The Yestertime Effect: A Novel of Time Travel (Yestertime Series Book 2) by Andrew Cunningham

Author:Andrew Cunningham [Cunningham, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2022-02-28T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

“It goes against my training to talk about life where I come from,” said Hanna. “On the other hand, you’ve all become fellow travelers. Besides, the chances of us making it home are slim at best. Ray and Natalie, I think you’d be able to relate to my world more than Alex could, and certainly more than Millie. The technology of 2009, when you left, Natalie, and especially 2021, when you left, Ray, was so much more advanced, and the state of the world so different than in 1973, much less Millie’s world of 1959. But I won’t bother going into the technology because basically everything is different in 2105.”

“Flying cars and the like?” asked Natalie.

“That was old news,” she answered with a laugh. “Those came into being in the latter half of your century, and with a huge learning curve, I might add. A lot of accidents. But other than some of the flashier inventions, it’s not too different from your own time.”

“Holographic technology?” I asked.

“Oh, we were far beyond holograms. Artificial Intelligence had reached epic proportions. So much so that much of the technology had to be scaled back. It had become too intelligent. By midway through your century, it was creating far too many problems worldwide. Cloud technology disappeared altogether for a time after a major crash that affected all of society. Banking, power grids, the Internet, and many other vital aspects of civilization collapsed. Individuals, corporations, and governments lost massive amounts of information when the Cloud went down.”

“The Cloud?” asked Alex.

“Hard to explain,” I said. “It had to do with computers and where the information was stored. Think of it as file cabinets that you couldn’t actually touch.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” replied Alex with a laugh.

“I’ll go into more detail with you later,” said Hanna. “It’s complicated. Anyway, everyone just got too dependent on the Cloud. As a result, we went into a worldwide depression that lasted a few years.”

“When?” I asked.

“I’m uncomfortable giving you specifics, but it wasn’t too many years after you left.”

“A lot of people predicted the fall of Cloud technology,” I said.

“And did nothing about it,” said Hanna. “Well, they were suddenly forced to. They had no choice but to fix it for the sake of the world. That’s when the scaling back of technology began to happen. So yes, things are a lot different in my time.”

“You still used real money, though,” I said.

“Another example of change,” said Hanna. “Real money was almost nonexistent by the time of the ‘Great Cloud Crash.’ That’s what they called it. Practically everything was handled electronically. After the Crash, physical money made a comeback and is still used in the 22nd Century. In many ways, the Crash was the best thing to happen to the world. It brought countries together. Oh, there is still the bickering between countries, of course. That will never go away. But there is also the understanding that they have to work together to solve many of the major issues.

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