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Description
A world map cover for @tehskyman 's EEUSG entry, the United States and Cities of America . He produced the map, points of interest and all of the text below. All I did was translate his material onto my usual style.

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No COVID-19 pandemic leads to Trump winning in 2020. The continual erosion of democracy and xenophobic politics led to another Trumpist winning in 2024 and 2028 and greater isolationism and tension between the rural areas of America and the cities.

Eventually the Democrats came back into power aboard the decoupling movement where America would separate itself the States and the Cities. In 2040 a new constitutional convention was convened and America split into States and Cities. For most of the 2040s America was reorganizing itself and dealing with the aftermath of the decoupling. It wasn't until the 2050s that America re-emerged onto the global stage.

In the 2050's America's cities really began to reassert themselves as they exited the first few confused years of existence. Europe has welcomed them as a buffer against India and China, a call back to NATO. Together they're competing with India for second. China's still number one but the gap isn't quite as large as it used to be. A collection of middle powers have developed stronger ties so they aren't subsumed by the big powers.

The oil market collapsed in 2025 and never recovered when electric automobiles really took off. It destabilized much of the world but most of all it affected Russia. Russia really struggled when the majority of their national income disappeared. Putin held it together as well as he could but when he died in 2029 the oligarchs couldn't agree to a successor and the military was divided over what to do. A quick civil war ensued. After a nuclear weapon wiped out Omsk; Europe, China and America occupied parts of the country to ensure that the nuclear arsenal was accounted for. They couldn't decide on how to restructure the country and America wanted out immediately so they partitioned Russia based on their respective occupation zones.

The European Union wasn't in the greatest shape for a while. Urban unrest across the continent and Chinese and Russian influence in Eastern Europe pulled some of the countries there away. Though now that China has retreated, Europe is reasserting itself in Eastern Europe.

The 30's and 40's were a turbulent time. The effects of climate change really started to hurt as crop failures and droughts began to impact much of the world. Not to mention the withdrawal of America from the global stage and the collapse of the oil market. Many countries struggled to hold it together and a lot of governments collapsed. South Africa limped along until 2038 when the Great African Drought hit and the country couldn't handle it.

Central Africa was hardest hit though. The Congo was torn apart by drought, famine and ethnic tensions. This led to the 3rd Congo War, which became the Great African War as different sides competed for influence. Ultimately, many central African nations were reshaped to acknowledge the reality that the borders that European Colonial empires drew were unworkable.

AI was a bit of a bust, it turns out that Moore's law and the limits of transistors meant that creating a general purpose AI was limited to states and megacorporations. No personal AI assistant for you. As researchers unfortunately discovered, human-like AI were very dangerous if allowed to roam free. They were prone to sudden mood swings and had a nasty habit of being extremely manipulative if allowed to interact with humans face to face. Considering that their cognition is orders of magnitude faster than our own, it should have been obvious in hindsight. As a result, most AI have been “lobotomized.” They can do a few tasks very well and are programmed to not care about anything else. Nowadays, AIs are treated like nuclear weapons, secure and airgapped from the internet. Researchers must obtain high-level security clearance and psyhological briefing to interact with one, let alone build them.

Climate Change was and still is one of the most pressing issues concerning states today. However, the world did not end in 2030 and emerging technologies like the hydrogen based economy and fusion power helped saved the day. CO2 levels peaked in 2040 and have slowly declined since then thanks to Carbon capture. The effects of Climate change are still being felt as global temperatures continue to rise to a peak of 2 degrees above preindustrial levels.

Around the world, China became the number one player, simply because the internal security system was so effective and they were the only ones available. Much of Latin America, Africa and Asia came under Chinese domination. However in the mid 50's, China began to decline as the stresses of running a global empire caught up to it and rivals like India and America came back into the picture. Political reforms had to be enacted, tamping down on the police state and with things like the social credit system stopped being publically used to punish people. Another blow to the Chinese system came as hub tributaries like Brazil, Indonesia and Ethiopia became more independent, taking minor allies with them. China has chosen to consolidate its control on the allies it has now, creating a defensible global system so it can focus on domestic issues and the real prize, space.

Space has become much more crowded. All the big powers have thousands of people in LEO and bases on the Moon and Mars. Space has also become incredibly militarized with 30% of the population offworld being active duty military members. Most of that is China's fault, all of their early missions were military in nature. Chinese taikomarines and Indian vyomanauts have shot at each other in skirmishes on the moon, but information about these are limited in nature. There's some chatter that we could displace into other universes and use that as superluminal travel but the research is in its infancy and very theoretical right now.

Description
A world map cover for @tehskyman 's EEUSG entry, the United States and Cities of America . He produced the map, points of interest and all of the text below. All I did was translate his material onto my usual style.

---

No COVID-19 pandemic leads to Trump winning in 2020. The continual erosion of democracy and xenophobic politics led to another Trumpist winning in 2024 and 2028 and greater isolationism and tension between the rural areas of America and the cities.

Eventually the Democrats came back into power aboard the decoupling movement where America would separate itself the States and the Cities. In 2040 a new constitutional convention was convened and America split into States and Cities. For most of the 2040s America was reorganizing itself and dealing with the aftermath of the decoupling. It wasn't until the 2050s that America re-emerged onto the global stage.

In the 2050's America's cities really began to reassert themselves as they exited the first few confused years of existence. Europe has welcomed them as a buffer against India and China, a call back to NATO. Together they're competing with India for second. China's still number one but the gap isn't quite as large as it used to be. A collection of middle powers have developed stronger ties so they aren't subsumed by the big powers.

The oil market collapsed in 2025 and never recovered when electric automobiles really took off. It destabilized much of the world but most of all it affected Russia. Russia really struggled when the majority of their national income disappeared. Putin held it together as well as he could but when he died in 2029 the oligarchs couldn't agree to a successor and the military was divided over what to do. A quick civil war ensued. After a nuclear weapon wiped out Omsk; Europe, China and America occupied parts of the country to ensure that the nuclear arsenal was accounted for. They couldn't decide on how to restructure the country and America wanted out immediately so they partitioned Russia based on their respective occupation zones.

The European Union wasn't in the greatest shape for a while. Urban unrest across the continent and Chinese and Russian influence in Eastern Europe pulled some of the countries there away. Though now that China has retreated, Europe is reasserting itself in Eastern Europe.

The 30's and 40's were a turbulent time. The effects of climate change really started to hurt as crop failures and droughts began to impact much of the world. Not to mention the withdrawal of America from the global stage and the collapse of the oil market. Many countries struggled to hold it together and a lot of governments collapsed. South Africa limped along until 2038 when the Great African Drought hit and the country couldn't handle it.

Central Africa was hardest hit though. The Congo was torn apart by drought, famine and ethnic tensions. This led to the 3rd Congo War, which became the Great African War as different sides competed for influence. Ultimately, many central African nations were reshaped to acknowledge the reality that the borders that European Colonial empires drew were unworkable.

AI was a bit of a bust, it turns out that Moore's law and the limits of transistors meant that creating a general purpose AI was limited to states and megacorporations. No personal AI assistant for you. As researchers unfortunately discovered, human-like AI were very dangerous if allowed to roam free. They were prone to sudden mood swings and had a nasty habit of being extremely manipulative if allowed to interact with humans face to face. Considering that their cognition is orders of magnitude faster than our own, it should have been obvious in hindsight. As a result, most AI have been “lobotomized.” They can do a few tasks very well and are programmed to not care about anything else. Nowadays, AIs are treated like nuclear weapons, secure and airgapped from the internet. Researchers must obtain high-level security clearance and psyhological briefing to interact with one, let alone build them.

Climate Change was and still is one of the most pressing issues concerning states today. However, the world did not end in 2030 and emerging technologies like the hydrogen based economy and fusion power helped saved the day. CO2 levels peaked in 2040 and have slowly declined since then thanks to Carbon capture. The effects of Climate change are still being felt as global temperatures continue to rise to a peak of 2 degrees above preindustrial levels.

Around the world, China became the number one player, simply because the internal security system was so effective and they were the only ones available. Much of Latin America, Africa and Asia came under Chinese domination. However in the mid 50's, China began to decline as the stresses of running a global empire caught up to it and rivals like India and America came back into the picture. Political reforms had to be enacted, tamping down on the police state and with things like the social credit system stopped being publically used to punish people. Another blow to the Chinese system came as hub tributaries like Brazil, Indonesia and Ethiopia became more independent, taking minor allies with them. China has chosen to consolidate its control on the allies it has now, creating a defensible global system so it can focus on domestic issues and the real prize, space.

Space has become much more crowded. All the big powers have thousands of people in LEO and bases on the Moon and Mars. Space has also become incredibly militarized with 30% of the population offworld being active duty military members. Most of that is China's fault, all of their early missions were military in nature. Chinese taikomarines and Indian vyomanauts have shot at each other in skirmishes on the moon, but information about these are limited in nature. There's some chatter that we could displace into other universes and use that as superluminal travel but the research is in its infancy and very theoretical right now.