My series Until This Last takes place in a post climate change world where the elites control the 131 underground cities which comprise what is left of the US. There is no more pretending by them that they support a democratic society. Indeed, their past history reveals that the US was always a socialist country, but only for them, as they made their fortunes on the backs of the rest of us and escaped paying taxes.
Along these lines, as I’ve been researching how many of the very rich are building bunkers to survive a forthcoming apocalypse, I’ve found that others are now realizing owning a single bunker won’t do, they’ll need a whole city full of people.Bill Gates for instance has announced he plans to spend $80 million dollars to buy 4 square miles of land 45 minutes west of Phoenix. The techno-utopian city he intends to build will be called Belmont.
In addition to Arizona the state of Nevada is on the brink of introducing legislation that will allow independent cities to be built in that state. These cities or zones would include blockchain, autonomous technology, the internet of things, robotics, artificial intelligence, wireless technology, biometrics and renewable resource technology. Eventually it’s stated the owners could effectively form separate local governments that would carry the same authority as a county. This includes the authority to impose taxes, form school districts and justice courts, and provide traditional government services.https://www.dezeen.com/2019/10/28/five-smart-cities-north-america/ Berns city as envisioned in dezeen.com
Current Draft legislation in Nevada lays out requirements that any new city must be built on 50,000 acres of undeveloped and uninhabited land. That in order to build it any private entity would need to have $250 million and a plan to invest $1 billion over ten years.
It’s reported in the Phoenix Journal that in 2018, Blockchains, LLC, the tech firm owned by lawyer and cryptocurrency millionaire Jeffrey Berns, purchased roughly 67,000 acres — about the same size as the city of Henderson — of undeveloped, uninhabited land in Storey County at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center for $170 million.
Much like the elites which govern the 131 cities in my books, Berns, Gates and others like them, will most certainly dictate who and how people will live, work and breathe in these techno-utopias.
Might the way of life they envision also involve bio-engineering and genetic modification in the future? Both explored in all three of my books. For example two of my main characters are fully bio-engineered with neural implants which interface with the web. One of my characters has had their junk DNA activated. Other characters are genetically enhanced, and all of them live in techno-smart cities.The strange thing about speculative, research-based science fiction is that it has a habit of coming true.
I guess we'll have to see in real time who wins the war between De Santis and the magical world of Mickey.
