Who survives?

Imagine a future.

Say 5000 years. A new way of living came about, to edge us normal humans out. Complex hierarchies using virtual simulations and bodies genetically modified to subsist on light.

There are pockets of baselines left.

However, they've been pushed to the darkest corners of the globe.

The places with least sunlight, living in small towns of 20-30,000. They develop an egalitarian society that prizes unity to survive, living mostly on bioengineered fungis under the direction of remnant shards of superintelligences.

The dominant culture then feels, "Oh, this is just how all baselines used to be."

This describes a frequent dilemma in looking at our deep past by checking foragers in the 20th century.