Birthday Cards (August 2013)

My Take on Backwards History (Part 3)

The world in 1950 is very different from the world for 50 years earlier. As knowledge of semiconductors is slowly eaten away by the microbe, computers have become so bulky that the 1970s saw the last “personal computers.” They were getting too big for personal use, limiting their use to companies and institutions. Mobile phones have ceased to exist as well, limiting the world’s telecommunications to cumbersome land-lines, which now relied more on cables in the ground instead of satellites. There is less plastic been used, thanks to successful eco-campaigns and diminishing fossil fuel reserves. The knowledge of jet engines is disappearing with the sight and sound of less jet planes in the sky. The people are noticing the change.

Politically, the world is different with Russia and the US in a “Cold War” between capitalism and militarized socialism. During this “Cold War” China (the one mighty economic power) rejected capitalism and followed the Russians. Much of East Asia followed suit, fed up with the fluctuating booms and busts of the 1990s. Afghanistan, during its liberation from Islamic Fundamentalism were invaded by the Russians in the 1980s. In Eastern Europe, east of Berlin, the Russians took over. Germany had become the cooking pot of potential war since 1989 and soon it will explode. In this climate, the populace took more interest in politics. In fact, the turn out of democratic elections and political rallies had increased during the “Cold War.”

One cause of the increased interest in current affairs was the collapse of television. With the microbe eating away the knowledge of technicians, the 1990s saw the transition from digital to analogue technology. This change dramatically reduced the number of TV channels, limiting to less than 10 to even people with satellite or cable. As knowledge of video recording decreased in the 20^th century, they were less repeats and more live programmes. By 1950, there was little to watch, with little recorded programmes from the past that could be played through telecine and further reduced number of channels (with some territories having just one channel), which were all now in monochrome. Programme makers were desperate, with TV schedules full of variety acts taken from the booming music halls and theatres. This forced more people away from their screens and doing other things for their leisure time, such as model building. As a result, the audiences were getting smaller and this had a knock-on effect in advertising. With decreasing funds from advertising, most commercial TV stations switched off. Only, government-backed stations remained until the technicians finally forgot how to operate the equipment. The 1920s would see the last TV broadcasts, done only by amateurs in the hope of reviving it in the future. 

The collapse of digital media (as well as television) was a mixed blessing for politics. Although its distracting powers had decreased, it was becoming easier for governments to control the media. As a result, there was a boom in propaganda worldwide from the 1960s onwards.

So everything was set for an explosion in conflict. They were smaller conflicts, such as Vietnam and Korea, but it was nothing compared what was about to start after 1950.

It began in China in 1949, when the population rebelled against their government after years of famine and cultural persecution. This lead to a Civil War in 1946. With China been an ally with Russia, the US decided to drop the world’s last nuclear weapons on China. But a calculation error (according to some sources) forced the bomber crew to drop their load on Japan instead. Japan had experienced a decreasing economy since the 1970s. By 1950, it was only the US needing supplies for the Korean War that kept them afloat. But when that war ended, Japan was a shadow of its former self and under the control by the Americans. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki drive the Japanese to banish the Americans and go to war with them. With Japan to deal with, the US was slightly detracted when; months later Germany erupted into a revolution to unite its two separated halves. A World War Had begun.

Meanwhile, during the “Cold War” the nations of Africa, South and Central America, who were caught up in the “war” decided to end their unstable mix of democratic and dictatorial governments with more stable rule from European nations. It wasn’t a smooth transition, with rebellions and coups and all that. But by the 1930s, most nations were under the rule of a small number of countries. Now their fate depended on these countries. 

My Take on Backwards History (Part 2)

When the mental clock of the human race began to tick backwards things were just as they were before the change. But, slowly behind the scenes, something was happening to the internet. Connections began to be lost more often, and the rate was increasing year upon year. It was becoming very annoying, more annoying than pop-up ads. Soon the problem got worse. People lost data, because they put all their fate on the cloud. IT engineers couldn't explain it, but a number of hackers found out the truth and tried to publish it online. But by then, the mid-2000s, the loss of data and connections was so frustrating in some places, people there stopped using the internet altogether. Slowly, the people of the world were removing their electronic umbilical cords of information reverting back to a pre-internet world. A few (mostly hackers and geeks) remain faithful to their main fix in life by 1983.

During that time, as cloud computing became impossible; computers became larger and thicker to include more internal storage function. With more space needed for larger hard drives a few sacrifices had to be made, such as built-in webcams. Mobile phones gave up been computers and became just… phones (with optional text messaging). The cause of the devolution of information technology was caused by the mass of data that was collected during the years the clocks run forward. As information technology “dumbed down” there was a mad rush to rescue that data before they became inaccessible. This resulted in a huge demand for physical media (CDs, floppies, tapes, etc). This was particularly true for large files, such as movies and music. With diminishing bandwidth, what was left of the interment was becoming a former shadow of itself, mostly made up of text, forums and low-resolution gif graphics. It seemed that the record and movie industry had finally licked piracy (they only now sell bootleg copies in market stalls or in pubs).

With one of their main sources of income gone organized crime and terrorism fell since the US began dismantling the internet. The Islamic fundamentalists could now only preach through official channels, such as radio, TV, print or (the most censor-free means) public gatherings. Unfortunately, after years of racial profiling because of their words (and actions) of hatred towards the West, the crowds they were getting wanted to beat them up. After a large attack on the US in 2001, the people of the muslin world decided that these who were tarnishing their religion’s reputation in the world must die. With help from the US and few other western powers, the people of the Middle East rooted out troublesome preachers of hate in a large violent war, which eventually ended with the establishing of a pro-western leader in Iran in 1979.

With no internet, it was now harder to sell products outside a person’s country, meaning a slump in global trade. Only large corporations could sell products across borders without trouble. This state of affairs (fuelled by angry former online retailers) causes a worldwide desire for countries to restrict foreign imports. Not only this gave foreign goods an air of wonder (due to their fewer number and price), it also boosted native manufacturing. People were buying more locally-made stuff. By 1967, for example, 97% of all cars in the US were natively built. Globalization was reversing. In 1955, as a symbol of the end of globalization, the last large container ship was scrapped.

Meanwhile (with diminishing trade outside their borders) China and America’s economies stalled and began to reverse, slowly decreasing. With industry requiring less and less power, China began demolishing a coal-fired power station every week. America did the same (but in a much slower rate). Wages began to decrease and the cost of goods increased. By 1970 a TV costs as much as a small car. The rising prices causes many people to return to repairing broken or worn out things instead of just throwing it away and buying a new thing. People were beginning to become more self-efficient and some turn to farming. But, to the many who were use to rising living standards (and wages) it was unthinkable situation. This causes massive riots and protests in all industrial nations. China witnesses a large one in 1989. The UK in 1984, 1979, and 1973.

In Russia, things got so bad during the 1990s that a more militaristic leadership was instated in 1991. With the call for invading Eastern Europe to stimulate economic growth, Russia built up a stockpile of weapons (mostly taken secondhand from unstable African nations). This move stimulate the US to stockpile weapons for a possible war against Russia. In 1989, the invasion happened… without bloodshed (except in Romania). The Americans (and other Western powers) stopped them in the middle of Germany. It was a stalemate. A stalemate that will last for 40 years, with each side working out how to break it. The solution both choose was nuclear weapons. If one can’t have the other no one can have it. During those 40 years, scientists worked on their nation’s nuclear program for better defense systems. But it was in these programs that people started to notice something happening to their brightest people… they were slowly losing their knowledge. With no microscope or imaging technology able to detect the microbe that was causing it, people couldn’t explain what was happening. But whatever it was, its effects were devastating. By 1950, humankind had lost the ability to manipulate genes, create human offspring outside the womb, build and fire rockets into space and how to solve a Rubik’s cube. What was going on? The very religious say it was God’s punishment for humans rebuilding the Tower of Babel, and their congregations accepted it.

With the loss of relatively recent knowledge, a lot of people die of now incurable problems and many secret initiatives by governments to encourage more breeding and to kill off the elderly to reduce the burden on pension systems, such as legalizing smoking in public places and introducing known hazardous substances in consumer products, such as lead-based paint pigments and mercury. By 1959, the human population collapsed from 7billion in 2011 to just 3billion. But, on the up side, there was less pollution and more housing and empty land available. And (with radical governments in the 1960s and 50s demolishing highways and airports, and investing more in railways and public transport) the world was a quieter place to live in. What could possibly happen next?

END OF PART 2

Part 3