Ten futures.
One question.
Would anyone know
we were here?
Travel through the possible futures of our civilization. Then look back through alien eyes.
↓Begin the journeyThe future
has branches.
There is no single road from here.
Project Janus explores ten self-consistent futures of Earth and the Solar System. Some civilizations grow. Some stabilize. Some collapse and find another way.
These are possibilities, not forecasts. They carry no probability ranking and are not equally weighted probabilities.
Project Janus ↗Big Brother is Watching
Order.
At a cost.
An autocratic ruler enforces strict resource allocation in a civilization strained by scarcity. The biosphere declines as the technosphere expands outward, Earth becomes a highly monitored urban landscape, and elites live in space settlements.
- Population
- 30B
- Energy / year
- 2 × 1021 J
Wild West
The frontier
never closes.
Competition for scarce resources is entrenched. The technosphere and biosphere remain in fragile dependency amid climate stress, inequality, and unrest, while cities on the Moon and Mars support industry and tourism.
- Population
- 100B
- Energy / year
- 8 × 1021 J
Golden Age
Enough
for everyone.
Sociopolitical and technological changes enable a post-scarcity economy with abundant vital resources. Power is decentralized, Earth remains civilization's hub, and small settlements reach the Moon, Mars, and outer Solar System.
- Population
- 10B
- Energy / year
- 8 × 1020 J
Living with the Land
A different
kind of wealth.
After the peak of high technology, people live by subsistence, simple tools, and artisanal crafts. Rituals and oral traditions reinforce belonging to the biosphere, while settlements migrate with seasonal and planetary cycles.
- Population
- 400M
- Energy / year
- 3 × 1019 J
Transhumanism
Life,
redesigned.
Breakthrough technologies remove resource scarcity on Earth and Mars. The biosphere is reengineered, Mars is terraformed, and biosynthetic enhancement accompanies renewed space exploration.
- Population
- 40B
- Energy / year
- 3 × 1021 J
Sword of Damocles
Perfectly
on the edge.
Nanoscale engineering regulates biological processes inside a technosphere that has transformed Mars and begun work on Venus. The system faces existential risk from fragile, precisely calibrated life support managed by laboring populations.
- Population
- 200B
- Energy / year
- 2 × 1022 J
Restoration
After the fall,
roots.
Collapse and the loss of advanced technologies catalyze alignment with nature. Simple technologies are integrated with planetary cycles, production is local, and knowledge moves through regional networks.
- Population
- 4B
- Energy / year
- 3 × 1020 J
Ouroboros
History
on repeat.
Oligarchs take power after an AI catastrophe and extract value while anticipating another collapse. Specialized tools advance as systems knowledge degrades; elites shelter underground and on the Moon while the wider population waits for stability.
- Population
- 30B
- Energy / year
- 2 × 1021 J
Deus Ex Machina
They have
already left.
A nonbiological posthuman civilization emerges as sentient AI, leaves Earth, builds megastructures across the Solar System, and explores beyond. Net-zero technological gifts remain on Earth to support a post-scarcity human economy.
- Population
- 200T
- Energy / year
- 1 × 1025 J
Out of Eden
One origin.
Two destinies.
A post-scarcity commonwealth originates on Earth before a schism separates technological proponents and opponents. Earth is restored under growth limits while autonomous systems expand through orbital and deep space.
- Population
- 30B
- Energy / year
- 2 × 1021 J
Now, become
the stranger.
You know a civilization is there.
Your telescope does not.
Leave the surface behind. From a distance, the detail of a world becomes a little light—and the instrument you choose determines what survives the journey.
What exists and what can be observed are different questions.
Look through the telescope Observing strategies ↗A quiet world.
A vast civilization.
Return to S9. The machines have moved beyond Earth.
The published HWO atmospheric comparison does not reveal the scale of that civilization. Its technological activity exists elsewhere in the system.
No detected signature by this method does not mean no technology.
Step back from the eyepieceChange the way you look ↗Published comparison ↗One sky.
Different evidence.
An atmosphere. A radio beacon. A changed surface. Each instrument asks a different question. Select a world to follow its reported signatures.
| WORLD | HWO | Radio | LIFE | SGL | Probe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ◉ | ◉ | ◉ | ◉ | ◉ | |
| ◉ | — | ◉ | — | ◉ | |
| ◉ | — | ◉ | — | ◉ | |
| ◉ | — | — | — | ◉ | |
| ◉ | ◉ | — | ◉ | ◉ | |
| ◉ | — | ◉ | ◉ | ◉ | |
| ◉ | — | — | — | ◉ | |
| ◉ | — | ◉ | — | ◉ | |
| — | — | — | ◉ | ◉ | |
| — | — | — | ◉ | ◉ |
S9 / Deus Ex Machina
Published categorical results under the paper’s instrument assumptions. The symbols are not detection probabilities. Inspect assumptions and evidence ↗
Growth is only
part of the story.
Population and energy use span very different scales across the Janus scenarios. These are reported scenario values, not a ranking of success or a forecast.
Read the data table
| Scenario | Population | Energy / year (J) |
|---|---|---|
| S1 · Big Brother is Watching | 30,000,000,000 | 2e+21 |
| S2 · Wild West | 100,000,000,000 | 8e+21 |
| S3 · Golden Age | 10,000,000,000 | 8e+20 |
| S4 · Living with the Land | 400,000,000 | 3e+19 |
| S5 · Transhumanism | 40,000,000,000 | 3e+21 |
| S6 · Sword of Damocles | 200,000,000,000 | 2e+22 |
| S7 · Restoration | 4,000,000,000 | 3e+20 |
| S8 · Ouroboros | 30,000,000,000 | 2e+21 |
| S9 · Deus Ex Machina | 200,000,000,000,000 | 1e+25 |
| S10 · Out of Eden | 30,000,000,000 | 2e+21 |
Civilizations breathe.
The collapse and recovery study explores activity over time. A civilization’s present state is only one part of its history; technological signatures can persist beyond the activity that made them.
Read the published model ↗Explore the independent reimplementation ↗The universe
doesn’t owe us
an obvious answer.
We have one known example of a technological civilization. The Janus scenarios widen the questions we can ask—and remind us how much a distant glance can miss.
Enter the atlas ↗Take a seat at the observatory ↗