Okay, you guys are getting way too slap-happy, guess that means we need some more substance to talk about. So here, this is a first pass incoherent rambling god's-eye view of changes in the 'Danelaw up to 2022. This could use a lot of input, guys, so comment @ will:
LOVE IN THE TIME OF GREYFACE: The ‘Danelaw in 2022
The last decade has been a serious rollercoaster ride for the good people of Earth. Things are changing, and the odd thing is they’re changing for the better for the first time since the turn of the century. It’s not all wine and roses; starvation, disease, poverty and inequality are still rampant across the world, but as the third decade of the century dawns it looks like these things may finally be on the back foot.
{okay, quick synopsis: Since around 2016 handwavium is moving out into the public sphere beyond shadowy govt labs and wacky-ass Fen mad scientists. Handwaved batteries and engines have been introduced p. much everywhere; the engines don’t provide spaceflight or anything but they get absurd distance with zero emissions. The first models of Boeing and Airbus jetliners with waved engines are sparking a revolution in air travel – it’s not only cheap again (no avgas costs inflating ticket prices) it’s actually comfortable in coach for the first time ever! (since they don’t have to play cattle-car to make a profit.) In the first world, by 2022 everybody owns at least one piece of handwaved tech, whether it’s a tablet computer with a wavium battery or a car with a handwavium-based “water engine” (the myth made real). Serious people looking at the consumer markets in the US, Europe, Japan etc. expect there to be a tipping point in the next five-ten years after which the only non-waved tech will belong to hobbyists.
Meanwhile in the developing world handwavium is proving even more revolutionary. The addition of waved technology, esp. the sort of automated construction tech the Fen use, to open source projects like the Global Village Construction Set is rapidly transforming large parts of Asia, Africa and the Americas.
As wavetech starts filtering into the world at large, there’ve been some pretty impressive economic & political shocks. Sometimes it’s because wavetech is making an industry obsolete, sometimes it’s because Fen have made an industry obsolete (see ref. Rockhounds and their competition essentially destroying the terrestrial mining industry), sometimes it’s because established capital sees their power structures eroding and isn’t happy about it. This last one happens a lot, particularly when a group far away from the centers of power comes into sufficient wavetech that they don’t feel they need the distant government anymore to protect them, or that they don’t need to play nice to the foreign corporation’s bully-boys who run the local plantation. There’ve been a few small wars started in the last few years & a lot of people have died, but the powers that be are losing more than they’re winning. Decentralization of political and economic power seems to be winning, at least in the post-colonial nations.
Meanwhile, back in the first world… inequality in the developed nations reached record highs in the period after the big economic shakeup of ’08, but it seems that the tide is turning towards the people once again. Maybe it’s the wavetech boom injecting some needed vitality into the system, or maybe the powers-that-be realized they were a quarter-inch away from Communist Revolution II: Electric Boogaloo and finally hit the brakes. Capitalism is still King, but it’s more a constitutional monarchy in the 2020s if that makes any sense.
..and that's where the original brainstorm peters out.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
LOVE IN THE TIME OF GREYFACE: The ‘Danelaw in 2022
The last decade has been a serious rollercoaster ride for the good people of Earth. Things are changing, and the odd thing is they’re changing for the better for the first time since the turn of the century. It’s not all wine and roses; starvation, disease, poverty and inequality are still rampant across the world, but as the third decade of the century dawns it looks like these things may finally be on the back foot.
{okay, quick synopsis: Since around 2016 handwavium is moving out into the public sphere beyond shadowy govt labs and wacky-ass Fen mad scientists. Handwaved batteries and engines have been introduced p. much everywhere; the engines don’t provide spaceflight or anything but they get absurd distance with zero emissions. The first models of Boeing and Airbus jetliners with waved engines are sparking a revolution in air travel – it’s not only cheap again (no avgas costs inflating ticket prices) it’s actually comfortable in coach for the first time ever! (since they don’t have to play cattle-car to make a profit.) In the first world, by 2022 everybody owns at least one piece of handwaved tech, whether it’s a tablet computer with a wavium battery or a car with a handwavium-based “water engine” (the myth made real). Serious people looking at the consumer markets in the US, Europe, Japan etc. expect there to be a tipping point in the next five-ten years after which the only non-waved tech will belong to hobbyists.
Meanwhile in the developing world handwavium is proving even more revolutionary. The addition of waved technology, esp. the sort of automated construction tech the Fen use, to open source projects like the Global Village Construction Set is rapidly transforming large parts of Asia, Africa and the Americas.
As wavetech starts filtering into the world at large, there’ve been some pretty impressive economic & political shocks. Sometimes it’s because wavetech is making an industry obsolete, sometimes it’s because Fen have made an industry obsolete (see ref. Rockhounds and their competition essentially destroying the terrestrial mining industry), sometimes it’s because established capital sees their power structures eroding and isn’t happy about it. This last one happens a lot, particularly when a group far away from the centers of power comes into sufficient wavetech that they don’t feel they need the distant government anymore to protect them, or that they don’t need to play nice to the foreign corporation’s bully-boys who run the local plantation. There’ve been a few small wars started in the last few years & a lot of people have died, but the powers that be are losing more than they’re winning. Decentralization of political and economic power seems to be winning, at least in the post-colonial nations.
Meanwhile, back in the first world… inequality in the developed nations reached record highs in the period after the big economic shakeup of ’08, but it seems that the tide is turning towards the people once again. Maybe it’s the wavetech boom injecting some needed vitality into the system, or maybe the powers-that-be realized they were a quarter-inch away from Communist Revolution II: Electric Boogaloo and finally hit the brakes. Capitalism is still King, but it’s more a constitutional monarchy in the 2020s if that makes any sense.
..and that's where the original brainstorm peters out.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"