We’re no longer sure which year is this.

We do know that about three years have passed since the hard-start Singularity, the shock that shattered our civilization like a shot glass; all we have now is some glittering shards. Artificial Intelligence was just a start: when the first shock worn off, when we saw that the Other we created isn’t going to kill us all, we breathed easy. This was no WOPR, no Skynet, so everything is going to be all right, we have nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, none of the science fiction fairy tales prepared us for what came after, not that it was dramatic or something. At first glance, all looked the same.

Because the AI was just the first breakthrough. Vinge was right – AI is a self-modifying intelligence, tweaking itself for ever higher intelligence. Shocking inventions were just the byproduct. Nanomachines, mind uploads, all this…