Jakob's Timeline

2020 to 2069

2020s...By 2020, numerous inventions of earlier decades, such as the internet, smartphones, drones, and other robots have become ubiquitous across the world and many programmers work to build ever-more-powerful computers and AI. A boom in electronics manufacturing that started in the previous decade results in intensive mining in many third-world countries, where the needed metals are common. But these supplies run low by 2024 and ever-more-advanced technology and ever-more-extensive mining is needed to extract them. This angers the people living in the mined regions and they often fight violently against the mining corporations. An emerging severe water shortage worsens the problem and by 2025, skirmishes have broken out in many places. Meanwhile, by 2023, two organizations that formed in the previous decade are forces to be reckoned with on the global stage, having convinced entire nations to align themselves with them. These organizations are called BARIUM and COBRAS. The more liberal BARIUM controls many western nations, while the conservative COBRAS holds most eastern nations. A tense standoff between the two begins in 2026 and World War III breaks out in 2027. COBRAS initially has the upper hand and marches across much of Europe and by 2029, many predict a COBRAS victory within one or two years. But then the tables turn.

2030s...In 2030, BARIUM begins making secret technological advances, creating bioweapons and nanoweapons to devastating affect, turning the tables greatly. They even build several military space stations and bomb COBRAS bases from orbit. COBRAS scrambles to catch up, in the process devastating major BARIUM cities such as Harrisburg. But in the end, COBRAS fails and surrenders in 2035. The few leaders that can be found are arrested and thoughts of the victorious BARIUM turn to rebuilding and technological advances. Manned missions to Mars and several asteroids are done with great sucess and colonies start on the moon. On earth, the Capitol Region (formerly Pennsylvania, USA) is revamped, with Harrisburg being rebuilt as New Harrisburg and the cities Pennsylvania City, the Bariumpolis (capitol of BARIUM) and numerous smaller cities are built from scratch. The infrastructure across the world is also revolutionized at astounding speeds during this time, thanks to the extensive use and other, more unorthodox methods. But this new planetary nation will soon have major problems to deal with.

2040s...This decade gets off to a great start before things become terrible. In 2041, the remains of COBRAS resurface, this time turning to terrorism to fight BARIUM. For years, structures get blown up and synthetic viruses and deadly nanobots are released, killing tens of millions. Major cities are nuked, killing millions more and virtually no one feels safe. This all comes at a time when resources are becoming scarce and global warming is picking up. People leave for the moon and Mars in droves. Progress grinds to a halt as all of BARIUM's power is devoted to fighting this threat. But it will be short-lived.

2050s...In late 2050, the chaos of the 2040s comes to an end due to a radical response from the BARIUM government. The first phase is the creation of the BARIUM Army of Transhumans, or BART for short. These are the most high-tech soldiers ever and have even received upgrades to make them stronger, tougher, more enduring, faster, and even ageless. They are also aided by highly advanced computers and robots. Hundreds of millions of people are drafted into this army, including many thousands in space. In the beginning of 2051, mass surveilance is drastically ramped up. Nanodrones with cameras are released in swarms of trillions, able to view every square millimeter of the planet with astounding detail. Computers scan huge volumes of data and use advanced pattern-recognition techniques to predict every person's every move. Scanners capable of reading thoughts are even introduced in many areas. Also in 2051, the penalties for many crimes are increased greatly. The Office of Watchers is established in 2052 to keep track of all this information. With all of these reforms, the rates of terrorism and other crimes drop to virtually zero and the public begins to feel safe again. After 87 million deaths, the Decade of Terror is over. The work on overhauling the world's infrastructure continues and by the end of the decade, it is nearing completion. Progress in space also continues, with more asteroids and more notably, Jupiter's moon Europa are visited on manned missions. People continue to head to the moon and Mars, but at a slower rate. Nevertheless, by the end of the decade, there are 40,000 people on the moon, 5,000 on Mars, 600 on Ceres, and 70 on Vesta. Security increases are also seen beyond the earth. BART units are deployed to the moon and Mars (and Ceres to a lesser extent), military space stations are installed, and surveilance increases somewhat. BARIUM is about to enter its first true golden age.

2060s...The 2060s mark the beginning of BARIUM'S first true golden age. By 2060 to 2062, many transhuman upgrades are available to common people and by 2064 to 2065, the infrastructure overhaul is completed. It is now possible to travel by car or maglev from any continent to any other and high-hypersonic aircraft are common. Snythetic humans, first considered in the previous decade, are present by 2063 and soon all new humans will be created this way. Many other scientific advancements are made, including the eradication of many common diseases. Ganymede and Callisto are visited and a manned mission to Saturn is a possibility for the near future. People also continue to migrate into space, as it becomes easier and easier to get there. In 2067, it costs less than $10,000 to get a seat on a spaceship to the moon and in 2069 the first space elevator is built. Crime levels continue to be virtually zero and the mood of the public improves. But probelms are beginning to develop. Global warming is one; average temparatures are nearly 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than they were in the 20th century. Overpopulation is also beginning to be an issue, as the population of earth reaches ten billion. In fact, most of the Capitol Region is becoming a giant megacity. But the golden age will persist for a while longer.

2070s...In the 2070s, the golden age of BARIUM continues for many people, but the interplanetary nation is secretly beginning to crumble. The mood of the public begins to decline and the rate of emigration from earth subtly rises again. Many minor moons of Jupiter are visited, as are more asteroids. A total of ten space elevators have also been developed by this time. The infrastructure projects continue, with large-scale settlement and development of Antarctica. A tunnel across the Atlantic Ocean is also started in 2073 and completed six years later. By 2076, the first synthetic humans are reaching their teenage years and several thousand are now alive. Most people accept them, but many are extremely prejudiced, seeing them as somehow less human. Meanwhile, the terraforming of Mars begins in 2074 and thousands flock to the planet to work on this centuries-long project. Fantastic upgrades are becoming available, with the wealthy and also BART becoming true cyborgs. But the golden age is ending. Epic storms of a near-biblical scale are plauging the coasts and equatorial latitudes, killing millions and forcing over 300 million to migrate inland. Desertification becomes out of control in the late 2070s as BARIUM finally gives up trying to curb it. In 2077 and 2078, factions of people opposed to technology and the government begin to form. They support abolishing BARIUM and recreating the nations of the early part of the century. The also support undoing the scientific, technological, and infrastructure-related changes of the past 60 years. The most radical members of these factions even support going back to a pre-Industrial Revolution state. Most are motived by environmental reasons, but there are a few religous extremists in these groups too. Related groups form on Mars, where they plot to destroy the terraforming work going on there. All these groups are doing now is plotting, but that will change in the next decade.

2080s...The first part of the 2080s are prosperous in the cities. Further advances are made in infrastructure, as Antarctica is now fully linked to the other continents and multiple tunnels cross the oceans. Every major city has several skyscrapers stretching two kilometers into the air and some have ones that tower three or even four kilometers into the air. There are several space elevators on every continent and a flight to the moon costs only $4000 to $5000. Life is easy for the middle and upper classes. The workday has shrunk to five hours and is mostly technical in nature: developing software, maintaining and improving AI, etc. Supplies are cheap and can be easily and almost instantly accessed in the cities. Most people spend the majority of their waking hours in amazingly complex virtual reality simulations. Disease and aging are effectively eradicated and there are very few lethal accients or acts of homicide. There are around 100,000 synthetic humans now alive. But all the while, the environment gets progressively worse. Temperatures are now 6 degrees Celsius above the 20th century temperatures and global warming has displaced over 500 million. Storms worsen and costal cities like New York and Los Angeles are abandoned completely. The Congo rainforest has vanished and the Amazon rainforest is down to ten percent of its original area. The countryside everywhere is a barren desert. The world population has reached 11 billion, and the food production indsutry is increasingly strained. In the midst of all this, the uprisings plotted in the late 2070s begin in 2081 and 2082 BART, the seemingly invincible cyborg army, crushes all of these uprisings in hours or even minutes, thanks to their powerful technology and military prowess. War begins on Mars too in 2083 as anti-technology factions try to destroy the terraforming work. Meanwhile, on earth, the unthinkable happens. In a sweltering August 2084, BART loses a five-day battle in what was once the American Southwest. Motivated by this, the rebels go on to win battle after battle. By winter, even the most optomistic people admit that the golden age is over. On earth and Mars alike, the rebels have taken over large parts of the planet by 2086 and many cities burn. On earth, only the Capitol Region and a few other megacities still stand strong, with all others burning, conquered, abandoned, or a war zone. However, the rebel advances mostly stop by 2087 and both sides enter a deadlock. The denizens of the outer solar system watch in horror as the inner solar system becomes consumed by war and seemingly forgets about them, no longer sending supplies. Nevertheless, many thousands flock to the Jovian system, which organizes colonization of Saturn's moons as well. War rages in into the next decade.

2090s...The deadlock continues into the 2090s both on earth and on Mars. As the stockpiled supplies in the cities dwindle, the middle and upper classes experience hardship for the first time in 40 years. Millions of refugees head north across the deserts, always going further inland. The BARIUM government still hangs onto power, but it is able to do little but keep on fighting the war. Slowly, technological breakthroughs begin to save BARIUM, just as they did 60 years before in World War III. Hugely powerful computers are able to predict the rebels' moves weeks in advance and the powers of BART are approaching superhero-like levels. BARIUM scientists master picotechnology in 2092 and are thus able to render rebel nanotechnology useless. In 2093, they even build the first primitive antimatter bombs. They are small and simple, basically just devices that let a lump of antimatter collide with a lump of matter, but they can destroy thousands of square miles. About half of the main rebel bases are obliviated in 2093 and 2094. In 2094, BARIUM even manages to figure out how to direct asteroids to fall on rebel bases (though there are some terrible accidents with this). The rebels on earth finally surrender in 2096 after 12 years of war, while on Mars they surrender in 2097. On earth, over a billion lives were lost in the war, with another 200 million being killed by the environment, starvation, and refugees. On Mars, 100,000 (50 percent of the population) died in the war. BARIUM shakily regains power and in 2098, the government returns to the Bariumpolis after going into hiding ten years previously. Soon attempts at rebuilding will be made.

2100s...By 2104, the population has stabilized and many of the refugees have found homes again. Synthetic human production continues, with about 4,000,000 having been created by this point. 2 percent of all new humans are synthetic, and this number is expected to rise quickly. Global warming, however, is now virtually unstoppable, with temperatures reaching 7.5 degrees Celsius above 20th Century levels. The cities from before the war are not being rebuilt, but new cities are being constructed in the polar regions. Lands that were once Alaska, northern Canada, Siberia, and Greenland all have many cities and even Antarctica is becoming more developed. The Jovian settlers (of which there are now over 30,000) continue to lead expeditions to Saturn's moons, where hundreds of settlers now reside. Even the moons of Uranus and Neptune are being eyed and more asteroids are being settled. Even the earth is building spacecraft, spaceports, and space elevators. The public is unsure exactly what this means, but it will come clear soon enough.

2110s...In 2112, the leaders of BARIUM make a startling speech. They say that starting immediately, earth is to be gradaually abandoned over the next century. They declare that everyone will be moved to other planets and moons, which will be terraformed. The population is assured that the mistakes of the 21st century will not be repeated on the new worlds and that living in harmony with the environment will be considered more important. Some people agree with this plan. They realize that the earth is insalvagable and the only way to survive is to leave. Most, however, are angered that BARIUM ruined the planet and that they will not even try to save it. Nevertheless, the evacuation commences. The first wave heads for the moon and Mars through 2114, raising their populations to 600,000 and 400,000, respectively. A few hundred thousand people head for the asteroids in 2115 and 2116 and thousands reach Mercury for the first time between 2116 and 2118. From 2117 to 2119, tens of thousands colonize Europa, Callisto, Ganymede, Titan, Enceladus, and other moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The Jovian system has over half a million residents and the Saturnian system has nearly 80,000. On earth, temperatures reach 8 degrees Celsius above the 20th century temperatures and barely a third of the population lives south of the Artic Circle or north of the Antarctic Circle. Only a tenth of the population is within 50 degrees of the equator. In 2115, the Capitol Region is abandoned and the Bariumpolis is re-eastablished on the Antarctic Peninsula. Although the evacuation is going as planned, that will change soon.

2120s...In the first half of this decade, the evacuation of earth continues going well. By 2125, both the lunar and Marian populations are over a million and 750,000 live in the Jovian system, while the population of the Saturnian system has 200,000 people. The asteroids, too, have a few hundred thousand residents. In 2128, a joint Titan/Europa mission sets off for Uranus and its moons. Mercury is also doing astoundingly well with 25,000 residents already. The technology for a Venus mission is even being developed. After 50 years, tangible progress is being made with the terraforming of Mars and terraforming of the moon and Europa is beginning. Meanwhile, on earth, the Green Planet Movement (GPM) arises. This movement is not as extreme as the ones of the 2080s, but still has a similar mission and is opposed to the evacuation of earth without repairing it first. Starting in 2127 and 2128, they begin making speeches to the public, urging everyone to stay on earth and repair the environment. After being censored by the BARIUM government, the movement resorts to sabotaging spaceports, but does not recklessly kill millions like the terrorists of the 2040s or the rebels of the 2080s. Only a few thousands or tens of thousands are killed by these actions. BARIUM attempts to use BART to protect the remaining spaceports. But the once-unbeatable military is now dissolving rapidly as its members retire or leave to join the movement. BART is virtually useless. By 2128 or 2129, BARIUM only has de jure control over the solar system, while the GPM has de facto control. In the next decade, BARIUM will lose even that.

2130s...In 2130, the Uranus mission quietly lands on Oberon with little or no fanfare. Of far more concern to the residents of the Solar System is the crisis on earth. Riots are common as support for the BARIUM government is near zero. The 50 remaining legions of BART are called back to the new Bariumpolis to protect it and the government officials residing there. In the rest of the Solar System, the GPM rules completely. Spaceports are destroyed and all industries and businesses seen by them as unfriendly to the environment are destroyed. They do not attempt to stop the terraforming and indeed support it since they are confident that the bodies being terraformed are barren. In 2133, the remnants of BART fall or disband and the GPM takes over the new Bariumpolis. A few of the government officials stay and surrender, but most attempt to escape. Many head into the deserts of South America, Australia, or Africa, but a few get into spaceships and head for the outer reaches of the Solar System, intending to hide in the Quiper Belt, the Oort Cloud, or even other star systems. Almost all of the officials are caught. They are tried for crimes against the Solar System in 2135 and all are found guilty and imprisoned indefinitely. With this out of the way, the GPM promises to the world that they will restore the earth to a primeval state without destroying any technology. After the 21st century, people are quite happy to live in harmony with nature. The actual restoration of the earth will start soon.

2140s...As 2140 begins, the GPM begins importing terraforming and technology from the other planets. They set about repairing the earth, promising to restore it within 60 years. Their main plans include cooling the atmosphere, scrubbing away carbon dioxide, and planting genetically modified plants in the desert to rebuild the biosphere. Many industries are shut down or made more environmentally friendly and pollution drops to nearly zero. Terraforming of Mars, the moon, Europa, and even Mercury (starting in 2144) are underway. Mass surveilance and the size of the military are drastically decreased. However, the new government is not without its flaws. Mercury, the earth, Mars, the asteroids, and the Jovian system are under the iron rule of the GPM. Interplanetary travel is cut off and many things that were easy to access in the age of BARIUM become difficult to access due to the decrease in industry. Worse, synthetic humans are banned, drastically cutting birth rates in many cities. However, Saturn and Uranus are left mostly to their own devices during this decade. By 2146, Titan is secretly the biggest industrial center in the solar system, with Enceladus and Oberon being a distant second and third, and a lucrative smuggling business starts, ensuring that the Jovian system and the asteroids have access to Titan's products. The smugglers stay clear of the inner Solar System, however, since the risk of being caught is higher here. In addition to smuggling and industry, space travel also continues, with a mission to Neptune being considered for the first time in 2149. But the goings-on in the outer Solar System will be discovered soon.

2150s...As this decade begins, the outer Solar System smuggling business booms as the GPM makes further crackdowns on industry. In 2151, numerous GPM officials journey out to the Jovian system to mandate and oversee the terraforming of Ganymede and Callisto. After their arrival in 2152, a smuggler bringing goods from Titan is caught and the government realizes how so many people have forbidden materials and goods. Angered, they quickly raise a huge military force on Mars, Ceres, and other bodies, and send it towards Titan. Realizing this, many panicked Titan and Enceladus residents and some Oberon and Titania residents flee to an even more distant location: Neptune and its moon Triton. After many months of flight, the army reaches Titan and Enceladus (and some weeks after that, Oberon and Titania). Upon arriving, they find that all the smugglers left weeks before. Nevertheless, they remain in orbit around the moons, bombing industrial sites and killing hundreds or thousands. The survivors escape into the unexplored parts of the moons and hide, quickly coming to resent the GPM and its violence. Most sympathize with BARIUM and some wish to revive it. Meanwhile, earth is quickly healing. By 2155, temperatures have dropped under 7 degrees Celsius above the 20th century and there are already grasslands and some trees in the more temperate latitudes. Animal life is also making a comeback in a few places. In the outer Solar System, by 2156, the Triton inhabitants have formed a new organization called New Tech (also known as NET). By 2157, this organization has 2,000 members. Meanwhile, the GPM rules over the inner and outer Solar Systems alike with an iron fist, suppressing any dissent. The population of earth falls under 11 billion in 2158. But NET will soon pose a threat to the rule of the GPM.

2160s...In 2160, NET begins secretly sending messages to the moons of Uranus and Saturn, getting the residents to join NET. Synthetic humans are produced in large numbers on Triton. Thousands of people on the moons of Uranus and Saturn join the organization. Titan, however, is too heavily guarded by the GPM to join in. Without Titan, no uprising can proceed, so an intricate plan is devised to gain control of it. In 2161, a fake war is started on the sparsely-populated Mimas. A large fraction of the GPM army on Titan is diverted to the other moon, intending to bomb the rebels to dust. However, a huge electromagnetic pulse is set off, taking out the entire armada of military spacecraft. Just minutes later, the GPM supply ships are shot down, leaving the remaining ground forces on Titan stranded. A couple of surprise nukes finish most of them off and the remainder are left to battle the NET forces, which outnumber them ten to one. Several hours later, a series of powerful and extremely precise lasers fired from some of the smaller Uranian moons devastate the military forces on Uranus. Mopping up takes just a few days and then NET controls three planets. As the GPM did not have the time or ability to communicate with the inner Solar System, the government officials are unaware of the happenings on Saturn and Uranus. Soon enough, however, they become concerned by the lack of messages from the outer Solar System and send a fleet to investigate. However, NET directs a large asteroid into orbit around Mars and threatens to drop it if the fleet attacks. NET later moves more armed spacecraft into orbit around GPM-held asteroids and even Mars, while the GPM moves yet more of their military into orbit around Saturn and Uranus and their moons. A tense many-year standoff begins. Few people in the inner Solar System and no one in the outer Solar System feels safe. By 2164, the standoff gets even more tense and the Jovian system is in turmoil. While the inner Solar System and many asteroids are firmly on the side of the GPM and the rest of the gas giants are completely loyal to NET, the split is about 50/50 on Jupiter's moons. Although little actual fighting has taken place, small armed groups patrol the moons, each intimidating the other side. In 2166, the armed groups coalesce into two huge armies. War seems imminent. Worse, a war on Jupiter is likely to be the fuse to a Solar System-wide war. A group of officials on both sides meet on Io, the most neutral major moon in the Jovian system, in a last-ditch attempt to prevent war. Months of negotiation follow, but in 2167 they come to a compromise. The GPM officials present agree to align themselves with NET provided that the latter organization makes some reforms, mostly environmental in nature. The NET leaders on Triton agree to this and the armed forces on Jupiter's moons disband. Direct war is averted, but the cold war between the inner and outer Solar Systems continues.

2170 to 2399. The Solar System Cold War ends and the inner Solar System and outer Solar System residents go their separate ways, with the former staying on their planets and integrating their civilization with nature and the latter industrializing and heading for the stars. I start going by century instead of by decade starting with 2200.

2170s...In the early part of this decade, NET and the GPM keep exchanging threats. The population of the outer Solar System grows. The Jovian system has a million people, while the Saturnian system has 400,000. The Uranian system has 70,000 people by the end of this decade and the Neptunian system has 25,000. The inner Solar System is gaining in population too. Mercury has 100,000 people, the moon has 3,000,000, and Mars has 4,000,000. The earth's temperature goes down to 6 degrees Celsius above normal in 2172 and down to 5 degrees above normal in 2178. The controversy between the inner and outer Solar Systems continues, making the asteroid belt a dangerous place. The controversy will not continue forever, though.

2180s...By the 2180s, nothing has happened and the would-be combatants are losing interest. Many spacecraft are being withdrawn by both sides and by 2185, only a handful of military spacecraft are in orbit around opponents' planets. In 2186, leaders from both NET and the GPM meet at the asteroid Vesta and sign the Vesta Treaty, which divides the Solar System between the two organizations. The GPM is given control of the Mercury, Venus, the earth, Mars, the asteroid belt, and all moons of the inner solar system. NET is granted full contrul of the Jovian, Saturnian, Uranian, and Neptunian systems, as well as any Kuiper Belt bodies they choose to inhabit. Another clause of this treaty permits any NET supporters from the inner Solar System to go to the outer Solar System, and for GPM supprters in the outer solar system to go to the inner Solar System until the end of the century. After the treaty is signed, both sides retreat to their parts of the Solar System. Neither side will interact for a very long time.

2190s...In this decade, there is much interplanetary travel. Millions of NET supporters travel to the outer planets (mostly Jupiter and Saturn, but some head to Uranus and Neptune). Thousands of GPM supporters head to the asteroid belt and the inner planets. By the end of the decade, the Jovian system has 2.5 million people, the Saturnian system has a million, the Uranian system has 240,000, and the Neptunian system has 60,000. In 2194, the outer Solar System also launches several missions to Kuiper Belt objects. In the inner Solar System, Mercury has 500,000 people, the moon has 7,000,000, Mars has 11,000,000, and the asteroids are inhabited by several hundred thousand people. The earth's climate is nearly back to normal and every major body in the inner Solar System except for Venus is being terraformed. Mars, in fact, is nearly halfway to being terraformed. There are large lakes on the surface and microscopic life forms are abundant on the surace. The pressure is well above the Armstrong limit and issues of cold temperatures and a lack of oxygen are on their way to being fixed. Meanwhile, the influx of people in the outer Solar System has caused the construction of many major cities on this area's moons. However, terraforming has been largely abandoned soon. Within a few years, the civilizations of the inner and outer Solar Systems will go their separate ways.

2200s...In the early part of this century, many of the space expeditions to the Kuiper Belt reach their destinations. Pluto is reached in 2200, Eris in 2202, and Makemake and Haumea in 2204. More Kuiper Belt objects are explored in the 2210s. The cities of the outer Solar System increase in size and in the 2210s and 2220s, massive domes are built over them, protecting them from the elements. Outside the domes, numerous gargantuan factories, mines, refineries, and other industries are built. The population of the moons increases and nearly everyone born in this century is created synthetically, using bioprinters. By the 2230s, space exploration slows temporarily. In the 2240s and 2250s, research is done into using antimatter as a propellant and by the 2270s, space exloration picks up again. The new wave of space travellers boards huge starships and for the first time in humanity makes a serious attempt to reach the stars. Travelling at nearly 10 percent of the speed of light, the ships soon exit the Solar System with their cargo of humans. Meanwhile, the inner Solar System is taking a very different path. By the 2200s, the earth has returned to 4 degrees Celsius above 20th century levels and the population drops below 10 billion in 2235. By the 2250s, the planet has become a lush paradise. Major cities still exist, but they are not very noticable, having been almost completely integreated with nature. In the first half of this century, the scientists on earth study nanotechnology, picotechnology, and genetic manipulation extensively. By the 2280s, they are masters of these fields and soon begin using them to create new and highly spectacular ecosystems. Mars is almost completely terraformed by the end of this decade, and some hardy plants and animals are beginning to inhabit the surface. Tangible progress in terraforming is seen on Mercury, the moon, Ceres, and all the major asteroids. Only Venus and the minor asteroids remain untouched. Upgrades, synthetic humans, and many industries, however, continue to be banned by the GPM. In the next century, the people of the inner and outer Solar Systems will diverge even further.

2300s...The Jovian and Saturnian systems have over 20 million and 10 million people by the early 2300s, respectively. Uranus has over a million people and Neptune has 300,000. The Kuiper Belt is also a bustling area. Dozens of bodies in this area have been inhabited and send huge amounts of raw material inward, where it is processed in major industrial centers such as Europa, Ganymede, Titan, Titania, Oberon, Trition, and others. After several decades of travel, the first ships also reach the stars in this century. First, Alpha Centauri is reached in 2318 to 2320. Another wave of ships reach Alpha Centauri in the late 2320s and early 2330s. The star Luhman 16 is reached in 2340. Inspired by these successes, more starships are launched, some to even more distant targets. Waves of settlers reach Alpha Centauri, Barnard's Star, and Wolf 359 from the 2350s to the 2370s. Sirus is reached in 2382. In the outer Solar System, the frontier on Jupiter's moons is fast-disappearing by 2370. Much of Europa and Ganymede is inhabited, industrialized, and fully explored. The inner Solar System is taking a very different path, as terraforming continues on. Venus is reached in 2302 and terraforming instantly begins. Mars is finally announced to be fully terraformed in 2368. Like earth, it is a paradise. The moon and Ceres will also soon be terraformed. However, old infrastructure is falling into disrepair, unattended in the eden-like worlds. Further social and political changes will widen the rift between the earth people and the star people in the next century.

2400s...By 2423, the outer Solar System is inhabited by a hundred million people. A quarter of a million people live on other star systems by 2428. Those who are lucky have settled on solid planets or moons, but most are forced to remain in their starships, orbiting their stars. A few shiploads of people actually return to the Solar System during this time. Disappointed at the lukewarm success of the interstellar missions so far, NET has thousands of scientists work on building even faster starships. By the late 2430s, many starships with speeds of 25 percent of light speed have been built. In 2440, dozens are launched with the intent of reaching every exoplanet within 15 light years by 2500. This goal is accomplished as every ship reaches its destination in 2499. While all the new stars are being explored, however, the frontier disappears on the Jovian system in 2474. The population can only increase by increasing the density of the cities. The Saturnian system will also soon lose its frontier. While this is happening, major political changes are being made. The system used by NET is determined to be obsolete and unbecoming of an interstellar civilization. Thus, the Council is created in 2482. Essentially members are elected if the population reaches a consensus to do so. They serve indefinitely and make decisions by consensus instead of voting. On earth, political changes are also made during this century. The GPM slowly breaks up in the 2460s and 2470s into regional groups that interact little. Each group has an administrator (called a chief by the commoners) and several scientists who aid each chief. They are seen as gods and preists, respectively, by the commoners, whose lives are becoming carefree and simple. The intelligence of the people also start to decline and the English language begins to devolve. The population also slowly decreases, falling to nine billion in 2455, while the populations of the moon and Mars rise to 120,000,000 and 200,000,000, respectively. Terraforming of the moon is completed in 2468 and terraforming of Mercury is finished in 2491. The first signs of progress in the terraforming of Venus are seen by the 2460s and the major asteroids will also soon be terraformed. New ideas will begin sweeping through the outer Solar System and the stars in the next century.

2500s...The population of the outer Solar System and the stars sees a boom in the beginning of this century. By the 2530s, there are 200,000,000 people on the Jovian system, another 100,000,000 on the Saturnian system, 60,000,000 on the Uranian system, 25,000,000 in the Neptunian system, and 40,000,000 in the Kuiper Belt. The second-most popular star system is the Tau Ceti system, which has a million people. Primitive life is discovered in this system in 2526. The Alpha Centauri system is also popular, with 700,000 inhabitants, though no life has been discovered here. Meanwhile, major changes are occuring in humanity's home star system. In 2505, a remarkable proposal reaches the Council. Someone suggests constructing a massive Dyson sphere around the sun as an answer to the lack of space on the moons of the outer planets. While supporters, see the obvious benefits, there are numerous critics too. The opponents of the proposal mainly think that there is insufficient technology to construct and maintain such a huge structure and also that it would require destroying the inner planets, which the inhabitants of those planets might object to. For many years, the Council is unable to reach a consensus, but in 2535, they finally agree to hold off on the Dyson Sphere until further technology is gained. The supporters are eager to get to work, so they dramatically increase the mining of the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, getting the raw material needed to construct the machinery for their project. With the Solar System spending most of its energy on the project, exploration of the stars is left to the Alpha Centauri system. In the 2570s, they begin researching ways to make starships more efficient. Meanwhile, several more planets within 25 light years of the sun are reached. While all of this is happening in the stars, the inner Solar System sees little change, except for a continued loss of intelligence in the commoners. However, most of the major asteroids are terraformed completely by the 2580s. The population of the earth falls below eight billion in 2562, but the populations of Mars, Ceres, Mercury, and the asteroids continue to increase. It is worth noting that extensive physical changes have come over both groups of people by the end of this century. The denizens of the inner Solar System have become several inches shorter, and experienced a slight loss of muscle mass and brain mass. The star-faring residents of the outer Solar System, on the other hand, have become pale from the darkness of space and four inches taller than the 22nd century average. They have also become noticeably more spindly due to the low gravity of the worlds they live on, but their brain size is 20 percent greater than it was 400 years ago. Additionally, all new humans are synthetic and childhood has been abolished. Instead, people are created as adults. Within minutes of creation, they are given basic upgrades such as agelessness and resistance to all known diseases. Basic knowledge is then downloaded directly into their brains. These changes will go on to become more pronounced in the next century, when the star-farers will also have a new range of issues to deal with.

2600s...By the first decade of the 2600s, most of the usable land in the outer Solar System is claimed. Growth has slowed; in the past century, the Jovian population has only doubled and the Saturnian population has only tripled. Growth in the rest of the outer Solar System has slowed too. In the 2610s, the Council convenes a virtual meeting to deal with the issue of industrial waste, which is piled high on all the inhabited moons. Quickly, they decide that waste will be dumped on the sparsely populated minor moons and even into the gas giants themselves. These changes are soon implemented and the issue of industrial waste becomes less prominent. Meanwhile, many people on the stars are getting restless and tired of sitting in their starships. This is especially prevelant on stars without solid planets, moons, or asteroids. In the 2610s and 2620s, a bold plan to remedy the lack of planets is conceived. In the 2640s, it is initiated. Chunks of material are literally dragged from the stars and shaped into a spherical body in orbit around the star. Several small dwarf planets around stars such as Sirius are made this way and are finished and inhabited by the 2670s. Meanwhile, ships traveling at 40 percent of the speed of light have gone even further--up to 50 light years. But they have discovered strange signs and signals, indicating the possibility of an alien civilization nearby. The people in the outer regions quickly begin to prepare for the worst, developing weapons of astounding power. Again, the inner Solar System sees little change, except for the near-completion and colonization of the terraformed Venus. But the star-faring people will soon have a major problem on their hands.

2700s...In 2717, a ship arrives on a planet about 50 light years from the sun and finds a primitive civilization, roughly on the level of earth in 3000-2000 BCE. But there are obvious and recent traces of a far more advanced civilization. The colonists look around and soon encounter another alien species that is at least as powerful as humanity. As humans communicate using spoken words and these aliens communicate using pheromones, all attempts at communication between the two species are hopeless. The few attempts made by humans to communicate with the aliens are misinterpreted by them as threats and insults and they attack and kill the colonists. Stunned, humanity sends out a fighting force that destroys the alien attackers, whom they call the Il, in 2730. War inevitably follows. Both sides launch billion-soldier armies at one another and many worlds are razed to the ground or even destroyed. After decades of combat, the slightly more advanced Il finally invade the Solar System in 2779. The fight their way through the Kuiper Belt in a few years, destroying Pluto in 2782. Triton is blown up months later and Neptune is shattered and send towards the inner Solar System as a giant cloud of gas. 90 percent of the population on the Uranian system is killed when the moons there are bombed. The Il then turn towards Saturn, but the Saturnian military refuses to give in. After two years of trying to destroy Titan, the Il withdraw slightly and begin a 12-year siege of the Saturnian system. The siege fleet is destroyed in a long battle in 2797 and 2798. The war is about to end.

2800s...The humans destroy the remaining Il ships in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud by 2809 and the Il soon retreat. By 2818, humanity is victorious. They have beaten back an alien invasion for the first time. But their victory has come at a terrible cost. Five billion people - nearly a third of humanity - were killed in the war and 27 colonized astronomical bodies were destroyed. But still, humanity limps on. The Council was killed during the destruction of Triton, so the Second Council is formed on Ganymede in 2819. The Second Council has two instructions for humanity: rebuild, then expand. The people immediately throw themselves into the first task. Major repairs are done using material from the remains of the Kuiper Belt. The Uranian system is recolonized in 2830, exactly 700 years after the first humans landed there. The Solar System is largely repaired by 2840, although most destroyed moons and dwarf planets are not replaced. In the 2840s and 2850s, many of the less hard-hit star systems also recover and by 2890, humanity has mostly repaired itself. More exploration and colonization begins, this time at 55 percent of the speed of light. Billions of synthetic humans are also printed out to repopulate the star systems. In the home Solar System, an even greater project will soon begin.

2900s...Nearly a century after the defeat of the Il, things have gotten back to normal in the human domain. The Second Council turns to an idea that was conceived centuries earlier: a Dyson Sphere. They decide that sufficient technology is available to build this sphere. The first phase of this operation has everyone in the Solar System move to the Alpha Centauri system temporarily. This is done after about 25 years. Over the next several years, thousands of tons of antimatter are produced and used to shatter the outer planets and their moons into workable pieces. The pieces are then maneuvered into rings around the sun using huge electromagnets. This procedure is completed by 2940. In 2941, the Dyson Sphere workers move into the Asteroid Belt, breaching the Vesta Treaty for the first time in nearly 800 years. At the insistence of a group of politicians in the Second Council, the workers collect populations of the biospheres (humans included) of every terraformed planet, moon, and asteroid and keep them safely in a group of massive ships. The humans do not recognize the star-faring people as human; indeed the earth people and the star people are effectively different species by this point. Nevertheless, they comply with the wishes of their more advanced cousins from the stars. After the biosphere samples are collected, the astronomical bodies of the inner Solar System are destroyed in 2945. These bodies are then maneuvered into rings around the sun as well. Further manipulation with electromagnets causes all of the rings to merge at a distance of 150 million kilometers from the sun by the 2970s. The actual construction of the Dyson Sphere then begins. The work is slow at first, but major progress will be made in later centuries.

3000s...In this century, a golden age that will last thousands of years is beginning. Even by the 3020s and 3030s, visible progress is being made on the Dyson Sphere. There is a continual stream of space travel between the Sun and the closest stars, with two-way trips becoming quite common. Travel to outer star systems is also occurring and every star within 100 light years has been reached. In 3065, a milestone is reached. The total human population is 100 billion. All but a million or so are synthetic and only a few thousand non-synthetic people were born after the Vesta Treaty. The humans of this century would be nearly unrecognizable to an observer from the 21st century. These people stand nearly seven feet tall, but typically have a mass of only 70 to 80 kilograms. Centuries in the darkness of space have enlarged their eyes by 50 percent and made them nearly off-white in color. They also do not have hair. Most significantly, their brains have also evolved vastly, being nearly twice as large and two or three times as efficient as typical 21st century human brains. An average person of this century would have orders of magnitude more knowledge and intelligence than every person from prehistory to the end of the 21st century combined. These people will go on to make more astounding breakthroughs and innovations in the next century.

3100s...The construction of the Dyson sphere continues in this century. Meanwhile, researchers in the Aplha Centauri system make an astounding breakthrough in 3125. They successfully build a device allowing faster-than-light communication. However, the device has limitations. Every message requires zettajoules of energy and the machine itself occupies nearly a square mile. It can also only send 20 bytes per message. However, the technology is vastly improved in previous decades. In the 3140s, the first corporations begin to do work on FTL communication, followed by the interstellar government in the 3160s. By the end of the century, the devices are only 140 meters on a side and use just a few dozen petajoules of energy to send a message. They can also send hundreds of kilobytes or megabytes of information, giving them practical applications. Most of the well-to-do star systems have dozens and even the fringe systems have a few by the 3190s. Meanwhle, propulsion systems are more powerful than ever before, allowing spacecraft to reach 75 percent of the speed of light by the 3130s. The first people move to the still-under-construction Dyson Sphere in the 3170s and 3180s. Meanwhile, large cities are being built in interstellar space to serve the stream of traffic between the stars. Even greater advances will soon occur.

3200s...By the first decade of this century, the Dyson Sphere around the sun is nearly complete. Tens of millions of people are migrating to the finished portions. By the 3220s, the fastest spaceships are reaching 90 percent of the speed of light and by the 3230s, cities in interstellar space are very common. Further work on ansibles bring them down to just a thousand cubic meters and using barely a terajoule to send a message. Most companies have at least one and wealthy individuals also are gaining access to them. Meanwhile, the Dyson Sphere around the sun is completed in 3250. It is 300 million kilometers across, but only 600 meters thick. Its framework is mostly made from the gas giants, with the terrestrial planets, moons, and asteroids being used for smaller bits and pieces. Over the next few decades, billions of people migrate back into the Solar System to settle in the sphere and begin working on spectacular projects. Massive bioprinters are designed, capable of printing hundreds of thousands or millions of people at once. Computers the size of the former earth's continents are built and used to run spectacularly complex simulations. Great factories and power plants process materials and energy on a scale barely dreamed of in previous centuries. In a 3254 speech, the Second Council states that the people have advanced beyond mere humans. They will be known as the Star People from this point on. As lords of the stars, they must naturally eliminate all their remaining weaknesses, according to the speech. This project will be done with genetic manipulation and nanotechnology in the coming decades. Meanwhile, the Star People will go on to do great things.

3300s...Humanity as a whole is entering a great golden age. In 3308, the population of the Interstellar Empire reaches one trillion. By the 3310s, the Star People have gotten rid of nearly all of the weaknesses of humans. They control over a thousand stars, and the sun is the greatest of them all. With the newfound space and energy from their Dyson Sphere, the newly repopulated Solar System is a shining beacon of science and technology. The former great center of those fields, Alpha Centauri, is becoming just another star by the 3320s, and are displeased with this. Thus, after many years of political battle, they finally begin building a Dyson Sphere of their own in the 3340s. In the 3350s, all of humanity's weaknesses have finally been eliminated. The Star People have changed their spindly form into a highly muscle-bound one, which, combined with their average height of seven feet, makes them look quite formidable. They have also made themselves more resistant to the dangers of space and virtually eliminated material needs such as food and water, instead getting most of their energy directly from electricity. Emotions have also been abolished. The Star People do not become happy, sad, or angry. Love, hate, and fear are alien concepts to them. They have also made their cognitive power even greater. Not everyone has made these changes. A minority (about ten percent of the population) has opted out of them. But the remainder have made the upgrades and have decided to get revenge on the Il who so nearly destroyed humanity centuries before. Two hundred billion Star People get into armed spaceships as big as many cities of the early third millennium. Between 3384 and 3395, several waves of ships head towards the Il Kingdom. They will get their revenge in the next century.

3400s...Advances continue in technology as the war fleets draw close to the domain of the Il. Cheap ansibles are handheld and highly efficient by the 3400s and computers are still becoming more powerful. The Dyson Sphere around Alpha Centauri is half-done and other star systems (notably Sirius and Barnard's Star) are talking about building spheres themselves. The Star People continue expanding, finding dozens of planets with life, but very few with sentient life. Not that life particularly interests them. On the contrary, they are more interested in developing and industrializing planets than they are in preserving biospheres. Meanwhile, the first wave of military spacecraft reach the Il Kingdom in the 3420s. The Il had experienced hard times following their defeat by humanity centuries before. Instead of advancing to a Type II Civilization like the Star People, internal conflicts had weakened them. Thus, the Il Kingdom is obliterated and the Il are systematically exterminated in a matter of just over sixty years, costing the Star People less than a hundred million lives. This victory adds hundreds of star systems to the empire and establishes the Star People as the only advanced civilization in the Orion Spur and one of the most powerful civilizations in the galaxy. The Star People will become even more powerful.

3500s...The construction of the Dyson Sphere at Alpha Centauri finishes in the 3510s and billions of people move to inhabit it. Meanwhile, progress on Dyson Spheres around three other stars and brown drawrfs has begun. By the 3520s, there are over ten trillion Star People in the Orion Spur, and by the 3590s, they have spread out a thousand light years in every direction. In the next century, the Star People will continue advancing further.

3600s...In the early part of this century the scientific output of the Star People in a single second is roughly equal to the scientific output of humanity from the Stone Age to the end of the 22nd century. By the 3650s, the three new Dyson Spheres are half-done and dozens more are being proposed. Humnity's golden age is becoming greater and greater. Not everyone is participating, though. A race of humans called the Pacifists refused to upgrade and become the Star People and refused to participate in the revenge on the Il or the reckless destruction of alien planets and biospheres. These people are a small minority though--there are barely 40 billion of them, and their numbers are not increasing. On the contrary, the Star People are rapidly increasing in numbers and the boom in Dyson Sphere construction is about to begin.

3700s...In the first decade of this century, 18 Dyson Spheres begin to be built and in the next decade, the construction of more than fifty begins. Meanwhile, the Dyson Spheres around Sirius and Barnard's Star are completed. A population boom follows in the 3730s and 3740s and by the 3760s, the population of the Star People reaches one quadrillion, of which 700 trillion live on Dyson Spheres. By the end of the century, the Star People have colonized nearly a third of the Orion Spur. The technology to build planets from the material of stars, first used over a thousand years ago, has been perfected: the people of this century can create worlds twenty or thirty thousand miles in diameter in a decade or less and can create dwarf planets in days or weeks. Dyson Spheres still take over two centuries to build, but that will change in the next century.

3800s...The population of the Star People reaches ten quadrillion by the 3820s. The members of the Second Council (of which there are over ten million by this point) realize that the rapid population growth will lead to an overpopulation problem within a few centuries unless Dyson Spheres can be built more rapidly. Fortunately for them, advances in Dyson Sphere construction between the 3840s and the 3870s drop the average construction time for a Dyson Sphere from 220 years down to only 75 years while also reducing their cost by an order of magnitude. Suddenly, even the poorer star systems are capable of building Dyson Spheres, and they begin to do so in the next century.

3900s...By the first decade of this century, the population of the Star People reaches a hundred quadrillion. To support the ever-increasing population, hundreds of Dyson Spheres are constructed and progress is made very rapidly. But their world-creation skills pale in comparison to the simulations that they can create. A typical desktop computer of this century can fully simulate a universe throughout its entire life in just a few years and the largest computers (hundreds of times the size of the largest cities of two thousand years before) can simulate tens of thousands of universes in seconds. By the second half of this century, they begin building Dyson Spheres immediately upon entering a new star system instead of settling on or constructing planets first. This is all done with no regard to the life that is commonly observed on the star systems with planets (although no sentient life has been observed since the extinction of the Il). Sometimes the more interesting life is uploaded to a computer simulation by individuals, but this is rare and life never survives in its original form. The Star People are simply too advanced to see the point to any life other than themselves. Meanwhile, the Star People as a whole look forward to the new millennium.

4000s...As the Star People enter the fifth millennium, things seem great for them. They have settled in well over two hundred thousand star systems and more are being reached every few days. There are two thousand Dyson Spheres, with new ones being completed every decade or so. In addition to providing a source of energy, these epic spheres, which range from a hundred million to a billion miles across, parts are used as industrial centers mining directly from the stars, as gigantic computers, and as living spaces. The majority of Star People alive in this millennium have never even set foot on a planet. The celebrations marking the new millennium quiet down after a few years and the advances continue again. As the first century of the millennium ends, the Star People begin to undertake another species-wide upgrade, like the one eight hundred years before. But this upgrade consists of far more than biological changes—they are altering their very chemistry. Even as the Star People, the descendants of humanity were still carbon-based life forms. But by the 4100s, they have altered their bodies to be based on newly discovered compounds far better suited to a Type II Civilization than organic compounds. The Pacifists have refused to make this upgrade and have become a completely different species—eight feet tall and bone-white, with heads up to two feet in diameter. There are only a trillion of them and they mostly wander the surfaces of the remaining planets in small groups, not bothering the Star People and in turn being mostly ignored by them. Meanwhile, in the 4200s and 4300s, trillions of scientists begin to seriously consider the construction of an Alcubierre Drive. After over a century of research, the scientists come to the conclusion that Alcubierre Drives are only practical with orders of magnitude more energy than is available to the Star People. The Second Council considers these results and their response is nearly unanimous: head for the Galactic Core. In the late 4500s and early 4600s, fifty trillion scientists head for the core, eager to access the virtually unlimited energy. A second wave of people headed for the core is close behind, leaving the current edge of the Interstellar Empire in the 4700s. The second wave consists of mega-corporations seeking to become even more rich and powerful by exploiting the Galactic Core. After this, the march to the core quiets down for a few hundred years. But it will resume soon enough.

5000s...By the beginning of the sixth millennium, the population of the Star People is in the sextillions and they control millions of stars in a sphere 5000 light years across. 90 percent of the stars have Dyson Sphere and one can be constructed in 15 to 25 years by this point. It is worth pointing out that most of these spheres are still largely empty, capable of hosting orders of magnitude more people than the quadrillion or so that an average Dyson Sphere currently holds. Also, very few people live on a planet and almost nobody lives on a natural planet. Meanwhile, in the 5100s the third wave of Star People heads for the Galactic Core. This wave consists of explorers wishing to chart the stars. Another wave of colonists follows in the 5200s. This last wave consists largely of religious extremists who seem themselves as gods and consider it their mission to control the universe and destroy lesser forms of life. Out in the stars, these groups tend not to fight amongst themselves since they mostly are using similar methods to achieve their goals (enter a star system, destroy all the planets and other large bodies, build a Dyson Sphere, and move on). Meanwhile, a strange chain of political events is beginning closer to the center of the Star Peoples' realm in the 5500s. It begins with the interstellar mega-corporations that developed over the past two thousand years. They have quietly been merging and growing until twenty of them control 75 percent of all purchasable goods and services. This naturally gives them considerable cloud on the interstellar stage, which concerns the Second Council, since it is the council, not the corporations. Starting in the 5550s, the Second Council begins using its considerable political power to force the corporations to do their bidding. After several decades, it becomes clear that this is a bad idea. In the 5590s and 5600s, the corporations begin cutting off crucial goods while tricking the population into believing that the Second Council is responsible for the resulting shortages. By the 5620s, many people are calling for the dissolution of the Second Council. The council, desperate to remain in power, drastically increases the size of the military and over the next several decades, uses it to force the corporations to stop the supply shortages. Afraid of complete destruction at the hands of the military, they comply and by the 5700, the corporations, military, and the council all enter a tense standoff. All three realize that attacking the other two would result in complete destruction and only a fool would attempt such a thing. The standoff will continue for centuries, but the pioneers heading for the Galactic Core are not particularly affected by it. And science will as always march onwards, unaffected by political turmoil.

6000s...By the beginning of the seventh millennium, there are a septillion Star People inhabiting the galaxy. Dyson Spheres are constructed in an average of 6.2 years and several million have been built. The three-way standoff in the domain of the Star People continues until the 6200s, when the military starts siding with the corporations. Predictably, the population results and a long and brutal civil war breaks out in 6260. Over the next few centuries, tens of thousands of Dyson Spheres are damaged or destroyed and thousands of stars are nova'd. This war is not the kind of war commonly seen in science fiction. Instead of one-man fighters making spontaneous, heroic decisions, there are million, billion, or trillion man ships the size of dwarf planets making moves carefully planned and computer-simulated years or even decades in advance. With no FTL travel, there are few battles in interstellar space; instead almost all combat is within a billion or so miles of a Dyson Sphere. As the 64th century begins, it becomes obvious that even the winning side will be devastated. Finally, in 6505, after a quintillion deaths (about thousand times as many Star People were killed, but the overwhelming majority were resurrected using advanced technology), the corporations and military are defeated. The Third Council is elected on a star several hundred light years from the sun a year later, since most of the members of the Second Council were killed in the war. They attempt to rebuild the Star Peoples' portion of the galaxy, but most people agree that the Third Council is not as competent as the previous council. Still, the Star People enter a relatively uneventful few centuries. A wave of approximately 1020 of them leave the war-torn Orion Spur. Most head for the Galactic Core, but a minority head in the opposite direction, towards the outer reaches of the galaxy. Meanwhile, the waves of Star People inch ever closer to the core, traveling at 99.99 percent of the speed of light. Mostly they sail through empty space, but whenever they encounter a star system, they stop to build a Dyson Sphere. In the 6700s, one group of 20 billion Star People intending to build a Dyson Sphere enters a star system with a Type I Civilization. The startled aliens fire upon the Star People and the resulting war lasts about five hours, ending in the complete extinction of the Type I Civilization. The group of Star People then starts building a Dyson Sphere as if nothing had happened. The wave of colonists continues heading for the core and the Third Council continues to lead the people, but they will not last forever.

7000s...As the eighth millennium begins, population growth slows to a rate of tenfold every thousand years. The Third Council begins making plans to ensure that nothing like the civil war of the previous millennium can happen again. First, they ban single corporations from controlling more than 1 percent of the total sum of purchasable goods and services. Then they sever the military's ties with the corporations and take control of the military themselves. In the 7100s, surveillance increases and reaches an all-time high. It is not uncommon for people to be arrested between 50 and 200 years before they would have committed a crime and peoples' thoughts are scanned even in interstellar space and light years away. Meanwhile, more scientific and technological advances are made. By the 7400s, the most powerful computer that can be built within the known laws of physics has been constructed. To further increase computing power, new laws of physics will have to be discovered. A few hundred years later, in 7700, the Star People construct a star from scratch for the first time. It is just barely a star, a small brown dwarf, but a panel of uninvolved scientists confirm that it is a star and not merely a large gas giant. It is aptly named Techniestel Prima (literally "First Artificial Star" in the language of the Star People) and vast crowds in its interstellar neighborhood flock to see it. Meanwhile, the Star People inch ever closer to the Galactic Core. Out in the depths of space, the leaders of the corporations plot their return. This time, their plan to take over the galaxy will be subtler and more insidious. Over the course of centuries, they will sneak into the Third Council and subtly influence its policies. This is planned in the 7800s and 7900s and will be put into effect early in the next millennium.

8000s...As the ninth millennium begins, no one is aware that the Third Council is slowly being corrupted. Technological advances continue and red dwarf stars can be created by 8200. And the Third Council is in intense debate about overpopulation. There are two main opinions about how to solve the problem. Some members of the council are in favor of increasing the amount of energy available by developing faster-than-light travel, creating more stars, and manipulating stars to increase their energy output. Other members of the council wish to reduce or remove non-essential machinery and increase the efficiency of the remaining machinery and of the Star People themselves. Over the next hundred years, the debate between the pro-power and the pro-efficiency groups becomes one of the thorniest and most divisive issues of the time. By the 8300s, riots break out in the poorest star systems as power outages become common, effectively starving many Star People since the species has subsisted on electricity for thousands of years. Both sides of the Third Council get to work. The first thing they do is get rid of the Pacifists, who are inefficient and do not contribute to society. This takes a few years and then they turn the harder work. Almost immediately, someone reports the construction of the first Alcubierre Drive, but it turns out to be a clever fake. Undeterred by this, many more scientists attempt to build one for real. Meanwhile, the pro-power groups construct first dozens, then hundreds, and then thousands of smallish stars and build Dyson Spheres around them. Meanwhile, the pro-efficiency scientists develop a new upgrade that increases the efficiency of Star People by an order of magnitude at the expense of half of their raw power. The pro-efficiency people receive this upgrade in the 8500s and 8600s. Many crtical machines are overhauled in the 8700s and by 8800, the power problems have largely ceased. In 8854, pro-power scientists manage to build the first faster-than-light device, a ten-kilogram capsule that travels a hundred million miles at 1.001c. After decades of analysis, scientists admit that there is no trickery and that it is the real thing. Plans are made to soon begin mass-producing FTL ships. The Star People, with all their power, occupy just a small corner of the galaxy. This is about to change.

9000s...As the tenth millennium begins Acclubiere Drives capable of reaching speeds of 5c to 10c are developed. An immense wave of them heads towards to Galactic Core, expecting to reach it in only 5000 to 7000 years. Before the millennium is over, they catch up with and overtake the wave of ships launched 5000 years previously. Meanwhile, the Third Council has repealed the laws banning large corporations and many of them soon resurface. By 9800, the Third Council is dissolved and six powerful corporations step forward to lead the Star People. All of this has been done so subtly that there is no dissent. Meanwhile, medium-sized stars are being created from scratch and the rate of population growth is starting to very slowly rise again. This millennium is a time of great expansion as the Star People come to control a substantial portion of the galaxy. A new era is about to begin.

10000s...As the new era begins, a time of great promise and prosperity. Under the leadership of corporations, poverty has drastically decreased, but it still remains since there are always those who refuse to contribute to the advancement of the Star People. A biological rift has grown between the pro-power people and the pro-efficiency people, but they still cooperate and acknowledge each other as sentient beings. The technology exists to create any star, even hypergiants, but generally only small and medium-sized stars are created. By the eleventh millennium, the Star People have reached billions of stars. Not living on a Dyson Sphere is unheard of and the population of the Star People is ten nonillion. Both branches of the Star People continue to make minor tweaks to themselves and both groups become more powerful and more efficient. However, they make different upgrades and the pro-power people refuse to do anything that decreases their power and the pro-efficiency people similarly refuse to do anything that decreases their efficiency. Meanwhile, in the 11000s, strange reports begin arriving from the frontier. Observers have apparently discovered thousands of Dyson Spheres on the outer edge of the Galactic Core. A quick analysis shows that the spheres are of a design that is not and never was used by the Star People. They cautiously enter the spheres and find most of them to be empty. A few have very sparse populations of Type 0 and Type 1 civilizations, but nothing that could have built a Dyson Sphere. The Star People are naturally suspicious and send a huge wave of military spacecraft to back up the first wave of explorers. By capturing and scanning the brains of several of the primitive aliens, the Star People become aware of the existence of the Core Empire. This empire is an ancient Type 2.5 civilization, two or three times as old as human civilization. However, they have only recently invented FTL travel. Some of the Star People are concerned by this powerful force and wish to seek an alliance with it or perhaps avoid the Galactic Core altogether. Most, however, agree that since they have already come more than twenty thousand light years to enjoy the benefits of the core, they may as well destroy the empire and continue onwards. Soon afterwards, the Core Empire becomes aware of the invading Star People and begins gearing up for war. In 11727, a war that would be incomprehensible to observers from earlier eras begins. For thousands of years, the Star People and the Core Empire seem evenly matched. Eventually, though, the Star People's dogged, undending persistance wears down the Core Empire. There is no official surrender, but by the late 15000s, military strikes by the Core Empire become rarer and rarer. In the 16000s, the Star People move in on the core. Their population rises spectacularly again as they discover new methods of energy production, including black hole-derived energy. Meanwhile, the pro-power and pro-efficiency groups have come up with a new form for the Star People. This form is insanely powerful, yet incredible efficient and it is wholly nonbiological. It is essentially a swarm of nanobots. With this new development, the Star People finally say good-bye to their biological forms in the 17000s and become nanotechnological shapeshifters. With their newfound power sources in the Galactic Core and their new nanobot swarm forms, the Star People are ready to conquer the whole galaxy.

20000s...With the Galactic Core now under the control of the Star People, whole new realms of power are open to them. Now traveling at twenty to fifty times the speed of light, their immense ships visit the most distant corners of the galaxy, constructing new Dyson Spheres and new stars along the way. In a short few thousand years, no part of the Milky Way is uncharted space to the Star People. Complete colonization, however, will still take many thousands of years, however. While this is happening, the fully non-biological Star People are mentally merging to become one great Mind controlling all the nanotech bodies. This process begins in 21000 to 22000 AD and is by no means quick and easy. The last remaining mega-corporation, the Galactic Corporation, objects vigorously, but its leaders are eventually convinced that the power of the Star People as a whole is more important than that of individuals. The merge is complete by 24,000 and it is not long before the Star People close in on Type III status. They officially reach it in 28,140. Now the stars are their playthings and 70 percent of the stars in the galaxy have Dyson Spheres. Curiously, no sentient life has been discovered since the destruction of the Core Empire. Apparently, all the remaining Type I and II Civilizations in the galaxy have made themselves scarce to avoid destruction. Meanwhile, the new Type III Civilization will soon fill the galaxy.

30000s...By the 32000s or 33000s, every one of the 600 billion stars in the galaxy (including 200 billion synthetic ones) has a Dyson Sphere around it. Within a few thousand years the spheres are filled to the brim with the Star People and their machinery. Needless to say, the said machinery would be as incomprehensible to us as an internal combustion engine is to a chimpanzee. Nevertheless, their collective mind is hesitant to head out into the yawning void that is intergalactic space. Eventually, with the Milky Way no longer possessing the energy to power their immense plans and projects, they make the leap in around 35000. Moving through space at hundreds of times the speed of light, their ships reach the satellite galaxies such as the Magellanic Clouds after only a few centuries of travel. For the first time, the Star People look upon their galaxy from an outside vantage point. Soon, they will inhabit other galaxies as well.

60000s...By the 62000s and 63000s, outward expansion has resumed as the Cosmic Power begins expanding out of the Local Group and into the Virgo Supercluster. By this point they are literally unstoppable; no civilization in the observable universe is powerful enough to destroy the Cosmic Power. By 67000-68000, every star in the Local Group has been colonized and transformed for the Power's purposes and interstellar hydrogen has been gathered up to form new stars. Meanwhile, large  (i.e. millions of miles across and capable of holding a billion ships at once) supply stations are being built in intergalactic space to make intergalactic journeys somewhat easier. Enormous arrays of telescopes light years across are also built out in intergalactic space, producing a real-time map of the observable universe, accurate to attometer or zeptometer scales.

t's pretty obvious where this is going, so I'll just skip to the end. Somewhere between 10,000,000 and 500,000,000 AD, the Cosmic Power controls every corner of the observable universe. It knows everything there is to know except for two things: 1) Is it possible to escape the universe? and 2) Can entropy be reversed?. After millions of years of overuse, the stars are beginning to fail billions of years early. Only two options remain: reverse entropy or escape the universe. As seven previous major experiments on entropy reversal have all failed (sometimes spectacularly; the third experiment destroyed more than ten thousand galaxies), the Cosmic Power chooses the second option. They transcend space and time, moving from a Type IV Civilization to a Type V Civilization. The Cosmic Power begins creating "universe factories", churning out universes en masse and sometimes consuming universes as fuel. Even still, the Power expands its reach. Explorers search for higher dimensions and even structures beyond dimensions.*

* this is not intended to make sense for a few million years