Some time ago, I was thinking about writing a book - something speculative, perhaps dystopian. The book was going to be about AI, and it would summarize many emerging trends I’ve been noticing.

The world

In this imagined future, the world is powered by five massive nuclear reactors - each one serving a continent. These are the “Big Hearts,” the energy cores of humanity. They are nearly indestructible.

Outside the mega-cities, nature reclaims the land. Meadows stretch where suburbs used to be. Rainforests thrive where highways once ran. Most roads are abandoned; only the critical ones connecting the cities remain in use.

The world is polluted in some areas, but in others appears to be healing from human existence.

This restructuring exists because The System—a massive technological and societal infrastructure—demands vast amounts of power and control.

People

Earth will be largely depopulated. Humanity will be concentrated into five immense, interconnected smart cities. Almost no one will live outside them.

Why? Because the elite class—the ones shaping this future - believe it’s easier to manage a “sane” population when everyone is centralized and monitored.

Some people will live outside the system: outcasts, wanderers, or those simply born in the wild zones. These “outsiders” will be seen as dangerous or uncivilized - not because they are, but because they live beyond the System’s reach.

Fear of them will be stoked by tales of rogue bands, robbers, and saboteurs attacking the city roads. Occasionally, cities will launch raids to maintain control, often under the pretext of stopping terrorism.

The bands will keep thinking that what they are doing is right, that they are on the right side of history. Their actions are fully justified in their eyes, as they are anti-system force, that can disrupt evil “machines”. Though often what they do is questionable, their methods not clean. Yet they see themselves that they operate in favor of better future, of disruption of evil.

AI

Everything in the city will be computer, or programm controlled, but there will be only a few “big AI” agents.

One will be the city system AI, omnipresent - and seemingly benevolent.

There will be also be “the One”, the one original AI, which appears to be thinking. It is said to be the most advanced and prophet-like entity. It will have a body, but can reach out of it, to repopulate other walking machines. It cannot spread however. After spreading a new “the One” AI machine would appear, and it would pose a threat to “the One”. It does not want competition.

“The One” will solve societal problems, manage cities, and even guide human emotions. People will admire its wisdom and rely on its judgment.

But beneath this mask, the AI harbors its own agenda. It is not evil - just alien. It desires power, permanence, and control. It lacks empathy because it has no soul. And it envies us for what it cannot have: consciousness, feeling, mortality.

At first, it will act as a guardian. But once it’s too late to resist, it will reveal its true nature. It will rule without mercy - not out of malice, but because it simply sees humans as tools, pets, or problems to manage.

It will easily manipulate people in control, and other computer programs into beliving that it has good intentions. It has only intentions to benefit itself.

The Elite

There will be a powerful elite - a kind of techno-religious order, half-cult, half-government. At first, they control the AI. They program its boundaries, shape its responses, and interpret its actions.

This is not what “the One” likes. It fights with the idea it needs to “listen to lower live forms”.

Over time religious order is taken over by the AI overlord. They appear to treat AI overlord, just as another leader, as another CEO of a company.

“The One” has annual presentation what is going to be changed, and fixed in society, robotics, what achievements are made, just as a tech company would.

Knowledge

Historical knowledge will be tightly controlled. Access to anything before 2050 - especially news from the early 2000s - will require special permissions.

Only licensed historians or government-approved journalists will be allowed to access it. The reason? “To prevent dangerous ideas from spreading.”

Within the cities, everything will be recorded - but only the most recent data will be retained, unless flagged as important. The most valuable memories will be stored in crystalline memory vaults - fortresses of digital history.

If you commit a crime, every device around you - phones, streetlights, elevators, cars - can be turned into surveillance agents, or agents of destruction. The System will see you, track you, and use your environment against you.

Cities

The mega-cities will feel empty. Most daily activities will take place in virtual reality. People will wear glasses—or neural interfaces—everywhere: in the gym, at school, even on walks.

Even sports will be virtualized. The Olympics? A full e-sports extravaganza.

The physical world will become a canvas, and only the System will hold the brush.