Technology
Contents
Arcologies
The Japanese government built the first two arcologies in the mid 21st century. The Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid and Sky City 1000 pioneered the use of carbon nanotubes and robotic labor to build structures capable of housing an entire city of nearly 1,000,000 people in an area with a footprint of only a few kilometers.
Following the massive west coast earthquakes of 2032, the United States government and several private corporations worked in concert to create the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle arcologies to replace the largely-destroyed metro areas they once occupied.
Artificial Intelligence
True, independent Artificial Intelligence, as far as the public knows, does not exist. Limited slave AIs have existed for a number of years, however, used primarily in conjunction with robotics technology and computer security systems.
Biotech
Computers
Cybernetics
Cybernetics, the science and industry of replacing organic components with mechanical ones, came into wide use largely due to military and government research, then slowly expanded into civilian use. As refinements made cybernetics less bulky and more life-like, its use extended beyond mere limb replacement and into human enhancement. The final step towards what has become common cybernetics in the current day was the invention of nano-scale brownian motors powered by the body's own bioelectricity.
Full body cybernetics are still largely the purview of the military and special police organizations. When legal civilian use does occur, it's usually among the wealthy as the result of severe injuries or illness or, in very rare cases, fashion. Of course, full-body, military grade cybernetics also see use among private security and criminal organizations.
Nanotech
Power Sources
Robotics
The most common uses of robotics in the modern day are construction and manufacturing. Remote-operated robots are also often used for work in situations or environments that are difficult or hazardous for humans to access. With the rise of slave-AI, however, the appearance of semi-autonomous robots in common society is growing rapidly, particularly among the wealthy. Such robots are capable of duplicating human intelligence and interactive capabilities to an astonishing degree, but (due as much to strict regulations as research and technological limitations) are not truly sentient, and have highly developed fail-safes that allow their actions to be easily overridden by human operators.
