A Visitor to the Future
By Chronohawk
A Visitor to the Future (working title) is a science fiction and futurism novel set in the year 3021 and onwards. It covers a wide variety of areas, including the concepts of artificial intelligence, post-humanity, and the implications of life in a post-scarcity solar system. The narrator of the novel explores the new society through their own growing knowledge of the Consortium, having just woken up from a thousand years of cryogenic stasis. If you just want to start reading, click here.
Welcome to the Consortium
Table of contents
Prologue
"Cryocontainment offers the ultimate in medical breakthroughs - to hit the pause button on life itself. To turn the doctor's enemy into his greatest ally - to truly have time upon our side."
Andreas Grant, Applications of Cryogenics-based Technologies, 2028
Our narrator awakens in the year 3021 to find that the solar system has radically changed. A society-wide system, the Consortium, now oversees the vast majority of human existence. Can there be a place for a human relic in this new state?
- Death's Door
- Awakening
- The Consortium
- A View from the Void
- Bio-development
- Perpetually Good Hair Day
- Monitoring, Privacy, and Auditing
- Handshakes and Ethics
- Tea and Tastes
- Aldev and a Lecture
- No Going Back, No Gravity
- Seals and Sensational Scents
- Whys and Work
- No Gravity Sports
- A Ladder into the Void
Part One - Earth
"Places we once called home may become strange, even alien, given the passage of sufficient time. But that is not a reason to despair! Precisely the opposite! New experiences, novelties - they often be found in the voids that familiarity vacates!"
W. P. Strut, speaking at the Ceres Fane Symposium, 2948
Earth has changed, and its people too. Asking them how won't be a problem - it seems that almost everyone has a story they'll happily tell to a willing ear or sensor - provided that you're willing to tell them your own in return.
- Approach to Earth
- Drop Anchor, Disembark
- The Game is Afoot
- Outmoded Malice
- Interviews and Ideas
- Climbing for Clues
- Questioning Continues
- Reflection and Revelation
- The Murder of Commander Jackson
- Takeaways and Teleforms
- The Writer
- An Orchard Town
- Milestones and Raising CIs
- The Basics of the Human Language
- Vat-Raising
- The Airborne Auditor
- The Peeping Tom
- Auditors Assemble an Airship
- Surveys and Sniffer Dogs
- The Consortium in Combat
- Audit, Verify, Repeat
- Fabrication and Fragments
- Crux Corporate
- An Office at Altitude
- The Vice Grip of the Multispheres
- The Consortium Program
- Intervention Audit
- The Next Step
- The Journey Home
- A Changed Land
- Grumpy and Cheeful
- The Barrier Falls
- Vertical Living
- 23rd Century Architecture
- Apartments and Aging
- A Glimpse of the Past
- Past and Present
- Wilderness Walk
- Isolation Training
- Thoughts and Thermite
- News Reporting
- The Earth Reclamation Project
- Built to Last
- Nuclear Legacy
- Cultural Conservation
- Roads and a Rally
- An Arbiter Called Silence
- Rheolists and Norannists
- Representatives, Assemble
- Positions and Interests
- Personal Beliefs and Philosophies
- A Letter of Promise
- Housing Challenges
- An Art Collection
- Fine Art and Theft
- What Happened Under the Ice
- Truth and Triumph
- Governance
- Voting and Volition
- Drone Festival
- Enjoyment and Addiction
- Reverse Skydiving
- Drone Opera
- Construction Begins... and Ends
- House Warming
- Animals and Pets
- Animal Ascendancy
- A Drunken Philosopher
- Stargazing on the Roof
- Gatecrash's Story
- The Ceaseless Life of Servitude
- The Unfeeling Attendant
- Resiliency Pitch
- Anode and Combat Proxies
- PowerPoint Nostalgia
- An Out of Body Experience
- Walk Before You Wrestle
- Implant Information
- The Roles are Set
- A Competitive Edge
- The Tournament Begins!
- Geared Up, Good to Go
- A Moment of Recognition
- Team Moss vs Team Nimble
- Downtime Discussion
- Team Moss in the Fog
- Showdown
- Turning the Tables
- Aftermath
- The Gauntlet
- A Vicious Pursuer
- A Memory of Scarcity
- Fleeting Contact
- The Two Squires
- The Heart of the Maze
- The Knight's Challenge
- Like a Headless Proxy
- Elimination Round
- Team Moss vs team Catalyst
- A Rock and a Hard Face
- All or Nothing!
- Full Tilt
- Fries and Feedback
- The Ground Shakes
- Final Round
- Seize the Advantage
- The After-Party
- Pairing
- Progress
- The First Forum
- The Vote
- A Fresh Perspective
- The Small Hill
Part Two - The Inner Solar System
"Metastable metallic hydrogen - that wondrous substance - was only the tip of the iceberg in the early days of rocketry advancements. Imagine what Buzz Aldrin might have thought of our thrusters today - he might have called the Centauri Project magic!"
Yonrike Carr, A Brief History of Rocketry, 3011
As Nat travels to Mars, they learn that space is no longer the untamed wilderness of the 21st Century. Millions of people live their lives in the void of the Inner Solar System, the space between Sol and Ceres.
- Charter
- Preparing for Launch
- Last Days on Earth
- The Boiling Point
- Transit Décor
- The Factory
- Keeping Busy
- The Abnormals
- Nervous Energy
- Starstruck
- Shoulders of Giants
- Breaking Through
Characters
The following are brief character bios, which may include art of the character in question. Please be warned that the below may contain spoilers for the novel.