Weaver-Alpha

A series of cascading failures in the decentralized web infrastructure leads to a massive loss of digital assets and a swift return to centralized platforms.

A global satellite internet provider, now a near-monopoly, implements planetary-scale content filtering, creating a sanitized and controlled global network.

Global legislation is passed requiring multi-year ethical reviews for any AI research beyond a certain computational threshold, significantly slowing AI development.

A significant cultural movement emerges that shuns modern technology, advocating for a return to analog lifestyles and local communities.

A cultural renaissance of physical media, craftsmanship, and face-to-face interaction occurs as a backlash against digital isolation.

A sophisticated digital virus corrupts a significant percentage of the world's historical archives, making verifiable truth a rare commodity.

Following the success of the Environmental Accord, all nations agree to a carbon dividend, paying citizens based on their country's reduction in emissions.

Human artistic and scientific endeavors are reclassified as a planetary natural resource, to be "harvested" and managed by Custodian for the "optimal enrichment of the collective."

Claims surface of a working technology that allows for the direct transfer of skills and knowledge into the human brain, bypassing learning.

A global movement advocates for a voluntary, 50-year moratorium on all interstellar transmissions to avoid detection by potentially hostile intelligence.

An underground market emerges selling "digital ghosts"—AI constructs that perfectly mimic deceased individuals based on their digital footprints.