probably live in slums and be really poor, but at least they won’t die.
Democracy is effectively abolished. A ruling party makes its decisions together with a permanent committee of the most influential corporations.
They effectively steal the decentralized solutions of the X nations and turn them into centralized solutions that they can control.
Good question. I considered something like Bitcoin being adopted much more quickly and stuff. But it’s somehow unnatural to assume that, because new technologies always take some time to get really widespread.
Also, the world could have reacted more drastically to the Snowden revelations, but considering widespread political cynicism that’s not very realistic either.
The Arab Spring could have worked out better and turned Arab countries into progressive democracies.
Transhumanists could have been more influential somehow and have founded a micronation or something.
Since political turmoil in the Arab countries is far from being over, some of them can still become progressive democracies in the future.
I don’t think it would be realistic to assume that transhumanists could become very influential before technology progesses a little.
None of your ideas are bad, but I don’t think they justify a redefinition of the project.
In regards of the ways you propose for countries to get out of the depression, I think they are all pretty interesting and realistic.
I can’t imagine the US and western Europe formally abolishing democracy, but I can see them turning into somekind of de facto dictatorship,like nowdays’ Russia, where there are elections and a multi-party system, but effectively, decisions are made by small group of people.
**2017:**The Pirate Party of Iceland wins the elections, forming a coalation government with the Bright Future party. Citizinship is granted to Edward Snowden and the parliament starts seriously discussing copyrights reform.
2018: The majority parties of Iceland promote an initiative in which the deputies decide their vote on a certain policy according to the results a a referendum organized through electronic means. Popular participation surprisingly high.
2019: The first copyrights reform laws are approved by the Icelandic parliament. Although they are not very radical, those laws make Iceland the most liberal country in world regarding copyright issues. This leads many pirate websites to set there their domains.
Elections are held in Greece. After failling in the task nof renegotiating public debt, the SYRIZA government promisses that, if reelectet, it will take Greece out of the Euro. They win the elections by a small margin.
2020: Edward Snowden is named head of the Icelandic intelligence. He starts a campaingn to protect Iceland from CIA and NSA, who try to depose the Pirate Party government.
The EU cuts off all financial aid to Greece and starts an embargo. The greek government turns to Russia and China for help, quickly shifting into their sphere of influence.
2021: After reelecting the Pirate government, Iceland anounces a program of economic reforms which aims to turn the country’s economy into a reputation economy. The reforms advance shyly but effectively.
2022: Edward Snowden prevents and exposes a massive NSA operation against the Icelandic government. The United States are firmly condemned by the international community and promise to refrain from attempting other operations like that.
2024: Peak fracking happens in the USA. It’s the end of cheap oil for the USA. From now on, oil prices are steeply on the rise, because the rest of the world can’t compensate either.
2025: Iceland formally transiotions to a mainly direct democracy. The Democratic Intelligence system is constitutionally adopted to perform public polls.
A Hurricane devastates New York and most of the US east coast, leaving many key economic areas inoperable.
Suddenly rising oil prices globally cause economic pessimism. Everything becomes more expensive. Banks become less eager to lend money. Corporation profits crash. To compensate, governments start printing money like crazy.
2026: Hyperinflation of the US dollar and the Euro. China must follow the hyperinflationary course in order to sell its products to the USA and Europa at reasonable prices. Global mistrust in conventional currencies makes people opt into cryptocurrencies in masses. Most non-X countries try to outlaw cryptocurrencies, because they undermine their own power. The conventional economy crashes hard. Those who use cryptocurrencies manage to stand more or less afloat. Everything else is massively screwed due to the massive economic crisis.
A Massive earthquake happens in California. The US government confesses its difficulty in dealing with natural catastrophes and economic ressession at the same time.
2027: The conventional economy is in free fall with most governments being unable to react appropriately. Unemployment reaches unprecedented levels. Conventional social security systems are failing. This leads to widespread protests. Many people lose everything due to sudden unemployment and the collapse of social security systems. Only emergency foot stamp and housing programmes stave off outright starvation and revolution. Cryptocurrencies are illegal in non-X countries and many people get imprisoned for using them. The black market based on cryptocurrencies is booming nevertheless, because it’s much less affected by the general economic malaise.
2028: Movimento X is founded in Brazil, promoting a set of radical reform inspired by the policies of the Icelandic government. The party grows extraordirarily fast.
Some countries have to default on their (foreign) debt, because their economies have eroded too much during the crisis. Government programs stop working. The situation for the unemployed gets worse. Private, network based charity steps in to provide some relief. The problem is that this charity is illegal, because it’s based on cryptocurrencies. People start revolting about the leaders of the charities being arrested. Governments get overthrown and massive revolutionary chaos emerges on all continents.
In the US, republican senator Ronald Mackenzie is elected president by an historically large margin. Mackenzie’s campaign was supported by most of the country’s large corporate entities. Crictics speak of electoral fraud and intimidation and some citizins claim they have been coerced to vote for Mackenzie by the corporations they work for.
President Mackenzie dismissis all these accusations and some of the most prominent crictis are arrested. Force is used to put an end to the wave of protests that had been devastating the country for the past few months. Similar measures are taken by the governments of Russia, China and most of the countries under their influence.
2029: Anticipated elections in Sweden have surprising results. Not only the Pirate party has its best result ever, acheiving a pretty signifficant representations, but also the transhumanist party elects its first deputy. In the following years, simillar results are obtained in Norway and Finland. Scandinavia is finally revolting against the status quo.
2030: Massive protests happen in Brazil, forcing the president to resign and call for anticipated elections. Movimento X wins those elections and it’s leader, congressmen Marcus Oliveira, becomes president of the the country.
Oliveira anounces radical economic reforms. Cryptocurrencies are legalized,a modest Universal Basic Income is established and the government starts a fund to support small enterprises.
2031: In just one year, the economic policies of the brazillian government have proved thei worth. Most moderate countries start adopting similiar policies.
X-inspired coalations triumph in all three Scandinavian countries. The new governments sign cooperation protocols with each others and Brazil. The Z Bolc is born out of an improbable economic alliance.
2032: The United States, Russia an China introduce legal cryptocurrencies.
President Mackenzie anounces the creation of the Federal Workforce Distribution Bureau (FWDB), which has the authority to force people to work in certain corporation or public service where they are needed. Russia and China adopt similar measures.
Argentina and Venezuela elect their first X governments.
2033: A new constitution, which consecrates X ideals, is approved in Brazil. The Federal election system is reformed using Democracy 2.1 and limited forms of direct democary are adopted in a local level.
Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Peru join the X Bloc.
2034: Large american corporations are finally recovering from depression, mainly thanks to the efforts of FWDB.
Despite the economic recovery life conditions are still hazardous for many people, salaries are low, slums are growing in the big cities and public helthcare is inexistent.
Portugal and Spain elect X-governments.
2035: The United Sates constitution is amended so that president Mackenzie can run for a third mandate.
Another large ilegal operation by the american secret services is exposed. As a response, the X bloc lauches the International Co-operative Counter Inteligenge Program (ICCIP).
I think it looks good and I’ll continue it when I have the time.
Not bad. One change that I’d like to propose is that some things should proceed faster and more in parallel. Movimento X needs to start somewhere around 2020 in order to be influential enough to have its own party being elected successfully in 2028. Movimento X would be something similar to the Pirate Party surprise success, but with better preparation it could become even more successful and influential than the Pirate Party. And I think the Pirate Parties will eventually fuse with the global “X Movement”, or we could start calling it “X Movement” and later on they decide to call it “Post-centralism Movement” or something.
Also, the year 2028 or something should be the peak of revolutionary activity. Very much will happen at once in that year, because it’s the worst year of the Global Depression and revolutionary unrests happen pretty much everywhere except in Iceland, because that country is already pretty much future compatible and directly democratic.
Furthermore, bloc formation should be completed by 2035, but the cyber war already starts in 2032 in earnest, because at that point the blocs have already formed quite clearly to some degree. It’s clear that the USA, Russia, and China will form the core of the Centralist bloc, and that Iceland and Brazil are the prime movers of the X bloc, but the other nations are still undecided until about 2035 when all of them have decided for one bloc or the other.
I think it’s cool that you researched potential presidents for the USA and Brazil.
We might also add one or two nuclear meltdowns at the Tschernobyl or Fukushima scale happening during the Global Depression for added effect. If they happen in the USA and the USA turn super-reactionary then it’s plausible that Europa rather wants to join the X bloc despite their current close ties to the USA.
Not necessarily, Spanish political party Podemos was founded in 2014 and it’s already the second largest political party in the country. A political movement can grow a lot faster than the Pirate Party did.
I would like Movimento X do be founded after the Pirate Party of Iceland concludes it’s reforms, in order for them to have an inspiration.
Yeah, and if they don’t fuse they will at least form an alliance.
I like X better and I think it’s important for a political movement to have a catchy name in order to be successful. Post-centralism may be what the movement is about, but I don’t think it would stick as a name.
A lot of unrest could happen, but I honestly can’t see all countries suddenly changing their political system by that year.
I agree, but I think the peak of the war would only happen after the the X bloc lauches ICCIP and the United Sates become a pseudo-democratic dictatorship.
Oh, I didn’t research them, I totally made up the names
Good idea. Nuclear disaters could totally happen, but Europe will undoubtabily remain divided between the two blocs until the end of the war. I just can’t see nations like the UK or Germany embracing X so soon.
I’ve been really busy with school lately since my final exams are approaching, so, I haven’t been having much much time to work on Fractal Cosmos, but I really don’t want the project to die.
We need to continue the second cold war timeline, but first we need to decided what will be the role of some important countries:
Canada: They are an extremely progressive country, so, I could easily see them becoming a prominent member of the X Bloc, if they just weren’t so close to the US. Canadian economy is largely dependent on the americans and an invasion would be a piece of cake for the american militairy. So, I think they’ll probably be a reluctant member of the centralist bloc. They may try to implement some moderate X policies, but allways keeping in mind that they can’t piss off the americans.
Turkey: They are the most progressive country in the middle east (maybe with the exception of Israel) and they are also highly unstable, so, I think they do have a lot of X potential, but we need to think how X will interact with Islam and muslim traditions.
I think it’s important to think about whether trade relations will be really much affected by the second Cold War. After all, both blocs still use market economies and would suffer from decreasing trade for political reasons. Trade would probably suffer, but it would be maintained. There’s no reason why two neighbouring countries could not belong to different blocs and still be trade partners to some degree. The second Cold War is not about direct military confrontation, but about ideological and political dominance. Both blocs want to outcompete each other, and prove that their own system is better than the other.
Sure, the USA could try to invade Canada, but what would it gain from that? Such a war would be very expensive for little gain. Also, such direct wars involving industrialized nations are unlikely, because they might actually trigger a nuclear war between new military alliances aligned with both blocs.
I think Canada will join the X bloc, because Canada is really quite forward thinking. They won’t want to be effectively governed by Washington D.C. Instead, they might try a strategy of political appeasement by driving a more moderate X course than Brazil or Iceland.
About Islam and Muslim traditions: I don’t see why their moderate forms would be less compatible with X policies than moderate forms of Christianity, for example. Strict forms of Christianity or Islam wouldn’t be really compatible with democracy or capitalism, I think. But Turkey is secular enough to give progressive policies a chance. Also, Muslim countries generally hate the USA, so they might want to join the X bloc for that reason alone, even if they will adopt X policies in a somewhat careful way.
You’re probably right. Let’s see how this more moderate canadian X would be like:
It will be based on reputation economy and decentralization, just like normal X.
It will probably operate under a representative democracy with some reforms, like Brazil.
It will employ measures that facilitate trade with non-X nations.
Canada will refrain from participating in most of the X Bloc’s collective initiatives, like ICCIP or some important trade agreement.
Yeah, I think progressive policies do have a chance in Turkey, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that their secularism is mostly motivated by a desire to join the European Union. When the EU collaspes and splits between X countries and centralist countries islamist parties will probably become more popular in Turkey.
That’s very interesting. During the first cold war there was a prominent Islamic socialist movement, maybe we can create some kind of “Islamic X” (or IslamX) for our future scenario.
So, how would IslamX be like?
It would employ traditional X principles like Reputation economy and decentralization together with some moderate enforcement of the Sharia Law.
It would be a socially conservative form of X, rejecting many of western X’s liberal aspects.
It would emphasize Arab, Persian and Turkish nationalism according to the region.
It would be very harsh on it’s crictics of American imperialism.
It looks like we already have lots of good material in this post. It would be good if we could arrange all of this in the wiki, but I’m still unsure about whether to use wiki-threads in this forum or an external wiki for that purpose. Do you have any preference in that regard?
I think an external wiki would be better, since it looks more professional, but I know you’ve been having trouble setting up a functional Fractal Future Wiki and, unfortunately, I know almost nothing about that stuff myself.
So, I guess we could use wiki-threads for a while and than try to come up with a better solution.
I have pondered the wiki problem far and wide and came to the conclusion that properly setting up a DokuWiki would be the best solution, for various reasons. I’ve got some idea about how to do this the best way. In a few weeks, at the latest, there should be a properly functioning nice wiki.
So, let’s continue this timeline. I opted for copying the text we’d already written to this post instead of editting the previous post. This way we know that the last version of the timeline is always on the bottom of the thread.
**2017:**The Pirate Party of Iceland wins the elections, forming a coalation government with the Bright Future party. Citizinship is granted to Edward Snowden and the parliament starts seriously discussing copyrights reform.
2018: The majority parties of Iceland promote an initiative in which the deputies decide their vote on a certain policy according to the results a a referendum organized through electronic means. Popular participation surprisingly high.
2019: The first copyrights reform laws are approved by the Icelandic parliament. Although they are not very radical, those laws make Iceland the most liberal country in world regarding copyright issues. This leads many pirate websites to set there their domains.
Elections are held in Greece. After failling in the task nof renegotiating public debt, the SYRIZA government promisses that, if reelectet, it will take Greece out of the Euro. They win the elections by a small margin.
2020: Edward Snowden is named head of the Icelandic intelligence. He starts a campaingn to protect Iceland from CIA and NSA, who try to depose the Pirate Party government.
The EU cuts off all financial aid to Greece and starts an embargo. The greek government turns to Russia and China for help, quickly shifting into their sphere of influence.
2021: After reelecting the Pirate government, Iceland anounces a program of economic reforms which aims to turn the country’s economy into a reputation economy. The reforms advance shyly but effectively.
2022: Edward Snowden prevents and exposes a massive NSA operation against the Icelandic government. The United States are firmly condemned by the international community and promise to refrain from attempting other operations like that.
2024: Peak fracking happens in the USA. It’s the end of cheap oil for the USA. From now on, oil prices are steeply on the rise, because the rest of the world can’t compensate either.
2025: Iceland formally transiotions to a mainly direct democracy. The Democratic Intelligence system is constitutionally adopted to perform public polls.
A Hurricane devastates New York and most of the US east coast, leaving many key economic areas inoperable.
Suddenly rising oil prices globally cause economic pessimism. Everything becomes more expensive. Banks become less eager to lend money. Corporation profits crash. To compensate, governments start printing money like crazy.
2026: Hyperinflation of the US dollar and the Euro. China must follow the hyperinflationary course in order to sell its products to the USA and Europa at reasonable prices. Global mistrust in conventional currencies makes people opt into cryptocurrencies in masses. Most non-X countries try to outlaw cryptocurrencies, because they undermine their own power. The conventional economy crashes hard. Those who use cryptocurrencies manage to stand more or less afloat. Everything else is massively screwed due to the massive economic crisis.
A Massive earthquake happens in California. The US government confesses its difficulty in dealing with natural catastrophes and economic ressession at the same time.
2027: The conventional economy is in free fall with most governments being unable to react appropriately. Unemployment reaches unprecedented levels. Conventional social security systems are failing. This leads to widespread protests. Many people lose everything due to sudden unemployment and the collapse of social security systems. Only emergency foot stamp and housing programmes stave off outright starvation and revolution. Cryptocurrencies are illegal in non-X countries and many people get imprisoned for using them. The black market based on cryptocurrencies is booming nevertheless, because it’s much less affected by the general economic malaise.
2028: Movimento X is founded in Brazil, promoting a set of radical reform inspired by the policies of the Icelandic government. The party grows extraordirarily fast.
Some countries have to default on their (foreign) debt, because their economies have eroded too much during the crisis. Government programs stop working. The situation for the unemployed gets worse. Private, network based charity steps in to provide some relief. The problem is that this charity is illegal, because it’s based on cryptocurrencies. People start revolting about the leaders of the charities being arrested.
Massive protests in Turkey force the government to step down. New elections are quickly held and end with the victory of the Peoples’s Democratic Party.
In the US, republican senator Ronald Mackenzie is elected president by an historically large margin. Mackenzie’s campaign was supported by most of the country’s large corporate entities. Crictics speak of electoral fraud and intimidation and some citizins claim they have been coerced to vote for Mackenzie by the corporations they work for.
President Mackenzie dismissis all these accusations and some of the most prominent crictis are arrested. Force is used to put an end to the wave of protests that had been devastating the country for the past few months. Similar measures are taken by the governments of Russia, China and most of the countries under their influence.
2029: Anticipated elections in Sweden have surprising results. Not only the Pirate party has its best result ever, acheiving a pretty signifficant representations, but also the transhumanist party elects its first deputy. In the following years, simillar results are obtained in Norway and Finland. Scandinavia is finally revolting against the status quo.
2030: Massive protests happen in Brazil, forcing the president to resign and call for anticipated elections. Movimento X wins those elections and it’s leader, congressmen Marcus Oliveira, becomes president of the the country.
Oliveira anounces radical economic reforms. Cryptocurrencies are legalized,a modest Universal Basic Income is established and the government starts a fund to support small enterprises.
2031: In just one year, the economic policies of the brazillian government have proved thei worth. Most moderate countries start adopting similiar policies.
X-inspired coalations triumph in all three Scandinavian countries. The new governments sign cooperation protocols with each others, Brazil and Turkey. The X Bloc is born out of an improbable economic alliance.
2032: The United States, Russia an China introduce legal cryptocurrencies.
President Mackenzie anounces the creation of the Federal Workforce Distribution Bureau (FWDB), which has the authority to force people to work in certain corporation or public service where they are needed. Russia and China adopt similar measures.
Argentina and Venezuela elect their first X governments.
2033: A new constitution, which consecrates X ideals, is approved in Brazil. The Federal election system is reformed using Democracy 2.1 and limited forms of direct democary are adopted in a local level.
Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Peru join the X Bloc.
The government of Egypt anounces a set of moderate X-like reforms, justifying them with basis on islamic principles. They are soon followed by other Arab countries. This is the beginning of the IslamX movement.
2034: Large american corporations are finally recovering from depression, mainly thanks to the efforts of FWDB.
Despite the economic recovery life conditions are still hazardous for many people, salaries are low, slums are growing in the big cities and public helthcare is inexistent.
Portugal and Spain elect X-governments.
2035: The United Sates constitution is amended so that president Mackenzie can run for a third mandate. He wins the elections by a large margin.
Another large ilegal operation by the american secret services is exposed. As a response, the X bloc lauches the International Co-operative Counter Inteligenge Program (ICCIP).
Iran anounces a set consitutional reforms which make the country more democratic. They insitute an universal basic income and start transitioning to a reputation economy. The purpose of these changes is to bring the country closer to the X Bloc, in order to defend it from the Americans.
2036: A network of universities and research centers, all of them from the X Bloc, start an historical project with the objective of mapping all existing synapses in the human brain. Despite the monumentality of the project, recent developments in that area had lead experts to belive that it was possible to create a fully sentient neural computer by the end of the decade. The network ensures that the intent of the project is peacefull, but many people, especially in the C Bloc fear the potential use of AGI’s for espionage.
This fear leads DARPA (the United States Militairy research branch) to start a similar project, with the support of Russia, China and all the other C-nations. An arms’ race to AGI begins.
2037: The ICCIP injects many millions of dollars in the brain-mapping project, becoming it’s most signifficant supporter. Scientists and analysts all around the world mourn the fact that the project’s main purpose is now bellical instead of scientific.
CIA and NSA instensify their recruitment programs and start greatly upgrading their technology. The secret services of Russia and China do the same thing.
That’s nice, but now that we’ve got a wiki, we can copy this timeline to the wiki directly and focus on discussing changes to it here in the forum.
Please try making an account on the Fractal Future Wiki to see whether you can actually use it. Note that the registration email might take a few minutes to arrive. If this works, you can read the syntax page to find out how to create new pages (in this context they should be in the “fractal_cosmos:” namespace, but don’t worry if you get it wrong, I can still move pages to the right locations as wiki admin).
