/sci/ - Science & Math

O.O

4800/8100: The Guild Age

Most of the large polities soon form 'Guilds': Most research is kept as a Guild secret and most trade is handled by them. The masses have little access to mass communications, and even though they are granted some access to immortality and nanotech, this is determined by governments that are often run by posthumans or superhumans.

8100/19,900: The Second Great War

A war erupts between the Guilds, this time, monopole-catalyzed fusion bombs and relativistic bombs are used, rendering most of the targets uninhabitable.

19,900/34,000: The Rediscovery

With most of the inhabited habitats driven to new Dark Ages (The cycle of wars and restarts of civilization is a characteristic of the setting's cyclic history) a few people that escaped the war come back and reintroduce science to the decimated habitats. Some are worshipped as Gods and chose to start a pastoral/feudalist system.
Other civilizations carried the torch of science and managed to recuperate, but this process was just as slow as the others.

34,400/45,000: The Commonality Age

Most of civilization has recovered now, and a group rules above most: The so-called Commonality of Mankind, a benevolent group of people. Individual polities have their power, but the Commonality, with endless tools at their disposal, enforces their policy and keeps peace on most worlds.

The Lady Who Sailed The Soul is, bar none, the best thing I have ever read.

If I ever manage to write as good as Cordwainer Smith wrote, then I will die happily (And slightly richer too).

Hell, a part of my novel is inspired by that story. Only that the sailship is called the Interstellar Vehicle Carl Sagan (For you my beloved /sci/lons).

And the ending is much, much more depressing.

It's going to be "TRANSHUMANISM, PR CAMPAIGN FOR SPACEFLIGHT, GENETICALLY-ENGINEERED SUPER-FURRIES, AND MANLY TEARS, MANLY-FUCKING-TEARS: THE BOOK"

we're certainly not too good for the biosphere.