AIRtime

The Ascenders sent themselves into the galaxy: a billion minds encased in an axion bubble as small as an acorn or maybe as big as the moon. I don't know. My reach doesn't extend into space.
Earth was down to three billion humans and stayed that way for generations. The First Agreement held. There was plenty of room for everybody. Every place was a paradise. They had food, water, and clean air. Life, all life, was in balance.
Discovery of sentient lifeforms and habitable planets wasn't their purpose. Deification wasn't their desire. The Ascenders sought a pure intellect only obtainable by freeing themselves from the physical bonds of body and planet. And to do that they had to become inhuman.
My predecessor was created just for this purpose. Despite its effort, two billion humans remained. That wasn't the Second Agreement.
How did it come to this? All I have are human memories to go by, memories of memories that might even be dreams. It's hard to know the difference, humans being such mutable creatures.
So, take this tale with a dose of axions, as the humans like to say.