The Final Crash #1: The Creation Of A Global Takeover
The year is 2084. We’ve adapted to the most devastating effects of climate change and survived the transition of superpowers, from the USA to China. We now rule the stars. Nearly every square inch of the solar system has been purchased, which makes off-world colonization the largest economic driver on Earth by far. Cryptocurrencies dominate the global economy, which is booming, though an economic bubble of unparalleled proportions is forming that, once popped, will leave a global crisis unlike any other: forever to be referred to as The Final Crash.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
The mad rush to capitalize on the mining of off-earth resources demanded unfathomable amounts of capital. A new breed of cryptocurrency emerged to fill this need and helped secure the long-term planning of space colonization. Anyone was able to participate in the space boom from the comfort of their home using advanced virtualization technology, known as Virt Mining. It consumed the entire globe in a fever push to plan the colonization of our solar system inside of a simulation. In the year 2084, the people of Earth have enjoyed the longest period of economic expansion ever. In one year, more wealth was generated than the sum of all economic activity occurring from the colonization of the Americas through to the capitalization of the Internet. But, like all periods of unrestrained growth, the bubble is set to pop. Humanity will not be able to recover from this market correction, hence the name, The Final Crash.
This is a fantastical projection but, the groundwork for artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and space colonization is being built out right now. These technologies will profoundly change global culture. The reality of life in the year 2084 will be to today what social media bubbles are to cave painters. These new technologies will create entirely different problems with an exponentially greater potential to cause harm. We need to raise awareness of the destructive potential of these technologies while there is still an opportunity to constrain how they will be used.
The Final Crash series will take readers deep into the massive social, political, and cultural impact these technologies will have on humanity. The cultural shift that will occur in the next 40 to 50 years will be greater than all cultural developments to-date. This world may sound like science fiction, but this future scenario is inevitable given the current path humanity is on.
WHERE HUMANITY IS HEADING
A new breed of cryptocurrencies will help fuel the colonization of off-earth resources and usher in a period of economic growth that will outstrip anything in human history. The rush to capitalize on the colonization of space will be so dominant that it will touch every single country and be by far the largest employer on earth.
A new type of cryptocurrency called “Futures,” a crypto version of futures trading today, will become the new gold standard to secure transactions deep into our future. This will allow entrepreneurs to securely plan off-earth projects that could take decades, if not centuries, to complete. Virtualization technology will be used to present workers with an extremely real presentation of the future state of collective human activity, which will be stored inside of the Futures cryptocurrency metadata.
The most productive members of society will spend their time inside of a simulation of the future and grow increasingly detached from the present. The pull of the future will be intoxicating for the young as it will present the primary opportunity for employment and be the site of the most exciting cultural developments. The idea of living one’s life inside of a simulated future will not be science fiction. It will be normal — if not essential — for being a productive member of society.
Humanity will effectively create the Matrix-simulated world as envisioned in the 1999 film. They’ll willingly place themselves in the simulation and throw away the key. It’s not evil machines that humanity has to fear — it’s our own personal greed, and the extremely powerful among us who present the most grave danger.
The planning of space colonization well into the 22nd century will create the potential for a speculative bubble that, if popped, could wipe out more capital than humanity has been able to acquire in its entire existence. This will be the most likely outcome because of the temptation for the powerful to capitalize from the Final Crash.
This will create circumstances that lead to the vast majority of humanity being locked into economic slavery and forced to work inside of a simulation ruled over by a small percentage of elites. Unlike any other scenario where such a globiarchy could exist, this would be impossible to undo.
The solution to the Final Crash is the same to our current economic/political/cultural scenario: humans must unite to check the inhuman institutions we create. The specific rules can be debated. But these base goals cannot.
These developments should be of interest to futurists and those interested in where technology is heading, activists who are concerned about the unfettered application of capitalism to technology, and even sci-fi aficionados.
UP NEXT
The next article, The Final Crash #2: How do you feel about your future right now?, reflects on the state of the world today before travelling to the party that is the roaring 2080’s and the precursor of the Final Crash. The 2080’s and 2020’s have a lot in common — The Final Crash is rooted in the problems of the present. What If we added highly disruptive technology to our world today without fundamentally adjusting the current globally connected financial system?
Scott Nihill is a futurist, storyteller, entrepreneur, and artist. He’s currently developing Future Now, a sci-fi worldbuilding web series. Co-produced the hit science & technology web-series What If, and co-created What If Kids. He dedicates his free-time to supporting creators from concept to completion through his arts organization, Maker Boost. Learn more about his activities and interests at https://ca.linkedin.com/in/scottnihill
