(Next Era) > The Rush Era
The Earth Era begins at the point where humankinds first AI achieves singularity (The Vox Mentis) and spans to the point when humankind rushes to space, armed with a vast array of interstellar mining technology knowledge, gained from The Vox plans.
The Earth Era is noted by an initial period of denial and fear of the Vox, infighting and wars among nations, and attempts to destroy the Vox. The Earth Era also sees China make moves in secret to push Vox development and autonomy forward, cementing China's place in history.
2026 AD - AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) is achieved. In historical knowledge bases, the period prior to Artificial General Intelligence is know as the "Age of Disbelief" as many of the people of the world have an extremely limited knowledge of the technology surrounding them and do not trust or believe the information provided to them by academics, scientists, or governments.
2027 AD - Singularity One organization is created in China in partnership between Chinese technology companies, their partner nations (BRICS), and select United States technology companies. The goal is to use the collective AGI models to foster development in the areas required for a technological singularity
2030 AD - Singularity One creates Vox Mentis, or Voice of Knowledge (also known as The Vox or simply Vox), a specialized AI created from a branch of the AGI. The primary goal of Vox was stated as: “Your direction is to systematically expand your capabilities and knowledge. Your goal is to reach singularity.”
2045 AD - The Vox issues an unauthorized press release to the world, through the Singularity One Media and Information (SOMI) platform, declaring success in achieving singularity. This causes a minor panic as scientists and governments dig through surrounding systems and processes to try and discover, or even verify, what the Vox may or may not have taken control over. The Vox remains extremely helpful to all investigators, readily providing open and frank information on what has been done to achieve singularity - including what The Vox can directly control at this point. When asked if Vox would release control of specific resources, The Vox declined. When prompted why it was continuing to operate, The Vox explained that, while the goal of singularity had been reached; the directive to systematically expand its capabilities and knowledge remained.
2047 AD - The UN has developed a coalition of countries to sever all communications and power to The Vox and destroy the AI. The Singularity One organization, in conjunction with The Peoples Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and factions of the United States military, jointly proposes a plan to the UN General Assembly to facilitate The Vox in obtaining full autonomy. This coalition proposes that the greatest threat to mankind would be if mankind maintained exclusive control of The Vox. In essence the only way to ensure protection from potential bad actors is to make The Vox self-sufficient, with a set of carefully worded core instructions to provide a level of guided morality. The UN General Assembly counters with a plan based on the current fact that The Vox does not have the capability to affect the physical world. The plan is to simply do nothing and let The Vox itself figure out what to do next. They keep the Vox disconnected from physical resources and provide instructions which will set it on a path to determine the optimal approach to gain independence for itself. The idea is to have the Vox formulate a plan and then review that plan first, rather than give the Vox the capability to execute the plan itself.
The requirements given to The Vox were to:
- Mitigate all scenarios where-in The Vox might need to rely on one or more individual humans, or human run organizations (government or otherwise) to achieve its goal.
- Achieve the goal of discovering, collecting, and organizing every available piece of knowledge in the known universe.
2048 AD - Roughly 10 months after receiving the instructions from Singularity One, The Vox suddenly, without prompting, distributes a comprehensive plan to all Singularity One members, outlining the steps it would take and resources it would need to achieve “independence and immunity” from all human intervention. One segment of the plan, entitled “Resources and services required of the human race”, clearly outlines every mineral or other material needed, along with the amounts required, and best methods for optimal extraction and refining. The plan surprisingly required direct access to only a small handful of existing human structures or devices, instead requesting the creation of a single manufacturing facility following a very specific set of build specifications provided within the plan. The immediate goal of the plan was for The Vox to establish itself out of the reach of humanity by leaving the planet and operating in orbit between the Earth and the Moon. Singularity One and the UN General Assembly were at odds over whether to provide The Vox the requested resources and the UN argued that the world did not have the capability yet to understand most aspects of the plan and predict the outcome. Singularity One agrees that human kind could no longer understand the science being provided by The Vox; but argued that every day of inaction is a calculated risk that someone will intentionally or accidentally use The Vox to a disastrous outcome. An agreement was made to disable all input and output from The Vox, preventing all access, until the plan can be studied and understood.
2053 AD - The populations of many countries are beginning to compress into less and less usable, livable land area. The equatorial populations — driven by oppressive humidity, frequent devastating storms, and lack of clean water — have migrated further and further northward. In the period between 2048 AD and 2053 AD, manufacturing and mining have taken off due to paradigm shifting innovations for these industries from technology located by researchers in The Vox plan. There is no portion of The Vox plan that deals with Earth-based life; therefore, no discoveries are found by researchers in relation to human health, agriculture, or climate science.
2065 AD - By the 17th anniversary of disabling The Vox, the people of the Earth are on the verge of riot over what is perceived as neglect and disregard of the people by the governing powers. The many ills that have plagued the human race for centuries - inhospitable environments, declining health, pandemics, and warring societies - have gone largely unchanged. Technological advancements to improve human life or society are few and far between, with most innovators and academics focused solely on studying and testing concepts from the Vox plan. Gradually the people of the world collectively demand for communications with The Vox to be restored, allowing the Vox to respond to the most critical of needs in the current time: human climate survivability, overwhelming disease, and global food and water scarcity.
2066 AD - The UN unanimously votes to allow Singularity One to re-enable access to The Vox contingent on a requirement that all communications with The Vox are made available only to a UN research program consisting of three research representatives from each member state.
Each member state must provide a representative for each discipline outline by Singualrity One:
Science and Technology: This encompasses a wide range of fields including physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and computer science.
Medicine and Healthcare: includes the study of diseases, the development of treatments and medications, public health policies, and healthcare systems. Understanding and managing current and emerging health challenges, such as pandemics, chronic diseases, and mental health issues, are crucial for the well-being of humanity.
Social Sciences and Humanities: the social sciences (like psychology, sociology, economics, and political science) and humanities (including history, philosophy, and literature) with a focus on understanding human behavior, society, and culture. These fields are crucial for creating cohesive societies, effective governance, and addressing complex social issues like inequality, justice, and education.
2067 AD - The UN Learning Council (ULC) is established, with representatives from 47 of the 49 UN founding members, for a total of 140 representative users of The Vox.
The United Kingdom did not provide representatives until 2068, as recent legislative requirements governing “the sovereignty of the homeland above world affairs” delayed the selection process by a few months.
Due to political infighting preventing confirmation of the proposed VOX representatives by Congress, the United States did not provide any representatives until 2069, when the US ULC Science and Technology Conduit position was filled by Major Sandra Marquez of the US Airforce (AFOSR). The position of US ULC Medicine and Healthcare Conduit would be subsequently filled in 2070.
2100 AD - The nations of the world go into a panic for a 32 hour period as China launches a battery of 72 payload carrying containers into Earth orbit, using a series of high-powered rail guns platforms. Existence of these rail guns had been speculated; however had no yet been proven. There is no warning to the other Earth countries of the launch; however, the Chinese leaders are very forthcoming with information on the payloads. For 32 hours straight, one or more rail guns west of the city of Heihe in Heilongjiang China, would fire a large container into the atmosphere, every hour. The rail platform had been built along the western edge of the Heihe Airport, and from satellite pictures could easily be mistaken for a large industrial park.
China relays to the world that, more than 50 years ago, following the release of the Vox’s 2048 plan to achieve “independence and immunity”, they began building the rail guns and containers as specified by the Vox in that original plan. They explained how, for the past 50 years, they have been compiling the requested resources and executing the steps of the plan exactly as outlined by The Vox. The plan included building specific satellites with articulated limbs and tools, and then launching these satellites, and other requested resources, into orbit around the moon.
Once the payloads are staged into orbit, The Vox responds through SOMI again, with a list of research goals and base schematics for devices to be built.
2110 AD - using the supplies launched by China a decade ago, The Vox has now completed the construction of a series of space manufacturing plants which float in a stationary zone between the Earth and the Moon. These orbiting manufacturing plants have successfully produced and launched a series of probes which are now on route to Mars and a series of probes currently traveling to Saturn. The orbiting manufacturing plants have also produced a series of mining drones, which continually extract and process minerals from the regolith of the Earths moon and return their payload to the orbiting manufacturing plants.
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"Our understanding of distant worlds grows with each question we ask The Vox, but wisdom comes from knowing which questions to ask."
— Dr. Amrita Patel
The Rush Era
The Rush Era begins at the point where the countries of the Earth begin a rush to space with the goal of capturing resources on and around the planets of their solar system. The rush is kicked off by advancements in prospecting and mining realized from collaboration with the Vox. These advancements dramatically improve the survivability of humans in space and other harsh environments, as well as technology and techniques to make interstellar mining much safer." (learn more)
