I have this world, a universe that I have been working on for some time now. Nineteen-eighty seven C.E. to be exact. For the truly interested, behold the power of the Internet.
Shermann, set the Wayback Machine to early 21st Century!
SLED | Special Law Enforcement Department
For ease of discussion and those that choose not to follow the link, it is a supers world based on this reality where the PCs are Federal Special Agents with the United States Special Law Enforcement Departemnt the newly created Agency, that has primary jurisdiction for all crimes involving Powered Individuals (PIs).
Talking to a friend of mine, Rustin H. Wright I got tore down creatively. He stated instead of using the cliched 10K history, it should be understood that given today's technology and interconnected communications and data networks that a mere 1000 years would change Humaniti, possibly beyond our recognizing it as being human. Throwing powers in to the mix should accelerate the changes as well. Especially as technology gets a boost to combat and compete with the Powered Indivduals' Abilities. So Rustin has convinced me to scap the Permatic Imperium of the Year 10,000 and take SLEDworld 1000 years out and see what I get and use that as my Traveller 5 ATU game world. So I am in the process doing that right now. Behold my work so far.
To start with, Terra's UWP: H* 877 976-8 (Earth circa 2000 CE in SLEDworld)
One thing already long established in my world is that cold fusion works well. (I used to have, and hope I still do, the original two cold fusion papers). This actually mirrors Traveller's Fusion+ technology introduced in T4 (Marc Miller's Traveller). This would allow Beam Weapons to be fielded earlier than they seem to be in our world. Energy Weapons may still take a longer time to develop and field. Or at least it will till energy manipulation technologies gain from the study of Powered Individuals with those powers.
Another oddity for a Trveller Universe is the fact that they don't develop Jump Drives till after the traditional TL-9. Who needs it when you have Telepods and powerful teleporters?
I figure that the first T-ports will base off of the newly created space station. From there I am considering they construct one or even several space elevators. Once a beanstalk is up and running, robot asteroid miners can be deployed to begin mining ores for refinery bots sent out later. As the Belt is being mined Luna gets titanium mining bases. The beginnings of a shipyard infrastructure are constructed, either at the end of the beanstalk or at the Lagrange Points, maybe at multiple locations in the system. Eventually they get to Mars, set up a Research Station at Venus devoted to Planetolgy and field testing Hostile Enviroment equipment in practical conditions. In addition to this Robot and Terran crews begin missions to exploit Titan for hydrocarbons. This process continues until the Solar system has been conquered and its resources are fulfilling the needs of Terra and the population of the Solar system. Then, if not befoe, Humaniti sets it sight on the stars.
Medicine, Biology, and Geneering TLs shoot up as the world's nations attempt to replicate HRV-1, the virus that geneers humans granting them their new Abilities. This in turn spurs Computers and Information Management Systems. End result, all of Humaniti has a chance to live longer, healthier, and somewhat more interesting lives. Virtual Reality and Cyberspace (Thanks again, Bill!) come on to the scene once the networks become distributed throught the globe ubiquitously and then the system. VR makes a great way to pass the time on those long Watches outbound to the deep Solar system. Play games, training under simulated condition and monitoring actual functions, components, bots and sleepers in Low Berths (or as they are known in the Spacer lingo, "peopsicles").
Part of the TL advancements experienced by Terrans will be the advancement of Robotics from theories to practical applications. This occurs in a variety of sectors such as the aforementioned mining, refining and basic exploitation of the Belt and Luna, police and military applications, and exploration of the system. Also there will be robot probe ships outbound to the nearby stars and their worlds which have been found by the increasingly better vantage points and technologies by this time. In time Robots become one of Humaniti's new best friends along with the uplifted animal and chimera species of Terra.
With the number of Artificial Intelligence programs running currently on Earth, you can imagine that with all the above factors it is pretty probable that Terrans develop AI out of the various tasks Humaniti will need to have vast data crunching, high speed, precision monitoring and control that computerized minds can accomplish better.
At some point both Humaniti and the AIs will branch out and create a new species, the Race of Homo Cyberneticum Sapiens or the cyber-bioroid. Cyberoids are geneered humans which are gestated with implanted cybernetic systems which grow and mature in function as the organic systems develop. The cybernetic race begins with the augmented humans and their exploration in to the realms of early cyberspace via HUDs, datagloves, agent and data management software.
While all this technology is being created and advanced the Terrans are stil making things, fighting, trying to make money, basically do the stuff we have been doing for the last hundred thousand years already. And one of those things is breed. A lot! I mean we got seven billion humans on Earth now and that went up from about six when I was a kid. This becomes relevant as PIs breed true, the genes for powers are transmitted to the child. I don't recall stating anywhere permanent yet wether HRV-1 creates a recessive or dominant gene. I am not sure which way to jump on this one, recessive won't stop PIs from being born but it does slow the rate. If it is dominant then the PIs will become a serious population in their own right and may be reclassified as a distinct subrace of Humaniti.
This is where things stand in MATU. Raality is being sundered and Spacetime altered. Hope you enjoyed the entry and if you have any different takes on how things would work out, or perhaps you have ideas and suggestions regarding how things will play out on the societies, cultures and nations of Terra, please leave a comment below.
Laterness,
Craig.
