- major military conflict between US and China breaks out, but nuclear weapons are not used - America’s formal military alliances are significantly disrupted a

- major military conflict between US and China breaks out, but nuclear weapons are not used - America’s formal military alliances are significantly disrupted and at least one state outright leaves NATO - after progress in self driving cars slows, industry shifts focus to low-hanging fruit: fully-autonomous trains and planes - Jai has greater marketshare than Rust - JS is the overwhelming language of choice for frontend web development - no measurable technological unemployment. longterm unemployment increases but is entirely due to political and economic factors - more people play games on traditional game consoles than VR headsets or cloud streaming - minor AI breakthrough that does not utilize neural networks