In 2026 following WW III at the signing of the Asunción Treaty in Paraguay, there was an agreement between all of the remaining political factions of the world to turn over every purely offensive weapons, and all weapons of mass destruction.
The agreement also stipulated that all non-programable ballistic weapons be turned over to the Peace and Safety Forum's (PaSF) weapon's disposal facility. These weapons could be replaced, where needed, with new programmable weapons. The PaSF was formed after the destruction of what was formerly known as the United Nations, it consisted of regional representatives from each Continent.
The PaSF destroyed all non-programable weapons of every type. Where defensive weapons were needed for security, they were replaced with smart weapons that could be easily programmed and tracked. This tracking system would be accomplished by using a heavily defended satellite surveillance system which included its own EMP-hardened computer running a specially designed and encrypted file system. The automatic system was hackproof and beyond the manipulation of any government. Thus, anything from a handgun to an artillery unit could only be operated by a qualified and licensed purchaser that had their ID chips scanned and programmed into the system at the time of purchase.
Since these smart weapons could only be used within a limited area around the home or place of origin, if in the hands of an unauthorized individual or if taken into a restricted area the weapon would go into an electronically locked mode and could no longer be operated. Likewise, organized military defense weapons could be moved around and used by authorized personnel inside of a specific region, but became useless if stolen or moved outside of that region.
A failsafe was also secretly inserted into each weapon's programming that tracked the number of living human beings on the planet, if the human population was in danger of dropping below the minimum level required to safely repopulate the earth, then all ballistic weapons would switch off automatically and be internally rendered useless so that they could never be made to work again. The total population was estimated by the internal computer using both interior and exterior sensors that monitored human activity through electronics and various forms of imagery.
In 2046, twenty years after the formation of the PaSF, things began to rapidly devolve into chaos once again. Regional wars had indeed been for the most part ended, but centralized control had stifled innovation and growth. Individual freedoms had become so suppressed that most citizens not employed by or affiliated with the PaSF had little hope of advancement in life. Recreational activity had increasingly been limited also, leading to cases of severe depression. Most people simply worked at the jobs they had been educated and trained for and then went back to their assigned living quarters where they enjoyed monitored and limited PaSF-approved entertainment.
Only select individuals were allowed to breed based on the quality of their DNA, everyone else was able to purchase a companion AI-powered robot of their own design for companionship and pleasure. Much like automobiles of the past, these robots varied in function and aesthetic modifications which depended on how much the individual was willing to borrow from the regional central bank. These policies had worked with only minor grievances filed for years until the day of the great meteor storm arrived.
Fire in the sky started with just a few flashes and the thundering reports from relatively small meteors breaking the sound barrier before exploding into tiny fragments that rained down harmlessly or burned up completely. But, as the day progressed the meteors became larger and more frequent. They destroyed many undefended communications satellites on their way in, and larger pieces began reaching the surface and causing serious damage. Soon delicate infrastructure was being destroyed, the power went off, then communications were cut. Most modern technological life came to a sudden stop and an electrified world that had been built around robotics and digital realities was exposed for its fragility and dependence on the reliability of a recently created post-war cryptographic network.
Some of the small protective bot satellites around the larger weapons monitoring satellites were destroyed or committed suicide in a last-second effort to deflect incoming space debris. But monitoring by the system continued after the largest meteor shower in history was over.
Most citizens of earth had never fully realized the scale of PaSF control over their lives. They were also not fully conscience of the relatively low level the population of the earth had been reduced. Most people did not need weapons, crime had become almost nonexistent and hunting had become a sport that only the ruling class and wealthy could afford.
Another problem following the disastrous meteor shower was the fact that everyone had specialized in certain fields of education, and most menial labor jobs that had once been common tasks for almost everyone had been turned over to bots years before and now could no longer be performed by almost anyone. Skills like hunting and fishing were largely unknown, and even knowledge of how to start a fire was uncommon. The electricity and computers that made their lives possible and the robots that did almost everything for them were suddenly dead and of no use at all. What resources were available, especially batteries, were in very short supply. WW IV thus started as a struggle for available resources and skilled personnel that would allow life to continue.
Regions within each continent fought against each other and the few that had caches of weapons became powerful leaders. Without the robots, it soon became apparent that there were many more living males than females. This, because of the availability of companion bots, no one had realized that the population had been skewed because males had more physical abilities and endurance than females on average and thus fewer people were needed to perform the work required to keep the system operating.
Thus females soon became one of the most valued commodities, but many of them were dying in the struggle and the population as a whole was rapidly being reduced. So even though these were regional wars, for the most part, they still amounted to world war because everyone was fighting for survival and to obtain both desired and needed resources.
On June 6, 2048, all of the weapons around the world suddenly stopped working altogether and all at once. This hit like a shock wave because those who had a lot of ballistic weapons were fewer in number than those who had little or no ballistic weapons. This may seem counterintuitive at first until you realize that the have-nots were forced to band together to survive, while groups with a large supply of ballistic weapons saw other similar groups as a threat, not as an ally.
By Christmas of that year, the war was over, now all of the modern technology and terrible weapons had been destroyed or rendered unusable. The remaining population was tired of war and they busied themselves with the task of learning how to build a new civilization, one that would last and not implode at the first sign of adversity. For a time the population continued to decline and the entire human race was just one or two natural disasters away from extinction. But gradually the birth rate increased again and surpassed the rate of deaths once more.
This short story idea represents what a true worldwide reset might look like, let me know in the comments below how you would build it back so that the cycle would not repeat itself.
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