Passages in the Void Timeline Times are more approximate as they get more distant, but are sometimes specified exactly to clarify the relationship between events as they would appear in the distant future. Key: P=Passages in the Void H=The Passage Home R=Rite of Passage M=Mortal Passage V=Revelation Passage PHRMV THE NEAR FUTURE MV Tom Uploaded + 60 years: M Tom-descended Machines essentially running the world + 210 years: M Human space travel abandoned as unworkable + ~ 2500 years: M Machines generally forget their consciousness was originally human + 6000 years: PH M Antarctic climate control disaster; Earth snowballed + 6500 years: M Machine explorers reach Alpha Centauri + 7500 years: M Machine search refocuses on dark worlds + 8000 years: P M Bringer of Minerva Pack leaves Sol system + 9700 years: M First dark world found, unsuitable for colonization + 14000 years: PH Bringer reaches Zeus + 14000 years: PH Terraforming Minerva begins + 14500 years: P Zeus assistants launch from Sol + 16000 years: PH Tristan discovered, terraforming begins + 17000 years: PH Humans introduced on Minerva + 18000 years: P Zeus assistants arrive + 21000 years: PH Humans introduced on Tristan + 21000 years: H Daedalus proposes to Bringer + 30000 years: H Bringer accepts Daedalus proposal + 45000 years: H Bringer Arrival Tristan + 45000 years: H Bringer Departure Tristan + 50000 years: PH M Bringer Pack remnants prepare for Andromeda run + 51000 years: P M Sol learns of Andromeda attempt, sends encouragement + 52000 years: P M Encouragement arrives + 60000 years: HRM Bringer arrives Sol with human passengers + 62000 years: R Rite of Passage events transpire + 65000 years: M Andromeda-bound Pack mates inform Bringer of human uploading origins, Bringer discards info + 200,000 years: V Minervans win the Battle of Sol because Paleomachines will not war against biological humans + 7,000,000 years: V Paleohuman colonization of Milky Way complete Paleomachine exploration effectively ends + 30,000,000 years: V Minervan human population exceeds Paleohuman population + 42,000,000 years: V Work begins on Minervan FTL comm system Uploading of Minervan humans common but one-way + 60,000,000 years: V First experiments in nanoassembly of complete humans. It's expensive, takes hundreds of years per unit, and failure prone, so rarely done. + 70,000,000 years: V Most Minervan worlds in FTL net, plus some Paleo worlds Work begins to colonize "sterile" areas of the galaxy threatened by magnetars, since warning can be provided thousands of years in advance of radiation pulses + 100,000,000 years: PH M Andromeda fleet reaches and colonizes Andromeda + 115,000,000 years: P M Andromeda robustly colonized, last scenes of P,M + 150,000,000 years: V Fast nanoscale nanoassemblers perfected for large construction projects + 200,000,000 years: V Human reconstruction fast, cheap, regularly performed to avoid death or cure otherwise unreachable defects, Minervan Bringers link the availability of this to population control and many diverse societies emerge + 250,000,000 years: V Intergalactic communication by robotic stellar shading + 280,000,000 years: FTL comm system established at Andromeda + 300,000,000 years: V All Paleo worlds are in the FTL net though censorship and propaganda wars persist. PaleoBringer offers to build Paleo fanatics galaxy ship. + 320,000,000 years: V Galaxy ship departs with terminal velocity of 0.04 C + 500,000,000 years: Paleo/Minervan accord in Milky Way establishes (1) all humans have right to know uploading is possible and to upload on request (2) humans cannot be forced to upload even when biological death is inevitable (3) biological human societies may elect to exile uploaded humans (who can in any case travel easily to other physical systems where they are more welcome) (4) humans will not reproduce while uploaded (5) humans can be downloaded on request only with consent of any current biological residents of whatever inhabitable environment they wish to occupy, and only to forms genetically compatible with paleohumans (6) biological humans cannot be allowed to ruinously overpopulate their ecosystems (7) biological human evolution will be constrained to forms which can interbreed with paleohumans Last scene of V + 530,000,000 years: All necessary technologies are developed (mostly independently, but with occasional pointers from afar) and Paleo/Minervan accord is adopted at Andromeda +1,000,000,000 years: V Galaxy ship arrives, terraforms and +1,000,500,000 years: V populates Borden homeworld, and retires +1,000,530,000 years: V Borden Makers have nuclear war, lose technology +1,000,580,000 years: V Borden are made, extinguish Makers, discover galaxy ship, quit home system +1,250,000,000 years: MV Derelict Bringer ship intercepted & rebuilt by Borden +1,252,000,000 years: MV Tom V1.01 deployed by the Borden; 80,000 human worlds in Borden galaxy +1,252,200,000 years: V Expedition to Borden homeworld re-awakens G-Bringer +1,252,300,000 years: V Bringer homeworld repopulated, penultimate scene of V NEVER INVENTED ANYWHERE: FTL transportation of matter intergalactic FTL communication interstellar FTL communication at more than ~ 100 bits per second intergalactic communication at more than ~ 1 bit per Terran day