"The year is 2092.
"The President Elect's Vice President has just been assassinated, nine days after the President-Elect himself was. A new record. Fortunately, the Presidency is only a formality nowadays, as the US government has ef-fectively been reduced to a single Board of Directors; 39 members, elected by Federal Shareholders through party-block voting.
"All fiat currency has become worthless, replaced by state-mined crypto, which itself backs a new system of paper money. A single government-issued token has replaced the SSN, with one convenient set of credentials used to log into all services. Finally, the consumer can move from their loan payment portal to the XNXX subscription renewal form without skipping a beat.
"Following the Global Magnitude Ten Fracking Quake, FEMA installed itself as the US's official federal law enforcement. It controls the population through its cabal of police androids, each piloted remotely by an official Case Agent through theta wave mind-jacking. 140 million died in the earthquake, but oil dropped to minus $15 per barrel, so it's W's and L's.
"Judges use 8G cell towers to remotely execute all citizens convicted of Level 5 crimes and above. One zap, and any given citizen's vaccine microchip triggers a devastating autoimmune attack on all major organs. Most executions occur while the crime is still in progress. Following its acquisition by Amazon, the court system has set a new standard in efficiency, taking an average of fifteen seconds to reach a guilty verdict.
"The United States Navy is currently at war with Neo-China over plasma deposits in the Indian Ocean. Johnson & Johnson's proprietary Ninth Gen research chemicals have given American soldiers the edge this week. The conflict might seem unpopular, but social networking polls put its approval at 52%, just above the margin required to perpetuate the conflict. A true representative democracy.
"The system isn't without its critics. But that doesn't matter. Our city is among the 20% deemed a 'high risk municipality', authorizing use of emergency powers to quell disaffection. Dissidents of the system are branded 'thought felons'. Their crypto-credit score is set to zero, and they are sent to languish in the lowest tier of Zone 1. Their digital wallets are seized and their assets wiped, forced to make all purchases cash-only. Perpetrators are tresspassed from the city limits, prohibited from ever again crossing the eighteen lane, seven story 'Perimiter' superhighway.
"In conjunction, the two amount to a fate worse than death.
"The city of Atlanta has become a well-oiled machine, and humanity its cogs. The future is now."