BECCA WAS PREOCCUPIED. NOT because Matt was heading to the apartment to spend the night as he often did. Not because he’d likely refuse to stay the night after her discussion with him. No, it was the first time she would see Matt after Sord’s perilous adventure, and she had to test him.

Would he confess? Would he admit he was momentarily angry, that his surprise and relief and desire to punish got the best of him and brought out his old ways, his angry ways? Or would he deny what he did? Would he claim his actions were misinterpreted?

The thought of confronting him was disconcerting since their relationship had only begun to expand a few months earlier. Things seemed to be going well between them, despite his rough edges.

But this was her son, and although Sord would be reluctant to address Matt himself, he was still young enough that she needed to confront the man directly. Besides, this arrangement was of her own doing. It was at best an inconvenience for Sord, something to which he was slowly getting accustomed.

Sord and Becca had lived alone for five years ever since his father died in the accident, if that’s what it was.

“Don’t go there,” she reminded herself. “Not a second of regret. Life has hard spots and soft spots. Learn from both, but dwell not. Toss self-pity into that mental trash bucket. Keep the lid open with the shredder on standby.”

She grabbed a hand towel from under the sink and placed it in the warm water running at the faucet. The sound reminded her for a second of the stream near her encampment in those days before she and her mother were accepted into Prosperity.

Before reaching Prosperity by whatever means, new immigrants typically lived in squalid encampments that lacked the most basic facilities or necessities for long-term survival in the post-GDII world. Life was not just modestly challenging in the encampments – it was barely survivable, and Becca spent much of her childhood there.

The reflective solar shielding covering their shabby dwellings often flew away in the relentless, dry winds. It was cheap stuff, bartered or stolen from encampments as destitute as their own. Their oxygen assist tech was of similar quality and reliability, leaving them gasping for air at times and always feeling lethargic and sick as if they lived on the highest mountain peaks in the days before GDII.

Plant life on Earth after GDII was reduced to roughly forty percent of what it once was. Fortunately, the oceans were largely spared since the decoupler tech was far less effective where water was present, saving the seas from many of the devastations that occurred on land.

Similarly, places on Earth with high humidity and water content were also less denuded of greenery. Pine forests, waxy-leaf plants, and palms also managed to largely survive, though secondary biosphere disruptions and associated environmental devastations took a tremendous toll on the extensive forests of both hemispheres.

Although the decoupling caused countless detrimental effects on all life across the globe, that which was most impacting to the few remaining millions of humans was the substantive loss of Earth’s natural air filters and oxygenators.

By the 2120’s, most plant life was only beginning to recover, and much of the world’s decaying biomass still needed to fully decompose. Layers upon layers of leaves, shrubs, fallen trees, animal life, and microscopic organisms choked the Earth’s usual mechanisms for maintaining the delicate balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide to sustain abundant life. Even considering humanity’s many attempts at genetically adapting to this new reality, the reduction in ambient oxygen, combined with methane emissions from biodegradation, severely limited humanity’s ability to rise once again as the dominant species on the planet.

Methane was but one caustic element among many others that floated freely in the air. Joining it were other noxious gasses and particulates from the residue of humanity’s collapse. Sulfur and nitrogen compounds, heavy metals, ozone, and lingering radioactive particles remained in high concentrations, all of which were deleterious to unaltered lungs and sinuses.

Prosperity’s locations were purposely placed adjacent to the foothills of coniferous mountain areas along thousands of kilometers that roughly matched the north-south alignment of the Rocky Mountains, all the way from southern Canada to northern Mexico. These were prime locations in what remained of a semi-viable North America. Water supplies were more plentiful, and the surviving pine forests provided a localized oxygen presence. The mountains, foothills, and plains of the Rockies’ eastern slope also offered ample defensive options for Prosperity’s citizens.

By experiencing the worst of humanity during the post-GDII years, Prosperity’s founders also knew what life could become if humans guided themselves properly. They vowed to create a world with one primary focus above all others – the long-term survival of the species.

No third great debacle. No species termination or imminent extinction. No demagogues, demigods, autocrats, populists, or perennial leaders. No excessive reliance on other humans or hybrids outside of themselves, individually. No belief systems based on emotional pleas, guilt, condescension, or virtual servitude. No concentrations of wealth, power, or the networks and social structures that enabled them.

In forming the new nation-state, Prosperity’s citizens needed a code that was simple enough for all to understand. A code for living. An ethic. An accommodative plan to ensure their citizens either were or would become self-actualized.

They understood this needed to begin immediately and become embedded in the hearts and minds of citizens. Self-actualization, they observed, should moderate and eventually eliminate the unfortunate historical precedent of individuals to acquiesce to others beyond oneself, be that politicians, religious leaders, or the supernatural.

Humanity was on the brink. Its previous social structures and belief systems, they concluded, had obviously not worked. None of these systems avoided or prevented the multiple, successive travesties of the prior century. In fact, most of the extant belief systems seemed to contribute to the demise of humanity, always demanding allegiance and assigning godhead-like powers to fallible humans, governments, or even sentient AI entities.

The founders understood what they didn’t want, which was every social system that humanity had tried previously. They needed something more – more than a simple credo but far less than a static belief system.

Take the best, discard the worst. Beware the political and entitlement structures within belief systems and governments. Use the past as proof that no belief system saved them from the human failures of GDI or GDII.

In contemplating humanity’s long history of successive failures, the founders concluded the only way to survive in the long-term was to place species viability above all other belief system in society. That meant above religions, technological advancements, political dogmas, or other belief constructs.

Their core objective was to extend the longevity of humanity in its varied forms through pragmatic, rational existence over time, so society was structured to achieve that objective. Practicality. Adaptability. Longevity. Simplicity.

These first principles formed their oft-used acronym of ‘PALS’ to focus their thinking and daily actions. Is the rule, norm, or process practical and pragmatic? Is it adaptable to changing needs? Does it enable or enhance the primary objective of species longevity? Is it simple, memorable, and easily applied?

To sustain a cohesive and productive society over the long-term, the founders adopted many of the principles of the ancient philosophy of Stoicism. Originating in Ancient Greece, Stoic philosophy had never been implemented at the heart of any society.

Unlike other human social systems implemented in the past, Stoicism was difficult, unnatural, and in conflict with every element of natural, animal instinct. Demanding discipline, effort, and control of the self, it’s focus on self-reliance and anti-levelism was antithetical to centralized governmental or caste-based control. Every individual was inherently and equally valuable, irrespective of wealth, parentage, or inborn or acquired capabilities, including all forms of human hybridization.

From the primary tenets of Stoic philosophy, Prosperity’s founders established a codex of ethical norms and rules for treatment of their environment, their community, each other, and outsiders who wanted in. Given no official name, this simple codex was commonly known by all as the ‘Stoic’s Checklist.’

But human society required far more than a checklist to prevent a repeat of past apocalyptic mistakes. Technology had been used by the oligarchs and their courtiers and benefactors to rip apart society’s ethical fabric by exerting enormous power over human minds and bodies. Prosperity’s founders were therefore forced to strike a balance between technological advancements and its nascent, untested ethical system.

At the coming of age, normally nineteen, every citizen was allowed to modify their longevity. Some might prefer an unaugmented, normal birth-to-death lifespan to the potential for immortality, though most inevitably would choose the latter option. This included the ability to age backward and forward, allowing an individual to live through infinite numbers of lifetime cycles as they so desired.

Citizens were also provided choices for other adaptations. Genetic modifications of a person’s code were widely acceptable, including hybridizations with other plant and animal life. However, pervasively passing these modifications through to the germ line were generally not permitted.

Human-machine integrations, once called ‘gripper’ or ‘mech’ technologies that fused human musculoskeletal systems with metallic and machine augmentations, were generally forbidden except as applied to immigrants who possessed such adaptations upon arrival. Prosperity’s founders had concluded that the human mind was, as yet, unable to adequately manage the emergent and dangerous psychosocial properties of such augmentations.

Also disallowed were ‘chipper’ technologies with direct connections from external data sources into the human brain. The founders were keenly aware that the societal costs of centralized control, especially from networks, applications, and the narratives that emanated from them, far outweighed any benefits or efficiencies of such centralization.

Prosperity utilized a data network for its citizens, but all systems and content were created and managed locally. Devices to access the network, once ubiquitously available as cell phones, computers, or chipper devices, were far less abundant by design. All methods of mechanized inter-communications were greatly discouraged except when applied to safety purposes, and people were encouraged to learn and work with each other through direct social interactions.

That Prosperity’s citizens were aware, pre-GDII AI systems with pervasive predictive capabilities were no longer in use anywhere on the planet. This was another factor limiting the chance for a repeat of competitive one-upmanship that sparked GDII. However, external threats remained a fact of life.

Marauding bands of stragglers, many of them mechs, continued to roam everywhere on Earth. Most retained extensive flesh-metal integrative modifications, standalone robotics, or sophisticated nanotech.

The most threatening of these groups had been eradicated in North America. Small bands might attack one of its city-states on occasion, but Prosperity deployed ample monitoring and defensive systems around its perimeters and in the sky to minimize and counter such incursions.

Prosperity’s city-states were generally not a target of outsiders because of any material wealth. After GDII, the wealth of billions was available for the taking among the few remaining humans who cared for adornments and possessions.

Consistent with its Stoic norms and rules, Prosperity both de-emphasized and discarded most things of life previously considered as such. Besides, most immigrants were simply searching for a just and equitable societal system with some degree of survivability or defense against the next manmade or natural disaster. What did Prosperity own that they didn’t? Cleaner air. Better defenses. Better access to food and shelter. A code of ethical conduct. What did the deprived have that Prosperity didn’t? Life without rules and norms.