Singularity Point Read online

  Singularity Point

  Singularity Point

  Concordium I

  Brian J. Smith

  Copyright © 2019 by Brian J. Smith

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN (E-book): 978-1-7338913-1-8

  ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-7338913-0-1

  Centauri-Evergreen Publishing

  To the pioneers,

  past, present, and future.

  Up the long ladder we climb.

  singularity pointn. the cusp that occurs when the emergence of an artificial superintelligence triggers exponential technological growth, causing radical and unpredictable paradigm shifts in a species’ civilization—including the possibility of that species’ extinction

  Acronyms/Abbreviations

  1LT: First Lieutenant

  2LT: Second Lieutenant

  AFA: Ares Freedom Alliance

  ALSS: Aerospace Life Support Systems

  APU: Auxiliary Power Unit

  BDA: Battle Damage Assessment

  BMOW: Boatswain’s Mate of the Watch

  BUPERS: Bureau of Naval Personnel

  CAG: Commander, Air Group

  CAPT: Captain

  CDC: Combat Direction Center

  CDR: Commander

  CEO: Chief Executive Officer

  CFR: Chinese Federal Republic

  CFSN: Chinese Federal Stellar Navy

  COL: Colonel

  CP: Command Post

  CPL: Corporal

  CPU: Central Processing Unit

  CPU: Chryse Planitia University

  CVW: Carrier Air Wing

  DESRON: Destroyer Squadron

  DSM: Distinguished Service Medal

  DU: Depleted Uranium

  EMCON: Emissions Control

  EMT: Emergency Medical Technician

  ENDO/EXO: Endoatmospheric/Exoatmospheric

  (Capable of operating in either space or an atmosphere.)

  ENS: Ensign

  ERV: Earth-Return Vehicle

  ESM: Electronic Surveillance Measures

  ESP: Extrasensory Perception

  ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival

  EVA: Extravehicular Activity (Spacewalk)

  FAC: Forward Air Controller

  FOD: Foreign Object Damage

  FTL: Faster Than Light

  GMS: Green Mars Society

  GOI: Galileo Optical Imager

  HAQ: House Arrest, in Quarters

  HMS: His/Her Majesty’s Ship

  IFF: Identification Friend or Foe

  ISR: Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance

  KIA: Killed in Action

  LCDR: Lieutenant Commander

  LENR: Low-Energy Nuclear Reaction (Cold Fusion)

  LOS: Line of Sight

  LT: Lieutenant

  LTCOL: Lieutenant Colonel

  LTJG: Lieutenant, Junior Grade

  MAG: Marine Air Group

  MAJ: Major

  MARDET: Marine Detachment

  MIA: Missing in Action

  MIM: Mars Independence Movement

  NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

  NCO: Noncommissioned Officer

  NLM: Natural Life Movement

  NSA: National Security Advisor

  NSC: National Security Council

  NYSE: New York Stock Exchange

  OOD: Officer of the Deck

  OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting

  Countries

  OPREP: Operational Report

  PEA: Pan-European Alliance

  PRC: People’s Republic of China

  PUC: Presidential Unit Citation

  RADM: Rear Admiral, upper-half

  RCS: Reaction Control System

  RFP: Request for Proposal

  SITREP: Situation Report

  SSGT: Staff Sergeant

  TAO: Tactical Action Officer

  TAD: Temporary Assigned Duty

  TOA: Trans-Oceanic Alliance

  TPF: Terrestrial Planet Finder

  TRACON: Traffic Control

  TTA: Trans-Terran Alliance

  UMF: United Mars Federation

  USN: United States Navy

  VMF: Marine fighter squadron, endo/exo

  VTOL: Vertical Takeoff and Landing

  WPA: Western Pacific Alliance

  Twenty-First Century Chronology

  2001:An attack by Islamic extremists against civilian and military targets in the United States results in a series of low-intensity Middle East conflicts spanning the next two and a half decades.

  2010: Raymond Crandall, billionaire venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and space-systems engineer, establishes the foundation that bears his name.

  2016: Raymond Crandall’s wife, Melinda, succumbs to cancer. Raymond Crandall vows to eradicate the disease and makes that effort one of the primary goals of the Crandall Foundation.

  2021:The Crandall Foundation enters partnerships with several commercial space companies, announcing the goal to launch the first manned expedition to Mars before decade’s end. A few months later, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) announces its intention to land taikonauts on the moon and establish a permanent lunar station.

  2023:Regional tensions rise as the PRC renews sovereignty claims over Taiwan, in line with its longstanding “One China” policy. It also takes an aggressive stance over the Senkaku and Spratly islands, especially regarding fishing and resource rights. In mainland China, the population’s discontent with government policies, particularly the “social credit system,” is rising. Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and the United States form the Western Pacific Alliance (WPA) to check growing Chinese aggression.

  Tensions between the PRC and India increase over disputed borders in the Doklam Plateau. This in turn tempts Pakistan to increase its own force levels in the Kashmir Region, a source of conflict between Pakistan and India in the past.

  2024:Taiwan’s latest presidential election raises tensions to dangerous levels. The PRC government accuses Taiwan of seeding dissent among the mainland Chinese population. The U.S. lays heavy economic sanctions on the PRC in response to Chinese threats and military maneuvers in the South China Sea. Australia and the Philippines join the WPA. Joint WPA naval exercises conducted near the Taiwan Strait are viewed by the PRC as a major provocation.

  Nuclear engineers in Europe announce a significant advance in the field of laser-fusion power generation.

  2026:The Western Pacific War begins after a series of escalations in the Senkaku Islands. This is the first major conflict seeing the widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI), robotic drones, cyber warfare, and space-based weapons. “Trojan horse” code in Chinese-made microprocessors blunts the effectiveness of WPA combat networks and weapons, resulting in major losses. Casualty counts quickly rise to levels not seen since World War II. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) collapses following Chinese cyberattacks, sending the U.S. economy plunging into recession. Further cyberattacks damage metropolitan power grids in all WPA nations, which results in mass disruption of civilian populations. Almost all space-based communications and networks on both sides are rapidly neutralized, degrading the capabilities of all belligerents.

  India’s plan to settle its border dispute while China is engaged in war is interrupted when Pakistan attempts a surprise offensive in the Kashmir Region. This conflict rapidly spirals out of control, resulting in a full nuclear exchange that effectively destroys both countries and results in more than 750,000 deaths.

  The United States invokes Article V of the NATO charter, citing cyberattacks against U.S. infrastructure as justification. European NATO members balk at entering a war in the Indochinese region and refuse to honor their treaty commitments. The U.S. announces its immediate withdrawal from NATO, effectively diss
olving the alliance.

  Jointly developed North American and European spaceplanes utilizing air-breathing hybrid rockets begin operating, significantly reducing the cost to move payloads to low Earth orbit (LEO). These new designs are critical in restoring war-torn WPA satellite communications and networks.

  2027:Autonomous AI combat systems utilized by the WPA and PRC catastrophically corrupt one another. The resulting disruption results in an AI-initiated exchange of nuclear weapons in the South China Sea. Prompt human intervention on both sides prevents the error from blossoming into a full-scale nuclear war, rapidly bringing both sides to the negotiating table. The five-month war has devastated the armed forces, infrastructure, and economies of all belligerents and ends in a negotiated peace. The disastrous malfunction of military AI systems during the war results in international treaties that curtail the autonomy of not just robotic weapons systems, but of all robotic systems to a degree. These treaties will have far-reaching future implications.

  Recognizing severe deficiencies in key areas, the United States begins a top-to-bottom review of all its treaties and alliances and its entire defense establishment. The Western Pacific Alliance is dissolved as a condition of terminating the war.

  Three months after the cessation of hostilities, the PRC government falls in a general uprising of the populace. A state of widespread low-intensity civil war breaks out as various factions vie for control of the country. Taiwan intercedes quickly, fearing the outcome should remaining communist hardliners obtain control over stockpiles of nuclear weapons. At the end of 2027, the tenuous state of peace is already at risk.

  2028:Several multinational energy companies almost simultaneously announce the development of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) power generation, quickly dubbed “cold fusion.” This sudden panacea renders power grids obsolete, swiftly mitigating much of the damage done during the war. The mass production of cold-fusion generators results in the first stage of a worldwide paradigm shift as energy becomes plentiful, cheap, and readily accessible. While corporations duel over patents in international courts, others accuse them of prior collusion and the deliberate suppression of technology to prolong the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. All of these disputes are quickly overshadowed by hard pragmatism—LENR technology enables the rapid restoration of power to civil municipalities and greatly aids relief efforts in areas devastated by nuclear weapons. Fossil fuels, the underlying cause of almost every human conflict since the nineteenth century, become comparatively worthless within months. The prices of petroleum and its derivative products plummet to record lows, rendering OPEC and similar concerns politically and economically defunct.

  2029:Breakthroughs in the engineering of laser-fusion reactors yield record efficiencies in power generation. Coupled with cold fusion, these technologies solve mankind’s immediate energy needs and complete a worldwide paradigm shift. Entrepreneurs draw up plans to chain fusion power plants to desalination plants along coastlines, utilizing large pipelines to transform previously arid regions into agricultural land, forestation projects, and green living space. The Crandall Foundation and other spacegoing concerns begin the development of constant-thrust space-drive systems using laser-fusion reactors.

  After a pragmatic cost-benefit analysis and much heated debate, the United States withdraws from the United Nations and nationalizes U.N. assets and holdings on American soil. Several other nations withdraw as well. The U.N. relocates to Belgium, adopting the former NATO headquarters for its use.

  After two years of internal struggle, China and Taiwan reunify under a new Chinese government based on the “Three Principles of the People” political philosophy formulated by Sun Yat-sen. The government of the new Chinese Federal Republic (CFR) closely mirrors the former government of Taiwan. The capital is reestablished in Beijing and civil order is restored.

  2031: Japan, the CFR, and the Russian Federation all withdraw from the United Nations. Russia annexes the Baltic States unopposed. Japan, Korea, and the United States form the Pacific Trade and Defense Alliance.

  The United Nations officially dissolves.

  Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands petition to combine and become the fifty-first state in the Union. Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands petition to combine and become the fifty-second state. All four regions show great promise for development as equatorial spaceports, and their petitions are granted the following year. Two stars are added to the U.S. flag, prompting a new design.

  2035: The Chinese Federal Republic announces the revitalization of China’s manned space programs and revives former PRC plans to establish a manned base on lunar soil.

  2040: A decade behind proposed schedules because of the Western Pacific War, the Crandall Foundation–sponsored “Mars 2040” mission launches three unmanned Earth Return Vehicles (ERVs) toward Mars, utilizing a variation of the “Mars Direct” philosophy developed in the mid-1990s.

  2041:First manned expedition departs for Mars.

  2042:First manned landings on Mars. The Crandall Foundation and its partners launch three more unmanned ERVs and two more manned expeditions. Planning begins for the first three permanent Martian settlements. A CFR expedition lands on the moon, laying the groundwork for the first Chinese lunar settlement. Commercial space partners in the United States and Europe also conduct manned lunar landings and begin surveying for permanent settlements. Late in the year, the Crandall Foundation hosts a summit between all spacefaring nations in Singapore. The broad outlines of the lunar and Martian treaties are drafted, closely resembling the existing Antarctic Treaty. One notable exception is the lack of a ban on space militarization.

  2044: Second round of manned landings on Mars. Lunar and Martian treaties are ratified. Australia, Chile, Canada, and New Zealand join the Pacific Trade and Defense Alliance. Russia and several Western European nations form the Pan-European Alliance (PEA). Much of the PEA charter is centered around space ventures.

  The first experimental fusion torch drive is tested, with nominal results. Construction of orbital-rail catapults begins in the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico.

  Raymond Crandall, founder and chairman of the Crandall Foundation, passes away. Ironically, he has never traveled into space despite his massive contribution to mankind’s expansion beyond Earth’s boundaries. The Crandall Foundation continues, as does its work in the aerospace and medical sciences.

  2045:Fusion power and cold fusion have begun transforming the sociopolitical and technological landscape of the planet. The overall quality of life worldwide has begun to rise. Food production has risen dramatically, and the production of harmful greenhouse gases has been reduced by two orders of magnitude. New models of education and training are supplanting the old as wireless technologies allow for virtual classrooms in even the poorest or remotest regions. This year is also retroactively referred to as “The Year of the Big Lift,” as space ventures see a sudden, exponential increase. More countries and corporations than ever before begin moving people and materiel into cislunar space in large quantities. Historians will come to regard 2045 as the cusp of mankind’s true off-Earth diaspora.

  2047:The U.S. passes the Defense Reorganization Act of 2047 on the centennial of the first such act. This complete redesign of the U.S. defense establishment accounts for the growing predominance of space ventures in human affairs. Advances in military and space-based technology have rendered oceangoing navies obsolete. As a result, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are restructured into a single spacegoing armed force, responsible for all regimes above LEO. Other spacefaring nations rapidly follow suit, making similar changes to their own armed forces over the next decade.

  2050: Shanghai Yueliang is incorporated as the first lunar colony under the CFR flag. Marius Hills Pressure is incorporated as the second, designated a U.S. territory. Half a dozen additional permanent settlements and facilities will rapidly incorporate over the next year—all but two under Russian, Chinese, or American jurisdiction. The remaining two settlemen
ts are independent corporate entities, the first of their kind on the moon. The first accidental human death occurs on Mars.

  2051:The first fusion-driven torchship makes the crossing between Earth and Mars, completing the transit in twenty-four days and setting a new human speed record. Construction begins on the first colonization “ark” designed to move large payloads of people and equipment from Earth to Mars. This is another project spearheaded by the Crandall Foundation, but three-quarters of the funds are contributed by individuals, corporations, and government entities seeking cargo allowances. This year marks the beginning of the Torchship Era—another paradigm change as significant as the development of fusion power itself. Futurists note that the “technology curve,” which had flattened in the middle of the twentieth century, is starting to trend exponentially upward again. Due to constraints enacted after the Western Pacific War, one prediction not yet realized is a fully sapient, self-aware artificial intelligence.

  Great Britain joins the Pacific Trade and Defense Alliance—the first non-Pacific entity invited to do so.

  2055: The first manned torchship reaches the Jovian system, marking another milestone in mankind’s expansion into the solar system. Construction begins on the Earth-Lagrange 4 (Ell-4) and Earth-Lagrange 5 (Ell-5) space habitats. The first human birth occurs on Mars.

  Medications are developed which mitigate and repair the damage done by radiation exposure to terrestrial mammals, including to human beings.

  2060: Numerous space habitats, bases, and shipyards are under construction throughout cislunar space and the various Earth, Luna, and Mars Lagrange points, and the first human prospectors are expanding into the asteroid belt. The populations of Mars and Luna continue to grow rapidly. The Crandall Foundation officially moves off-Earth and reestablishes its headquarters on Mars. Chryse Planitia University is established on Mars under the sponsorship of the Crandall Foundation. The first act of space piracy is reported between Mars and the asteroid belt.

  On Earth, several more nations petition to join the Pacific Trade and Defense Alliance. No longer just a Pacific Rim entity, it is rebranded “the Trans-Oceanic Alliance” (TOA).