SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK – June 17th, 2032 – The Super Age has begun. A discovery that will forever change the world as we know it was unveiled this week in a quiet, nondescript building not a stone’s throw from where Edison worked his own magic more than a century ago. Researchers at the joint IBM/GE materials science lab in Schenectady, New York, unveiled results of an inexpensive room temperature semiconductor that they have been working on. Under tight security for nearly a year, the researchers have also come up with a sophisticated physics underlying the discovery allowing them to synthesize dozens of new super-materials, including room temperature superfluids and supersolids. Today the research group filed a flurry of nearly 400 core patents that cover everything from power generation and transmission to super-compact, high power motors to new chip manufacturing technologies that promise to shrink electronics by another order of magnitude, as well as new frictionless bearings.

“It is hard to overstate the impact this is going to have on the world,” said the Dr. Theodore who uncovered the key discovery. “Almost everything that came before, in technological terms, is now obsolete. We will lead the world in a rebuilding of the world’s power and transportation infrastructure and technologies, as well as revolutionize the electronics industry and many others.”

At the press conference the group demonstrated the world’s first superconducting microchip, packing nearly 5 billion Josephson junction single-electron transistors into a combined quantum computing device, a miniature loss-less energy storage device that stores 10 times more energy in a much more compact format than any existing batteries, as well as a super-compact, superconducting electric motor that will revolutionize the automobile industry. More than a hundred other inventions were on display, covering almost every industry.

Once again this small patch of Upper New York State will drive a New Industrial Revolution, re-positioning the USA as a world leader once again.

MANAUS – December 14th,  2032 – The Brazilian pharmaceutical company Floresta Profunda, in conjunction with the Brazilian government, has released its final findings regarding its most recent drug trials started in 2027 when an unknown mushroom was discovered to have powerful anti-cancer properties. The anti-cancer agent, called Renew, was created from a non-toxic, easily processed but rare mushroom.

The discovery of the anti-cancer agent Renew started transforming the world when, in a radical move in 2029, all logging in the Amazon within the borders of Brazil was halted. The Brazilian government declared the Amazon a humanitarian treasure and a natural wonder of the world. A coalition of South American nations agreed to limit further harvesting of the forest realizing its potential was far greater than had been previously realized.

Anti-cancer agents all over the world were already taxed and in short supply due to a rash of environmental cancers from unregulated manufacturing in developing BRIC nations. China has been the hardest hit since its high growth periods of the early 2012-2016 released a variety of heavy metals, bio-active agents such as BPA and benzene from manufacturing runoff into its largest rivers. People living downstream of those factories experienced cancer at levels 800% higher than people living anywhere else in China.

In an humanitarian effort, in coordination with the Chinese government, human testing trials began in 2024. Cautious optimism had been expected by researchers whose lab trials indicated a high degree of success without the common side-effects of current cancer treatments, including bone density loss, extreme nausea, loss of appetite and cellular tissue damage. The testing of the anti-cancer agent code-named Renew began and within three months, the most positive and non-toxic anti-cancer agent ever recorded was making headlines. Testing continued until 2026. The Chinese trials offered a cure rate of 93%. Renew was capable of treating with an 80% success rate the most difficult of inoperable cancers and the drug is able to treat stage 4 metastasized cancers previously considered incurable with a better than 50% chance of success.

To stem the planetary rise of cancer, the drug, was released into the open domain, ensuring anyone who needed it would be able to get it at a very low cost. Unfortunately, the mushroom will only grow in the Amazon, so any nation desiring the mushroom would have to participate in the Cancer Accord. South American nations would provide the mushroom in exchange for being relieved of any previous long-term debt held by nations who agreed to the transfer. The United States and the UK have declined to participate having cancer populations at 11% and 14% of total population respectively. Emigration from the United States and the United Kingdom to Brazil has increased by 18% over last year with no sign of stopping.

The two scientists recorded with the initial discovery Dr. Manuel Santiago and Dr. Helena Tavener were unfortunately killed in an incident with a logging company in 2023 before all forest harvesting was halted. Both were slated to receive the Nobel Prize but died before they were able to be confirmed. Given the enormity of their discovery the awards were given to their families posthumously.

Renew is not perfect, but the side effects are relatively mild and easily treated. The treatment also seems to offer some level of resistance to cancer which is still being studied. With new protocols for reducing environmental waste runoff and toxicity standards rising, Renew stands to be a powerful tool in the fight against new lymphomas and carcinomas common to the modern world. Brazil is now poised to capitalize on the rainforest’s biodiversity with a new explosion of science, genetic engineering and pharmacology.

EVERYWHERE – Jan 1st, 2063 – At precisely 4:17 pm GST yesterday, all living creatures in the cosmos experienced the blissful state of universal consciousness. Long a hypothesis of Eastern mystics and quantum physicisists, the merging of consciousness has allowed all living creatures to see, hear, taste, smell and remember all that is, all that has been, and all that will be. With all creatures recognizing their oneness, all wars ceased on Earth and elsewhere in our solar system, all pain has disappeared, and happiness and tranquility have become the universal norm. In response to the sudden sharing of information by all creatures, Congress suspended all insider trading laws as “just bloody silly”.

The preserved head-in-a-jar of Michael Moore called the change “yet another rigging of the system to favour the rich.”

BRASILIA – April 12, 2038 - In an awe inspring demonstration Brazilian scientists this week unfolded the first mega scale solar sail to launch their “Cristofero” near star orbiter. Using millions of super tensile monofilaments the craft was hooked up to 2500 square miles of single atom thick reflective material. Initial acceleration numbers shown were above expectation. “At this rate we’ll reach Alpha Centauri in under sixty years,” said Alvaro Miguel de Ponte Negra, chief scientist.

Old plans for building a space elevator have resurfaced and Brazilian officials are already looking into building space port facilities near Brasilia.