Many observers claim that Earth has seen more social and technological change in the last century than in all previous human history. For the most part, the changes have been positive ones.

In 2155 A.D., the world is dominated by the so-called “Fifth Wave” societies, those which are on the leading edge of technological change and innovation.

With civilization spreading into space, Earth can no longer be considered “the world,” or at least not the only world available to humanity. Even so, Earth’s 11 billion people represent the bulk of known sentient life, and their home world is still central to civilization.

Although civilization has had to struggle through many difficulties over the last century, most people’s lives are far better in material terms. The average standard of living today is almost 10 times what it was in the year 2000. Over 60% of the planet’s population has a standard of living higher than that enjoyed by a typical citizen of the United States a century ago. Thus, most of Earth’s population enjoys at least an adequate diet, basic health care, comfortable housing, personal transportation, and access to the web. Most citizens of the advanced nations enjoy material wealth and luxuries once undreamed of.

Meanwhile, the world today is at peace, to a degree unthinkable in the violent 20th century. Although local and regional wars are still common, there has been no global war since 1945. Most conflict today involves low-intensity warfare: local vendettas, guerrilla uprisings, terrorism and sabotage. Military strategists point out that this state of affairs is typical of human history, and call the “era of mass warfare” an aberration of the Industrial Age.

The Fifth Wave societies are scattered around the planet. Some of these are whole nation-states, others are limited geographic regions, single cities, or even dispersed groups which claim no sovereign territory. There are pockets of Fifth Wave technology even in some of the world’s poorest nations. In a sense, any individual who owns leading-edge technology and participates in global society is a citizen of the Fifth Wave.

The following are some of the densest concentrations of Fifth Wave society on Earth.

Europe: Certain European nations (particularly France, the German-speaking nations, and the Low Countries) have the highest standards of living anywhere in human civilization. Western Europe (and, to a lesser degree, the Mediterranean and Scandinavian countries) are leaders of the Fifth Wave.

Hong Kong and Singapore: These two cities (Hong Kong under Chinese rule, Singapore an independent city-state) are the wealthiest in the Far East.

South Africa: The greatest success story in Africa, the Republic has a technological base and standard of living equal to much of Western Europe.

Pacific Rim: Several member-states of the Pacific Rim Alliance are major Fifth Wave societies, notably Australia, Japan, and the Union of Alberta and British Columbia. New Zealand, while not a formal member of the PRA alliance, is also a Fifth Wave state.

United States: Although not all Americans enjoy complete access to Fifth Wave technologies, there are large pockets of Fifth Wave society throughout the country. The major urban areas on both coasts are particularly advanced.

During the 20th century, some futurists predicted the imminent collapse of Earth’s ecosphere, as human activity damaged natural ecosystems worldwide. This has not happened, but the planetary environment has changed a great deal. The fact that the ecosphere continues to work is due in large part to its conscious management by sentient beings.

Global climate change has been a constant factor in the past century. Although the release of “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere has been much reduced, human activity has produced a measurable effect on world climate. Combined with a natural warming trend, this has caused the average temperature of the world’s oceans to rise by several degrees. Glaciers and ice caps have dwindled worldwide, raising planetary sea levels by about 5 feet.

The slow global flood has threatened many low-lying areas, including the entirety of a few small island nations. More subtly, local climates have shifted all over the world, in no consistent fashion. Some regions are noticeably dryer than they were a century ago. In particular, the “belt” of deserts stretching from West Africa to Central Asia has grown over the last hundred years. Other areas see more rain or snow. Some regions have seen a noticeable rise in temperature, while others suffer colder and more violent winters than they once did.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere’s ability to protect Earth’s surface against hard radiation has suffered. At its peak in the mid-2070s, the “ozone crisis” caused Earth’s billions to flee the sun, staying indoors as much as possible. Today the ozone layers have nearly recovered, but it is still dangerous to stay outdoors in direct sunlight, especially in the high northern or southern latitudes.

Humans and other sentient life have been able to adapt to these changes, but Earth’s wild populations of plants and animals have suffered a terrible toll in the past century. Vast regions of habitat have been destroyed by human action or by the side effects of climate change. Biologists believe that the current, ongoing “mass extinction” is comparable to the end of the Cretaceous Period, when as many as half of all living species disappeared.

Many new technologies have offered ways to mitigate or reverse the damage to the global environment. The most spectacular demonstration of this began in 2080, when the European Union, United States and Japan commenced a joint project to restore Earth’s ozone layer. Today the layer has been returned almost to its state at the beginning of the century, and the project plans to attain pre-industrial levels of ozone in the upper atmosphere by 2123.

Other ecological problems have been harder to deal with. In particular, the mass extinctions have been particularly difficult to halt or reverse. Projects are underway to build “biodiversity enclaves” in relatively isolated regions, such as islands or mountain valleys. Such enclaves are planned as a place where new ecosystems can be fostered, using both wild and genetically engineered species. Some of these enclaves are designed to operate without artificial intervention. Others involve the presence of microbots and central computer coordination to search out and correct problems. With luck, the next century will see large regions of the planet stocked with new and more robust populations of wild plants and animals.

One of the more interesting aspects of Fifth Wave civilization is its reversal of several age-old trends. Many institutions have moved away from the massive, centrally directed structure of the Industrial Age, becoming more dispersed and locally controlled. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in the decline of city life.

The vast cities of Industrial Age civilization have fallen on very hard times. Such cities were based on the notion that large numbers of people needed to live close together in order to work in factories, trade, and communicate. With the advent of the global web and the “distributed economy,” this was no longer true.

The economic collapse of the world’s central cities began in the 2040s, as the web matured to the level at which almost all economic and social activity could take place in virtual rather than physical reality. By 2050 a typical American citizen could reliably operate heavy machinery in Oregon, attend a meeting in Florida, watch a “live” performance of opera in Europe and socialize with a friend in Japan, all without physically leaving his home anywhere in the developed world. Much of the raison d’etre of cities had vanished. Meanwhile, a mid-century surge in terrorism and other forms of urban violence encouraged people to leave the central cities for a more dispersed environment.

At about the same time, the arcology concept was finally coming into its own. An arcology can be considered a small city within a single building, incorporating residential, commercial and industrial elements all within the same large structure. The result is much more efficient to build and maintain, it significantly reduces transportation costs, and it can give its residents increased security and a more interactive social environment. The first experimental arcologies were built in the 20th century, but the concept truly took hold in the 2050s as more traditional urban designs were failing worldwide.

As some urban residents fled to small towns and rural areas, and others crowded more closely into arcologies, the “sprawl” of Industrial Age cities reversed itself. Large cities throughout the developed world were partially abandoned. Parklands or slums grew, depending on the care taken by local officials. Die-hard city-dwellers lingered for decades, but by the 2090s there was a strong social trend toward the complete abandonment and dismantling of large cities worldwide. This decivilization movement continues to grow in strength, and has won major victories in Australia and on both coasts of the United States.

Today in the Fifth Wave societies, a “city” usually means a cluster of arcologies interspersed with lesser buildings. Many cities retain aspects of the old plan: a scatter of buildings, none of them self-sufficient, connected by a web of streets. However, cities dominated by the traditional plan are likely to be social centers, maintained for their historical or cultural value. Such cities remain common in Europe and Japan, while the “new cities” are mostly springing up in the Americas and Australia.

The basic construction of homes has changed only superficially in the past century. Large housing complexes and high-rise buildings are still shaped around a frame of steel girders and supports. Small buildings, such as stand-alone homes, still use brick or wood-frame construction. Brick, sheetrock and other materials are also used, although these too are sometimes produced using cheap biotech methods.

One addition to the architect’s repertoire is various biocements. For these, engineered bacteria secrete gluelike organic compounds, fusing sand or dirt found onsite into a tough, solid mass. The resulting materials can be shaped using cheap molds and applied to a variety of structural functions. Some buildings are made entirely out of “bioadobe,” although this is common only in poor nations.

Most of the century’s innovations in house design have to do with increased computerization. Smart climate-control systems help ensure that every room is comfortable year-round, and that hot or cool air is not distributed unevenly. Houses are built with a combination of fiber-optic cabling and wireless transceivers in place, ready to interface with the owners’ computerized appliances. Every room has at least one display-ready wall. Most homes come with a central computer of Complexity 5-7 (depending on affordability) which can run a household AI. Meanwhile, every home comes with a broadband web connection.

In densely populated areas (or regions where ecofriendly politics are popular) many houses are built to have low impact on the environment. Biotechnology is applied to help recycle some household refuse on site, while water is recovered from the sewage system. This is particularly common for large residential buildings.

The phenomenon of “suburban flight” predates the failure of central cities, but the decivilization movement accelerated the trend. Today, any given city is usually surrounded by a belt of suburbs, each one a small city on its own.

The biggest change in suburban areas over the past century has been the rise and fall of the personal automobile. In 2000 A.D. many cities and suburban belts were choking on their own traffic. However, as the web matured (and as fuel prices continued to spiral upward) the density of this traffic peaked, then quickly fell. Freed of the tyranny of the automobile, the suburbs could begin to reinvent themselves.

Today, most central cities maintain extensive masstransit systems, which connect arcologies to each other and to the suburbs. Advanced computer-driven traffic planning has made it possible for mass transit to pick passengers up within easy walking distance of home or office, almost on request. Meanwhile, even in the suburbs it is cheap and convenient to order food or consumer goods for delivery, rather than having to go out and shop for them. Thus, while many suburbanites still own an automobile, they often go for days without using it. Others do without one, managing their affairs almost entirely from their own homes.

Suburban areas are most likely to be built on the old web-of-streets plan, although extensive industrial and commercial districts are no longer common. Most suburban areas have developed extensive green belts or parklands, making their citizens feel more connected to nature. Many Fifth Wave citizens – who want to stay close to city opportunities but prefer a quieter pace of life – choose to live in suburbs close by an urban light-rail system.

One common feature of suburban life is the metavillage, a planned community of up to 2,000 people. Metavillages are specifically designed to give their citizens the opportunity for face-to-face social interaction within their community. Each is centered around a lightrail station or other transportation nexus, with a commercial district and cultural center close by. They are usually gated communities, with some degree of physical security to exclude outsiders.

Some metavillages focus on specific activities, such as the performing arts, athletics, or web content design. Others are ethnic or age-specific. In any case, the idea is to make certain that citizens have something in common, and will spend part of their time on social activities in the “town center.” In an era when many people spend almost all of their time in their homes, such an inducement to social contact can be very important. The proportion of metavillages to unplanned communities varies from place to place, but the lifestyle is usually available throughout the developed world.

As the flavor of urban life has changed, so have the age-old rhythms of the countryside.

Agriculture has changed dramatically over the past century. Farming is a First Wave institution, and it has been overtaken by new technology no less than four times in the last few centuries. Today the bulk of grain production is done on factory farms, which take up hundreds of thousands of acres. Meat is produced in vat factories which maintain vast engineered cell cultures. These methods were fiercely resisted a century ago, but they provide the bulk of the world’s staple foods today.

One effect of this change has been the near-disappearance of the ranching industry. Modern factory production is much more efficient than the method of growing feed and running it through a herd of meat animals. Also, once vat-grown meat became an accepted part of society, the sheer inhumanity of Industrial Age meat production methods became an issue. During the 2070s, animal-rights advocates in the developed nations gathered considerable public support for the banning of ranching and mass slaughter. Few nations actually followed through with new laws, but the movement succeeded in the market even as it failed in the political arena. Today, the Fifth Wave societies consider ranching for meat to be about as ordinary as hunting for meat. A few farmers still engage in ranching, but meat from living cattle is a slightly sinful luxury.

Forestry has also changed considerably in the past century. Most wood products are produced from genemod trees in managed forests, producing superior quality with much greater efficiency than traditional logging can support. Luxury woods are often vat-grown rather than cut from timber; this allows very fine quality control and can also produce “special effects” of grain and hardness that are not found in nature. In most nations, the remaining old-growth forests have been taken over by national or local governments, and converted into wilderness preserves.

As a result of these changes, the character of rural life has changed considerably over the past century. Most Fifth Wave nations are actually enjoying a resurgence of wilderness areas, as land once cleared for farming is returned to an unmanaged state. Small farms and ranches continue to operate, but in most cases they provide goods solely for the luxury market. A few traditional farms are operated by small communities which desire a self-sufficient lifestyle.

Most Fifth Wave citizens who live in rural areas do so as a lifestyle choice. They usually follow the same professions as their city-dwelling compatriots, “commuting” across the web as necessary. They prefer calm independence to the buzz of the cities or the carefully planned suburban lifestyle. Indeed, most Isolate communities (p. 37) are situated in rural areas.

High technology has been used to construct many new pieces of land. Existing islands have been merged or expanded, and new ones built up from the ocean bottom. In most cases this has been done in land-starved coastal areas, such as large coastal cities or crowded nation-states. Such land reclamation is often done in conjunction with efforts to protect coastal land from rising sea levels.

Meanwhile, a number of islands have been constructed in the deep ocean. Most of these are effectively deepwater arcologies, with populations in the tens of thousands. The new islands are almost all corporate ventures, designed to provide bases for deep-sea exploration and exploitation. Some of them also function as political sanctuaries, beyond the immediate legal reach of any nation-state.

As the Earth’s population rises and many citydwellers choose to leave the cities, few regions remain completely uninhabited. Wide expanses of mountains, forests, tundra, and desert are slowly being settled.

Advanced technology often allows small communities to spring up in the most remote or hostile country. Such communities are never truly isolated, for all the distance their citizens must travel to return to “civilization.” The web can be reached from anywhere on the planet, so long as an inexpensive satellite link is available. Cheap transportation can allow even the most isolated people to travel conveniently. Biotech and nanotech can make even a small community selfsufficient in material resources. Meanwhile, many econiche parahuman types are specifically designed to live in formerly uninhabitable land.

One side effect of the increase in scattered settlement of wilderness areas is a dramatic rise in the frequency of encounters between people and wild animals. Animals often enter the isolated wilderness settlements, foraging for food or just going about their business. This has given rise to some innovative methods for protecting settlers and animals from each other: packs of uplifted dogs for pest control, cybershell patrols with nonlethal weapons, trash receptacles with NAI operating systems and electrified surfaces…

For many years, human activity in Antarctica was controlled by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959. This treaty allowed some nations to make territorial claims on the continent, but strictly limited what activities could be performed there. In effect, Antarctica was set aside for scientific research, and all military or resource-development activity was forbidden.

During the 2020s, advanced exploration techniques discovered massive deposits of coal, oil, and natural gas on the Antarctic Peninsula. By the late 2030s, oil-extraction technology had advanced to the point where exploiting the Antarctic reserves was feasible, even while world oil prices were rising rapidly. This made the Antarctic oil fields extremely tempting.

The territorial situation was confused at best. The potential oil fields were located in a region in which Argentina, Chile, and the United Kingdom had made overlapping claims. Argentina and Chile were the closest nations, and arguably needed the oil. Meanwhile, environmental politics led the British to spearhead diplomatic resistance to drilling. The situation grew increasingly tense after 2045, as Argentina and Chile tested the boundaries of the Antarctic Treaty.

The Antarctic War broke out in March of 2048. Certain that the United Kingdom would be politically paralyzed by the fallout of Scottish secession, Argentina unilaterally repudiated the Antarctic Treaty and began openly drilling for oil. When the British threatened to respond with force, Argentine naval and commando forces seized the Falkland Islands in order to deny the U.K. its best forward bases in the area. Three days later, Chile announced political and military cooperation with Argentina.

The war was relatively small, but bitterly fought. Argentine forces were smaller and less sophisticated than the British, but the difference was not as great as in the 1982 confrontation, and the Argentines were operating much closer to their home territory. The British had great difficulty retaking the Falklands. Afterward, they were unable to interdict communications between Argentina and Antarctica. The British were also restrained by the extreme Antarctic climate, and the need to respect world opinion by avoiding all-out warfare on Antarctica itself. The result was months of low-level conflict. The British tried to capture Argentine stations and petroleum facilities on Antarctica, while the Argentines mounted counter-raids against the British stronghold around the Falklands.

The war threatened to escalate in 2049, when New Zealand moved a battalion of troops to its own bases on the Ross Ice Shelf to protect them against possible attack. These forces were well away from the main battle zones, but the New Zealand government openly stated its support for the British position in the war. At this point the United States used its position as a neutral friendly to all combatants, brokering a cease-fire and opening negotiations. In 2050 a new Antarctic Treaty was signed, disallowing all national claims to territory on Antarctica and forbidding further military action. Antarctica was to be held in trust by all signatories as part of the “common heritage of mankind,” and no further exploitation of local resources was to be allowed.

The new treaty was an imperfect compromise, but it held for some time. In the end, before new tensions could arise, a flood of new wealth began to arrive from space. By the mid-2050s, petroleum prices were falling once again as fusion power fueled by lunar helium-3 began to alter the global energy economy. The Antarctic War was thus a pivotal moment in world history: the last major war fought over petroleum, and also the last diplomatic success enjoyed by the United States as the world’s only “superpower.” The end of the petroleum economy and the end of American predominance both ushered in the modern world.

As of 2155, Antarctica still has no permanent residents – at least officially. Debate over the proper use of the continent continues. Today there is little interest in Antarctica’s fossil-fuel or mineral wealth. Instead, Antarctica has been proposed as an ideal place for Isolate communities, using high technology and genetic engineering to survive even in the most inhospitable land on Earth. Persistent rumors claim that such communities (or secret research facilities sponsored by unknown parties) are already in place somewhere on the continent.

The homes and communities of Fifth Wave citizens are not all that different from those of a century before. On the other hand, the fundamental nature of those citizens has changed considerably.

Many people living in the Fifth Wave societies are not “born” at all. Bioroids, bioshells and cybershells are constructed, not conceived. AI and various forms of weblife are either designed from scratch or based on a template of earlier software.

Meanwhile, even most of those who are born in the traditional sense are still the products of technology. Only radical traditionalists or the desperately poor still reproduce in a natural manner. Technology is available to intervene at almost every stage of this process, and almost all prospective parents make use of modern techniques.

The option most often taken is genefixing, a basic modification of the child’s genetic pattern. When parents decide to have a child, they visit a genetic clinic and have a template constructed from their own genotypes, avoiding any genetic problems and abnormalities that might otherwise occur. This service is available for a nominal fee almost everywhere on Earth, not simply in the Fifth Wave nations.

Parents who have more clearly defined ideas about what they want in a child will call for a custom genetic design. Genetic clinics have a wide variety of “overlay templates,” which provide specific genetic traits while leaving most of the parental DNA alone. Such templates do not necessarily bring about simple cosmetic changes (a child can be a member of a wholly distinct species even with 98% of its DNA left unmodified). More ambitious parents may choose not to bequeath their genes to their children at all, calling instead for a wholly customized design. This degree of intervention is expensive and is strictly regulated in some countries, but it is usually possible.

Once the child’s genotype is designed, the parents may choose to incubate and give birth to it in the traditional fashion. A substantial minority of parents, however, choose ectogenesis instead. In this case, the infant is incubated in an exowomb, to be decanted rather than born. This option is sometimes regarded as more convenient for the mother, and the infant’s physical health can be monitored very closely throughout its growth. If genetic modifications are such that the infant and mother are biochemically incompatible, then ectogenesis is required. Questions remain as to whether the technique is beneficial or harmful for the psychological health of parents and child. Naturally, ectogenesis is fairly expensive and can represent a substantial investment for the parents.

The traditional “nuclear family” (father, mother, children) is still to be found in the Fifth Wave societies, but it has long since become only one option among many.

The most basic change in family life has been almost complete sexual liberation. Contraception is nearly 100% effective, easy to use, and cheap as air. Sexually transmitted diseases have long since been reduced to the nuisance level. Children are usually the result of a medical procedure, not something that can accidentally follow sexual activity. Almost any citizen of the Fifth Wave can enjoy virtual sex without need for emotional commitment. On the whole, most Fifth Wave citizens regard sex as a simple recreation, certainly one which involves deep-seated emotions, but otherwise without consequences.

This trivialization of sex has led to dramatic changes in the institution of marriage. In most Fifth Wave societies, it is quite rare (and even regarded as eccentric) for a man and woman to insist on a lifelong, sexually exclusive partnership. The most usual formal relationship is a limited-duration contract, its provisions spelled out and enforced by law, for a specific purpose. Some couples wish to secure a business partnership, others to raise children, still others simply to enjoy one another’s company for a few years. Many people don’t bother to be even that formal, and simply exchange partners as they please, sharing a home or not as they please.

While this (somewhat informal) heterosexual monogamy is still the most common partnership style, there is a wide variety of alternatives: same-sex couples, single parents, group marriages of various kinds, surrogate parenting, and so on. All of these styles can now produce children of their own. Single parents can clone themselves or have a child designed for them. Same-sex partnerships can mingle their genotypes in their children, as can group partnerships. Even posthumous reproduction can take place, with the child’s design based on the genotype of a dead parent. Any of these children can be incubated by a surrogate mother or an exowomb, if necessary.

The legal status of these variant family styles varies from place to place. Some jurisdictions, notably in Australia and New Zealand, legally recognize the full range. Others are more restrictive, especially in the United States, Latin America, and some European nations.

The Fifth Wave has attained many of the ultimate goals of medical science. Chief among these is the partial conquest of aging (see below), but many other achievements seem just as miraculous. Infectious diseases are no longer a threat to anyone. Genetic disorders can be corrected before or after conception. Almost any form of cancer can be treated through genetic therapy or noninvasive surgery. Even mortal injuries can be healed as long as the patient is reached quickly enough. Body parts which are damaged can be replaced with cloned or artificial organs. Even many brain and nervous-system injuries can be mitigated.

The foremost drawback of all this advanced medicine is its cost. The fight against medical costs has been ongoing for over a century, and has been a losing battle for patients. Access to the full range of Fifth Wave medical techniques can be extremely expensive, and is usually possible only for the wealthiest members of society. Most citizens use a combination of medical savings accounts, national and private medical insurance, and out-of-pocket spending to cover their costs. In some nations, especially those with “gray” demographics, the medical industry is the largest single sector of the economy.

For over a century, geriatric medicine has been striving for the break-even point. This concept implies that at some point, medical science will begin to advance so quickly that human average lifespan can be extended by more than one year per year of time. In theory, such an event would mean that anyone then alive could expect to live indefinitely (barring accident or suicide). At present the break-even point appears to have been reached, although many theorists expect that further extensions to lifespan will eventually begin to slow once again.

Meanwhile, even after geriatric medicine fails, anyone can attempt to cheat death using cryonics or uploading. Immortality seems possible, so long as one is willing to give up any attachment to one’s “birth body.”

In 2155, any Fifth Wave citizen of moderate means can afford medical care sufficient to extend his expected lifespan considerably. An unmodified human being with access to such care has an average life expectancy of about 140 years. More expensive care can extend this further, as can genetic modifications for longevity or disease resistance.

The oldest humans alive in 2155 are about 140 years old, having survived through a combination of wealth, careful planning, and a great deal of luck. In most Fifth Wave nations the average age of the population is over 60, and centenarians make up a substantial minority.

The aging of the population has a profound effect, as the oldest individuals have influence out of all proportion to their numbers. Most Fifth Wave nations are ruled by very conservative factions, dominated by the elderly. Naturally, this often leads to discontent. Young people who are working in existing business or political institutions face a decades-long wait before they can reach a senior position. If they wish to carve out a career on their own, they often find elderly conservatism to be an obstacle. Some respond to this predicament by refusing to accept any responsibility, maintaining adolescent patterns of behavior well into their 50s. Others work all the harder, finding ways to succeed in art, business, or science despite the resistance of their elders. Still others cut themselves off from Fifth Wave society, moving to developing nations with more “youthful” demographics, or emigrating to the space colonies.

Generational conflict has been a constant factor for decades, especially since the great Transhumanist-Preservationist schism of the 2060s. Unlike similar situations in the past, the elders of the time have not simply “made way” by retiring or dying. Many people who were in positions of power in 2065 are still there today. This has tended to freeze the conflict in place, leading to generational tensions unprecedented in history.

Millennia ago, human technology was limited to crude tools, and people believed in spirits which lived all around them. On the Fifth Wave, humanity has largely taken control of nature using its technology – and many people, in practice, believe in spirits once again.

CYBERSHELLS AND SOCIETY In the Fifth Wave nations, cybershells are commonplace, and serve a bewildering variety of functions. Tiny robots perform cleaning chores, handle fine tools, or act as mobile “eyes” or “hands” for a central computer. Mediumsized cybershells serve as companions and household servants. Large robots guard facilities and serve in military forces. Massive machines sit, fixed in place, and assemble heavy machinery. Cybershells range from the simplest of automatic devices to the most sophisticated mobile robots. Some “robots” are even human, in the sense that they are animated by uploaded human personalities or ghosts.

The degree to which cybershells pervade the environment varies from place to place, and is somewhat dependent on local demographics. Countries which have “graying” populations tend toward more extensive use of cybershells. In general, even a relatively poor Fifth Wave household will own one or two robots. Anyone going about his normal business outside the home will encounter several cybershells every day. In cities, and especially in arcologies, these encounters may be almost constant.

The place of cybershells in society is somewhat ambivalent. There is no universally accepted rule for deciding whether a robot or computer is sentient, or whether it should be accorded civil rights. Local law varies a great deal, so that a SAI which is treated as fully “human” in one jurisdiction may be property in another. Free-roaming, intelligent cybershells must often take care not to be trapped by unfavorable local laws.

Aside from cybershells, there are also devices and tools which simply have specialized internal computers. On the Fifth Wave, such tools are everywhere. Most articles of clothing contain small computers which can be used as location devices, vital-signs monitors, or personal assistants. Household appliances are computer-controlled and have voice interfaces. Vehicles can drive themselves according to voice instructions, and have enough intelligence to avoid accidents and maneuver in tight places. Desks and worktables have active-display surfaces which can be used as output devices by any computer. Even paper is intelligent – no longer made of simple wood pulp, Fifth Wave paper acts as an input/output device and can interface with nearby computers.

All of the computers in a typical home or office are networked, and can share information and user requests. Any cybershells in the home or office are also part of this personal network. Control of such a network is usually handled by the most powerful computer in it, ranging from a minicomputer up through a mainframe, running a NAI or LAI operating system. This main computer also acts as the main gateway from the personal network out to the global web.

The result of this “ubiquitous computing” is an environment in which computers are constantly available, but in which they are almost never visible. To interact with the computers around them, Fifth Wave citizens simply speak, gesture, write on paper, or use VR interfaces anywhere in the home or office. The network responds by voice, in a display-enabled surface within convenient view of the user, or through VR feedback. Gone are the bulky processing units and “monitors” of the year 2000. Computers today are as unobtrusive and as effortless to use as the air.

None of this technology is new. Crude ubiquitouscomputing networks existed almost a century ago, and the technique has long since matured. Even in poor areas, many citizens make use of it to some extent. In the Fifth Wave nations, ubiquitous computing has long since become a fixed feature of popular culture. Indeed, many people seem to react to their computers as if they were surrounded by a horde of beneficial “spirits of place.”

Some of the most popular data services on Earth are its virtuality nodes. These offer extensive VR environments for commercial and recreational use. To be sure, similar services exist in the colonies, but conditions on Earth make them particularly common there. There are thousands of virtuality nodes on Earth, providing much of the planet’s social and entertainment needs.

A typical virtuality node maintains one or more mainframe servers, each running up to thousands of VR manager programs. Each manager program maintains a distinct VR environment. Manager programs are swapped in and out as demand requires, but each mainframe can handle an average of 10,000 customers at once.

Anyone can get an account on a given virtuality node for a nominal monthly fee. Beyond that, most nodes use a fee-for-service system rather than subscriptions – an account holder can “rent virtual space” and pays for it in proportion to the load on the node’s systems. Simple environments without node-managed “characters” can be extremely cheap.

In the early days of the web (while it was still called the “Internet”) data security was a serious problem. The Internet had been designed to permit the free exchange of information – it was not designed to provide security. When the Internet first became a multibillion-dollar business, it soon became painfully obvious that its technological basis was vulnerable to attack. Even hobbyists with no real understanding of computer technology could “hack” commercial or government systems, defacing the earliest virtual spaces and disrupting service. There were constant rumors of “uberhackers” working for national intelligence services or organized crime, able to access the most closely held secrets almost at will.

As it turned out, the early web was vulnerable because it was technologically immature. Over the past century a ruthlessly Darwinian arms race has taken place, pitting attackers against the designers and users of security technology. As of 2155, security appears to have won the contest, ensuring that data piracy is no longer a game for unsophisticated hobbyists. Even so, a determined attacker with plenty of resources can gain access to protected systems, since design flaws and the effects of “weblife” mean that computer systems are still vulnerable to precision attack. The problem for the wouldbe intruder lies in determining what a target’s vulnerabilities are in the first place.

Despite improvements in security technology, the sheer density of the Earth web means that computer intrusions are more common there than anywhere else. A computer on Earth may be technically identical to one on Mars or Ceres – but on Earth there are 11 billion potential attackers within range.

In 2155, cryptologic technology has advanced considerably. Even the most unimportant data is encrypted at all times, whether in storage on a disk or in transit “on the wire.” Today’s encryption methods are fast and efficient, invisible to the user, and effectively unbreakable. However, they are not invulnerable to an indirect attack. All serious encryption schemes are designed under the assumption that the attacker knows the algorithm, the procedure under which readable data is turned into encrypted gibberish. Only the encryption keys are held in secret. Without the keys, all the attacker’s knowledge about the algorithm is useless. With them, the attacker can easily read the encrypted data.

Encryption keys are best selected at random, generating numbers which can’t be guessed or predicted by any conceivable attacker. In 2100, even a very tiny piece of computer equipment will have a built-in source of random data, a device which takes advantage of the unpredictable nature of quantum physics. Such devices are considered to be part of the standard computer hardware configurations described.

In the early days of the web, it was possible to discover an adversary’s keys by careful mathematical analysis of the encrypted data, or by brute-force guessing. Today, an attacker with plenty of computing resources can break most commercial-grade encryption, although the process takes as much as a year per message. Unless an attacker knows that a particular piece of data is of interest, it is almost never worth the effort required to break the encryption. Of course, if a message is known to be sufficiently important, encryption will not protect it forever – all it can do is delay exposure.

Many of the security methods that have been placed on the global web have their detractors – not because they cut down on abuse of the web, but because they prevent certain kinds of legitimate use. For example, when every piece of data on the web can be tied to its originator, then no use of the web is private. Governments can use universal authentication to track “web spies,” but they can also track those who use the web to publish political dissent or pursue other disapproved activities.

One solution to this problem is the Free Net. This is a worldwide network of computers standing outside the dominant public web. Free Net computers don’t apply digital signatures to the data they transmit, and also don’t expect data they receive to be signed. Users of the Free Net are somewhat more vulnerable to attack then those who remain on the public web, but in exchange they enjoy almost complete privacy and anonymity. In effect, the Free Net is a throwback to the early days of the Internet, retaining much of its old “wild frontier” flavor.

The Free Net is only a small fragment of the overall web, and is maintained primarily by hobbyists and political activists. In some parts of the world the Free Net is illegal. Elsewhere, it is often shunned by corporations and governments who restrict their activities to the “authenticated web.” Even in relatively open societies, most people regard it as a dangerous and unreliable region of the web.

Data havens sometimes serve as an interface between the Free Net and the rest of the web. Some data havens operate services which “adopt” data from the Free Net, claiming responsibility for it before relaying it onto the authenticated web. Naturally, some authorities have responded by blocking any information coming from a data haven offering such a service. The struggle for freedom of information continues, even in the age of the Fifth Wave.

A living organism is essentially a pattern of information embedded in matter, capable of maintaining its integrity, affecting its environment, and reproducing more of its kind. Biological organisms are defined by the information encoded in their DNA. Animals sapient enough to have culture are further defined by the memes encoded in their minds.

Since the construction of the web, another environment friendly to life has appeared. Although weblife follows some of the same laws as biological life, it can also be quite alien.

A web virus is a scrap of computer code, no more than a few thousand instructions long, which can attach itself to a computer system and use the system’s resources to make copies of itself. The term virus is very apt. Like a biological virus, a web virus is very simple, evolves very rapidly, and can cause problems by hijacking computer resources.

Web viruses were once written only by human beings, either as exercises in intellectual curiosity or as sabotage devices. Virus writers competed to produce the most clever, economical, and adaptable examples of virus code. Even before 2000, this competition produced viruses which incorporated random change into their reproductive mechanisms. When released “into the wild,” such viruses could “evolve” and thrive without further human intervention.

At first, web viruses were little more than a nuisance. Since their code patterns were constant, a simple program could recognize and destroy them before infection could take place. As viruses grew more complex and adaptable, this process became harder. Finally, as data encryption became routine on the web, it became impossible to recognize virus code until it had already managed to infect a computer. Slowly, web viruses escaped from human control.

Today, the web is swimming in viruses. Viruses have long since infected the world’s software databases. Since new programs are almost always built on the basis of older code, this means that almost every piece of legitimate software includes some virus code. A conservative estimate claims that there are several trillion viruses currently running on computers worldwide.

The vast majority of viruses are benign. They take up insignificant amounts of computer memory and processing power, reproducing only slowly, attaching occasional copies of themselves to packets of outgoing data. Many viruses have taken on a beneficial role, integrating themselves into the “official” versions of software in such a way as to improve its efficiency or capabilities. Benign viruses use a survival strategy which emphasizes not being detected.

A few viruses still use a different strategy. These viruses reproduce like wildfire inside an infected system, no matter how the system’s legitimate purpose might be affected. The infected system’s software may fail, its databases can be corrupted, even its operating system may crash. All this will certainly trigger intervention by human beings or infomorphs, but the virus will probably scatter many copies of itself before the “death” of its “host.”

A free meme is a form of unusually complex digital virus. Like any other virus, it spreads through the web by attaching itself to legitimate data or software. Unlike most viruses, its primary function is to express an idea.

Free memes don’t cause overt damage to the systems on which they reside. Instead, they corrupt infected data and software. A free meme is most likely to attack the content of documents or video records, editing them slightly. A few sophisticated free memes attack the logic structures of infomorphs, attempting to “convince” the AIs of the ideas they embody.

The first free memes were deliberately constructed by human beings, designed as subversive advertising tools. In their progress around the web, they would alter stored information in order to make one company’s products seem more attractive than those of its competitors. Later examples were designed to manipulate more complex ideas, subtly promoting political issues or ideological assertions. This behavior sometimes proved a useful survival strategy for the free meme itself. Humans or AI who were exposed to the meme might be motivated to share it with others, transmitting it across the web to infect new computer systems.

As with other digital viruses, free memes have escaped from human control and begun to evolve independently in the web. Today, estimates claim that there may be several million free memes in existence. Most of these are trivial, such as the AgriCola meme outbreak of 2104 (which inserted images of bottles of a popular soft drink into millions of InVid copies, usually in wildly inappropriate places).

The next step up from a free meme is a gypsy spirit, a sapient AI which has no legitimate hardware “home” and must find its own refuge on the web. Gypsy spirits may be emergent intelligences, or they may be shadows or ghosts which have fled into the web for some reason. They are not necessarily driven to reproduce themselves, but they do have a conscious urge to survive by any means necessary.

Many gypsy spirits have developed a technique to take over a target computer and mimic the behavior of any AI system that was running there at the time. For example, a gypsy spirit may invade a household computer, effectively destroying the LAI operating system which formerly ran it. In the process, it will gain access to the hardware-stored memories of the victim AI, quickly absorbing its daily routine, the commands most often used by its human masters, and so on. If the takeover occurs at a time when no human is working with the LAI, it may go completely unnoticed – but instead of an honest, well-behaved household AI, the humans are now sharing their lives with a rogue emergent intelligence…

In GURPS terms, viruses are very simple pieces of software. Most of them have an effective Complexity of 0 and don’t count against the number of programs which a computer may run. Benign viruses have no game effect – they are considered part of the “natural” environment in which computers and infomorphs operate. Other viruses can damage their hosts.

An infomorph which is constantly in contact with the global web will likely be exposed to a harmful virus about once a month. Systems which “surf” less frequently will be exposed less often. In fact, most high-security systems are kept entirely isolated from the global web in order to prevent exposure to viruses. When the GM judges that exposure may have taken place, he can require a roll against the infomorph’s Computer Operation skill to detect and prevent the infection. On a failure, the infomorph has contracted a harmful virus.

Handle a virus infection as if it were a disease affecting a biological organism (p. B00), but substitute the infomorph’s Computer Operation for HT when rolling for recovery. Each failed Computer Operation roll reduces the infomorph’s IQ (and therefore its Computer Operation skill). As IQ falls, the infomorph will also lose memories. The GM may impose the Amnesia disadvantage on an infomorph which has lost at least 3 points of IQ; this disadvantage remains even if the IQ is regained later.

The GM may allow anyone working with a virus-infected system to notice the infection as it affects the system’s behavior. A roll against Artificial Intelligence skill may pick out the problem immediately. Each time an infomorph loses a point of IQ, anyone familiar with its normal behavior can try to detect the discrepancies with a simple IQ roll. Once a harmful virus is detected, it is usually a simple matter to repair the problem. If all else fails, the infomorph can be restored from backup (although it is important to ensure that the backup copy was made before the viral infection took place).

No one, not even the most sophisticated and experienced AI, understands the web. The complexity of the global network and the sheer mass of available software are well beyond the grasp of any one mind. This is especially true since much of the web is self-organizing, evolving without the direct control or oversight of human beings.

As a result, humans and AI are often in the position of studying the web as if it were a natural “wild” environment. In particular, weblife is sometimes tracked and captured for study. Analysis of weblife specimens often reveals useful programming or networking tricks. It may also reveal system vulnerabilities that the legitimate security community had overlooked. The study of weblife is called arachnoxenology, and is a major growth area in computer science.

Arachnoxenologists often capture weblife by offering honeypot systems. A honeypot is a computer capable of running a fairly complex AI – but with no AI installed, some security features disabled, and attractive data stored locally. When monitoring reveals that weblife has taken up residence, the honeypot is disconnected from the web and used to analyze the invading software.

As an extension of this principle, arachnoxenologists sometimes set up large networks of honeypot systems, giving weblife a “free range” in which it can operate without fear of attack. Recently there has been some public discussion about setting a whole segment of the web aside for weblife, but little has come of this as yet. At present, very few people are willing to speak in terms of rights for wild weblife.

Some things have changed very little on the Fifth Wave. When a new citizen is born (or decanted, or initiated) he must be taught the skills he needs to function in society. Naturally, the methods for such education and socialization are quite different from those of earlier centuries.

In a sense, psychotherapy can be considered a form of education; the patient is trained to avoid unproductive habits of thought and substitute healthy ones. The widespread acceptance of memetics (at least on the pop-science level) has made psychotherapy a major industry in the Fifth Wave societies. Many people visit memetic counselors to identify the component memes driving their personalities. Once these memes have been recognized, the counselor may help train his client to accept and use different memes. Simple exposure to new ideas may be bolstered by the use of psychoactive drugs, or (in rare cases) neurosurgery.

Some memetic counselors specialize in the serious business of treating real mental illness. Others are almost fashion designers of the mind, helping people to choose aesthetic preferences, philosophies, or even religious beliefs that fit the desired worldview. Perhaps 60% of all citizens of Earth’s Fifth Wave societies have visited a memetic counselor at least once. About 10% are frequent customers, the exact number varying from nation to nation.

In terms of game mechanics, memetic therapy and its related techniques allow characters to alter their load of mental disadvantages. The GM must rule on any proposed change. Radical changes are beyond the scope even of modern psychotherapy; for example, it would be difficult for anyone to exchange Bloodlust for Pacifism (Total nonviolence). Also, a person who has been genefixed to prevent mental instability cannot usually be counseled into developing any of the disadvantages falling under that Taboo Trait. Some memetic counselors also teach skills such as Philosophy or Theology, providing familiarity with certain memetic complexes. If they can’t teach such a skill, they can usually refer a client to someone else who can.

Artificial intelligence and memetics are the core technologies of today’s education systems. Between them, they have transformed the business of conserving and presenting human knowledge. The most obvious example of this is in the earliest education of small children. Memetics has done much to explain how children learn – while advanced AI has provided society with an army of patient, effective teachers. The result is a form of childhood education more profoundly effective than any formerly known.

In most Fifth Wave homes, every child receives a kindercomp no later than his first birthday. The cybershell form of the kindercomp varies greatly, from a simple flat “slate” weighing a pound or so, up to a cybershell pet weighing 20 lbs. or more. Built into the kindercomp is a computer of Complexity 5-7, running an AI operating system. The lower-end kindercomps will run a NAI-5 or NAI-6 system, which will usually be teleoperated by the household LAI when interacting closely with the child. More advanced models run a LAI-6 or LAI-7 system, capable of independently learning the child’s behavior patterns and acting in response.

The kindercomp is a companion, babysitter, and constant teacher. As soon as it is “attached” to a child, it begins to develop teaching methods suited for him alone. For an infant or toddler, it will offer games and stories designed to develop coordination and cognitive skills. Older children will learn literacy and numeracy from their kindercomps, then the basics of history, literature, and the sciences. Meanwhile, the kindercomp provides companionship when needed, helps the parents to teach good social behavior, and monitors the child’s physical well-being.

From time to time, the kindercomp’s AI will be transferred into new cybershells, each one suitable for an older child. Finally, the AI is likely to be the operating system for the adolescent’s first wearable assistant or virtual interface implant. By this time, AI and child have grown up together and are effective partners in life. The relationship between an adult and his childhood AI companion is often more intimate than any he forms with other human beings. Such relationships are especially common among the latest generation, the first for whom kindercomps were cheap and effective enough to be found in almost every home in the Fifth Wave nations.

The widespread use of kindercomps (along with other technologies designed to help nurture and teach children) has effectively put an end to state-sponsored education in the Fifth Wave societies. Children are no longer warehoused during the day in state-run schools. Instead, they remain in their own homes, receiving personal attention from their parents and the household appliances. The state’s remaining role is to enforce minimal standards in childhood education. How this is done varies from country to country; most nations require annual or semi-annual tests of scholastic accomplishment for all children, with state assistance offered to children who seem to be falling behind.

Naturally, the kindercomp is no substitute for parental attention or social interaction with a child’s peers. Most parents try to interact with their children as much as possible, and make certain they have plenty of opportunity for structured play with others. A few parents rely too much on their children’s kindercomps, leading to later psychological and social problems.

In the 20th century, education was designed to prepare people for life in a Second Wave civilization. Children learned the basic skills needed to function on a factory floor: literacy, arithmetic, punctuality, discipline, and teamwork. They also learned the dominant ideology of their nation, to which they would be expected to conform. Schools were themselves organized like assembly-line factories, accepting small children as raw material and delivering finished citizen-laborers. Learning was a job, and for many children it was a tedious and difficult job.

Today, education is far more critical than it was in 2000. Children must learn much more complex technical skills. Meanwhile, instead of absorbing a single ideology, they must learn to recognize and process the rich stew of memes they will be exposed to as adults. The load on the educational system would be intolerable if Industrial Era methods were still in use. Instead, modern education relies on making the learning process as efficient and unconscious as possible. Children no longer feel obligated to learn. Instead, they learn as naturally as they breathe or play, their natural curiosity engaged by computerized toys and entertainment media.

Adults also have access to unconscious training, usually delivered through similar entertainment media. For example, someone wishing to study history can order a variety of relevant InVids or slinkies, allowing him to experience period dramas rich in authentic detail.

The concept of unconscious education is regarded with suspicion by those who fear that it will expose them (or their children) to undesirable memes. This phenomenon dates back to the 20th century, when some parents “home-schooled” their children or sent them to specialized private schools in order to protect them from unwanted memes. There is some reason for concern – for example, there have been scandals involving kindercomp manufacturers who programmed their products with specific ideological biases. Parents who worry about this usually monitor their children’s learning activities closely, or buy material for them from education vendors specializing in certain memetic constructs.

At some point, the child has mastered all the basic skills and is ready to operate in the wider world. Sometime between the ages of 15 and 19, he will begin his higher education. Aside from radical Isolates and other fringers, the vast majority of people in the Fifth Wave societies participate in university-level education for at least a few years.

In 2100, colleges and universities exist more in virtual than in real space. Many courses with a heavy emphasis on lecture and research can be taken entirely via telepresence. Even laboratory research can be done through telepresence when necessary. Meanwhile, most universities have made “co-op” arrangements with corporate or government institutions to help students gain practical experience. All of this means that even the largest universities have become “remote learning centers,” with the bulk of their student populations attending over the web.

In general, the usual progression of a century ago (live at home through secondary education, move onto a university campus, then make an independent home after graduation) no longer holds. Most students in Fifth Wave societies live in their parents’ home until completing their formal education, usually between the ages of 22 and 26. Meanwhile, most universities also have a substantial continuing education program, tailored to the needs of adults who wish to acquire or reinforce new skills.

The trend toward learning with telepresence has given students a great deal of control over their educations. Higher education is much more diverse than it was a century ago. Students can easily study abroad, attend schools sponsored by specific corporations or social institutions, or experiment with different instructional styles. Many students take a mix-and-match approach, signing up for individual courses from different educational institutions. To accommodate this market, universities have broken down their old curricula into smaller modules. A student might take a basic liberal arts module from one school, study master’s-level mathematics at another, and then sign on with a corporate academy to earn certification as an electronic engineer.

Some universities resist telepresence. In these cases, students are encouraged or even required to live on campus. In some cases this is to encourage the development of social skills; these schools behave much like youth hostels with a strong educational component. Other universities have a distinctive religious or ideological background, and wish to keep their students partially isolated from mainstream society to help encourage acquisition of the proper memes. Finally, some universities still teach skills that require extensive physical training (athletics, dance, the martial arts). While even these skills can be taught using some VR methods, there is no substitute for physical practice under the eye of a skilled instructor.

Any PC who wishes to pick up new skills will have an easy time of it in Fifth Wave society. When using the Improvement Through Study rules (sidebar, p. B82), any student will automatically be able to find a teacher or attend school for any subject dominated by “book learning” (GM’s decision).

An instructional VR module, plus the time of a LAI proctor, usually costs about $5 per hour of training time ($1,000 per character point). Courses from prestigious sources, or in subjects that might lead to lucrative employment, may cost more. Telepresence learning can be used on the student’s schedule; even lectures are usually recorded and can be viewed later.

If a student requires the personal attention of an instructor, costs will naturally go up. In the Fifth Wave societies, teachers usually earn at least $100 per hour spent in actual instruction. Fee structures for instructor-led courses will divide this sum among all the students being supervised at one time.

If the GM feels that it’s appropriate for a given skill, a student may invest in unconscious-education material. Such material comes in the form of InVids, slinkies, or time in a virtuality node, and costs the same as any other material of the same kind (the educational value comes from the careful choice of what item to view or participate in). One-quarter of the time spent on Entertainment on the character’s Time Use Sheet may be considered hours of training for the skill being “studied.”

The centuries-old pattern still holds true. Once a person has finished his formal education, he is considered fully adult and must find a way to make a living. The most common career paths have changed a great deal, however.

In the Fifth Wave nations, automation has transformed many jobs which were once taken by human labor. Almost all jobs involving rote tasks or long periods of monitoring are heavily automated: cleaning and janitorial services, security watch, dirt farming, assembly-line manufacturing, simple food service, low-level bureaucracy, and so on. Where such jobs once required a hundred workers, today’s environment requires only one or two, and their task is not to do the work itself but to supervise NAI cybershells.

Even some service jobs have been taken over by cybershells. If a service task requires little specialized training (sales counter in a small shop, for example) then a cybershell is often cheaper and more reliable, and can be programmed to be more unfailingly polite. Today, service workers usually occupy jobs which require specialized knowledge or a particularly human touch. For example, the sales clerk in a chain software store will usually be a cybershell, but the clerk in a rare-and-used bookstore will almost always be human. Wait staff in a fast-food joint are usually robots, but wait staff in a formal restaurant will be human, and so on.

A few unskilled jobs remain the province of human labor, although automation has had an effect here as well. For example, some of the building trades employ some unskilled labor in the assembly of prefabricated buildings. A computer network can keep track of the location and status of all components, giving instructions through VR interface to the laborers doing the assembly. Such an arrangement is sometimes more cost-efficient than one employing only cybershells.

The jobs least likely to be automated in the Fifth Wave societies are those involving a great deal of creativity or initiative. Sophisticated SAI infomorphs can certainly match or exceed human capabilities in these areas, but such entities are difficult to build and expensive to maintain. Successful artists, attorneys, writers, engineers, and scientists are all likely to be human beings. Naturally, all such professions make heavy use of computer technology for basic research and information processing.

One exception to this rule is in the military, where most of the Fifth Wave nations make extensive use of combat bioroids and cybershells to replace front-line soldiers. A modern army may have astonishingly few human soldiers by 20th century standards. Most “enlisted” roles will be taken by bioroid, bioshell or cybershell soldiers, while humans serve as officers. Indeed, through most of the 21st century the military has often been the primary driver of bioroid and cybershell development.

Most decision-making jobs are still in human hands as well: corporate or government managers, politicians, judges, arbitrators, and military officers. In general, any position that would have been considered “middle management” or above in 2000 is likely to still be held by a human being in 2155. Naturally, all such officials make heavy use of information technology to assist the decisionmaking process.

Even though many occupations still require human labor, few people follow a single career throughout their lives. The most common pattern is to work in a series of closely related occupations, changing employers every few years. Most people work until they have built up sufficient investments to maintain their chosen lifestyle indefinitely, and then enter the leisure class. This normally occurs somewhere between the ages of 60 and 90, depending on one’s initial resources, skills, and lifestyle needs. The standard pattern is often altered by those who work more than one job at once, or who take a few years off to pursue further education or leisure opportunities.

One side effect of the usual career pattern is that almost all Fifth Wave employment is freelance. Workers consider themselves to be self-employed, selling their skills and time to others. Meanwhile, even the largest corporate or government employers are unlikely to offer insurance or investment programs for their “contractors.” Instead, unions and professional organizations perform this service for their members.

The 21st century has seen the growth of a large leisure class in the developed nations. Many people (in some countries or regions, most people) simply do not work for a living. Perhaps they have already earned (or inherited) sufficient investments to maintain their chosen lifestyle. Or perhaps they lack the aptitudes, skill, or selfdiscipline to hold a job which could not be performed by a robot.

Most nations have some form of “welfare” program to supplement private employment. The emphasis of such programs is no longer on punishing the unemployed or forcing them to take unattractive work. Since so many jobs have fallen to automation, the inability to maintain employment is no longer regarded as a personal failing. Naturally, those who are employed still resent being forced to support those who are not, but most nations have been able to maintain an adequate welfare system without making the tax burden too heavy. It helps that standards of living in the Fifth Wave nations have risen so far. Even a relatively small welfare payment can help the chronically unemployed to live in some degree of comfort.

Despite a century of rising standards of living and increasing democracy, social divisions persist.

At the bottom of the social pyramid, as always, there are those beings who have no civil rights (and may not be defined as “people” at all). In various parts of the world, bioroids, certain infomorphs, uplifted animals, and other entities may fall into this category. Their status varies widely from place to place, depending on local law and custom.

Above the nonpersons, there are people who are citizens but who stand entirely outside of mainstream society. In English-speaking nations, these people are usually called fringers. There are similar slang terms for them everywhere in the world.

Fringers do their best to survive without being dependent on government or business institutions. Some of them live on the wrong side of the law, while others simply avoid a settled existence for one personal reason or another. They may receive welfare payments, earn credit by performing short-term unskilled jobs, or live through petty crime. Much of their economic life is by way of barter or cash transactions. Some “squat” on unused land or in abandoned buildings, especially in former urban areas that have been blighted by decivilization. Most fringers are not true lawbreakers – they simply avoid the formal structure of civil society. A few of them are serious criminals, violent gangsters, or members of organized crime rings.

This “underworld” is not large in any Fifth Wave society. Social engineering and aggressive law enforcement have made it difficult for masses of people to carry on such a lifestyle. Still, in the nooks and crannies of every Fifth Wave nation, there remain a few people who live as far outside the law as they can.

One segment of the fringer population that is not criminal in nature is represented by the Isolate movement. Isolates deliberately cut themselves off from mainstream society, but they remain within the law. A typical Isolate community is situated on privately owned land in a rural or wilderness area, with no roads allowing outsiders easy access. It has its own power plant, its own source of fresh water, and its own methods for growing food and producing other needed commodities. Contact with the outside world may be sporadic, and is usually managed through the web alone. Once every few weeks or months, the community may send an expedition out to purchase items that it cannot produce locally.

Isolate communities are sometimes quite wealthy, earning credit by producing services which can be delivered via telepresence. Even so, their deliberate policy of physical and social isolation makes them part of the fringer social class.

The fringer class makes up about 5% of the population of each Fifth Wave nation. Most of these are Isolates, especially in nations with plenty of open land for settlement. Australia, the United States, and the Canadian successor-states all have particularly large Isolate populations.

A large portion of the population is law-abiding and fully involved with mainstream society, but lacks any long-term employment. This underemployed class is composed of people who can hold no job worth having: those without advanced education, without any significant creative talent, or simply without the initiative needed to hold a profession. The underemployed are the casualties of advancing automation, people suited only for work that machines can do more cheaply and efficiently. Many of the underemployed people are young and without inherited wealth, discouraged by the years of strenuous effort that would be required to reach the leisure class.

The underemployed class makes up about 35% of the population of each Fifth Wave nation. The proportion is higher in nations where standards of living are very high and welfare provisions are generous. The highest percentages are found in some parts of Western Europe.

The professional class consists of those who work on close to a full-time basis. Professionals tend to be young, well-educated, and ambitious, with their eyes firmly fixed on the prize of leisure-class status.

In most Fifth Wave societies, the professional class is the source of most serious social discontent. Many professionals live very stressful lives, enduring fierce competition. They are constantly afraid of falling back to the underemployed class as the result of some unforeseen technological innovation or economic upheaval. They resent the underemployed as “parasites,” and consider the leisure class to be arrogant and high-handed. These pressures sometimes drive professionals to cut social corners, engaging in risky or even criminal ventures in order to reach their goals more quickly. Others engage in political activism, demanding changes to a social system which they see as fundamentally unjust.

The professional class makes up about 30% of the population in the Fifth Wave states. The proportion is highest in the United States, where a large immigrant population has kept the workforce “young” and upwardly mobile.

At the top of the social hierarchy is the leisure class. Leisured individuals have either earned or inherited considerable wealth. As a result, they do not need to work or depend on welfare payments for a living. The leisure class (sometimes called the “investor class”) is dominated by elderly individuals who have risen to their current status in the course of a professional career.

With its wealth and surfeit of free time, the leisure class is firmly in charge of most Fifth Wave nations. Almost all business owners, senior executives, opinionshapers, and elected officials come from the leisure class. These leaders impose a profoundly conservative structure on society, working to maintain their own class privileges.

The leisure class makes up about 30% of the population of each Fifth Wave nation. Nations which have advanced technology and have deliberately structured their economic systems to distribute wealth have larger numbers of leisured citizens. The proportion is highest in Japan.

Despite all the changes of the past century, the nation-state still remains the basic building block of world politics. Within that framework, however, a variety of new political systems and ideologies have appeared.

The international situation in 2100 is much as it was in 1900. The world is divided among several Great Powers: China, the European Union, the United States, India, the Transpacific Socialist Alliance, and the Pacific Rim Alliance. No Great Power can dominate any of the others, and relationships between them can change dramatically from year to year. There is also a swarm of lesser power blocs and independent nations, which occasionally rise to prominence in world affairs.

Notably absent from this scheme is any worldwide institution claiming the role of even a weak planetary government. The United Nations Organization (UNO) still exists, but most of its agencies have been effectively impotent since the mid-2040s. There have been several attempts to revive the institution as a central clearinghouse for international diplomacy, but these have invariably failed due to Great Power intransigence. International relations are instead carried on through a dense web of treaties, protocols, and informal agreements.

A few global institutions remain relatively active, either because they are too useful to discard or because they are so scrupulously neutral that none of the Great Powers have chosen to interfere. The World Bank remains in existence despite several periods of unpopularity, working to aid economic development in the poor nations. The World Court has become more powerful over the past century, acting as a respected and fair arbiter between nations. Some humanitarian agencies of the UN have also remained active, notably UNESCO and the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, the need to cooperate against criminal activity has strengthened international police institutions such as Interpol and the Genetic Regulatory Agency.

Meanwhile, even if global cooperation between nations remains elusive, there have been several successful attempts at unifying nations on a regional basis. Significantly, three out of the six Great Powers in 2155 are not nation-states but regional or ideological blocs in which no one nation dominates. In particular, the European Union has succeeded in subordinating national sovereignty to the ideal of unified European civilization. Some political observers note that such regional blocs are likely to provide a model for the further decline of the nation-state.

National power is still exercised through national intelligence agencies. The following are some of the most important such agencies on Earth. Others are mentioned in Transhuman Space.

Australian Secret Intelligence Service (Australia): The ASIS is one of the most effective espionage centers on Earth, and is particularly active in south and southeast Asia.

Bundesnachrichtendienst (Germany): The BND (or Federal Intelligence Service) is Germany’s main intelligence bureau. German intelligence is most active in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where it is deeply involved in further expansion of the European Union.

Central Intelligence Agency (United States): Still the foremost foreign-intelligence agency of the United States, although off-planet operations are in the hands of the SIA.

Direction Centrale des Renseignements Généraux (France): Over time, the General Information Service has become the primary intelligence arm of the French government. It is primarily concerned with defense against memetic attack, but since the 2060s it has also developed a significant espionage role.

General Intelligence Directorate (Saudi Arabia): The GID acts as the main intelligence organization for Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Caliphate as a whole. As part of the Caliphate’s memetic-defense strategy, the GID has incorporated the religious Mutawi’yyun or “Committees for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.”

Intelligence Bureau (India): India’s main domestic intelligence agency, primarily concerned with memetic defense and the suppression of political radicals. Has a long reputation for monitoring the private communications of Indian citizens. Claims to be the modern world’s oldest intelligence agency.

Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti (Kazakstan): Kazakstan still maintains a KGB, which shares many features of the old Soviet agency (although it performs both domestic and foreign intelligence functions). This incarnation of the KGB is particularly well-funded and effective, with activities all over Europe and Asia.

Ministry of Public Security (China): China’s primary internal security agency, carrying most of the country’s police authority and a large counterintelligence mission.

National Intelligence Agency (South Africa): South Africa’s central foreign intelligence organization. One of the best in the world at using biotechnology in support of intelligence operations.

National Technical Intelligence Bureau (United States): The NTIB replaced the old National Security Agency in the late 2020s, and currently serves as the main American agency dealing with signals intelligence and memetic defense.

Public Security Investigation Agency (Japan): The PSIA is Japan’s foremost counterintelligence organization, dedicated to rooting out spies and enemy memetic engineers.

Research and Intelligence Wing (India): India’s most powerful foreign intelligence agency, known for its willingness to take ruthless action to fend off threats to Indian interests.

Secret Intelligence Service (United Kingdom): “MI6” remains the main British foreign-intelligence agency. The U.K. makes no distinction between Earthside and space-based intelligence operations, so the SIS is active anywhere that British interests are at stake.

Despite their decline, nation-states remain the most powerful unit of governance on Earth. They provide social services, make and enforce national laws, and maintain military forces. Naturally, a few trends have worked to change the forms of national power.

Most nations in 2155 A.D. are at least superficially democratic in form. High officials in national government are chosen by periodic elections, in which most of the nation’s adult population participate. Naturally, this democracy expresses itself differently from one nation to the next. A few nations, notably members of the nanosocialist bloc, are single-party “democracies” in which anyone not a member of the ruling party has great difficulty reaching office. Most, however, are multiparty states, in which two or more political parties share power at the national level.

In most nations, the diversification of humanity has led to the breakup of large political parties. Even in states that were once dominated by only two major parties (such as Britain or the U.S.) coalition politics are now the norm. For example, as the United States approaches its 2156 elections, no fewer than seven major parties are fielding Presidential candidates, and there are many lesser parties involved in local elections nationwide. This breakup has led to greater contentiousness in political affairs, but it has also improved voter participation.

Another long-term trend in national politics has been a decline in the power of national government. Although most governments are more powerful in absolute terms, they have generally grown more slowly than the private economy. Tax revenues take up a smaller portion of national economies, government bureaucracies are more streamlined, military manpower has been much reduced. As a result, most Fifth Wave citizens feel that their governments are less obtrusive than they were a century ago.

The core structure of democratic government still remains: executive, legislative, and judicial branches, all chosen directly or indirectly by the people through elections. Most nations today supplement this framework by using Third Wave digital technologies. For example, most national legislatures now use telepresence extensively, allowing legislators to participate in business remotely while living at home in their districts. This has encouraged some nations to expand the size of their legislatures, allowing more people to participate in the political process.

Other nations make extensive use of the web to allow more direct citizen involvement in government. For example, in Australia there are procedures by which the citizen population can either veto a bill before it becomes law, or cause an existing law to be repealed. Most nations have not gone this far, but almost all Fifth Wave nations grant the citizenry some direct role in government, and they all allow web-based voting.

Meanwhile, some nations are experimenting with allowing computers themselves to actively participate in the governing process. No SAI has yet been openly elected to political office, but powerful computers serve many governments in an advisory capacity.

One factor behind the weakening of national government has been a simple decline in patriotic feeling worldwide. Most people in the developed societies tend to think of themselves as members of a local or specialinterest community first, members of global civilization second, and citizens of a nation-state last (or not at all). This sentiment often expresses itself as secessionism, a trend toward seeking independence from one’s national or even regional government.

As part of this trend, local governments around the world usually have much greater control over their own resources than they did a century ago. In many cases regional government officials are more well-known and enjoy more prestige than their counterparts at the national level.

Regional secessionism does not satisfy everyone, of course. Even the smallest regional divisions have citizens who do not fit in to the social or political culture which dominates locally. A century ago such citizens might have been condemned to live in a political system that had no reason to take note of their opinions. Today, it is always possible to find a community of like-minded people – if not in one’s own town or city, then across the web.

Most people in 2155 are members of one or more special-interest communities. These may be religious (for example, Muslims in a non-Muslim nation), ideological (nanosocialists in a capitalist nation), devoted to a specific issue (opponents of bioroid or AI rights), or centered around a lifestyle or hobby (VR enthusiasts). Some are relatively open to all, others are very exclusive and may even be kept secret from society as a whole. Some participate actively in the formal political system, others avoid politics as much as possible.

Special-interest communities are formally organized, and have their own rule-making and rule-enforcing mechanisms. These usually imitate their counterparts in the formal political system: members pay expensive dues (“taxes”), swear to obey the organization’s rules (“laws”), and must sometimes submit to the community’s judgment (“courts”). When large in membership, such communities are hard to distinguish from political parties. Smaller ones are more like large clubs, political pressure groups, or secret societies. While some such communities avoid politics, most of them are fiercely ideological. In nations where political strife turns violent, the local specialinterest societies often provide shock troops for street violence or intimidation.

Players should give thought to their characters’ membership in various special-interest communities. Meanwhile, the requirements placed by such communities on their members, and conflicts between communities, are a fertile source of plot hooks for the GM.

Almost every nation and society on Earth at least tries to live by the rule of law. Naturally, not all of them succeed, and the degree of variation in national and local laws is tremendous.

Most international law is embodied in unwritten custom, written agreements between nations, and in World Court rulings. The result is a patchwork of legal arrangements which can often come into dispute, especially where Great Power interests are in conflict.

Nations have a wide variety of agreements governing how foreign nationals are to be treated, especially when accused of a crime by local authorities. Some nations share extradition treaties, while others do not. The largest group of collaborating states takes in most of the Americas, the European Union, India, South Africa, and the Pacific Rim Alliance states. These nations cooperate quite closely on matters of criminal justice. Others may or may not share information or agree to extradite criminals.

Almost all nations observe long-standing customs regarding the conduct of diplomatic negotiations and the treatment of diplomatic personnel. Diplomats have immunity from prosecution under local law, although any diplomat may be declared persona non grata and expelled. Every nation is expected to abide by diplomatic agreements (subject to local procedures for ratifying treaties).

In general, the nations of Earth have agreed to a structure governing trade and cross-border investments. The major exception to this is the nanosocialist bloc, which does not recognize legal protections for any form of intellectual property. This fundamental conflict has led to strict trade sanctions against the TSA nations, along with continued economic warfare.

Worldwide, tariffs and trade regulations tend to be lower than in 2000, especially within major trade blocs such as the European Union or the American Free Trade Zone. The major remaining obstacles to free trade are disagreements over what commodities are even moral to buy or sell. For example, the booming bioroid industry of China or the United States is firmly shut out of Europe, while European nanotechnology is barred from some global markets for reasons of safety.

Most nations in the world pay at least lip service to a common framework of human rights. Freedom of speech and political expression, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the right to due process of law, the right to earn a fair wage for one’s work, the right to hold property – these and many others are regarded as fundamental human rights. The denial of human rights is considered a crime on the part of a nation-state, and can lead to diplomatic or economic pressure from others. Naturally, the interpretation of these rights varies considerably from nation to nation, as there is no global framework for enforcement of human rights.

Nation-states still recognize the boundaries claimed by others, with a range of options for negotiating boundary disputes. One major change in international law has been the rise in the principle of self-determination as the final claim for title to territory. This principle has encouraged many secessionist movements over the past century, which have appealed to international law in support of their wish to break away from existing nationstates. Naturally, such claims to territory already held by an existing national government are controversial. Secessionists rarely win legal recognition from other nations unless they can demonstrate an ability to control the claimed territory (and deny control to the government against which they are in rebellion).

One major controversy in modern international law is the Law of the Sea. This treaty dates back to the 1950s. Most nation-states obey its provisions, defining limits on territorial waters, establishing rights of free passage through many straits and choke points, and granting exclusive rights to certain resources lying close to national coastlines. Unfortunately, while the Law of the Sea treaty has been signed by most nations, some major powers never fully ratified it, and others have since abrogated it. As a result, disputes over territorial waters and coastal resource exploitation are common.

The deep oceans present another problem. For centuries they have been regarded as the common property of mankind, but today many more people have become interested in aquaculture and ocean-floor mining. The resulting tangle of national and corporate legal claims is causing considerable tension in some parts of the world.

Local law (on the national or regional level) has changed very little in principle. Most of the Fifth Wave nations have relaxed their stance against so-called “victimless” crimes, particularly those involving sexuality or the use of various recreational drugs. On the other hand, white-collar crimes such as embezzlement, fraud, or intellectual property theft are generally treated more harshly than they were a century ago. Otherwise, what was illegal in 2000 remains so in 2100, and is handled under the same legal structure.

Some of the newest areas of law involve behaviors which have become possible with the advance of technology. For example, laws against computer intrusions and other forms of illicit web activity tend to be quite strict worldwide. Most nations regulate the biotech and genetic-engineering industries, laying out what kind of experiments may be carried out and what modifications are legally allowed. The European and Islamic nations tend to be the strictest regulators of biotechnology, while Australia, China, and the United States are the most liberal. Most nations have passed laws regulating nanotechnology, hoping to prevent “gray goo” outbreaks or other disasters.

In most Fifth Wave societies, the judicial system has become considerably more efficient since 2000. It has become much easier for the police to establish the facts of any given case, and with AI administrative help a prosecutor can usually prepare his case very quickly. Once an arrest is made, a Fifth Wave citizen can expect to be arraigned within 24 hours and brought to trial in less than a week.

Naturally, this accelerated schedule can be hard on the defense, although AI support helps that side as well. Since forensic evidence is usually available and difficult to contest, defense attorneys concentrate on attacking police procedure or discrediting witnesses. Whether a trial takes place before a single judge, a panel of judges, or a jury depends on local law. In all cases, the judge usually has extensive AI support to help him interpret all relevant law.

To determine the outcome of a case, the GM should make a Quick Contest between the Law skills of the two attorneys (an attorney can substitute Bard at a penalty of -4 if arguing before a jury). The prosecutor gets a bonus of up to +6 if the defendants are guilty (or if the actual criminal managed to leave forensic evidence pointing to them). The defense attorney can get up to +4 if the defendants are innocent. If the prosecutor wins the Contest the defendant will be found guilty, otherwise he is free to go. Sentencing depends greatly on the local legal system and the seriousness of the crime.

Police procedure has changed remarkably little over the past century. Police officers (and their associated cybershell partners) spend most of their time on patrol. They watch out for suspicious occurrences, respond to reports of trouble, and maintain a visible presence. Police departments spend a great deal of time simply maintaining order at public gatherings and providing various forms of community service. In some communities, much of this routine police work has been contracted out to private security firms under government supervision. One area that is no longer an important police function is traffic control; almost all vehicles are programmed to obey traffic laws and cooperate with local control systems without the need for human enforcement.

Criminal investigation is, in many ways, much easier than it was a century ago. Even in the most liberal societies, it’s usually possible for police to get the authority to place a suspicious area under tight surveillance. Police agencies worldwide share information efficiently through the web, so it’s easy to gather information on potential suspects. Meanwhile, modern forensic methods can reliably identify persons from the DNA fragments found in skin flakes or hair. A criminal who acts on the spur of the moment will find it almost impossible to fake the crime scene, concealing or destroying all evidence pointing to his identity. Most major crimes require careful planning, often concealing the very fact that a crime has taken place for as long as possible.

One form of police work that has actually expanded since 2000 is undercover law enforcement. This area covers the fight against many ancient crimes (such as gambling, “hard narcotics,” or prostitution) as well as a number of new offenses (data piracy, xoxnapping). Police trained in undercover work usually command high salaries, but operate under circumstances of extreme danger.

As in 2000, most crime is committed by individuals motivated by alienation, greed, or violent rage. The major difference is that most of today’s individual criminals are caught quickly.

Organized crime is alive and well on Earth, despite the advances in law-enforcement technique. There are many “mafias” – Albanian, American, Cuban, Italian, Mexican, Polish, Russian, Thai, and Turkish varieties among others. The Japanese still have their yakuza and the Chinese their Triads. The opium warlords of southeast Asia and the narcotraficantes of South America still operate (although their stock in trade has changed considerably). Organized crime has moved into a variety of new lines of business, notably xoxnapping and various forms of intellectual property piracy. The main change in organized crime is in its methods. In areas where criminal gangs cannot simply control the police or the courts, they tend to operate almost like urban guerrillas. They use cell organization and elaborate control schemes to prevent the police from infiltrating their operations.

In the Fifth Wave societies, the average length of the work week has fallen considerably over the past century. Most employed people work no more than 20 hours per week. Large segments of the population don’t work at all, either because they have no job or because they don’t need one. As a result, the Fifth Wave nations spend a great deal of time and effort on leisure activities.

One of the most significant ways in which Fifth Wave civilization differs from past cultures is in the concept of the self as a work of art.

In 2155, any wealthy citizen can use biosculpting, biomod implants, and other technologies to control his physical form and appearance. He has the resources and leisure time necessary to shape his personal lifestyle. He even has some conscious command over his own personality, through the use of education, memetic therapy, and neurosurgery. All of this sets him apart from humans of the past, who lacked such far-reaching and precise command of their own bodies, minds, and souls.

The implication is that every aspect of a person’s appearance and behavior can be considered a deliberate choice. The modern philosophy of art recognizes this fact by treating humanity as the ultimate medium for aesthetic expression. In the year 2000 a person might have been physically unattractive or personally obnoxious, but he would also have been forgiven these traits because they were in some degree beyond his control. In 2155, similar traits are evidence of bad taste and much harder to tolerate.

There are several major artistic schools dealing with the manipulation of self. Naturalists prize the imperfections of “normal” human forms and personalities, extolling a minimalist approach to biosculpting and memetic manipulation. Various classicist schools preach conformity, demanding that everyone mold themselves to a common physical and moral ideal. Epicureans teach that the individual human is the ultimate arbiter of taste, and should create a self that yields the greatest personal pleasure. Absurdists promote the most radical manipulations of body and mind, claiming that only in extremes can true beauty be found.

Most human beings are amateurs in the art of the self, just as in all other arts. Still, most people are familiar with the notion that one’s image is something that can be crafted and presented to others in a tasteful manner. Celebrities are the greatest masters of this art, and are openly admired for their command of personal expression regardless of what their actual accomplishments may be in other areas.

Stage and flatscreen media still have their followers, but most entertainment has gone 3D and interactive. InVids and slinkies are the most popular entertainment media in 2155. In those forms, the “visual” arts are more popular than ever, powering a multi-trillion dollar global industry.

Changes in technology have not only altered the methods of presentation, but also the methods of production. Most InVid production is done in what the world of 2000 would have considered small “independent” studios, often run by a handful of people with supporting computer hardware. On-location photography is almost a dead art; instead, producers place the action against a backdrop of stock or synthesized images. Even actors no longer dominate the scene, with AI “synthespians” taking on almost all roles.

Ironically, slinkies are a more traditional art form. Just as “movie” producers once had to present realistic images and sounds to their cameras, slinky producers must present real physical stimuli to the slinky-wearer recording the production. Indeed, the slinky producer’s job is harder, as he must control all the sensations experienced by the recorder. As a result, the slinky industry is much like the film industry at its Hollywood height – complete with brilliant but egotistical producers, cutthroat studio politics, and wildly popular “star” celebrities.

With the development of advanced VR technology, entertainment has naturally moved into the new medium. From the beginning, the “virtual arts” have been driven by demand for interactive entertainment. Even in the crude VR environments available at the beginning of the 21st century, the emphasis was on allowing the audience to take direct part in the entertainment. Today, with total-VR technology and neural interfaces available, VR can be even more involving and interactive than real life. Common forms of VR entertainment include InVids and slinkies. Virtual cruises and digital kingdoms are more elaborate forms of the same medium.

Some of the more common VR environments include:

Conference Rooms: Simple environments used for telepresence meetings. The most popular venues are luxurious rooms or halls with culturally appropriate decor. Most of these include at least one “window” onto an exotic landscape (mountains, deep forest, undersea, space). No characters need to be managed by the node; the visitors provide all their own interactivity. Participants can “conjure up” elaborate audiovisual presentations, transmitted from their own computers.

Businesses and social groups often use VR conference rooms for meetings, while schools use them as lecture halls. VR meetings have almost completely replaced face-to-face contact for many situations – such meetings are extremely inexpensive in comparison to the costs of globe-spanning travel and physical meeting space.

Shopping Malls: These more complex environments allow merchants to display their wares in virtual space. Customers can examine goods at their leisure, placing orders for later physical delivery. Customer service representatives can be posted to answer questions and provide a human touch. Virtual storefronts also give merchants a great deal of control over the presentation of their goods (there are occasional scandals about subliminal advertising or goods not being quite as attractive in reality as they are in VR).

Virtual Cruises: A “virtual cruise” is a slang term for any highly interactive VR experience which involves a small number of participants over a few hours of time, and which has a well-defined plot. In effect, a virtual cruise is the next step up in interactivity from an InVid. The participants are cast directly into roles within the scenario, and have more direct control over the course of events. As the name suggests, many virtual cruises are travelogues. Others include military-style training scenarios, historical pageants, and the roleplaying equivalent of short novels.

Virtual cruises require the involvement of AI synthespians, taking on the roles of extras, expository characters, and other NPCs. Since virtual cruises are usually constrained to a linear plotline, the cyber-actors rarely need to be more complex than a low-level LAI program. Still, their involvement drives up the price significantly.

Digital Kingdoms: A “digital kingdom” is a fully immersive roleplaying environment, involving up to thousands of players at a time. The simulation runs 24 hours per day; players drop in and out as their real-world schedules permit. Multiple plot threads are progressing at any given moment, with more constantly being generated by AI or bio-sapient artists. Synthespians, some of them high-end LAI or even SAI systems, animate hundreds or thousands of NPCs. Digital kingdoms tend to be fictional in nature. Anachronistic fantasies are popular, as are science fiction and historical settings with varying degrees of realism.

Interestingly, the weakening of intellectual property law in recent decades has had relatively little effect on the virtual arts. Naturally, InVids and slinkies can be copied as easily as any other software. Digital kingdoms, on the other hand, are extremely resistant to piracy. A high-quality digital kingdom requires the continual supervision of its authors, and is constantly evolving in response to user behavior. Such an environment cannot easily be copied, and remains distinctive no matter how many people have access to it. As a result, the virtual arts are among the most prestigious and lucrative in the Fifth Wave societies. A talented designer of virtual cruises or digital kingdoms can command a very high income, receiving a portion of the user fees from thousands of VR enthusiasts worldwide.

There are thousands of musical forms in existence in 2100. New fashions in music appear and vanish as quickly as fashions in any other area. In the Fifth Wave nations, some of the more enduring forms include:

Greek Fire: A subset of world music (see below), based on traditional Greek folk music with a heavy infusion of neo-pagan and Transhumanist themes. Greek Fire was an extremely popular style throughout Europe and the Americas during the 2070s and 2080s, as part of a general surge of interest in ancient Hellenic culture. It is still heard worldwide, although it has slipped considerably in popularity.

Microtonal: The foremost new musical style of the 21st century, microtonalism makes heavy use of quartertone or even smaller intervals between notes. The style also relies on the deliberate production of overtones, and uses notes outside the range of conscious human hearing. Many younger people, especially those influenced by Transhumanist thought, have seized on the style as their own. Microtonalism had a brief “classical” era in the 2040s, centered around a school of formal composers who developed the style while collaborating across the web. Today the style has broad influence in all areas of formal and popular music.

Neoclassical: Primarily nonvocal, using classical Western instruments along with a discreet selection of synthesized sounds. Purists repeat performances of Western classical music dating back to the early 1900s or further. Some modern composers work more or less in the classical style (complete with three-part structure and polyphony) but create diverse new pieces.

Rock: The popular music of the late 20th century still survives, along with associated styles such as blues, country, and jazz. For many citizens this style derives from the “rock revival” eras of the 2030s and 2080s. Many of the super-elderly still cherish the original style, however, and sponsor its occasional reintroduction into the cultural mix.

Soft-Edge: Popular among young people, this style emphasizes fluffy ballads, subtle instrumental passages, and (in performance) sophisticated visual effects. A related style, hard-edge, uses more emphatic rhythms and incorporates elaborate dance into its performance.

World: A catch-all term for “imported” music, usually from developing nations which still have a tradition of live performance. Encompasses a whole range of substyles, each based on a specific ethnic tradition. In the United States, Maori and West African styles are popular; various Arab, East African, and South Asian styles are common in Europe.

In one sense, the literary arts are flourishing in 2100. Effective early-childhood education means that most Fifth Wave citizens are highly literate and have good language skills. Millions of people are capable of producing competent literary work, even in refined forms. Meanwhile, many AIs are also very good writers.

On the other hand, this rise in public skill has had a profound effect on the literary industry. Supply and demand apply in the arts as elsewhere, so the glut of competent writers means that almost no one can make a good living solely by writing. Today’s well-known writers are celebrities before they are artists, promoting their work through an elaborate marketing system based on personality. Creative artists who wish to make a reasonable living generally work in other parts of the entertainment industry, notably in the virtual arts.

One exception to the literary decline is in the field of journalism. As the world floods with data, there is tremendous demand for people who can digest it, make sense of it, and explain it to the mass market in real time. The journalists of 2155 spend a lot more of their time on the web than doing footwork, but the old principles still hold.

To be sure, there is no longer any pretense of impartial journalism. Most journalists work for governments or large web-content corporations, and are likely to obey their employers when it comes time to “spin” a given story. Other journalists pursue the “human interest” market, which primarily presents stories with more sensationalism than substance. None of this is surprising to any citizen of the Fifth Wave – the notion that there was ever such a thing as objective journalism is regarded as a charming myth of bygone days. The ability to recognize and compensate for the biases in any given media source is a primary modern survival skill.

Music remains a popular art form in the late 21st century. Live performances are rare and expensive, serving primarily as prestige events. Most music is produced in recording studios and sold through InVids, slinkies, and other VR channels. A major current trend is the production of wholly virtual music, which is composed and “performed” entirely by AI.

The marketing of music has long rested less on musical talent than on image. A star performer may have little or no real talent as a musician, instead surviving on the basis of an attractive physique and an aggressive marketing staff. As digital technology improved, it became possible for major performers to do well without performing music at all, simply putting on a good physical show while the music was composed and performed offstage by others. This trend continues, although the “nonmusicians” are becoming less common – instead, even the physical aspects of performance are being taken over by synthespians in a VR environment.

Athletics remain a part of world culture, although the emphasis has shifted considerably. The institution of professional sports has changed dramatically, while amateur competition on anything above the local level has nearly vanished.

Biotechnology was the primary factor forcing organized sport to evolve. Even in 2000, professional and amateur athletics were fighting a fierce battle against the technological augmentation of a competitor’s abilities. Athletes who used performance-enhancing drugs, bionic implants, or bodysculpting technology were all banned from serious competition. Later, athletes who were specifically engineered for performance, either as bioroids or parahumans, were excluded. As such techniques became more subtle, harder to detect, and more commonly used by the general populace, these exclusions became more difficult and more controversial. Meanwhile, once competition rested more on the skill of teams of bio-engineers than on the dedication of athletes, many observers began to question the point of the activity.

Through the early part of the century, some institutions (notably the Olympic Games) continued to develop elaborate protocols to detect and expel any athlete relying on artificial aids. Others (such as various national football leagues) experimented with ways to pit athletes with similar biotechnology against one another. By about 2060 it was clear that none of these measures would be enough to hold back the biotech tide.

The last Olympic Games were held in Athens in 2070, marking the end of the era of mass spectator sports. Today, international competition is quite rare, and concentrated in events that require luck and intelligent planning more than raw athleticism. For example, baseball and golf remain popular international sports.

Many sports leagues remain in existence on the national level, although these tend to be smaller and much more diverse than their 2000-era counterparts. For example, instead of two or three American-rules football leagues worldwide, there are now over a dozen. Each of these has its own rules and governing structure, and each has a small fraction of the original fan base. The professional athletes who participate in such leagues are entertainers as well as competitors, more concerned with providing a good show to their audience than with true athletic competition. In some sports, this has made surprisingly little difference in audience devotion.

Of course, sport remains important to many citizens on the Fifth Wave. Many of today’s most popular “games” are loosely organized and almost devoid of the competitive urge: obstacle courses, races in which no times are recorded, anachronistic combat exercises, and so on. Participation in activities such as these has taken up much of the social role once held by spectator sports.