The Sovereign Hub

Patrick Castle founded Nautlix alongside his friends, and the company's market capitalization has now reached 25.6 trillion dollars. Patrick, the richest man in America with a fortune of 3.2 trillion dollars and an IQ of 177, earned his PhD from Stanford before most people even enter university. Fans called him the "Ice Prince," but he preferred the media-given nickname "The Man Who Built the Future." Nautlix Inc. achieved its enormous valuation through breakthroughs in general purpose artificial intelligence (GPSIS), nuclear fusion, terraforming, and robotics. The company operates Teelium deuterium fusion power plants, with facilities 1 and 2 in Milpitas and Palmdale, California, producing a combined 704 GW of power. California now exports abundant electricity to Oregon, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, forming the "Electric Belt" and earning the state the nickname "Electric State."

Nautlix is particularly renowned for its GPSIS system. Using terraforming technology, the company built the massive Nevada Water Genesis megaplant in Tonopah, Nevada, which produces 180 million tons of fresh water annually. In the Arctic, the TerraForce Rod S devices have played a critical role in addressing global warming. The successful launch of Magellan 1 dramatically boosted the company's valuation. Nautlix also mass-produces the Evolve series robots, which set new standards in robotics. Designed as terminals powered by the general purpose AI GPSIS, these robots have rapidly replaced domestic and industrial labor. Just as the iPhone and Tesla defined the 2010s, the Evolve series has defined the 2020s and become indispensable across America, Europe, Canada, and Asia. Production hubs are located in Austin and Munich, with major factories in Korea, Vietnam, and India. The robots operate exclusively as terminals drawing power from GPSIS central data centers in dedicated facilities across the United States, Sweden, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, and India. GPSIS also controls 70 percent of global autonomous driving through its terminal-based architecture rather than onboard AI.

Through innovations in general purpose AI, nuclear fusion, terraforming, and robotics, Patrick has expanded the United States’ GDP by a factor of three, while also significantly revitalizing the economies of the EU, China, Japan, India, and the world at large. This has ushered in the dawn of the hyper-scale era. Thanks to terraforming, the global population has surpassed 16 billion, yet humanity has not collapsed as past economists warned. This stability was made possible by the combination of terraforming, nuclear fusion, and newly discovered genes. Without these advances, it would have been impossible. The general purpose AI GPSIS contributed greatly to discovering oil fields that were previously undetectable.

The Fifth Industrial Revolution has brought forth the hyper-scale economic era. This hyper-scale economy has elevated the United States' GDP to 87.894 trillion dollars, with its population growing to 714.8 million. Since the early 2000s, the United States has maintained one of the highest birth rates among developed nations, achieving steady growth through natural increase and immigration. After surpassing 300 million people on October 17, 2006, the country experienced sustained rapid growth, resulting in dramatic population expansion by 2026. The U.S.-led GDP growth and the arrival of the hyper-scale economic era have become global phenomena. Economists now refer to this as the hyper-scale economic era, calling the previous period the old economy or super-scale economic era. These changes extend far beyond America.

In this ultra-high-speed growth era, the world population has reached 16 billion, fueled by nuclear fusion, terraforming, improved agricultural productivity, and new oil field discoveries. China has grown into the world's second-largest economy with a GDP of 66.3 trillion dollars and a population of 2.073 billion. Japan, leveraging growth in advanced materials such as titanium sponge and carbon fiber, has achieved a GDP of 34.74 trillion dollars and a per capita GDP of 88,700 dollars. The Greater European Union as a whole has a GDP of 82.54 trillion dollars and a population of 883.192144 million. India's GDP stands at 31.8 trillion dollars with a population of 2.83569 billion. Germany has a population of 184.07 million and a GDP of 18.65 trillion dollars. The United Kingdom has a population of 144.5 million and a GDP of 16.23 trillion dollars. France has a population of 131.4 million and a GDP of 14.45 trillion dollars. Italy has a population of 138.9 million and a GDP of 12.87 trillion dollars. Canada has grown to a population of 112 million with a GDP of 10.32 trillion dollars. South Korea has a population of 98.404 million and a GDP of 8.48 trillion dollars. Population growth in most countries outside India and China has largely come through immigration.

After Nautlix reached a market capitalization exceeding 25.6 trillion dollars, multiple companies have broken the 10 trillion dollar barrier. Nautlix remains firmly in the top position. On Wall Street, these companies are collectively called the "10 Trillion Dollar Club." Nautlix turned Alvin Toffler's visions into reality, making his books bestsellers once again. Among its projects, the TerraForce Rod S has become the most decisive success story in global terraforming efforts, reversing glacial melting trends and protecting humanity from the worst impacts of global warming. Shortly afterward, the company unveiled the Clean Ocean System. Ocean rods powered primarily by abundant geothermal energy were installed on the seabed. Engineers overcame seismic challenges through innovative vibration-damping capsule structures, isolated rod designs, and sophisticated GPSIS-based AI systems for earthquake dispersion and control. Starting as the OceanForce Rod project in 2022, it delivered remarkable results in just four years. The world's oceans underwent dramatic transformation. Massive plankton blooms triggered explosive growth in fish populations. Marine biodiversity recovered sharply. Shark and whale numbers returned to levels from centuries ago. The surge in whale populations was closely linked to the restoration of the Arctic ecosystem through a boom in krill, their abundant food source.

The global population has grown beyond 16 billion, yet only the Mojave Desert and the entirety of Texas have been transformed into grasslands so far. Saudi Arabia has signed contracts for ongoing terraforming, but not all deserts have been converted. As a result, most cities have become megalopolises. In the United States, former major cities have undergone vertical expansion into megalopolises, while suburbs feature single-family homes or terrace houses, with newer constructions shifting toward terrace houses for medium-density growth. Wealthy neighborhoods maintain their estates, but zoning distinctions have largely disappeared due to megalopolization. In Europe, historical constraints make expanding old city centers difficult, so megalopolises have developed around suburban secondary centers with high-rise buildings. China and other Asian nations have adopted megalopolization most rapidly, focusing on major metropolitan areas. Texas stands out as a low-density megalopolis because the entire state has been terraformed into grasslands.

Thus, even Austin has a medium density similar to Los Angeles, while Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Houston have high density. In these megalopolises, even in America, daily life has shifted away from universal car ownership toward public transportation, mirroring Asian urban patterns. Although downtown areas have wide parking lots capable of accommodating pickup trucks, the typical vehicle in cities is now at the level of a BMW 3 Series, with most residents relying on public transit. Buses are primarily from European makers such as MAN, Scania, and Volvo, while subways use American-produced versions of Japanese models. In suburban areas, car use remains part of daily life, preserving super-scale era habits. The United States has sent urban planners to high-density Asian nations like Korea, Japan, and Singapore, and even Hong Kong, to learn zero-rush-hour policies and establish robust urban and public transportation systems. Subways feature double-decker designs for express and wide-area lines, while metro trains mix single-decker configurations. Buses avoid double-decker designs due to higher rollover risks and lower operational efficiency, favoring articulated buses instead. In Asia, double-decker buses have increased, along with double-decker subway cars for single and wide-area lines due to population density, a trend mirrored in Europe.

In this era, California buildings are mostly limited to 35 stories due to height restrictions, airports, and seismic concerns, while the Midwest and East feature structures from 40 to 200 stories. Europe has buildings up to 200 stories, China up to 300 stories for technological display, and Korea ranges from 60 to 300 stories, concentrated in satellite cities rather than Seoul. Japan, despite being in a seismic zone, has buildings from 40 to 200 stories due to population pressure, supported by the world's most advanced seismic and base-isolation technologies. The United Kingdom, as a megalopolis, builds 40- to 200-story structures around secondary centers in major cities and is constructing artificial islands to the east on the scale of Ireland in this hyper-scale economic era. In the Middle East, Dubai is building 400-story towers to showcase both oil wealth and its role as a regional hub. A common feature of the megalopolis era is the inclusion of rooftop green spaces on these buildings.

You live in the United Kingdom, where megalopolization is underway. Areas outside London, Manchester, and even the outskirts of Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, as well as around Belfast in Northern Ireland, are filling with high-rise apartments. To accommodate a larger population, the country is constructing artificial islands. In the old super-scale economy, environmental activists would have strongly opposed such projects, likely leading to their cancellation. However, in the hyper-scale era, construction proceeds without hesitation. Terraforming technology allows environmental restoration, and any pollution can be addressed by contracting Nautlix to restore the sea at the government's expense. This proposal passed in Parliament and is now in progress. The project requires vast quantities of sand, rebar, and concrete. The island is named Neo-Britannia. Construction began in 2025, and sand is currently being poured into the framework, with shipments arriving from North Africa and Australia. And you, as a government official, were observing this from the ship’s deck, and your aide Imogen says:

"The construction that started in 2025 is expected to complete the civil engineering and ground stabilization work around 2027, finalizing the basic form of the artificial island. After that, it will enter the upper development phase focused on constructing buildings and urban infrastructure."

Imogen continues, "This project will be a historic milestone for the United Kingdom. Neo-Britannia will serve as a core strategic asset for national defense, functioning as a key base for the British Navy, while also becoming a new central hub within the UK's megalopolis system. The island will be connected to the Netherlands and mainland Denmark via sea bridges and high-speed infrastructure networks, developing into a vital node in the North Sea transportation and logistics network. Furthermore, with North Sea oil fields located to the north of the island, it will function as a primary residential and operational base for energy industry workers, evolving into a maritime labor-centered city that integrates production and living spaces."

You stand on the deck observing the ships continuously delivering and dumping sand, witnessing the creation of this new British land. You and Imogen are positioned at the center of these profound changes.