[ WP ] - Earth is a Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland . Tell Me What Happened and How People Are Surviving .

It happened in pieces. 
 
 The first piece was the aparat though, at the time, it was called a phone. Coming from an era where a simple calculator was the size of an airplane hanger, a connected device that could fit in your pocket and connect you to all the world's information was nothing short of amazing. 
 
 As adoption grew, demand grew. Man wanted what his brother had. At first this was simple, network architects were able to co opt existing communications structures. But as adoption, and demand, grew the architects were required to get a bit more creative. This is how we got the drones. 
 
 At first they were only able to stay up in the air for three years, solar cell technology had n't developed self repair, but as the fossil fuel economic crisis reached it's peak it was a simple decision to make the investment. Within five years, every inch of the earth was connected. From here, the phones split into the aparats and the DCDs. 
 
 Everyone had an aparat. These devices were always connected and allowed for a massive shift in how we, as a species, interacted with the world. As our capabilities grew, the aparats allowed us to transmit a digital representation of ourselves, our souls, not only to one another but to the machines as well. 
 
 The machines, personal robots mostly, were nice at first, taking care of preprogrammed chores and duties, but as the network grew so did the machine's capacity to learn. They were able to move and react, to infer and understand, they were able to become human. Or, at least, digital representation of humans. 
 
 This was loved by most, but sent up red flags for some, and so another device was made - the DCD. Disconnected Devices could pull information from an aparat through a gatekeeper. The gatekeeper was a neat little invention that ensured the DCD never, ever, found its data connected to the net. 
 
 With the split of our devices, so too came the split of man. There was no great war with this split, just civil disagreement. The aparats, and the men attached to them, felt as though they were the new embodiment of god's angels. The DCDs were happy just being men. 
 
 And, like all men who find themselves with wings, the aparats flew too close to the sun. Their infinite access to information was confused with an infinite access to knowledge. They built systems beyond their capacity, beyond earth's capacity. 
 
 And then they fell. 
 
 It was always written that the world apocalypse would ride on the wings of war. In reality, the system just collapsed in on itself and all that's left is us, the DCDs, to build a new.
