578. Brave New World.
By the end of the 21st century, AI and automation have rendered almost all manual labour and the service industry obsolete. Trucks, cabs, and even ships and planes drive, sail or fly themselves. Mines, factories and farms are all run by machines. Armies, navies and air forces consist almost entirely of drones. Unemployment for the working class and lower middle class runs at over 90%. The divide between the rich who own or manage these industries and the jobless poor has widened to a vast chasm. Advances in medicine mean that those who can afford private health care can enjoy lives of infinite youth, beauty and virility in genetically remodelled bodies. The only escape for the majority, unfortunate enough to be born into the decaying, crime-ridden slums, is to sell themselves into indentured servitude to the rich who dwell in the glittering condos, mansions and gated communities. It is slavery in all but name, even if it is entered into consensually and regulated by contracts of servitude. For the elite, owning a harem of beautiful servants is a status symbol, and with the advances in genetic engineering, those selling themselves into servitude can be remodelled to their masters and mistresses' specifications.