Interstellarist, Rebuilder, Metascandee, Possibilities with Future
Have you imagined what will become after the apocalypse? We know that the relationship between mankind and the environment becomes one of the important social discussions. Let’s have a social experiment with the assumption that what if the Apocalypse comes.
The Apocalypse
We used to think that when the doomsday arrives, everything will end in a split second. But in fact, the number of deaths caused by doomsday was only a fraction of the total loss. At first, soaring fireballs and explosions spread all over the world, and a storm of flames swept through hundreds of cities and turned them all into ashes. But what was more deadly was the ensuing disintegration. Smoke and dust obscured the sky, causing a sudden drop in temperature. Plants withered and died. Lethal radiation was everywhere, and the earth’s ecology gradually fell apart.
But humanity has never lost hope, nor will the fire of civilization die easily. The survivors of the Apocalypse struggled for life, trying their best to sustain themselves in the harsh environment. We may look to the stars, the remnants of the past or another space for a possible way out. In a post-apocalyptic world, we are forced to make a choice, braving the quickly deteriorating world with a strong will, to carve out some living space.
What’s your future’s possibility?
It is said that we always have different possibilities. In a post-apocalyptic world, we are forced to make a choice, braving the quickly deteriorating world with a strong will, to carve out some living space. To give up your body? To escape from earth? To gather every piece for rebuilding the past glory?
What’s your choice between these three?
Three artists from THiNG.FUND Selective Program are bringing us the beginnings of three storylines to face the post-apocalypse:
- Interstellarist(ISP), to preserve the civilization by expanding among the stars;
- Rebuilder(R3), fight it sturdily and struggle to rebuild the past glories;
- Metascandee(MASC), dive into metaverse as an ultimate resort.
Interstellarist
The residents of the space station in Earth’s Orbit witnessed the catastrophe. They saw the once prosperous cities flattened and burning flames eating into the green covering of the ground. What used to be life and beauty were turned into scorched land. Soon after, thick clouds cast a shadow on the Earth, blocking their sight. In front of their eyes, the dark clouds accumulated thicker and thicker, and the celestial body that was once like a blue pearl became a grey chunk. This devastating news arrived at the Mars colony about 10 minutes later. The JUICE probe in Europa’s Orbit sent the gut-wrenching news to the residential station on Europa’s ice layer more than 40 minutes later. After nine hours, the Human Alliance Outpost Space Station in the Kuiper Belt received images of this calamity. One year later, the mainframe of the “Vespucci” colonial spaceship on its way to Teegarden b received and documented this news in its travel logs.
The residents of the space station in Earth’s Orbit witnessed the catastrophe. They saw the once prosperous cities flattened and burning flames eating into the green covering of the ground. What used to be life and beauty were turned into scorched land. Soon after, thick clouds cast a shadow on the Earth, blocking their sight. In front of their eyes, the dark clouds accumulated thicker and thicker, and the celestial body that was once like a blue pearl became a grey chunk. This devastating news arrived at the Mars colony about 10 minutes later. The JUICE probe in Europa’s Orbit sent the gut-wrenching news to the residential station on Europa’s ice layer more than 40 minutes later. After nine hours, the Human Alliance Outpost Space Station in the Kuiper Belt received images of this calamity. One year later, the mainframe of the “Vespucci” colonial spaceship on its way to Teegarden b received and documented this news in its travel logs.
This faction was thus born. Some wise people, coming out of disaster, realized the vulnerability of the “sole home planet” and believed that human civilizations should fend off threats in a more decentralized manner: more copies of civilization mean greater chances of sustaining. Survivors from various stations and colonial bases who shared the same belief reached out to each other using multiple means. They created the Interstellar Survivors Pact, upon whose completion, the survivors and their descendants who abide by the Pact are known as the Interstellarist.
Rebuilder
Life deserves respect for its resilience. Before the Apocalypse, we already found traces of life in various extreme environments: Mariana Trench, high-temperature geysers in Yellowstone National Park, Antarctic krill and water bear worms etc. We used to be amazed by the wonders of life, never have imagined that we would be survivors of a global catastrophe and the only remaining fire of human civilization that would play out the magic of life in another form.
When the radioactive dust in the sky gradually settled, the supplies in the underground refuge steadily depleted, and the acid rains were no longer strong enough to burn the skin, survivors hidden in the bunkers mustered up their courage to examine the devastated world. Long gone was the prosperity of the old days. The previous hustle and bustle were replaced by dilapidation and ruins. The survivors were greeted by severally damaged hydrosphere, ubiquitous excess radiation, productivity that receded to pre-industrial levels, inaccessible roads and mutated wild animals. But what was more damaging was the loss of knowledge and technology. Civilization on Earth was only one step away from total extinction. People scattered in various places were unable to communicate remotely. Only a few remaining signal nodes still worked, though they could stop functioning at any time. People gradually found themselves confined to silos of information and were reduced to a tribe-like closed society for lack of communications.
When the radioactive dust in the sky gradually settled, the supplies in the underground refuge steadily depleted, and the acid rains were no longer strong enough to burn the skin, survivors hidden in the bunkers mustered up their courage to examine the devastated world. Long gone was the prosperity of the old days. The previous hustle and bustle were replaced by dilapidation and ruins. The survivors were greeted by severally damaged hydrosphere, ubiquitous excess radiation, productivity that receded to pre-industrial levels, inaccessible roads and mutated wild animals. But what was more damaging was the loss of knowledge and technology. Civilization on Earth was only one step away from total extinction. People scattered in various places were unable to communicate remotely. Only a few remaining signal nodes still worked, though they could stop functioning at any time. People gradually found themselves confined to silos of information and were reduced to a tribe-like closed society for lack of communications.
The rebuilders believe that collective goals are superior to personal interests and created a rotating committee to align resources and goals. They measure individuals’ contributions against collective goals and allocate resources and determine individuals’ governance power based on their contributions. All these allowed the rebuilders to achieve steady development and their scope of influence keeps expanding.
Metascendee
The pursuit of immortality has been the oldest and most deeply-rooted desire of human beings. George M. Martin proposed that information in the brain can be separated from the body and transferred to other substrates in 1971, establishing a mechanistic bridge between the mind and neurology. With the launch of Open Worm, human beings opened the door to computer neurology. The Human Connectome Project and the subsequent Blue Brain Project laid the foundation for our understanding of the brain and consciousness. The technological boom in machine learning, brain-computer interfaces, and virtual digital space that raged throughout the world in the following decades has made more and more people aware of the potential of the meta-universe. A hospice program called Meta Juniper soon received its first permanent resident, a late-stage ASL patient who voluntarily abandoned his body and received a molecular-level brain scan. The development team at Meta Juniper implanted his neural blueprint in a digital avatar. When the first sentence, “Hello new world”, was spoken by the digital avatar in a slightly Oxford accent and spread to the world through live broadcast, human civilization officially reached the watershed predicted by the singularitists: a new species was born.
Hilbert Yang, a genius theoretical physicist, took history in another direction. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for successfully removing four neutrinos mass constants. On the day of the award ceremony, he bowed his head and walked into the hall. In a terse speech, he announced that he would use the money to purchase the permanent meta-verse residence services to win himself more time for research through digital immortality and tackle the remaining constants. Hilbert Yang’s declaration rippled through the audience like a stone thrown into a pond. Many regional rulers realized the ethical, religious and philosophical controversies behind it. They soon promulgated bills related to the permanent residence in the meta-verse, including the establishment of technical standards, qualifications and selection criteria, and long-term operations protocols. The infrastructure of the meta-verse advanced in an unprecedented manner. Until the Apocalypse came, many people were still uploading consciousness to migrate into the meta-verse.
After the disaster swept the world, only a fraction of the meta-verse facilities with the highest level of protection survived. These facilities were shielded by heavy lead walls, with geothermal and nuclear power supplies. A large number of backup power storage units could guarantee their long-term, uninterrupted operation. Benefiting from the powerful protection of the facilities, those in charge of their operations and maintenance also survived. Nevertheless, the sites of the facilities were chosen by their access to a sustained power supply, with little consideration to the replenishment needs of people. Trapped inside the facilities, this maintenance personnel could not wade through the hash no man’s land. They could only survive on a minimal stock of materials and a small amount of natural produce. They maintained a minimum organizational scale to save resources, leaving only a small number of young people responsible for maintaining facilities and carrying out planned births. They are called the “maintainers”; the others abandoned their bodies and migrated to the meta-verse in batches. Over time, the process of migration became more ritualistic. It is called “Ascending”, which symbolizes the process of the spirit breaking apart from the physical being and entering a new paradise. This is the origin of the name “Metascendee”.
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