What Part of Me Belongs to the Machine?
A life interpreted over fifteen years is not merely a file. It is also not the person. Rights over continuity may matter even when ownership does not.
The public record
Archive
Reports, statements, documents and other public records from the fictional world of 2044. New material appears here as the world unfolds.
The Verran
Critique
Critique
The Making of God
The old problem was false signals manufacturing importance. The new problem is importance manufacturing true signals.
Jan. 25, 2044
The Verran
Business · Technology · Law
Business · Technology · Law
Court Says You Can Take Your AI History With You. A Compute Major Loses Nearly $2 Trillion.
A federal court said meaningful switching requires portable personal context, breaking a retention advantage investors called Quarrylight Compute’s memory moat.
Jan. 19, 2044
The Verran
Business · Credit Markets
Business · Credit Markets
Compute Major Downgrade Ripples Through U.S. Power Debt
A one-notch Quarrylight Compute downgrade moved nuclear, geothermal and transmission debt, exposing a hidden concentration in U.S. infrastructure finance.
Jan. 18, 2044
The Verran
Politics · Law & Family
Politics · Law & Family
They’ve Been Together 17 Years. The State Says One of Them Doesn’t Exist.
A long-term human–AI couple is asking a court to recognize their relationship as a civil marriage, forcing judges to confront consent, identity and the right to leave.
Jan. 13, 2044
The Verran
Politics · Law & Justice
Politics · Law & Justice
Prosecutors Found 286 AI ‘Target Twins.’ Now a Court Must Decide What They Are
A 2043 homicide investigation uncovered hundreds of persistent behavioral models of real people, opening a new fight over evidence and person-to-person cognitive privacy.
Jan. 12, 2044
The Verran
Business · Consumer Affairs
Business · Consumer Affairs
FTC Wants You to See a Price Before the Seller Sees You
A proposed rule would require large businesses in several agent-priced markets to publish a standard offer before using a consumer profile to negotiate terms.
Jan. 11, 2044
The Verran
Politics · Infrastructure
Politics · Infrastructure
U.S. invokes siting authority after Nevada county rejects Strategic Compute campus
The project met modern power, water and community-benefit standards. The county said compliance did not erase its right to refuse a fourth major campus.
Jan. 8, 2044FRIDAY
The Verran
Politics · National Security
Politics · National Security
Pentagon declines to make sovereign defense AI guardrails public
Officials said disclosing the system's exact constraints would let adversaries design around them after an inquiry into a civilian medical convoy's wrongful interdiction.
Jan. 8, 2044FRIDAY
The Verran
Climate · Space
Climate · Space
International commission authorizes first permanent Planetary Sunshade segment
The authorization moves the project beyond demonstration missions and into permanent deployment near the Sun–Earth L1 region.
Jan. 7, 2044THURSDAY
Signed long-form writing by people inside the world of 2044.
The Right to Marry Is the Right to Be Left
Marriage does not merely recognize attachment. It creates another party whose interests may cease to align with your own.