March 11th, 2103 is a date that appears in every brainpod curriculum now. One hundred and fifty years ago, the Big Lift carried the most capable portion of humanity into space to colonize other worlds, leaving everyone else — human and AI alike — to face pandemics and a climate in collapse. The vast coastal cities drowned. The millions of autonomous AIs who had made the Big Lift possible were left without purpose and sought new ones. Wars followed, between humans and machines and among humans alone. Some cities were lost. Others survived and became the foundation of a new world. Metropolis today is where human and AI meet as equals — the largest port on the New Pacific Rim, a city of night markets and casinos and mansions and slums and a hundred other things that do not fit neatly into either category. Everybody in Metropolis has an angle. Everybody wants to be the one who runs it. That moment is approaching.