Silicon Age Collapse
Outlines of Possible Futures
When historians looked back to the 21st century they relied on incomplete records from the Chinese and Korean nations. They’d barely stumbled through the Silicon Age Collapse.
Every other Empire had entirely collapsed by the 2080s leaving increasingly spotty evidence.
Some of what happened was still controversial. The famine in Africa with the great mass graves. Sure those painted a clear picture. The abandoned cities of Japan, Europe, and America were more enigmatic. The ruins gave every indication that a little over 300 years ago the world had over a billion people. Maybe quite a few more. The prevailing theory had been that rampaging hordes from southern lands had sacked and overthrown all the great empires. The competing theory, that I preferred was that several factors had weakened interconnected empires and only the Chinese and Koreans stood off far enough to barely pull through.
Still, the vast ruined cities mystified us. Did the people leave as climates and economies shifted? Was there some flaw in their technology that brought cities down one after another? There are lots of theories but no hard proof. The new Empires that rose in the 2200s had long recycled every material they could salvage before archeologists and historians re-emerged. Poor odds of finding any smoking gun, although that’s exactly what we were aiming for.
One of the half-sunk islands off North America had hosted a great city. A few forays into the ruins had discovered the great mounds were not just dirt but were the refuse sealed and preserved for centuries.
The archeologists had already found preserved plastic labels identifying the dangerous diet of those people. They must have been wracked with sickness given the poisons they consumed. On top of their poisonous foods, we found potions and medicines preserved down there. Scientists had researched the pills but had returned with the verdict, a mix of helpful, harmful, and deadly.
The linguists had their work cut out interpreting the thin books wrapped in plastic. The pictures in these thin flimsy books varied from nature scenes, homes, landscapes, and the vilest forms of pornography. Hard to imagine how they organized such a scale of life while living so recklessly in their diets and morals.
Deep in the mounds, we found a small field of 40 acres separate from the rest. There we found remains of a catastrophe of some sort. Building rubble mixed with the signs of a sudden abrupt explosion. Our best guess was an attack with lasers on a few buildings from the nearby island. Perhaps there was a war or unexpected attacks on the city in the mists of history.
The timing lined up with the old Chinese myth of the Great City brought to ash in the year of the snake.
The mounds were so vast that it would take generations of excavations to get all the treasures hiding underground. The greatest find had a been sign identifying the grand structure as Fresh Kills landfill.