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So I vaguely worked on it for half a year. I started getting better ideas, but I was also worried that I would forget about the whole thing or leave out important details. That, and when writing the story I felt that I had so many ideas to express that they would step on each others' shoes or generally dilute the experience. So to kill two birds with one stone, I decided to write a guidebook to express all my new ideas in one "story". This way I can organize my thoughts, establish a stable setting for the real story I have yet to write, and include details from everything I've thought of in an appropriate setting. It was a good idea too, because establishing an entire world is really not very easy, especially in my current state of mind. I have constantly wavering confidence in my own ability to write, and I fear that this talent (like many others) has begun to degenerate. If I can still write a good story, then that can give me some hope back for other talents etc etc. What I really want to express with this story is the way my new world looks; with cities built on the ocean, colorful objects everywhere, the living water built into every aspect of the city both in terms of function and aesthetic design. I really want to draw a picture to help express what I'm trying to describe with words, but I don't have the skills to do that just yet. I still might try though.
One other note, I want criticism on this but I don't want anyone to bash it. Again, I'm not very confident in myself right now and I'm worried that it shows in the writing. Also I know that most of the ideas I've come up with are either scientifically inaccurate or just outright impossible, especially with the time needed for progress or other numbers involved. Feel free to point some of those out if they're just too much to ignore, but most of them are important to the story and really can't be changed too much. I don't like having crazy sounding science, but bits of it are unavoidable. But aside from that, this guidebook is going to be the longest thing I've written to date and will cover tons of new ideas. I'm going to post only small parts of it at a time, and I have plans for at least five chapters, probably more. And again, seriously, I'm building an entirely new world for this story and it all has to work together so just take what you read with a grain of salt if it sounds too crazy (but still let me know).
So yeah here's the first chapter, which will be getting updates and revisions as I write the others:
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Welcome and congratulations on your admittance into Post-World society! This guide will help acclimate you to your new surroundings so that you can adjust safely and comfortably. With time and practice, you will easily find yourself becoming a happy and productive member of your Post-World society! Whether you've arrived here as an immigrant, or if you were thawed from Cryogenic storage, or if you are simply a citizen curious about the world you live in, this guide will answer many important questions with little confusion.
Introduction: Calamity, Global Collapse.
To understand the purpose and design behind a Post-World city, it is important to understand the events that lead to the necessity of such cities. Just over 130 years ago, Humanity suffered under a near total collapse of global society. A combination of overpopulation, advanced plagues, and a short World War managed to eliminate much of Earth's human population. It is unsure exactly how many lives were lost during the great Calamity, but experts today estimate that roughly 70-80% of humanity was lost within a period of two years.
At the turn of the 22nd Century, Earth was heavily overpopulated. Humans were making every effort to stop the damage our survival cultivated across the planet, but even with our efforts the oceans and atmosphere suffered much. Many wild species went extinct or became endangered, and many more became unable to survive in the wild and existed only in nature reserves or in zoos. Thankfully our scientists at the time were becoming more aware of the dangers of extinction, and vast DNA banks were created to house the genes of 75% of known complex Earthly life. Most microorganisms were not backed up within the DNA banks, and all cured diseases were recorded only as gene maps to prevent outbreaks of otherwise eliminated plagues.
Even when we tried to turn to the stars we could find little refuge. The only usable planet within our reach was Mars, and even there the nature of the planet made it very hard to make significant use of whatever resources the planet could offer. Attempts at teraforming had limited success, and scientists today still attempt to determine whether any form of life still exists upon the planet. Self sustaining colonies were established on the red planet, and green plant life was planted, but during the Calamity Mars became cut off from Earth both in terms of travel and communication. It is unsure whether Mars was struck with a similar Calamity to Earth, and it is remotely possible that humans still live on Mars and are unable to contact Earth.
As humanity hit critical mass, societies all across the globe began to display the warning signs of collapse. In highly populated areas diseases began to spread rapidly due to the closely packed populations and, ironically, their extremely clean lifestyle. Any contagions that could survive in a city became superbugs, and quickly wreaked havoc across major population centers. As economic failures hit, tensions grew high as well. Riots grew commonplace and unfriendly countries began to launch small scale attacks to take advantage of global distraction. Smaller brushfire conflicts lead to military actions that involved larger countries, until eventually World War III was declared. It is still unsure who the major fighting parties were, unfortunately, as the third World War lasted only four days. Many people were killed, and the fighting was as intense as it was brief. The war pushed humanity to its breaking point, and society collapsed for a period of two years.
Over this time many things happened to change the world forever. On a smaller scale, most humans with predominantly violent tendencies managed to kill each other off. Those with less experience in fending for themselves were frequently caught in the crossfire of whatever conflict was nearby. Slavery ran rampant for a short time, but disease managed to wipe out any large group of people who stayed together for too long. At some point during the fighting, a number of countries managed to launch chaff rockets into the higher atmosphere, making it nearly impossible to send anything into space intact. No one is sure whether those actions were an attempt to damn humanity and trap us on the Earth's surface, or if the chaff rockets were launched to prevent world-ending missiles from being launched. Either way, our atmosphere was rendered impassable.
For the most part individuals who were more intelligent, experienced, clever, or simply lucky managed to survive. Many rich individuals managed to hide away in unknown locations and stayed alive with varying success. After roughly two years, the Calamity began to slow down simply because it had run out of its human fuel, and much like the coals at the bottom of a badly lit fire, enough of humanity managed to survive unconsumed to start over. Despite the remaining human population being spread out in isolated clusters all across the globe, it was still possible for survivors to find each other and band together in preparation for the reconstruction of society. Initially certain individuals found computers that still had access to internet services. By using those computers to discover other working facilities, one group of survivors managed to send out messages to all working radios, phones, computers, and wireless devices across the world. By making use of old business oriented satellites, messages could be sent out en masse, telling other survivors to travel to various locations that computers had shown were likely to have food and supplies. As the scattered survivors came together again, it was true to say that humanity had weathered through an apocalypse and survived.
Now that we have the End of the World out of the way, we can move on to its reconstruction.
Introduction: Origin and Concept of the Post World City
Over the next years, the remnants of humanity faced many hardships. One of the most important problems to tackle was the removal of the bodies left over by the Calamity. With nearly 70% of the world's population dead and rotting (it is estimated that 10% of the world's population received some form of burial during the Calamity, or were destroyed so thoroughly that disposal was not possible or needed), burial was a priority. A rather grim stroke of luck was found in the fact that most of the dead bodies had rotted away in major city centers. Mass burials were undertaken, with cremations and “burials at sea” making frequent appearances as well. Over time the number of bodies had been drastically reduced, and the risk of further disease was lowering daily.
The next problem to be tackled was the recovery of information. Relatively little information was lost due to the preservation of the internet by various organizations before the Calamity. Through libraries, museums, data centers, and the computers of private citizens, 90% of the information located on the internet was salvaged. Such high success was no miracle, as recent advances in computers and data storage had been designed to withstand much worse than the apocalypse.
Finally, society itself needed to be rebuilt. Survivors congregated in locations that still had internet connections and live power, and global communities managed to get in touch with each other to collaborate and communicate once more. Despite having such small numbers of survivors spread widely across the devastated globe, humanity was once again a global society. At least, it was where there was internet access. In some poorer countries, internet connectivity had become extremely rare. These countries rebuilt independently of the rest of the world. In some cases these societies were contacted and assisted by the rest of the world. But many countries were not so lucky. More information will be provided later on in the guidebook concerning countries that rebuilt independently.
Thanks to the advancement of society before the Calamity, reeducation of survivors was not as difficult as it had been throughout history. The internet became an impossibly useful tool, allowing complex secrets and vital information to remain known to the survivors. Advanced education techniques and necessity allowed people to learn much quickly, and soon humanity began to reconstruct the world. Resources became plentiful as factories were reactivated, factories that had originally been designed to produce an output for a much more heavily populated world. Due to the nature of the survivors, scientific advancements were also made. Food could be grown faster and healthier, local water and air could be cleaned faster and better. Supercomputers that were found undamaged were re-purposed to aid in research relevant to life in the growing world. Soon, society had managed to reconstruct to a level close to its complexity before the Calamity, and in some ways it had become superior.
Our species had hit a plateau in terms of progress roughly 50 years after the Calamity. Life continued at a comfortable level, but the planet was still damaged. The skies were cleaner, but they were still discolored with pollution across much of the globe, and the oceans were dirty and dark. If humanity was to continue its survival, then something had to be done. The top scientists at the time came together to collaborate and determine what could be done to cleanse the Earth. After seven years of intense research and development, solutions were found and set in place. These solutions took the form of three important advancements in science and society.
The first advancement was the creation of a new source of energy. This energy was derived from water, but not through any means traditionally used in the past. Scientists discovered a way to draw energy from the Brownian Movement of the molecules within water. Water was chosen for three reasons. First, liquids were the best material to use for the process because their molecules moved faster than those in a solid, but were still bound closer together unlike those of a gas. Second, water was plentiful in the oceans, despite the fact that it was polluted. Third, the only side effect was that the water would slowly cool over time as energy was taken from it. Large bodies of water worked best, as smaller bodies simply couldn't produce the needed output. But despite needing large bodies of water to create energy, the process took very little from the water itself and created almost no pollution. It was also highly replenishable, as the water was not actually consumed as fuel.
The second advancement was the development of two new forms of bacteria. The bacteria known as Breed A fed on pollution within any given source of water. Breed A was capable of breeding quickly and consuming at an astounding rate, with scientists predicting that oceans could be cleansed by 75% over the course of another eight years. The only drawback was that Breed A would breed and eat so fast that it would overpopulate its home and drive out any native species in the area. As a result, Breed B was created to feed solely on Breed A. Breed B did not reproduce as quickly as Breed A, and maintained a healthy balance between the two breeds in the wild. Breed B never consumed enough to reduce the effectiveness of Breed A, and whenever Breed A began to reach a certain population density Breed B would reduce the density back to safe levels. The two breeds were completely benign towards local life, and both were implemented soon after their development.
The third advancement was a new type of city designed to function in tandem with the first two advancements. It ran on the power generated from water, and functioned to regulate the populations of both the man-made bacteria as well as the repopulation of ocean life. Hydrostatic Cities, as they were called at the time, existed at first on the edge of a water source, and were gradually built to extend into the oceans themselves. A Hydrostatic City could either remain connected physically to the mainland, or it could exist as a self-sustaining island. However, Hydrostatic cities were nearly impossible to build on the land itself, and had to exist near a large enough water source to provide power. At first they existed primarily as prototype designs of their component parts, remaining in heavy development until the city designs could be perfected and the oceans clean enough to support the Hydrostatic Cities. But finally, 70 years after the Calamity that wiped out the majority of human life on the planet, the first Hydrostatic City was built on the eastern Coast of what used to be known as the United States. Existing on the coast of Florida was the city known romantically as New Atlantis.
New Atlantis existed initially as a research oriented city. It looked crude and ugly because much of it was still in development, but new components and technologies were implemented every day, and the city was always changing. The ocean that had once been dark and filthy was regaining its clarity and was rapidly reaching the day when it could once again support the wide array of life it used to host. As the city spread farther into the ocean, artificial beaches were created for research and relaxation. Five years after its founding, New Atlantis began to reintroduce fish into the ocean. Sea Bass, Tuna, and a few breeds of Carp were the first to re-inhabit their homes, and after their success more fish returned to the ocean as well. After another five years, normal people had begun to live in the city, and the oceans were starting to truly heal. New Hydrostatic Cities were being built at each major population center until each continent featured at least one budding city. Each city developed new technologies to assist in the survival of the new residents who lived and worked there. Batteries became the most used form of portable energy, and could be built to either run on stored chemical energy or to exist as large water tanks that generated fair amounts of energy.
Introduction: Life Changes in a Hydrostatic City
After 100 years, humanity had gone from total collapse to societies based almost entirely around Hydrostatic Cities. We had reached the point where the Earth was finally healing and our species could begin to relax. The arts made a comeback in every category previously known, and many new categories of expression as well. Holograms were developed to provide an easier way to interface with the ever growing internet, and Hydrostatic Cities were bathed in colorful paintings, banners, flags, and even holograms. People learned how to feel at ease, and peace could be found just about wherever you looked. Within a few short months, the once ugly and lonely cities became beautiful centers for activity and expansion.
As beautiful as the cities became, most people feel that the true beauty of Hydrostatic cities came from their ties with the ocean. The waters that were once dark and dirty had regained some of their original blue hues, and soon any water around a Hydrostatic City took on a bright blue color normally attributed to tropical waters. Part of the design of a Hydrostatic City involves the fact that water, while a good source of energy, can still only provide so much power in any given amount. That fact is the very reason that these cities can't be built unless there is a large source of water nearby, and why they work best on the ocean. In the design process of New Atlantis, it was decided that materials could be saved by combining the power distribution network with the water distribution network. This solution was feasible because bacteria Breeds A and B guaranteed that any water around or in the city would be pure, and because it was easier to produce lightweight acrylic piping than it would be to build a citywide power distribution network.
As a result, all Hydrostatic Cities feature visible networks of large clear pipes incorporated into the designs of the cities. It quickly became common to see pipes as wide as six feet built into the middle of roads, or pipes lining the sides and corners of buildings guiding the clear blue water wherever it was needed. Anywhere water was meant to come in contact with humans, extra filters were added to desalinize the water and to normalize its pH. As the waters grew cleaner, pipes would be constructed as much for their aesthetic values as their actual usefulness. Eventually ocean life was introduced into the cities, so that fish and coral could be seen in the larger pipes. This may sound odd to some people, especially those who have been in Cryogenic Storage for certain lengths of time, but it is important to remember that the water remains pure, and many smaller pipes remain blocked off from the sea life (although this is mostly done for their safety).
The end result is truly beautiful, as anyone who has seen it will tell you. Streets and buildings are lined with beautiful aquariums, living displays of what we have accomplished as a species, and evidence of humanity learning to live alongside nature in ways that have never been possible before. This guidebook can not do justice to the sights that will be visible all around you every day, but the author will personally vouch for this beauty, as he will never forget his first glimpse of a Hydrostatic City street. Underneath my feet there was a coral reef built into the transparent street itself, and I watched as a sea turtle drifted underneath my shadow followed by a school of yellow fish. The edges of buildings and paths are guarded by clear pipes that glitter under the sun, functioning as power lines or water distribution or just placed there to look beautiful. All around you are aquariums of bright blue and light green flowing with shimmering fish, surrounded by shining holographic displays and waving banners in any color you can imagine. The reflection of water shines on the ground where large Hydrostatic Batteries sit under the sun. Hopefully reader, you will soon have your own chance to witness these sights yourself, as they cannot be properly appreciated from their description alone.
The last 20-30 years have been dedicated to many new and interesting ideas, and the cities have grown more spectacular to see as they grow. A typical city will cover miles of coastline and extend even farther into the ocean, though if you stood in the center of a city and close your eyes you would never be able to tell that you were at sea. Trade routes have opened with other cities all over the world, and the recently constructed island city of Neo-Pangaea has made vast breakthroughs in the efforts to repopulate the whales and dolphins of the oceans. Thanks to the hard work of our scientists and citizens alike, Hydrostatic Cities have been responsible for creating a new type of society, one that never would have been possible 100 years ago. In terms of world societies, we have advanced past third world societies, even second and first worlds. That is why we chose to refer to our Hydrostatic Cities as Post-World cities, and why we live in a Post-World society. So again, congratulations to your status as a Post-World Citizen. But don't stop reading yet, there is still much to learn about the Post-World you live in.
Introduction: Calamity, Global Collapse.
To understand the purpose and design behind a Post-World city, it is important to understand the events that lead to the necessity of such cities. Just over 130 years ago, Humanity suffered under a near total collapse of global society. A combination of overpopulation, advanced plagues, and a short World War managed to eliminate much of Earth's human population. It is unsure exactly how many lives were lost during the great Calamity, but experts today estimate that roughly 70-80% of humanity was lost within a period of two years.
At the turn of the 22nd Century, Earth was heavily overpopulated. Humans were making every effort to stop the damage our survival cultivated across the planet, but even with our efforts the oceans and atmosphere suffered much. Many wild species went extinct or became endangered, and many more became unable to survive in the wild and existed only in nature reserves or in zoos. Thankfully our scientists at the time were becoming more aware of the dangers of extinction, and vast DNA banks were created to house the genes of 75% of known complex Earthly life. Most microorganisms were not backed up within the DNA banks, and all cured diseases were recorded only as gene maps to prevent outbreaks of otherwise eliminated plagues.
Even when we tried to turn to the stars we could find little refuge. The only usable planet within our reach was Mars, and even there the nature of the planet made it very hard to make significant use of whatever resources the planet could offer. Attempts at teraforming had limited success, and scientists today still attempt to determine whether any form of life still exists upon the planet. Self sustaining colonies were established on the red planet, and green plant life was planted, but during the Calamity Mars became cut off from Earth both in terms of travel and communication. It is unsure whether Mars was struck with a similar Calamity to Earth, and it is remotely possible that humans still live on Mars and are unable to contact Earth.
As humanity hit critical mass, societies all across the globe began to display the warning signs of collapse. In highly populated areas diseases began to spread rapidly due to the closely packed populations and, ironically, their extremely clean lifestyle. Any contagions that could survive in a city became superbugs, and quickly wreaked havoc across major population centers. As economic failures hit, tensions grew high as well. Riots grew commonplace and unfriendly countries began to launch small scale attacks to take advantage of global distraction. Smaller brushfire conflicts lead to military actions that involved larger countries, until eventually World War III was declared. It is still unsure who the major fighting parties were, unfortunately, as the third World War lasted only four days. Many people were killed, and the fighting was as intense as it was brief. The war pushed humanity to its breaking point, and society collapsed for a period of two years.
Over this time many things happened to change the world forever. On a smaller scale, most humans with predominantly violent tendencies managed to kill each other off. Those with less experience in fending for themselves were frequently caught in the crossfire of whatever conflict was nearby. Slavery ran rampant for a short time, but disease managed to wipe out any large group of people who stayed together for too long. At some point during the fighting, a number of countries managed to launch chaff rockets into the higher atmosphere, making it nearly impossible to send anything into space intact. No one is sure whether those actions were an attempt to damn humanity and trap us on the Earth's surface, or if the chaff rockets were launched to prevent world-ending missiles from being launched. Either way, our atmosphere was rendered impassable.
For the most part individuals who were more intelligent, experienced, clever, or simply lucky managed to survive. Many rich individuals managed to hide away in unknown locations and stayed alive with varying success. After roughly two years, the Calamity began to slow down simply because it had run out of its human fuel, and much like the coals at the bottom of a badly lit fire, enough of humanity managed to survive unconsumed to start over. Despite the remaining human population being spread out in isolated clusters all across the globe, it was still possible for survivors to find each other and band together in preparation for the reconstruction of society. Initially certain individuals found computers that still had access to internet services. By using those computers to discover other working facilities, one group of survivors managed to send out messages to all working radios, phones, computers, and wireless devices across the world. By making use of old business oriented satellites, messages could be sent out en masse, telling other survivors to travel to various locations that computers had shown were likely to have food and supplies. As the scattered survivors came together again, it was true to say that humanity had weathered through an apocalypse and survived.
Now that we have the End of the World out of the way, we can move on to its reconstruction.
Introduction: Origin and Concept of the Post World City
Over the next years, the remnants of humanity faced many hardships. One of the most important problems to tackle was the removal of the bodies left over by the Calamity. With nearly 70% of the world's population dead and rotting (it is estimated that 10% of the world's population received some form of burial during the Calamity, or were destroyed so thoroughly that disposal was not possible or needed), burial was a priority. A rather grim stroke of luck was found in the fact that most of the dead bodies had rotted away in major city centers. Mass burials were undertaken, with cremations and “burials at sea” making frequent appearances as well. Over time the number of bodies had been drastically reduced, and the risk of further disease was lowering daily.
The next problem to be tackled was the recovery of information. Relatively little information was lost due to the preservation of the internet by various organizations before the Calamity. Through libraries, museums, data centers, and the computers of private citizens, 90% of the information located on the internet was salvaged. Such high success was no miracle, as recent advances in computers and data storage had been designed to withstand much worse than the apocalypse.
Finally, society itself needed to be rebuilt. Survivors congregated in locations that still had internet connections and live power, and global communities managed to get in touch with each other to collaborate and communicate once more. Despite having such small numbers of survivors spread widely across the devastated globe, humanity was once again a global society. At least, it was where there was internet access. In some poorer countries, internet connectivity had become extremely rare. These countries rebuilt independently of the rest of the world. In some cases these societies were contacted and assisted by the rest of the world. But many countries were not so lucky. More information will be provided later on in the guidebook concerning countries that rebuilt independently.
Thanks to the advancement of society before the Calamity, reeducation of survivors was not as difficult as it had been throughout history. The internet became an impossibly useful tool, allowing complex secrets and vital information to remain known to the survivors. Advanced education techniques and necessity allowed people to learn much quickly, and soon humanity began to reconstruct the world. Resources became plentiful as factories were reactivated, factories that had originally been designed to produce an output for a much more heavily populated world. Due to the nature of the survivors, scientific advancements were also made. Food could be grown faster and healthier, local water and air could be cleaned faster and better. Supercomputers that were found undamaged were re-purposed to aid in research relevant to life in the growing world. Soon, society had managed to reconstruct to a level close to its complexity before the Calamity, and in some ways it had become superior.
Our species had hit a plateau in terms of progress roughly 50 years after the Calamity. Life continued at a comfortable level, but the planet was still damaged. The skies were cleaner, but they were still discolored with pollution across much of the globe, and the oceans were dirty and dark. If humanity was to continue its survival, then something had to be done. The top scientists at the time came together to collaborate and determine what could be done to cleanse the Earth. After seven years of intense research and development, solutions were found and set in place. These solutions took the form of three important advancements in science and society.
The first advancement was the creation of a new source of energy. This energy was derived from water, but not through any means traditionally used in the past. Scientists discovered a way to draw energy from the Brownian Movement of the molecules within water. Water was chosen for three reasons. First, liquids were the best material to use for the process because their molecules moved faster than those in a solid, but were still bound closer together unlike those of a gas. Second, water was plentiful in the oceans, despite the fact that it was polluted. Third, the only side effect was that the water would slowly cool over time as energy was taken from it. Large bodies of water worked best, as smaller bodies simply couldn't produce the needed output. But despite needing large bodies of water to create energy, the process took very little from the water itself and created almost no pollution. It was also highly replenishable, as the water was not actually consumed as fuel.
The second advancement was the development of two new forms of bacteria. The bacteria known as Breed A fed on pollution within any given source of water. Breed A was capable of breeding quickly and consuming at an astounding rate, with scientists predicting that oceans could be cleansed by 75% over the course of another eight years. The only drawback was that Breed A would breed and eat so fast that it would overpopulate its home and drive out any native species in the area. As a result, Breed B was created to feed solely on Breed A. Breed B did not reproduce as quickly as Breed A, and maintained a healthy balance between the two breeds in the wild. Breed B never consumed enough to reduce the effectiveness of Breed A, and whenever Breed A began to reach a certain population density Breed B would reduce the density back to safe levels. The two breeds were completely benign towards local life, and both were implemented soon after their development.
The third advancement was a new type of city designed to function in tandem with the first two advancements. It ran on the power generated from water, and functioned to regulate the populations of both the man-made bacteria as well as the repopulation of ocean life. Hydrostatic Cities, as they were called at the time, existed at first on the edge of a water source, and were gradually built to extend into the oceans themselves. A Hydrostatic City could either remain connected physically to the mainland, or it could exist as a self-sustaining island. However, Hydrostatic cities were nearly impossible to build on the land itself, and had to exist near a large enough water source to provide power. At first they existed primarily as prototype designs of their component parts, remaining in heavy development until the city designs could be perfected and the oceans clean enough to support the Hydrostatic Cities. But finally, 70 years after the Calamity that wiped out the majority of human life on the planet, the first Hydrostatic City was built on the eastern Coast of what used to be known as the United States. Existing on the coast of Florida was the city known romantically as New Atlantis.
New Atlantis existed initially as a research oriented city. It looked crude and ugly because much of it was still in development, but new components and technologies were implemented every day, and the city was always changing. The ocean that had once been dark and filthy was regaining its clarity and was rapidly reaching the day when it could once again support the wide array of life it used to host. As the city spread farther into the ocean, artificial beaches were created for research and relaxation. Five years after its founding, New Atlantis began to reintroduce fish into the ocean. Sea Bass, Tuna, and a few breeds of Carp were the first to re-inhabit their homes, and after their success more fish returned to the ocean as well. After another five years, normal people had begun to live in the city, and the oceans were starting to truly heal. New Hydrostatic Cities were being built at each major population center until each continent featured at least one budding city. Each city developed new technologies to assist in the survival of the new residents who lived and worked there. Batteries became the most used form of portable energy, and could be built to either run on stored chemical energy or to exist as large water tanks that generated fair amounts of energy.
Introduction: Life Changes in a Hydrostatic City
After 100 years, humanity had gone from total collapse to societies based almost entirely around Hydrostatic Cities. We had reached the point where the Earth was finally healing and our species could begin to relax. The arts made a comeback in every category previously known, and many new categories of expression as well. Holograms were developed to provide an easier way to interface with the ever growing internet, and Hydrostatic Cities were bathed in colorful paintings, banners, flags, and even holograms. People learned how to feel at ease, and peace could be found just about wherever you looked. Within a few short months, the once ugly and lonely cities became beautiful centers for activity and expansion.
As beautiful as the cities became, most people feel that the true beauty of Hydrostatic cities came from their ties with the ocean. The waters that were once dark and dirty had regained some of their original blue hues, and soon any water around a Hydrostatic City took on a bright blue color normally attributed to tropical waters. Part of the design of a Hydrostatic City involves the fact that water, while a good source of energy, can still only provide so much power in any given amount. That fact is the very reason that these cities can't be built unless there is a large source of water nearby, and why they work best on the ocean. In the design process of New Atlantis, it was decided that materials could be saved by combining the power distribution network with the water distribution network. This solution was feasible because bacteria Breeds A and B guaranteed that any water around or in the city would be pure, and because it was easier to produce lightweight acrylic piping than it would be to build a citywide power distribution network.
As a result, all Hydrostatic Cities feature visible networks of large clear pipes incorporated into the designs of the cities. It quickly became common to see pipes as wide as six feet built into the middle of roads, or pipes lining the sides and corners of buildings guiding the clear blue water wherever it was needed. Anywhere water was meant to come in contact with humans, extra filters were added to desalinize the water and to normalize its pH. As the waters grew cleaner, pipes would be constructed as much for their aesthetic values as their actual usefulness. Eventually ocean life was introduced into the cities, so that fish and coral could be seen in the larger pipes. This may sound odd to some people, especially those who have been in Cryogenic Storage for certain lengths of time, but it is important to remember that the water remains pure, and many smaller pipes remain blocked off from the sea life (although this is mostly done for their safety).
The end result is truly beautiful, as anyone who has seen it will tell you. Streets and buildings are lined with beautiful aquariums, living displays of what we have accomplished as a species, and evidence of humanity learning to live alongside nature in ways that have never been possible before. This guidebook can not do justice to the sights that will be visible all around you every day, but the author will personally vouch for this beauty, as he will never forget his first glimpse of a Hydrostatic City street. Underneath my feet there was a coral reef built into the transparent street itself, and I watched as a sea turtle drifted underneath my shadow followed by a school of yellow fish. The edges of buildings and paths are guarded by clear pipes that glitter under the sun, functioning as power lines or water distribution or just placed there to look beautiful. All around you are aquariums of bright blue and light green flowing with shimmering fish, surrounded by shining holographic displays and waving banners in any color you can imagine. The reflection of water shines on the ground where large Hydrostatic Batteries sit under the sun. Hopefully reader, you will soon have your own chance to witness these sights yourself, as they cannot be properly appreciated from their description alone.
The last 20-30 years have been dedicated to many new and interesting ideas, and the cities have grown more spectacular to see as they grow. A typical city will cover miles of coastline and extend even farther into the ocean, though if you stood in the center of a city and close your eyes you would never be able to tell that you were at sea. Trade routes have opened with other cities all over the world, and the recently constructed island city of Neo-Pangaea has made vast breakthroughs in the efforts to repopulate the whales and dolphins of the oceans. Thanks to the hard work of our scientists and citizens alike, Hydrostatic Cities have been responsible for creating a new type of society, one that never would have been possible 100 years ago. In terms of world societies, we have advanced past third world societies, even second and first worlds. That is why we chose to refer to our Hydrostatic Cities as Post-World cities, and why we live in a Post-World society. So again, congratulations to your status as a Post-World Citizen. But don't stop reading yet, there is still much to learn about the Post-World you live in.
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