Semper Idem Synopsis

'''Note: I have decided to shorten the Semper Idem timeline from 2100 to 2060. While this will chop away at a significant part of the scenario (most notably the science/technology portion), it does allow me to focus more on specific areas that need redoing.'''

Semper Idem is a Latin phrase meaning "always the same". An accurate definition of the future. While some may argue the objective world has changed, which it obviously has, the most important gauge of change, human subjectivity and raw emotion says otherwise. While humans in the 22nd century live better than ever before, happiness has been as abstract and unattainable as ever before.

Semper Idem attempts to decode the mysterious life of the 22nd century, what led up to this, and describe its innate complexity. It will describe the geopolitics, technology, economy, and society of the year 2060. You will have to decide for yourself whether this is a benevolent utopia, a malevolent dystopia, or somewhere in between.

Improvetics
Improvetics is a field of medicine which attempts to improve healthy humans. While this has been done throughout history (cosmetics, makeup, plastic surgery), the term improvetics was coined in 2044.

Improvetics is a broad term, and while it is broadly characterized as "unnecessary improvement to the human body", some improvetic technology has been made mandatory in several countries, such as genetic engineering at birth to prevent non-infectious diseases.

Designs
Designs, short for "designed newborns" or possibly "designated newborns", are the manifestation of "designer babies", a popular idea on paper in the early 21st century. By 2070, designs were commonplace and often required by many nations in order to curb birtch defects and genetic diseases.

Designs are often used by parents to diminish the possibility of any illness, as well as improving certain, desired, traits. Most people alive on Earth are designs, as most governments have made it mandatory for newborns to be modified to protect against illnesses, while cosmetic and personality modifications are optional, but utilized by many parents.

Life-after-Death Protocols
While technically a subset of improvetics, life-after-death protocols (LAD protocols) is more closely linked with information technology. LADPs are supposed to allow for life after death, or at least for your consciousness and existence to continue. While some LADPs are debated for their effectiveness, and whether the consciousness kept alive by LADPs is really you, that is mainly a philosophical question. While there are many LADPs, by far the most popular one are personals.

BBups
Bbups (pronounced bee-bups), short for "brain backups" are backups of a host's brain uploaded to a drive, exact to specific synapses, and kept in safe storage. A "puppet body" is also created, a "clone" of the host, and kept in safe storage. The BBup is updated monthly to reflect new memories and experiences gathered by the host. In the unfortunate case the host is rendered dead, the BBup and puppet body are combined to create a backup of the host.

While this is oversimplifying massively, this is the general idea of a BBup. The massive processing power neeeded to create and update a BBup, as well as material needed to create the puppet body, as well as possible privacy concerns, has lead to BBups being a niche and limited market until breakthroughs in computer science in the 2060s and the advent of cheap artificial skin and tissue has made it easily accessible to millions, and it quickly became the most lucrative and cheapest LADP.

Artificial Intelligence
A 2059 study from the United States Department of Defense states that artificial intelligence accounts for nearly 68% of the U.S Economy.

Vircons & Virtual Reality
Vircons are wearable optic fabricators that are used to quickly immerse individuals into a virtual world. Augmented vircons, (known as augcons), augment a user interface into the "real world", and these are most commonly found in workplaces.

There are two, completely separate forms of vircons. The first form, mostly archaic, derives from early prototypes known as "headsets", but are much sleeker in nature and function and perform much better. These types of vircons are especially

Anthropocene
While some scientists hotly debate this issue, it has been a wide consensus the Holocene period finally ended ended with the Anthropocene Glacial Retreat, coinciding with the Industrial Revolution, starting around 1850.

The rapid change from the Holocene to the Anthropocene, which started from ~50,000 years, a result of human actions, has disturbed the carefully balanced ecosystem, indicating a 6th mass extinction. However, a much more important result of the Anthropocene, which many classify began starting with the migration of hominids, especially Homo sapiens, around ~50,000 years ago, is the "Human Warm Period" (from 1850-today), in which temperatures worldwide swiftly accelerated, causing a near ecological collapse, as well as the end of the Little Ice Age.

The Anthropocene Extinction event has been neutralized primarily due to several cloning techniques,a carefully orchestrated, global effort, bringing back extinct keystone species using preserved DNA.

Weather Patterns & Agriculture
The added heat in the atmosphere from climate change led to more moisture, as well as changing ocean currents due to volatile and heating temperatures. The added moisture, in turn, led to strengthened low pressure systems and strengthened hurricanes.

Changing ocean currents also led to colder temperatures in various parts of the world, most notably the North European Plain, leading to the European Famine of 2053. (See 'Shutdown of Thermohaline Circulation')

Shutdown of Thermohaline Circulation
The slowing of the Gulf Stream and other events related to Thermohaline Circulation occurred primarily as a result of climate change. While the process was slow, by 2050, the Gulf Stream had slowed to such an extent that warm water was no longer being carried to Europe, resulting in colder temperatures, and the 2053 European Famine. Warmer water also stayed put in the Caribbean and tropical areas, raising the temperature by upwards of 1 degree Celsius in those regions, which was a major factor for the Great Migration.

The Second Flood
A significant chunk of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet calved throughout the course of September 2029, and despite a heightened global campaign and international efforts, melted, raising sea levels by nearly one feet.

Music
The most popular form of music is "personalized" music, known as "perz" by most musicians. Personalized music is composed by an artificial intelligence, and its beats, rhythms, sounds, and lyrics are carefully suited to the listener. They use nanobots and health monitoring services in the body to deduct certain things like the listener's emotions, state of mind, among other variables, to make a piece of music that the listener will enjoy heartily.

While personalized music is popular, humans are social animals, and often, most music is still composed by musicians aided with AI technology, to create instantly global hits.

Interactive Arts
The most popular form of "art", the interactive arts started out as primitive "video games" in the 1970s, likely called so because of their projection onto a screen, similar to how a two-dimensional video would function.

The biggest development in video game technology came in the early 21st century, with the invention of augmented and virtual reality. By 2037, online platforms called "redgames" would begin to appear, which were highly interactive and often acted as an all-in-one experience, combining features such as a web browser, social media, and search engines.

However, redgames would soon become monopolized by a few giant ones, mainly: "Hottake" from Alphabet Inc, "FeedOn" by Tencent Holdings, and "Jasper" by the TCG Group. The advent of advanced haptic sensing and consciousness loaders made the interactive arts excruciatingly realistic, and were famously under investigation by the FBI for reports of kidnappings using a modified client of Hottake to allow kidnappers to torture their victims, known now as the Daly Conspiracy.

While the IA industry has slowed down in recent years, it was still worth $55.7 trillion dollars as of 2095.

Dyson Producer
The Dyson Producer is a vast array of solar panels and mirrors, absorbing and reflecting light from the sun. The collaborative project, starting out as the Dyson Initiative in 2041, became a serious source of energy in outer space. In fact, the Dyson Producer still accounts for nearly 69% of power production in Outer Space (excluding Earth, Mars, and related satellites).

While technically supervised and operated by the Dyson Foundation, some parts of the Dyson Producer are operated by independent corporations, and distribute independently to their clients.

Mercury
There are no permanent human settlements on Mercury.

Venus
There are no permanent human settlements on Venus, although a U.S orbital base is under construction.

Earth
The birthplace of humanity. Home to 7.4 billion people as of the 2060 Worldwide Census. Unlike most space colonies, Earth's economy is incredibly diverse, however, the financial and agricultural sectors make up a large bulk of the Earther economy.

The Loop
A sprawling space station that resides in low Earth orbit. Due to the various disadvantages of landing and refueling on Luna, the Loop is often used for spaceships to be powered and checked and for pilots and passengers to rest before going to their final destination.

The Loop has gone through major changes since its first modules went up into space in 2072. It is nearly completely self-sufficient, but requires water and manufactured supplies from Earth, as electrolysis is too risky and too expensive to perform aboard the ship.

The Loop is considered under the jurisdiction of the United States government, but functions independently, and is controlled by the Loop Company and its various investors.

Luna
Referred to as "The Moon" by Earthers, Luna is Earth's only natural satellite.

Mars
Several small colonies are present on Mars.