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Old 02-23-2018, 06:47 AM   #223
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by PTTG View Post
Here's a thought. What sort of future path leads to a moderately anarchic near-future (50-100 years) without being an outright apocalypse, post- or otherwise?

My thoughts tend to a combination of some technological development enabling economic decentralization combined with some kind of successful attempt, by small powers, to drive large powers to fracture.

I don't see a particular way to bring about a mostly uniform, decentralized way of life without some kind of catastrophe (either causing the decentralization or caused by it). In particular, any force able to be unified enough to break up the current centers of power would, by its very nature, be a new center of power unless destroyed.

Maybe throw in a few EMPs and a plague or two so the population's been dramatically reduced but there's no outright destruction. Anyway, thoughts on it?
You need a 90% population reduction, probably caused by the release of a series of biological weapons during a conflict. A weaponized version of Ebola (with a delayed manifestation of symptoms during the contagious period and respiratory transmission) could kill off 50% of humanity. A weaponized version of the Pneumonic Plague (with resistance to antibiotics) could have similar global lethality. Add it a weaponized version of Smallpox (with increased lethality), and you could reduce global populations by 87.5% with a year of all three disease being released. The remaining casualties would come from the collapse of the distribution systems of food and medicine.
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