I just tweeted today how all the buried plastic trash in today’s time becomes a boon Rosella’s time. I based this tweet on an NPR article you can read about here.

The reason has to do with three realities:

1. Natural areas of oil as predicted dry up. This despite back in 1999 Discover magazine saying we will never run out of oil.
2. The space production of hydrocarbons from stored ice deposits in the asteroid belt, and other space locations, are more expensive to produce relative to the trash deposits.
3. Technological improvements in reclamation processes allow for cheaper handling, including the use of leased A-1 and A-2 android labor.

The draw back to the reclamation of these trash fields for raw plastics, and other chemicals and materials, is that they are inherently limited in supply. There are only so many locations on the Earth. And some by the time of the Great Melt and New Madrid Traps have become inaccessible, if not possibly lost.

The irony is the future use of plastics is integral to society just as it is today. It’s used in everything from medicine to physical hardware. It forms new compounds and integrated alloys, such as plasti-steel. This is because humanity developed a greater understanding of materials engineering during the Second Age of Humanity. We came to understand the manipulation of matter at the quantum level.

​But by the Third Age of Humanity, plastics are being formed from raw hydrocarbons found in space materials. The same is true for all of humanity’s material resources.

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Image- ​Part of a wall in the centre of Singapore, made out of plastic waste. A great idea however it really brought it home how biodegradable plastic is and how much of it we use on a daily basis., By Nick Fewings, Source Unsplash,  Unsplash License (Processed using Adobe Spark)​

Gun Violence during the Second Age of Humanity

99.9% of what you are about to read only applies to the United States. This has to do with the unique nature of the U.S. Constitution and how the Second Amendment has been applied over the years. Unlike other nations who’ve restricted guns to be owned by their citizens, this has not been the case with the United States. Some have argued that this one fact has historically contributed to the high death rate associated with guns in America. But the other side has proposed arguments of needed protection and support of inherent constitutional rights.

This debate continues to rage on in Rosella’s dystopian America in the worst way possible.

Gun violence in America during the Great Melt and New Madrid volcanic traps was at an all-time high. The major shift in the environment caused people and resources in the nation to be strained. This brought out the worst out in Americans and resulted in violent riots and associated killings.

Ironically, the Second Amendment was never challenged, or rights curbed in any capacity. In fact, from time to time the federal government loosened them during the previous ages right through the time of the Great Melt.

It wouldn’t be until closer to the end of the Second Age of Humanity when things had stabilized and the sex ratios in the US had become more female that changes occurred concerning guns.

The History of Political Change in Gun Rights

At first, politically there were attempts to control guns through limitations on the number of guns owned, types, alterations, and even ammo quantity and types. This happened during the First Age of Humanity, but was challenged in the U.S. Courts every time.

By the start of the Second Age of Humanity, there were proposed changes to the Constitution’s Second Amendment, but these got nowhere.

Then, during the Presidency of Veronica Simmons, one of the craziest things happened. The case of the State of Texas vs. Hanson redefined for the nation the whole definition of gun rights. This case was a murder case in the State of Texas, but it turned into a gun rights case. Though the appeals ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court, but the court didn’t rule on it leaving the appeal to remain. The problem was the appeal went in favor of Hanson for killing the person in cold blood as part of his gun rights.

All three judges in the Fifth Court of Appeals had unanimously agreed stating, “The right to bear arms is a most sacred right, and should not be trampled upon even when the person has been accused or found guilty of a crime. Using that right is afforded to all, regardless of the legal status of the person or their condition and shall not be abridged by any authority. We should consider any deaths that result as self-defense of those rights.”

Even though this case was restricted to the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, this one case prompted the widespread use of guns as mass killing tool with no regard for human life. Now it was no longer murder in killing someone with a gun. These three judges became known as the Shooting Judges on the Social Media Net. President Veronica Simmons held a one-hour special on the decision to appeal to her base.

It wouldn’t be until the end of the Second Age of Humanity, when society was stable once more, that a new case filtered through the courts as attempts again were tried to limit gun rights.

Philip Hartman vs. Courtney Joseph was a Supreme Court case that involved a gun enthusiast challenging the California Attorney General for enforcing a recently passed federal law concerning limitations on gun ownership. The Court merged this case with several other federal court cases that involved the various gun control measures to help resolve the issues all at once.

With this case the Supreme Court saw the Second Amendment as historically arcane, and legally unenforceable as written. In its majority opinion, it struck down the individual right theory to guns. The Court based this on the re-discovery of the history in which the Second Amendment was written. It noted how the U.S. federal army was formed from state armies. This fact facilitated the need for individuals to carry weapons themselves. But by the time of the end of the Civil War, the creation of a permanent federal army had superseded the need for state armies, and thus the Second Amendment became obsolete and arcane.

The Court recognized the government’s interests in the Second Amendment in forming a national army, more so than individuals owning weapons. It ruled in favor of the government’s attempt to regulate weaponry amongst the civilian populace as a necessary police action. And not an individual freedom that one has unilaterally unabridged in the Constitution.

The Court saw this by citing the very first part of the amendment as the original intent of the forefathers. The Court noted these forefathers saw the amendment purpose as forming a national army which required people to own guns. But now, this right no longer required it. The government had the freedom to restrict those rights as desired to secure “a free State”.

This ruling overturned such rulings as District of Columbia v. Heller, and others like it.

The War on Drugs

Because of the Supreme Court decision legalizing the state implementation of drugs domestically but not the transportation between them changed the entire War on Drugs.

The international drug cartels, and both the CIA and DEA, suffered with these economic changes. No longer was there a flow of drugs from places like Afghanistan to the American users. Now poppies were being grown locally in the U.S.

The CIA had no more tools to use to fund operations or get the leverage it needs in international operations. This reduces the U.S. footprint in covert and other activities globally, making the CIA nothing more than just a spy ring for the federal government.

The DEA no longer was needed to globally deal with drug cartels because those international cartels have fallen apart economically. The DEA was reorganized and tasked with dealing with the trafficking of drugs and paraphernalia between U.S. states and entry into the U.S.

The Supreme Court’s decision on drugs impacted the use of forfeiting property laws without due process. This impacted local, state, and federal policing revenues through the reselling of that property.

Economies of countries which depended upon the drug trade collapsed. Many cartels, like that in Mexico, started moving into the business of logistically running drugs between the American states. Some cartels tried to grow raw materials on federal lands but met resistance from agencies like the Ranger Marshals.

Syndicated Crime

The future does not differ from today with syndicated crime networks operating globally and between the planets. The only difference are the crimes.

In the future, the international trafficking of drugs and women has become less profitable. The U.S. domestic trafficking of drugs became more profitable. For a time, in the U.S. the trafficking of military grade firearms becomes an extensive business with the decision of the Fifth U.S. Court of Appeals on the matter of gun use. The biggest gun manufacturers end up being communist nations and Mars.

Since the creation of sex-bots in android technology, female sex slave trafficking dropped. But in its place grew male sex slaves. This more so in parts of the world where the female-male sex ratio favored women. Most male sex slaves are young boys who are altered and feed hormones to develop them. Off-world male trafficking to Mars was also profitable.

Two other major criminal activities are A.I. ransomware and illegal cybernetic enhancements. The trafficking area of illegally immigrating people because of the melting polar caps was not as profitable for the crime syndicates, but a few groups still practice it.

​A sub-branch of syndicated crime networks still practices money laundering. These are crime groups specializing in the laundering of illegal cash and are big business since the growth of A.I. systems designed to detect such crimes. These groups are really at the heart and soul of the whole crime network and paid handsomely for their hacking skills.

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Image- Rotunda of the Capitol, By Joshua Sukoff, Source Unsplash, Unsplash License (Processed using Adobe Spark)

​If you are a reader below the age of 45 of my blog, or even a reader older who’s shall we say is less than “traditional in values”, you may have noticed the cisgender orientation of Rosella Tolfree’s dystopian future. Or maybe you haven’t because a lot of what’s written out there is cisgender anyway, and you are used to it.

I need to explain few things concerning Rosella’s world.

First, at the end of the First Age of Humanity the use of advance CRISPR technologies to edit away human genetic maladies was extensive. People were seeking CRISPR in vitro fertilization methods to eliminate the possibilities of such conditions as Downs Syndrome in their child. With this technology also came the elimination of those genetic maladies that caused any transsexuality issues. I’m referring here to those specific genetic conditions that can cause actual anatomical problems leading to gender dysphoria.

Second, it was common by the end of this age that human sexual behaviors common to certain LGBTQ segments were being practiced by the wider populace with no attached stigma. People were becoming more open to doing other options with each other without the application of labels. The whole notion of a specific LGBTQ community was fading from the society lexicon because everyone was doing something.

Third, by the Second Age of Humanity, the whole idea of separating humanity into various sexual communities had totally disappeared. Society accepted what was the concept of male/female sex as it relates to the physical genitals. Advance CRISPR technology had removed the possibility of having a person with malformed or uncertain genitals in the previous age. And what people did sexually with each other didn’t matter and had no moral or social significance, unless it resulted in physical harm (i.e. abuse).

Fourth, with the A-2 series of androids, object sexuality became a reality for many. This was especially true for those who were cisgender male. While technically object sexuality refers to inanimate things like buildings or statues. People applied this term to the A-2 series because of their closeness to the 21st Century version of full-sized human sex dolls. This was the only recent development where a social stigma was applied in some societies, like in the flooded lands of Germany. In America, there was some repugnance to it, but the stigma attached was like how men would seek prostitutes.

Fifth, there are other issues dealing with human sexuality, such as those dealing with minors. But I will not cover those because of the sensitivity of the topic. And yes, as a writer, I have thought of how Rosella’s world would deal with many sensitive issues of today. It comes with the territory of world building. Anyone who’s ever played pen and paper role-playing AD&D should understand this concept.

In Closing

We all must realize that a dystopian world is, according to Oxford Languages, referring to a society or state of great suffering or injustice. With Rosella Tolfree’s world, like our own, there’s both great suffering, and injustice, while at the same time real justice and hope.

Some may believe the extensive use of CRISPR to eliminate genetic abnormalities as an injustice, while others not so. Some could say the same in the LGBTQ community seeing the pansexual nature of heterosexuals as offensive and an injustice. Or maybe not, depending upon who you talk with.

The degree of “greatness” is truly in the beholder's eye. What I would consider great is minor to someone else. This is being relativistic about justice, but with our world there are many opinions and schools of thought on justice. I could easily mention the one I espouse, but if I did you as a reader may not like it. It’s far easier to follow the standard formula of sci-fi and take some element of society and twist it into its worse or extreme outcomes. To extrapolate where things would go if X happened. This is basically what I’m doing with Rosella’s world.

Other Blog Posts Dealing with Sexuality
Important Legal Changes in the Dystopian U.S. of Rosella’s World- Part 2
Dr. April French-Wolfe's Res-Pangenderism theory
From Artificial Wombs to Human Clones

FREEMIUM STORY
#GIVEUPMEN
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Image- Unipeople, By Tim Mossholder, Source Unsplash, Unsplash License (Processed using Adobe Spark)

​This is Part 2 of the important legal changes that have occurred in the dystopian America of Rosella's World. Changes that have profoundly impacted society and culture.

The Supreme Court of the U.S.

The number of justices on the Supreme Court is determined by Congress, as per the Constitution. The issue known as presidential legacy created by retiring judges caused Congress to enact the FDR plan. The number of justices was raised from the 9 to 15 through retirement.

By the time President Veronica Simmons was elected to power by Congress, there was a mixture of 15 Supreme Court Justices serving of various ages, and legal dispositions.

As a result, majority opinions on many cases were nearly impossible. The resultant was lower court opinions were now stronger than ever before, but only impacted the region of that court.

The Decision Dealing with Marriage and Family Life

When the A-2 model androids came out, groups of men wanted to marry them. Object sexuality became a social reality. Some societies, like in Germany, reacted with social stigmas being attached to such behaviors. Others were more open.

In the U.S., this issue became a Federal case before the U.S. Supreme Court with the case, Montgomery v. Matsuta-Hawkins Leasing Company, et al. In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court took up the case despite the lack of other similar cases present in any of the 12 other Courts of Appeals.

Chief Justice Alicia Carver convinced her fellow justices that this case was too important to the nation to wait for any other cases to appear. She noted that it was time to decide android rights before it became a problem later, and this was the perfect case.

With this case, Randy Montgomery wanted to marry his A-2 leased android, Roxanne. The leasing agency bulked at the idea when he applied for the license in the state of Georgia. Georgia at the time had a law on the books requiring leasing agencies to be notified if someone tried to marry an android so the leasing agency could claim default. It was the state’s way of dealing with the morality of object sexuality.

With this case, the Supreme Court used the same legal tradition found in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Roe v. Wade (1973) that defined privacy to form it’s majority opinion.
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As the majority opinion said, “While we agree with the minority, and the state of Georgia, that androids are inherently machines and therefore not afforded any rights specified in the Constitution. We disagree with the assertion of Georgia’s right to regulate the institution of marriage. We, of the majority opinion, see the historical legal tradition of marriage as an institution that is a sacred trust of privacy between those of practicing faith or individuals privately to which no government may interfere or govern.”

Thus, marriage as an act was returned to the people to deal with.

With this decision came the fact that no longer could a state marry people or issue licenses. Nor could they or the Federal government recognize any social or tax benefits. This unraveled tons of tax code and other laws involving divorce and family law. Ironically untouched by this decision were issues involving childcare, child welfare, or laws dealing with underage sex.

By this point in time the U.S. society had become negatively reproductive, and less responsive to being socially together in family structures. Object sexuality grew mostly among men. But this new legal development just pushed society over the edge. Marriage was dead. Only those following religions would get married and have kids. Such legal ideas quickly spread to other parts of the developed world.

With the development of the A-4 android models and their reproductive abilities, the manufacturers and leasing agents pushed a new family concept centered on these androids. This idea took off, not only to deal with the Martian population growth issue, but also back on Earth.  It became trendy to have a large cloned family as a sign of wealth and status. Soon those who could afford it were building large cloned families from androids.

Krishna Shree

One of the defining persons who caused many women in the U.S. to be disenchanted with married life was Krishna Shree. She was an Arab Hindi immigrant to the US, and a young adult of the late #MeToo feminist movements that had taken root in parts of India. She and her young husband fled to America because of a wave of increased violence against the native Arab populations in India. To make matters worse, they were a mixed union between Arab and Hindu. Her in-laws saw her as an untouchable for her Muslim heritage even though India was in the early part of the Second Age of Humanity.

In the US, she raised a traditional family of four and was a stay-at-home mother. But later, when the Supreme Court decision concerning marriage happened, she declared her marriage over and left her husband. When she left her husband, her four children were adults. She then started her own career as a social media net personality. Her channel bashed the idea women should get married and depend on men on any capacity. She promoted the power of the single woman’s life. Eventually she wrote a book called, “Men can have Space, I’ll take Earth” where she rambles on about the male American culture. The book is very misandry and blames men for the climate change.

The book became a big seller and defined the women’s movement of that period. This propelled many women to shatter areas left in society where men still where a majority, except for space. It also resulted in lots of women either leaving their husbands or not marrying. Men also took the book’s advice and sought space as a career. Krishna Shree would eventually run for the US House of Representatives and serve one term there. She would then later die of breast cancer. She wrote other books, but they were not as popular as that first one. Ironically, it’s her eldest son that still manages her estate and the associated royalties to her remaining children.

The Net Result

All these changes would help foster the political desire to allow 501(c)3 churches to actively participate in political campaigns by those against object sexuality and the new views on marriage.

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​Image- Rotunda of the Capitol, By Joshua Sukoff, Source Unsplash, Unsplash License (Processed using Adobe Spark)

Scattered throughout various postings of Rosella Tolfree you will come across the phrase, “The Second Age of Humanity”.

This is referring to a human time period based on two basic axioms: 1. The conquest of a specific area of space, and 2. The ever-increasing life span of humanity to deal with this conquest.

The First Age of Humanity

We are living in the first age. It starts when modern man begins in the timeline. It ends with humanity beginning early colonization of the Earth orbit with industrial factories, industrial moon colonies, and a scientific colony on Mars. It includes continual robotic probes into the outer planets and the belt. There were continual efforts of mapping NEOs, asteroids, and determining potential future resources. Spaceships of this period lack artificial gravity except made by centrifugal force or linear acceleration. Drugs, exercise equipment, and other devices such as modified tanning beds for vitamin d treatments are used to help counter many long-term effects of weightlessness. Humans use advance CRISPR technologies and editing away human genetic issues and make minor improvements to deal with low gravity.

The Second Age of Humanity

With advances in quantum computers, developments in artificial intelligence and breakthroughs in quantum gravity came a new age. With the understandings in quantum gravity came the ability to manipulate gravity, allowing for the easy lift of materials into space from Earth, Mars, and the moon. Humanity began to rapidly colonize Mars with the goal of terraforming, the mining of the belt, and the colonization of the outer planets. This is also the time when the Earth suffered the environmental catastrophes of the Great Melt and New Madrid Traps resulting in the Earth warming up and being flooded. We see the development of the A series of androids resulting in creating androids with the ability to clone humans. This results in changes in family life with families becoming large groups of typically ten to twelve clones, but fewer families overall. For this age to end, Rosella must do certain actions to allow humanity to progress. Assuming she completes these, then the development of heavy grav lines will begin and humanity will begin living for 200 years.

The Third Age of Humanity

This age starts with a war between the corporate-controlled colonies of the Earth system, and nation-controlled colonies over control of the heavy grav lines that are being laid to the stars. It continues with the development of the Corporate Empire and humanity spreading out to 100 light years from Earth. Earth is ruled by a Global Council, like what the United Nations was like. Humanity during this time will create five races of living matter, known as Jinko life. Such life will mostly replace the human need for robotics. This age ends with a war coming from the very edge of the Empire by an unknown enemy. This enemy destroys nearly everything humanity has built during this age, putting humanity back into a new dark age scattered across 100 light years.

For the next three ages, I’m going to supply information on them in brief.

In the Fourth Age of Humanity, humans rebuild from the ashes of their old technologies. They rediscover lost colonies and increase the age of humans on the scale of thousands of years. This allows humanity to spread throughout the galaxy. Humanity during this age searches for the enemy of old but finds nothing of them. Science begins to speculate that humanity maybe a unique creation in the galaxy and the enemy of old might be from another galaxy.

During the Fifth Age of Humanity, humans are now living on a scale of millions of years. There are fewer of us in relative comparison to previous eras. Our technology has advanced to the point we are now visiting other galaxies and the stars they contain. And yet, we still find no evidence of intelligent life aside from us and what we’ve made.

In the Sixth Age of Humanity, humans are now living billions of years. There are very few of us overall. Our technologies have taken us to all the ends of the universe. Still, against all odds, we found no other spontaneously created life like ourselves. People conclude we are the only intelligent life form created by the universe and we have made all other forms of intelligence. The enemy of old is seen as a myth of time. At the end of this age are the Dark Ages when all the stars have burned out, and black holes are evaporating away. You can read a short story about this time here.

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Image- untitled image, By Fabrizio Verrecchia, Source Unsplash,, Unsplash License (Processed using Adobe Spark)