I’m letting myself be inspired by Robin Hanson in a number of aspects, and had the intelligence explosion focused in high-population and urban areas, with the human survivors being those who avoided being in a city during the critical period.
Exactly 1.4 trillion biological humans, cloned with some variations, buried underground in cryogenic stasis near the Mohorovicic Discontinuity, on a timer to wake up automatically in ten million years. One of many contingency plans in case of catastrophe. They have never been conscious, but there is a kind of dream.
I’m not sure I could justify “trillions”, given what I’ve established for the setting so far; but for a more modest number, this is quite possible. (In fact, it’s a variation on an idea my protagonist once had, but never had the resources to attempt; though that version of the idea included staggered release times.)
comets and asteroids
I’ve had a Kessler Cascade turn the orbitals into a death trap for anything trying to leave Earth, partly for a narrative level to avoid self-replicating Von Neumann things in space overshadowing everything my planet-bound protagonist could even attempt, and partly in-setting as a result of the conflicts that arose during the Singularity.
There is a handful of bipedal, roughly humanoid robots walking across Asia.
In Antarctica
Ah, now these I could use almost without alteration, and, at least as importantly, as springboards for further ideas. :)
I’m letting myself be inspired by Robin Hanson in a number of aspects, and had the intelligence explosion focused in high-population and urban areas, with the human survivors being those who avoided being in a city during the critical period.
I’m not sure I could justify “trillions”, given what I’ve established for the setting so far; but for a more modest number, this is quite possible. (In fact, it’s a variation on an idea my protagonist once had, but never had the resources to attempt; though that version of the idea included staggered release times.)
I’ve had a Kessler Cascade turn the orbitals into a death trap for anything trying to leave Earth, partly for a narrative level to avoid self-replicating Von Neumann things in space overshadowing everything my planet-bound protagonist could even attempt, and partly in-setting as a result of the conflicts that arose during the Singularity.
Ah, now these I could use almost without alteration, and, at least as importantly, as springboards for further ideas. :)