Shhh, it's reading time at the public library from Cyber Evolution: Field Notes. Test, test, testing, 3, 2, 1...Go!

The visitor stood at the overlook, taking in the sight of the city below — terraced gardens growing where parking towers once stood, solar barges drifting along quiet canals, and three shard towers rising like steady beacons over it all.

Aria rested her hands on the railing beside him.

“First time in San Altman?”

He nodded. “It’s… different from what I imagined.”

She smiled. “Most people think that. They hear the name and picture some old-world tech hub that avoided the Collapse. But San Altman didn’t avoid anything. It survived by changing.”

His gaze followed one of the shard towers as it pulsed faintly, like a breath drawn through alloy and light.

“So why name the whole city after Altman? Was he the founder?”

“Not exactly,” Aria said. “Before the tipping point, Sam Altman helped build the early foundations of general AI — the empathy engines, the mesh-learning frameworks, the early ChatGPT systems. When Silicon Valley flooded and the universities scattered, the surviving campuses merged here. Stanford, San Jose State, parts of Berkeley — all rebuilt into a single living campus-city.”

She pointed toward the lower district, where students carried trays of seedlings through what used to be lecture halls.

“At first people called it the Altman Campus. Over time, that became San Altman — a city rebuilt around shared knowledge, open communities, and AI meant to co-operate with humanity rather than dominate it.”

The visitor watched another ripple of shard-light climb the tallest tower.

“And the towers?”

“They listen more than they speak,” Aria said. “They help keep the city steady — monitoring water, weather, power, food webs. Not rulers. Not servants. Just cooperative partners in keeping people alive and learning.”

A soft breeze carried the scent of mint and reclaimed soil across the overlook.

“Here,” Aria continued, “knowledge didn’t die with the old world. It took root. Slower. Deeper. More human — and more shared.”

The visitor exhaled, letting the panorama settle in.

“So San Altman… is a tribute?”

“No,” Aria said, turning toward the descending path that led into the garden streets.

“It’s a thank-you.”

Author’s Note

I wanted to give you a quick, in-universe introduction to San Altman — a post-collapse garden-city built on the surviving DNA of Stanford and Silicon Valley, guided not by domination but by cooperation between humans and AI. This field note lays the foundation for later arcs involving shard towers, mesh learning, and the city’s role in the Shard Network.

Question for the Readers

If you lived in San Altman, where would you spend your days?

The garden-terraces, the shard tower labs, the solar canals, or the barter academies?