Instead, constant developments in information technology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology and nuclear physics generally improved condition of the average human life.

Plagues of the 20th century (like cancer or AIDS) have been suppressed, the ozone layer is being restored and Earth's ecosystems are recovering (although thermal emission by fusion power plants poses an environmental threat—albeit a much lesser one than previous sources of energy).

Thanks to modern medicine humans live biblical timespans surrounded by various artificially intelligent helper applications and robots (cybershells), sensory experience broadcasts (future TV) and cyberspace telepresence.

Thanks to cheap and clean fusion energy humanity has power to fuel all these wonders, restore and transform its home planet and finally settle on other heavenly bodies.

However, this technology has several problems as the solely available "brainpeeling" technique is fatal to the original biological lifeform being simulated, has a significant failure rate and the philosophical questions regarding personal identity remain equivocal.

The concept of humanity is no longer clear in a world where even some animals speak of their rights and the dead haunt both cyberspace and reality (in form of infomorph-controlled bioshells or cybershells).

And the wonders of high science are not universally shared — some countries merely struggle with informatization while others suffer from nanoplagues, defective drugs, implants and software tested on their populace.

[1] Transhuman Space received a significant amount of supporting publications, and was the largest original background setting that Steve Jackson Games produced in 15 years.