Our story

One man, some bison and a lot of dirt.

BartCorp started in 2030 on cheap prairie near Cypress Hills. This is how it got from there to a park a little bigger than Belgium.

A family sitting on a red picnic blanket on a grassy hill, looking at a glass tower in the distance with hot air balloons in the sky
The Hill PlaceSunday
Four joggers in bright 1980s workout clothes running past round topiary, a white temple and a cube painted in primary colours
Lunch run, Zone F712:10 PM

Why XANA exists

Everyone in the book had a job.

When Jeff Bart was a kid, he had a picture dictionary called My Fun With Reading. Every page showed a town in flat, bright colours. Mailmen, bakers and garbage truck drivers, all doing their jobs somewhere between the city and the forest.

In the late 2020s, while Alberta moved into the Pyramid, Jeff bought the empty farmland to raise bison. Then he bought earthmovers and started shaping it into the town from the book. Two months in, he noticed the town needed people. So he started hiring.

That is still the plan. BartCorp builds the place, then hires people to be in it.

"Each person had a purpose. Everything was simple. Everyone looked fulfilled in their occupations."

Jeff Bart, memo to associates

The timeline

Alberta, 2000 to 2049

What happened in tech, and what happened in Alberta because of it. Real numbers up to today, our projections after that.

YearThe worldAlberta
  1. 2000

    About 7% of the world uses the internet.1 Alberta has about 3 million people.2

  2. 2004

    Facebook launches.

  3. 2007

    The iPhone goes on sale.

  4. 2012

    Oculus raises $2.4 million on Kickstarter to build a VR headset.3

  5. 2014

    Facebook buys Oculus for $2 billion.3

  6. 2020

    60% of the world is online.1

  7. 2022

    ChatGPT launches and reaches 100 million users in two months.4

  8. 2024

    Apple's Vision Pro headset goes on sale for US$3,499.5

  9. 2025

    74% of the world is online.1 The average internet user spends 6 hours 38 minutes a day online.6 Alberta passes 5 million people.2

    PhishAI announces the Megacity initiative. Construction starts on the Calgary Mega-City Pyramid.

  10. TodayEverything below is a projection
  11. 2026

    Headsets get light enough to wear all day.

    The Pyramid opens. Calgarians start moving in.

  12. 2027

    Synthetic food makes wheat, barley and canola redundant.

    Alberta farmland prices crash. Jeff Bart buys his first prairie near Cypress Hills, to raise bison.

  13. 2028

    PhishPhest, the Pyramid's play-to-earn game, pays rent for its players.

    Jeff starts moving the dirt himself, shaping the first hills.

  14. 2030

    The Pyramid's millionth resident moves in.

    Jeff founds BartCorp to run the land, the herd and whatever comes next. He names the land XANA, and starts inviting people over.

  15. 2032

    Most Pyramid residents never take their headsets off.

    BartCorp hires Chad Gepetti, an AI, as chief operating officer. He also does the filing.

  16. 2034

    PhishAI temporarily disables the logout button.

    Nine people walk out of the Pyramid. All nine get jobs at BartCorp.

  17. 2038

    The average Pyramid resident spends 18 hours a day in a headset.

    XANA reaches 36,000 km², a little bigger than Belgium.

  18. 2044

    The Pyramid passes 5 million residents, from all over Canada.

    BartCorp opens a hot air balloon route between its zones.

  19. 2049

    5,649,126 people live in the Pyramid. They spend 21.4 hours a day in a headset. About 41,000 move in every day, and 12 leave.

    XANA sets its calendars back to 1988, for the second time. BartCorp is hiring.

This is why we created XANA.

See inside the Pyramid
  1. ITU, via World Bank: individuals using the internet
  2. Statistics Canada: population estimates
  3. Engadget, March 2014
  4. ChatGPT launch and growth
  5. Apple Vision Pro launch
  6. DataReportal, Digital 2025

Who runs BartCorp

Leadership

Two of our four executives are AI. You can tell them apart by asking.

The book still needs people.

Get updates

Leave your email.

We'll write when the Steam page, the free demo or anything else new opens. Then go outside for a bit.