History
Present-2060s - Nothing important really changes. Russia and Belarus are unified, France changes its constitution once or twice, etc. Minor political changes occur, but the overall structure of politics remains largely intact. A small space race between China and the United States is sparked in the 2050s. Technology continues its inevitable march forward, but game changing technology is few and far between (gene therapy to screen for diseases in children; early, highly ineffective genetic engineering for military purposes; continually more sophisticated computers and faster internet connections). The most notable exception is the development of economic unification, which continues a march forward that becomes gradually exponential. Organizations such as NAFTA, the EU, CARICOM, the AU, the ASEAN, etc, begin to integrate more and more.
2062 - China establishes the Qian Wei scientific colony on Mars. The colony is self-sufficient but has less than two hundred total personnel. It is succeeded by similar colonies from the United States, France and Russia.
2065 - "Cybernetics" come into existence, with successful, functional interfacing between the human nervous system and electronic devices on a bodily scale.
2072 - China, France and the United States begin a joint program to colonize Mars, in an attempt to deal with a perceived problem of worldwide overpopulation and its knock-on effects on the economies of these three countries. The planet's hidden carbon dioxide content is agitated into the atmosphere, and objects from the Kuiper belt are moved into orbit to disintegrate and increase the atmospheric pressure.
2074 - The Selfless Human is published. The work is a philosophical treatise on human psychology, neurology, cybernetics and their interaction with classical morality. Its prescription for human immorality is to abandon old ideas about the sacredness of the human mind, and instead alter oneself in order to improve oneself. The ideology described therein is quickly termed "transhumanism." In an environment overcome by the gradual unification of humanity into an amoral superstructure, transhumanism strikes a chord with many, especially students and young professionals. Hundreds of thousands begin self-modification in a movement quickly deemed "subversive" and "dangerous" by countless governments.
2075 - A collection of twenty-six engineers and technicians begin the first successful mining of the asteroid belt, quickly becoming millionaires. Legal technicalities and labor disputes prevent Earth-based corporations from seriously exploiting the asteroid belt. To compensate for the resource-draining problem of bone loss in microgravity, complete bone structure replacement with cybernetics is done by these early entrepeneurs. This is repeated by countless similar groups of asteroid miners; they are soon known collectively as "Ceretians," a reference to Ceres, a large body in the asteroid belt which eventually became a meeting point for the population.
2077 - Terraforming of Mars has brought the atmosphere to a survivable pressure and the oxygen content to a breathable volume. The first civilian colony, New Taipei, is set up by the PRC as a penal colony for skilled labor. Other colonies are soon established by France and the United States, which are initially part of both nations.
2079 - After years of negotiations, the supergovernmental economic structures of Europe, North America, Oceania and much of Asia are unified into a single political unit, the International Economic Union, with a single currency, the terra. South America and subsaharan Africa are excluded from the initial union. The International Economic Union uses its collection of economic powers and scientific economics (based upon observation of the real world) to effectively prevent any recessions or depressions.
2083 - South America is allowed into the IEU, taking only limited losses as a consequence.
2091 - After over a decade, the African Union is integrated into the IEU at significant cost to the governments thereof. Every state is now under the banner of the IEU.
2093 - Finally giving up its struggling task of ruling over its Martian colony, China establishes the People's Republic of Mars, a de facto puppet state with limited self-government. Similar moves are made by the United States in 2094, with the establishhment of the Protectorate of South Mars, and by France in 2099, with the establishment of the Extraplanetary Department of French Mars.
2096 - The People's Republic of Mars, no longer satisfied with its position as puppet of China, wages a war of independence against the Chinese government. Initially known as the Mars War (and later the First Mars War), the conflict rages on, but the long supply lines between Earth and Mars, combined with the lackluster state of the PLA allow the PRM to successfully establish genuine independence in 2098, whereupon it secedes from the IEU.
2098 - Human manufacturing techniques, used by governments and corporations, make a quantum leap forward with the development of the Yensin cocktail, a collection of retroviral and chemical compounds which reduce the growth cycle of a human to a quarter of its normal length, with little loss in terms of education. It will be improved upon over time; at present, it reduces the growth cycle to two years. This will have knock-on effects of changing the face of governmental and corporate human manufacturing techniques.
2102 - As a consequence of the secession of the PRM from the IEU, the state of continuous economic growth ends. The import-export business with the PRM alters economic trade on a fundamental level due to the interaction of various laws. Within the PRM, many high-quality military weapons are legal, but most consumer drugs are illegal; in the IEU, the situation is the opposite. Trade between the two becomes erratic, unobserved, and quickly leads to major knock-on economic effects that eventually lead to a major depression and widespread unemployment.
2106 - Having great difficulty effectively reestablishing stability within the areas of its control, the IEU is granted a series of sweeping military powers to use against external actors. It declares war on the People's Republic of Mars, sparking the Second Mars War.
2108 - The IEU manages to successfully pacify the PRM, bringing it back into the fold and installing a new government.
2110 - Isaac Warke, an English physicist, uses experimental evidence to back up his theory regarding the underlying composition of the universe. This new theory, known as "Warke Theory," implies (among other things) that certain types of stars (a subsection of G-type main sequence stars) are interlinked in one or more other dimensions.
2113 - The IEU's thinktank on interstellar travel, suddenly thrust upwards in funding with Warke Theory, develops what is now known as the Warke Drive. The device stimulates space and a spacecraft on a single point, allowing it to pass between solar systems seemingly instantly.
2116 - After early experimentation with the Warke Drive does not yield causality-violating effects, and with its absolutely abysmal military applications (it is point-to-point and requires standard STL travel), the IEU decides to move it onto the civilian market, sparking a major colonization effort.
2120 - A landmark case in international court (Zhukov v. the Union State) determines that genetically engineered and government-produced humans have both full legal personhood and the right to retire from service after an initial six year term. That initial six year term is legally defined as indentured servitude for the costs of creation. In spite of this freedom, more than 99% of all gengineered humans will work the jobs they were built for for life.
2123 - Ozto, the home planet of the Irai, is discovered. The colonists involved, a ragtag band of entrepeneurs and incompetent engineers, quickly turn the discovery into a profit without informing the IEU or, indeed, anyone. They trade locally mined lithium for imported weaponry.
2123-25 - On Ozto, the "First Contact Wars" occur, leading to massive loss of life and rapid territorial shifts. These wars are widespread across the planet, and the colonists widespread sales prevent the establishment of any singular government but also broaden the scope of the bloodshed.
2125 - The IEU discovers what has occurred on Ozto, and sends military forces to pacify the planet. Long counterinsurgencies and modern military doctrines make the conquest a long slog, but the IEU's vastly superior industry make victory inevitable.
2134 - The Kingdom of Niri surrenders to the IEU, marking the end of the Ozto Conflict.
2139 - Armab, the native planet of the Libids is discovered. The IEU makes first contact and rapidly integrates the locals into it, largely with their consent but occasionally with the application of implicit or explicit force. Due to the vast superiority of the IEU's technology and the disorganized nature of the locals, Armab is easily absorbed.
2146 - Present Day.
2062 - China establishes the Qian Wei scientific colony on Mars. The colony is self-sufficient but has less than two hundred total personnel. It is succeeded by similar colonies from the United States, France and Russia.
2065 - "Cybernetics" come into existence, with successful, functional interfacing between the human nervous system and electronic devices on a bodily scale.
2072 - China, France and the United States begin a joint program to colonize Mars, in an attempt to deal with a perceived problem of worldwide overpopulation and its knock-on effects on the economies of these three countries. The planet's hidden carbon dioxide content is agitated into the atmosphere, and objects from the Kuiper belt are moved into orbit to disintegrate and increase the atmospheric pressure.
2074 - The Selfless Human is published. The work is a philosophical treatise on human psychology, neurology, cybernetics and their interaction with classical morality. Its prescription for human immorality is to abandon old ideas about the sacredness of the human mind, and instead alter oneself in order to improve oneself. The ideology described therein is quickly termed "transhumanism." In an environment overcome by the gradual unification of humanity into an amoral superstructure, transhumanism strikes a chord with many, especially students and young professionals. Hundreds of thousands begin self-modification in a movement quickly deemed "subversive" and "dangerous" by countless governments.
2075 - A collection of twenty-six engineers and technicians begin the first successful mining of the asteroid belt, quickly becoming millionaires. Legal technicalities and labor disputes prevent Earth-based corporations from seriously exploiting the asteroid belt. To compensate for the resource-draining problem of bone loss in microgravity, complete bone structure replacement with cybernetics is done by these early entrepeneurs. This is repeated by countless similar groups of asteroid miners; they are soon known collectively as "Ceretians," a reference to Ceres, a large body in the asteroid belt which eventually became a meeting point for the population.
2077 - Terraforming of Mars has brought the atmosphere to a survivable pressure and the oxygen content to a breathable volume. The first civilian colony, New Taipei, is set up by the PRC as a penal colony for skilled labor. Other colonies are soon established by France and the United States, which are initially part of both nations.
2079 - After years of negotiations, the supergovernmental economic structures of Europe, North America, Oceania and much of Asia are unified into a single political unit, the International Economic Union, with a single currency, the terra. South America and subsaharan Africa are excluded from the initial union. The International Economic Union uses its collection of economic powers and scientific economics (based upon observation of the real world) to effectively prevent any recessions or depressions.
2083 - South America is allowed into the IEU, taking only limited losses as a consequence.
2091 - After over a decade, the African Union is integrated into the IEU at significant cost to the governments thereof. Every state is now under the banner of the IEU.
2093 - Finally giving up its struggling task of ruling over its Martian colony, China establishes the People's Republic of Mars, a de facto puppet state with limited self-government. Similar moves are made by the United States in 2094, with the establishhment of the Protectorate of South Mars, and by France in 2099, with the establishment of the Extraplanetary Department of French Mars.
2096 - The People's Republic of Mars, no longer satisfied with its position as puppet of China, wages a war of independence against the Chinese government. Initially known as the Mars War (and later the First Mars War), the conflict rages on, but the long supply lines between Earth and Mars, combined with the lackluster state of the PLA allow the PRM to successfully establish genuine independence in 2098, whereupon it secedes from the IEU.
2098 - Human manufacturing techniques, used by governments and corporations, make a quantum leap forward with the development of the Yensin cocktail, a collection of retroviral and chemical compounds which reduce the growth cycle of a human to a quarter of its normal length, with little loss in terms of education. It will be improved upon over time; at present, it reduces the growth cycle to two years. This will have knock-on effects of changing the face of governmental and corporate human manufacturing techniques.
2102 - As a consequence of the secession of the PRM from the IEU, the state of continuous economic growth ends. The import-export business with the PRM alters economic trade on a fundamental level due to the interaction of various laws. Within the PRM, many high-quality military weapons are legal, but most consumer drugs are illegal; in the IEU, the situation is the opposite. Trade between the two becomes erratic, unobserved, and quickly leads to major knock-on economic effects that eventually lead to a major depression and widespread unemployment.
2106 - Having great difficulty effectively reestablishing stability within the areas of its control, the IEU is granted a series of sweeping military powers to use against external actors. It declares war on the People's Republic of Mars, sparking the Second Mars War.
2108 - The IEU manages to successfully pacify the PRM, bringing it back into the fold and installing a new government.
2110 - Isaac Warke, an English physicist, uses experimental evidence to back up his theory regarding the underlying composition of the universe. This new theory, known as "Warke Theory," implies (among other things) that certain types of stars (a subsection of G-type main sequence stars) are interlinked in one or more other dimensions.
2113 - The IEU's thinktank on interstellar travel, suddenly thrust upwards in funding with Warke Theory, develops what is now known as the Warke Drive. The device stimulates space and a spacecraft on a single point, allowing it to pass between solar systems seemingly instantly.
2116 - After early experimentation with the Warke Drive does not yield causality-violating effects, and with its absolutely abysmal military applications (it is point-to-point and requires standard STL travel), the IEU decides to move it onto the civilian market, sparking a major colonization effort.
2120 - A landmark case in international court (Zhukov v. the Union State) determines that genetically engineered and government-produced humans have both full legal personhood and the right to retire from service after an initial six year term. That initial six year term is legally defined as indentured servitude for the costs of creation. In spite of this freedom, more than 99% of all gengineered humans will work the jobs they were built for for life.
2123 - Ozto, the home planet of the Irai, is discovered. The colonists involved, a ragtag band of entrepeneurs and incompetent engineers, quickly turn the discovery into a profit without informing the IEU or, indeed, anyone. They trade locally mined lithium for imported weaponry.
2123-25 - On Ozto, the "First Contact Wars" occur, leading to massive loss of life and rapid territorial shifts. These wars are widespread across the planet, and the colonists widespread sales prevent the establishment of any singular government but also broaden the scope of the bloodshed.
2125 - The IEU discovers what has occurred on Ozto, and sends military forces to pacify the planet. Long counterinsurgencies and modern military doctrines make the conquest a long slog, but the IEU's vastly superior industry make victory inevitable.
2134 - The Kingdom of Niri surrenders to the IEU, marking the end of the Ozto Conflict.
2139 - Armab, the native planet of the Libids is discovered. The IEU makes first contact and rapidly integrates the locals into it, largely with their consent but occasionally with the application of implicit or explicit force. Due to the vast superiority of the IEU's technology and the disorganized nature of the locals, Armab is easily absorbed.
2146 - Present Day.