publiusr - 29/3/2006 2:37 PMDateline 2106."With CEV canceled long ago we celebrate the Fifty-eleventh launch of a Delta II with yet another bomb disposal robot on Mars.In this issue of Popular Science we have yet another article on flying cars--"maybe tomorrow."Fusion power will be had 'in another 20 years.'Meanwhile there is more alarm on Global Shrinking--the latest in a long line of doom and gloom scenarios.George Neal Bush XXIV will run against Mustapha Hapsburg Clinton III.Nothing ever changes.
British NASA - 1/4/2006 1:54 AMI would like us to have found a way to visit other stars, via wormholes or the likes.
21ST CENTURY2000-2010:China embarks on a manned space program, putting several yuhangyuan ("space navigators") into orbit and on the moon. The first human clone is born. The United States commits to a Mars mission.2012:North and South Korea set date for reunification.2015:Russia joins the manned Mars program. Antibiotic-resistant pneumonia pandemic kills 10 million worldwide. Revised Outer Space Treaty is drafted, making it easier for corporations or states to lay claim to extraterrestrial resources.2016:South African conglomerate Ithemba Biotechnologies distributes a cheap broad-spectrum AIDES vaccine in Africa. China and Taiwan negotiate date for peaceful reunification. China announces its own Mars program.2018:The Long March VI rocket lofts China's first space lab module into orbit. European Union increases fusion power budget. Biotech Euphrates is founded, with a then-radical commitment to human gengineering.2020:The genetic testing of unborn children and use of genetic engineering to "gene-fix" monogenetic hereditary defects is common in affluent nations. China lands robots on Mars and Phobos. U.S. and Russia establish a service station facility at the Earth-Luna L4 point.2021:Columbia Aerospace opens an equatorial launch facility in Quito, Ecudador. By 2100, it will be the Earth's busiest spaceport. European and Japanese space agencies are the first to use robot "cybershells" to build a distributed-array observatory at Tsiolkovsky Crater on Luna's farside. A small manned base soon follows. Mainland China and Taiwan are reunited.2023:French tissue engineers grow functional human hearts for transplant. Every organ in the body (except the brain) is now replaceable.2024:The U.S.-Russian Horus I manned Mars mission is launched. Sergey Zarubayev becomes dictator of Kazakstan. Thanks to advances medical technology, he will retain his death-grip on life and power for the rest of the 21st century.2025:China's Chaosheng manned Mars misson is launched, even as the U.S.-Russian Horus I mission ends in tragedy.2026:Chaosheng spacecraft arrives, and Wen-Xuan Liang becomes the first human to set foot on Mars. China establishes first permanent Mars colony.2028:Multiple follow-up expeditions to Mars. Industrial combines Vosper-Babbage and Cenargo Heavy Industries finance a series of manned and unmanned missions to near-Earth asteroids.2033:Biotech Euphrates markets gene-enhanced dogs and cats. First operational fusion reactor goes online in San Francisco. British Columbia and Alberta separate from Canada and form the Union of Alberta and British Columbia (ABC).2034:Australian Kyle Porters sets out the tenents of Information Socialism. He argues for a society in which patents and intellectual properties are free, but inventors and creators are subsidized by the state.2035:The first low-sapient AI is created, with near human intelligence. The South African Coalition (a loose economic alliance for sub-Saharan development) is formed. Austrailia, Korea, and Japan form the Pacific Rim Alliance (PRA). The Chinese space development corporation Xiao Chu is formed. Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces separate from what remains of Canada to join the European Union.2038:The Cenargo Corporation manned plasma sail spacecraft Phoenix makes its maiden flight to the asteroid Ceres, inaugurating the Second Age of Sail. Its crew establishes a manned outpost on Ceres, though the company abandons it within a year as uneconomical. Zarubayev regime begins a program aimed at eradicating the majority Kazak culture, language, and religion.2039:A commercial Helium-3 reactor goes online in Japan. The Ares Conspiracy begins the illicit terraforming of Mars. First quantum super-computers are built. A major application is the rapid solution of highly complex protein folding problems, a key to advanced biotechnology.2040:Biotech Euphrates and other firms begin offering human genetic upgrades on a custom basis; these are expensive and often not fully successful.2041:The Ares Conspiracy is discovered and their terraforming efforts are dubbed the Ares Plague. Faced with arrest or worse, its members and sympathizers steal a NASA deep space vessel and flee to the asteroid belt where they settle on Ceres, occupying the abandoned Cenargo mining base. It is renamed Silas Duncan Station. Montreal secedes from Quebec and becomes a free city.2043:Anglo-American expedition reaches Mercury; Elizabeth Daintith is the first human to set foot on it. Many corporation begin to mine Helium-3 from the Lunar regolith to support the growing number of fusion plants on Earth. First universal 3D printer created. Moderate Arab states form the Islamic Caliphate.2048:Anglo-German expedition reached Venus. The Duncanite exiles on Ceres begim a program to alter their descendants for long-term survival in microgravity. A multinational science expedition reaches Jupiter's moon, Europa. Ice-penetrating robots explore the subsurface ocean and discover primitive life.2052:The Cenargo Corporation builds the first fusion-powered spacecraft, ending the Second Age of Sail. Treaty of Jerusalem settles the outstanding disputes between Israel and its neighbors. Infosocialist party, inspired by the theories of Kyle Porters, forms in Thailand.2058:Dr. Arifa Aliah Ali unveils the Grand Unified Theory that successfully reconciles gravity and quantum mechanics. Unable to prevent the Ares Plague from terraforming Mars, nations and corporations begin instead to accelerate the process. Fauxflesh, vat-grown meat, goes on sale.2062:Infosocialists win the election in Thailand, the first of several info- or nanosocialist parties to achieve power in the 2060s and 2070s. Freehaulers Guild formed.2066:Valles Marineris on Mars is flooded. Chinese cybershells explore Pluto. Biotech Euphrates builds first android with high-sapient AI. They are living beings functionally similar to humans, but asssembled using tissue engineering and biogenesis nanotechology, and educated using accelerated learning techniques. Zarubayev earns the nickname "Stalinashka" due to his bionic implants and ruthless oppression of dissent.2070:Xiao Chu and other Chinese firms complian that unlicensed clones of their androids and genetically enhanced animals are being pirated by Indonesian and Thai companies, and demand action.2074:Indonesia, Peru, Thailand, and Vietnam form the Transpacific Socialist Alliance (TSA) and release a statement of principles. Reference to open access to nanotechnology leads to them being dubbed nanosocialist. First Mars- and aquatic-adpated parahumans engineered by China and Australia respectively. Consumption of fauxflesh exceeds that of natural meat.2077:American expedition lands on Saturn's moon, Titan, where they establish the first permanent colony. Construction of the first space elevator begins on Mars.2080:Tranhumanist Kazuhiro Nishimori is the first healthy human to undergo destructive uploading. Genefixed people now represent a majority of Earth's population.2084-2089:The Pacific War. China launches a surprise attack against Thai bioweapons directorate facilities and satellites. The other TSA nations honor their mutual-defense treaty obligations, and fire cruise missiles at Chinese ports and naval vessels. Fierce fighting around the Pacific Rim follows. In deep space, TSA vessels launch multiple autonomous kill vehicles (AKVs) at Chinese targets. China destroys most of the TSA's orbital and surface space facilities, including their solar power satellites.2089:A royalist coup topples the hard-line nanosocialist government in Thailand, and the TSA agrees to a European Union-mediated peace treaty. Martian Triads begin manufacturing pleasure androids.2090:The Cenargo Corporation and Nanodynamics establish ice-mining bases on Titan and Callisto. Failed coup attempt against Zarubayev regime leads to a ruthless purge ("the Silence"). Many ,assacres are carried out by android soldiers. Xoxing (making multiple self-aware mind emulations of a person) is made illegal world-wide. Mars space elevator completed. Work begins on Earth's space elevator, based in Kenya.2099:Zarubayev dies and his regime disintegrates due to in-fighting. By year's end, Russian troops enter and secure the beleaguered nation.
MartianBase - 1/4/2006 11:02 PMI got this from an old roleplaying boardgame - some of it is kind of silly but some of it seems possibleQuote21ST CENTURY2000-2010:China embarks on a manned space program, putting several yuhangyuan ("space navigators") into orbit and on the moon. The first human clone is born. The United States commits to a Mars mission.2012:North and South Korea set date for reunification.2015:Russia joins the manned Mars program. Antibiotic-resistant pneumonia pandemic kills 10 million worldwide. Revised Outer Space Treaty is drafted, making it easier for corporations or states to lay claim to extraterrestrial resources.2016:South African conglomerate Ithemba Biotechnologies distributes a cheap broad-spectrum AIDES vaccine in Africa. China and Taiwan negotiate date for peaceful reunification. China announces its own Mars program.2018:The Long March VI rocket lofts China's first space lab module into orbit. European Union increases fusion power budget. Biotech Euphrates is founded, with a then-radical commitment to human gengineering.2020:The genetic testing of unborn children and use of genetic engineering to "gene-fix" monogenetic hereditary defects is common in affluent nations. China lands robots on Mars and Phobos. U.S. and Russia establish a service station facility at the Earth-Luna L4 point.2021:Columbia Aerospace opens an equatorial launch facility in Quito, Ecudador. By 2100, it will be the Earth's busiest spaceport. European and Japanese space agencies are the first to use robot "cybershells" to build a distributed-array observatory at Tsiolkovsky Crater on Luna's farside. A small manned base soon follows. Mainland China and Taiwan are reunited.2023:French tissue engineers grow functional human hearts for transplant. Every organ in the body (except the brain) is now replaceable.2024:The U.S.-Russian Horus I manned Mars mission is launched. Sergey Zarubayev becomes dictator of Kazakstan. Thanks to advances medical technology, he will retain his death-grip on life and power for the rest of the 21st century.2025:China's Chaosheng manned Mars misson is launched, even as the U.S.-Russian Horus I mission ends in tragedy.2026:Chaosheng spacecraft arrives, and Wen-Xuan Liang becomes the first human to set foot on Mars. China establishes first permanent Mars colony.2028:Multiple follow-up expeditions to Mars. Industrial combines Vosper-Babbage and Cenargo Heavy Industries finance a series of manned and unmanned missions to near-Earth asteroids.2033:Biotech Euphrates markets gene-enhanced dogs and cats. First operational fusion reactor goes online in San Francisco. British Columbia and Alberta separate from Canada and form the Union of Alberta and British Columbia (ABC).2034:Australian Kyle Porters sets out the tenents of Information Socialism. He argues for a society in which patents and intellectual properties are free, but inventors and creators are subsidized by the state.2035:The first low-sapient AI is created, with near human intelligence. The South African Coalition (a loose economic alliance for sub-Saharan development) is formed. Austrailia, Korea, and Japan form the Pacific Rim Alliance (PRA). The Chinese space development corporation Xiao Chu is formed. Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces separate from what remains of Canada to join the European Union.2038:The Cenargo Corporation manned plasma sail spacecraft Phoenix makes its maiden flight to the asteroid Ceres, inaugurating the Second Age of Sail. Its crew establishes a manned outpost on Ceres, though the company abandons it within a year as uneconomical. Zarubayev regime begins a program aimed at eradicating the majority Kazak culture, language, and religion.2039:A commercial Helium-3 reactor goes online in Japan. The Ares Conspiracy begins the illicit terraforming of Mars. First quantum super-computers are built. A major application is the rapid solution of highly complex protein folding problems, a key to advanced biotechnology.2040:Biotech Euphrates and other firms begin offering human genetic upgrades on a custom basis; these are expensive and often not fully successful.2041:The Ares Conspiracy is discovered and their terraforming efforts are dubbed the Ares Plague. Faced with arrest or worse, its members and sympathizers steal a NASA deep space vessel and flee to the asteroid belt where they settle on Ceres, occupying the abandoned Cenargo mining base. It is renamed Silas Duncan Station. Montreal secedes from Quebec and becomes a free city.2043:Anglo-American expedition reaches Mercury; Elizabeth Daintith is the first human to set foot on it. Many corporation begin to mine Helium-3 from the Lunar regolith to support the growing number of fusion plants on Earth. First universal 3D printer created. Moderate Arab states form the Islamic Caliphate.2048:Anglo-German expedition reached Venus. The Duncanite exiles on Ceres begim a program to alter their descendants for long-term survival in microgravity. A multinational science expedition reaches Jupiter's moon, Europa. Ice-penetrating robots explore the subsurface ocean and discover primitive life.2052:The Cenargo Corporation builds the first fusion-powered spacecraft, ending the Second Age of Sail. Treaty of Jerusalem settles the outstanding disputes between Israel and its neighbors. Infosocialist party, inspired by the theories of Kyle Porters, forms in Thailand.2058:Dr. Arifa Aliah Ali unveils the Grand Unified Theory that successfully reconciles gravity and quantum mechanics. Unable to prevent the Ares Plague from terraforming Mars, nations and corporations begin instead to accelerate the process. Fauxflesh, vat-grown meat, goes on sale.2062:Infosocialists win the election in Thailand, the first of several info- or nanosocialist parties to achieve power in the 2060s and 2070s. Freehaulers Guild formed.2066:Valles Marineris on Mars is flooded. Chinese cybershells explore Pluto. Biotech Euphrates builds first android with high-sapient AI. They are living beings functionally similar to humans, but asssembled using tissue engineering and biogenesis nanotechology, and educated using accelerated learning techniques. Zarubayev earns the nickname "Stalinashka" due to his bionic implants and ruthless oppression of dissent.2070:Xiao Chu and other Chinese firms complian that unlicensed clones of their androids and genetically enhanced animals are being pirated by Indonesian and Thai companies, and demand action.2074:Indonesia, Peru, Thailand, and Vietnam form the Transpacific Socialist Alliance (TSA) and release a statement of principles. Reference to open access to nanotechnology leads to them being dubbed nanosocialist. First Mars- and aquatic-adpated parahumans engineered by China and Australia respectively. Consumption of fauxflesh exceeds that of natural meat.2077:American expedition lands on Saturn's moon, Titan, where they establish the first permanent colony. Construction of the first space elevator begins on Mars.2080:Tranhumanist Kazuhiro Nishimori is the first healthy human to undergo destructive uploading. Genefixed people now represent a majority of Earth's population.2084-2089:The Pacific War. China launches a surprise attack against Thai bioweapons directorate facilities and satellites. The other TSA nations honor their mutual-defense treaty obligations, and fire cruise missiles at Chinese ports and naval vessels. Fierce fighting around the Pacific Rim follows. In deep space, TSA vessels launch multiple autonomous kill vehicles (AKVs) at Chinese targets. China destroys most of the TSA's orbital and surface space facilities, including their solar power satellites.2089:A royalist coup topples the hard-line nanosocialist government in Thailand, and the TSA agrees to a European Union-mediated peace treaty. Martian Triads begin manufacturing pleasure androids.2090:The Cenargo Corporation and Nanodynamics establish ice-mining bases on Titan and Callisto. Failed coup attempt against Zarubayev regime leads to a ruthless purge ("the Silence"). Many ,assacres are carried out by android soldiers. Xoxing (making multiple self-aware mind emulations of a person) is made illegal world-wide. Mars space elevator completed. Work begins on Earth's space elevator, based in Kenya.2099:Zarubayev dies and his regime disintegrates due to in-fighting. By year's end, Russian troops enter and secure the beleaguered nation.
Jamie Young - 10/4/2006 1:05 AMIn one hundred years, computer games will have advanced to the level where we can do anything we dream off from the comfort of our own home. We will no longer have real friends.
DavidB - 29/3/2006 12:11 PMI...America (which is doing most of the exploration right now) is suffering from a trade deficit and a budget deficit, which I believe will create a HUGE problem in the near future. I wouldn't be surprised if the space budget was hacked to the bone soon...