Age of Prosperity
Period in Terran history from approximately 1950 to 2030 A.D. characterized by vast economic growth as a result of capitalism. Also sometimes known as the Great Acceleration or War Against Nature.
During this time technology expanded faster than ever before, and living standards for most of humankind improved. It was a very materialistic age, with the worth of a person being measured in their wealth and a consumerist ideology which promoted purchasing goods to gain status.
However, the capitalist system powering this tremendous progress contained the seeds of its own destruction: the paradigm of infinite growth on a finite planet was an inherent impossibility and soon led to unsustainable levels of resource use and pollution. Short-term incentive structures prevented any remedial action and caused inequality on an epic scale: at one point less than ten people held more wealth than 90% of the planet's population.
The end of the Age of Prosperity was a gradual decline in living standards leaving each new generation worse off than its parents, punctuated by the occasional war or famine driven by the impacts of climate change, culminating in a stagnant, authoritarian society left impoverished by the depletion of the fossil fuels which powered its past wealth. It was in this milieu that the Wormhole Rush began.
During this time technology expanded faster than ever before, and living standards for most of humankind improved. It was a very materialistic age, with the worth of a person being measured in their wealth and a consumerist ideology which promoted purchasing goods to gain status.
However, the capitalist system powering this tremendous progress contained the seeds of its own destruction: the paradigm of infinite growth on a finite planet was an inherent impossibility and soon led to unsustainable levels of resource use and pollution. Short-term incentive structures prevented any remedial action and caused inequality on an epic scale: at one point less than ten people held more wealth than 90% of the planet's population.
The end of the Age of Prosperity was a gradual decline in living standards leaving each new generation worse off than its parents, punctuated by the occasional war or famine driven by the impacts of climate change, culminating in a stagnant, authoritarian society left impoverished by the depletion of the fossil fuels which powered its past wealth. It was in this milieu that the Wormhole Rush began.
Comments