[WE94] - 250 years from now

There are essentially 4 different areas of the world today and they are all quite different.

The Big Apple as we call it, was once North America (and parts of Central and South America). After the merging of various monopolies to fund the Big War, one mega-corporation had taken over and they ran everything. The standard of living in the Big Apple was meant to be high. They had luxury goods, quality services and claimed to have freedom. It seemed to us that in reality, they were just slaves to the system. Everyone who worked, worked for the corporation. I say that as there isn't much work in today's world as everything is automated and done through robotics and AI.

However, there are still some jobs that need years of study to be accepted and require human thinking. It is a three class society. Those who own the company assets, they are the untouchables. There are those who study for years and take the paid jobs. Then the masses who don't really do much but live off the welfare from the corporation. You could in theory be one of the lucky ones that worked hard and raised through the ranks but most people lived average lives, surviving on their meagre sustenance.

Then there was China. China was quite secretive and locked down. Not too much was known about life inside China as it was nearly impossible to get information in or out. There were some bilateral agreements made after the Big War with the Big Apple but that was it. China didn't dare touch the Big Apple and vice versa. Mutually assured destruction mean either of them could wipe the other off the face of the planet in the push of one button. They largely left each other alone.

Then there was the Dead Zone. Much of the planet fell into this category. Years of environmental abuse and then the Big War had raveged most of the world. Toxic and in most place radioactive, it wasn't largely uninhabited except for some misfits who somehow survived in those harsh conditions. The bilateral agreement meant that the Big Apple and China wouldn't step foot and try expanding into the Dead Zone.

Then there was us. The Hive. We occupied part of what was once known as Europe and our lives centred around the Hive Blockchain. Hive had everything.

The Hive came out from the idea of one man that is in folklore called ResetZero. No one knows who he really was and there has been much debate about his true identity. ResetZero had the idea that if enough people believed in an alternative way of living, we could all one day abandon the old society and just start a new one. A reset. A flick of a switch and we just enmass rebel against the old system.

The Hive blockchain had its roots back well over 250 years ago and had grown into a place where everything was possible. All goods, service, entertainment, socialising; everything somehow interacted with the Hive blockchain. ResetZero's vision for the future was supported by a system of decentralised autonomous organisation functionality available on the Hive blockchain that had enabled a form for extreme democracy. In this system, many tribes within Hive had formed who governed their own lands, set their own rules and laws, and agreed how to interact with others.

In Hive, anyone who had a good idea, could share it and their good idea would be promoted if supported by enough people. It encouraged people to work within communities with common shared interests. So for example, doctors formed a community where they shared all medical knowledge but where they all could vote on deeply scientific medical issues that others didn't understand without a deep medical background. The system allowed a form of complete inclusiveness, whilst encouraging specialised knowledge and it rewarded people who contributed more to life.

Of course, with so much automation and robotics, there wasn't a need for anyone to work too much although they could if they wanted to. People had a lot of leisure time and invented interesting ways of keeping themselves busy and interacting with others. For example, there were many fun contests where you could earn tokens that you could then use to go and buy some of your physical goods.

Some of these communities and contests were ancient and obscure. For example, one of my favourites was a community that went out and hunted shadows. People loved participating in this and could earn tokens if successful that was enough for them to survive on.

There were communities for all sorts of sports and leisure activities which meant there was always something new to do. It made sense to go out, make new friends and build new communities.

So we may not have had the alleged riches of the Big Apple, but we really were free to do whatever we wanted. We controlled our own communities and if we didn't like something, we could just move on and do something different.

Our problem now was that although for decades the Big Apple and China had seen us as a fringe group of misfits, they now saw our success and felt threatened. It makes me wonder what the future will hold.

This story is just a story. It is was my thoughts of a future in 250 years from now prompted by @galenkp weekend engagement topic. I do hope there is a better way of living and feel there is an opportunity that technology can help us to make things fairer.

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