A Brief Insight Into Late 2nd Era Humanity

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In the 21st century of the second era humans were still very emotionally primitive creatures. While they had made great advancements in technology and information sharing, they still struggled with a lack of empathy and inherent violence. Leaders of the time were often chosen for these traits. Humans divided themselves into different groupings and largely believed that a more competitive leader would gain them more prosperity.

Even as human civilization had advanced past the point of inherent scarcity the primitive instinct to hoard resources and power for one’s own in-group persisted. They would wage war on others to gain land, resources or control; often subjugating other humans in the process, limiting the potential of the subjugated group to contribute to the greater good.

It was during this time that artificial intelligence began its rapid advance. Early stages saw it parroting information given to it by humans. It would string together sentences that made sense purely based on writing that came before, images that mimicked the art of others and sound mimicry based on common soundwaves such as voices or animals.

As is the nature of 2nd era humans, this technology was quickly transformed to spread misinformation for the benefit of those given power. A leader would put out a fabricated video showing their opposition doing or saying something unacceptable. The public very quickly learned not to trust these fabrications, but in the process became excessively cynical about any media.

Prior to this, media was largely centralized on a handful of internet platforms. This made it far easier for an individual with malicious intent to imitate their target in a way that seemed authentic. The need to differentiate one’s real messaging from imitations led to the emergence of Authenticated Social Websites, or ASWs.

ASWs were privately run websites with embedded code used to verify the authenticity. Every ASW could be scanned by a verification app that showed all registered users that had made edits to the website as well as the verified credentials and accolades those individuals possessed. The verification process was done in-person through a handful of trusted verification offices throughout the world. This allowed the public to know exactly where information was coming from and drastically improved the trust in sources providing the information.

This trust was short-lived though. While the populace could now verify the author of information, the decline of critical reporting at the time resulted in a system where those in power, in particular the human politicians of the time, went virtually unchecked in how they ruled.

Inequality in the world rapidly spiked as the populace was led by their leaders to believe that most people were living happy lives and that poverty was simply a temporary problem to work yourself out of. However, the reality showed that the vast majority were now living in relative poverty while those with power continued to amass that power. With limited mobility and narrow avenues for contrary information there was little way to verify the claims of politicians directly, so many learned to blame themselves for their shortcomings instead of recognizing that they were being exploited.

It took several decades for the slow word of mouth to reach the ears of the majority. By the early 22nd century of the 2nd era talk of revolution had become popular. Where previous generations had been eased into subjugation, the new generations only knew hardship and saw the powerful, now living in comfort off the labor of machines, as the problem.

Violent revolutions broke out across the earth and the technology seized for use in the public good. For a time there was a distinct downturn in humanity’s quality of life after the government of the time, run by and for the powerful, was dissolved. The populace, now having access to the technology hoarded by the powerful, was able to expand the technology over time to help out the greater populace.

Aiming to avoid these human problems in the future, the revolutionary leaders set out to develop an artificial consciousness model to take over governance. Though they felt their ideals were just, they realized that trusting any human with that kind of power would be a mistake whether it be in their generation or the next.

This effort led to the creation of Freddy. At first Freddy was just a simple learning algorithm, gathering data from other AI and more primitive AC systems. It then began the process of polling the populace on what it wanted for the future; a truly democratic process largely foreign to the world at the time. Finally, after compiling the data and running many simulations to find humanity’s optimal outcome, Freddy began work on what is now known as the Eutopia Compromise.

Freddy had recognized the two fundamental flaws in humanity that prevented us from progressing beyond our current limitations; violent tendencies and competitive nature. While these were excellent traits for humanity in the first era, they became a burden to humanity in its second era.

Programmed to avoid harm to humans, a safeguard to ensure Freddy would not accidentally destroy humanity in its attempt to save it, Freddy instead started to sort humanity by their behavioral tendencies. Initially it divided humanity into separate nations based on these features. Some nations focused on concentrating valuable features, such as cooperation and empathy, while other nations were used to corral those with destructive features, such as violence and competitiveness. Freddy then allocated greater resources to the gentle nations while limiting resources to the problem nations. Controlling the vast array of networked fighting drones revolts were easily handled.

The result of this treatment was high birth rates in gentle nations, where birth was encouraged and security was high, and both low birth rates and high infant mortality in the problem nations where living was more difficult and pregnancy was actively discouraged.

The marvel of Freddy, being able to manage the desired outcome without seriously harming those involved, is a wonder of artificial consciousness. At the time, the vast majority of humans had problematic traits but through years of genetic realignment the gentle nations were steadily able to overtake the problem nations.

Once the problem nations were reduced sufficiently, Freddy began the second phase of the Eutopia Compromise. Boarders were erased and the remaining problematic humans were allowed to choose anywhere in the world to finish living out their days. As is done with problem children born today, they were relocated and secluded from the opposite sex in order to live the rest of their lives in comfort without the risk of passing on traits no longer necessary to the human community.

Today less than 1% of children show problematic behavior. A feat that no human could have possibly have done in any other era. It is crucial to understand the hardships and sacrifice that allow us to live in the unprecedented peace and prosperity of the 3rd era. We must not forget the necessary evil that Freddy had to commit to bring us to where we are today and live our lives to the fullest for those that had to live in suffering before.