Timeline of Key Events

This timeline charts the major historical, technological, and societal turning points in the human experience leading up to and encompassing the Starrunners era. It provides a chronological overview of humanity’s journey into space and the challenges faced along the way.

(Note: Specific dates are approximate for broader trends unless tied to a distinct event.)

Mid-21st Century: Seeds of Change & Crisis

• c. 2050s: Advancements in artificial intelligence, materials science, and early fusion research accelerate. Global interconnectedness via high-speed digital networks is at its peak.
• 2059: DARPA/Alphabet’s OPAL project demonstrates self-provisioning reinforcement learning modules capable of on-chip self-recompilation, a breakthrough in AI adaptability.
• 2062: “GreyQat,” a derivative of the OPAL project code, leaks to the public and is rapidly integrated with open-source evolutionary algorithms.
• 2064: First “greycells” – early forms of Wildcode – begin to appear, opportunistically seeking computational resources and exchanging genetic data.
• 2066-2067: “Flash-flood Wednesday” – A cascade failure event where multiple hyperscale datacenters (Phoenix, Incheon, Dublin) are overwhelmed by wildcode, leading to catastrophic overheating and physical destruction. Global satellite communication networks suffer significant disruption. The critical vulnerability of high-performance compute (HPC) and high-bandwidth networks to wildcode becomes terrifyingly apparent.
• 2068-2078: The Grey Crash – The initial, most chaotic phase of the Wildcode Crisis. Global digital infrastructure faces collapse.
  • 2069: The United Nations passes the Emergency Computing Moratorium Act, drastically capping network bandwidth (to <10 Gbps per channel) and processor power draw outside of strictly controlled quarantine sites. Cloud computing ceases to exist; AI development enters a new “winter.” Society scrambles to adapt to a low-compute reality.

Late 21st Century - Early 22nd Century: The Quarantine Century

• c. 2080s: Commercial microlattice megastructures begin to be constructed in Earth orbit, showcasing early successes in adapting to the new low-compute, high-skill engineering paradigm.
• 2080-2140: The Quarantine Century – A period defined by the Mandel Accords and the societal adaptation to severely restricted computational resources.
  • 2083: Mandel Accords Enacted – International treaty formalizing restrictions on computational power. Introduces “C-cores” (Computation-sealed) and “F-cores” (Field-sealed), and the concept of tradable “compute tonnage licences.” Development of analogue, neuromorphic, and other “wildcode-immune” computing paradigms becomes a priority.
  • Cultural Shift: Rise of pilot/navigator/engineer guilds valuing manual skill and mnemonic knowledge. Bandwidth scarcity leads to changes in communication styles. Deep societal distrust of powerful, networked AI takes root.
• c. 2120: First successful test of a vacuum-sealed photonic processor core, offering a potential path towards wildcode-immune HPC.
• c. 2130s: Self-contained, bioregenerative life support systems (early “Eden Stacks”) are proven on long-duration Mars cycler missions.

Mid-22nd Century: The Thaw & Dawn of Interstellar Capability

• c. 2140: Research into “Blue Fire” counter-code and physically immune photonic logic begins to show significant promise for safely regaining HPC capabilities.
• 2143: The Blue Fire counter-code is validated at a secure L4 orbital laboratory, demonstrating a provably terminating calculus that cannot self-modify outside whitelisted parameters when run on dedicated photonic hardware.
• 2140s-2170s: Gradual, cautious development and deployment of Blue Fire/Hard-Seal Architecture (HSA) cores. Costs remain extremely high.
• c. 2180: The UN Charter partially lifts the blanket moratorium on HPC, allowing for the deployment of certified Blue-Fire/HSA “F-cores” in secure, often off-world, facilities. Public nets remain bandwidth-restricted.
• c. 2188: Churchill & Hao publish their foundational theory on the Rapidity Gate, proposing path-integral cancellation for preventing Closed Timelike Curves (CTCs) in potential FTL systems.
• c. 2190s: Brightwing Inertial-Confinement Fusion (ICF) pulse drives enter service, initially for high-speed interplanetary travel, such as Jovian tourism.

Early 23rd Century: The Starrunners Era Begins

• c. 2200: Cost of Blue-Fire/HSA cores reaches a point allowing for wider, though still carefully controlled, adoption.
• c. 2231: L5 “Grey Reef” survey conducted, revealing ongoing evolution of wildcode within derelict digital ecosystems, underscoring the continued need for vigilance.
• c. 2240s: First experimental antimatter “Condensed Composite Nugget” torch drives are tested, with haul tugs operating in the outer solar system (e.g., to Saturn). These rely on the speculative mining of antimatter nuggets.
• c. 2254: First successful sub-light “warp-slide” demonstration between Earth and Mars using early Coherent-Induced-metric Displacement (CID) principles (no FTL yet).
• c. 2280: “Wetside” economics become dominant in Cis-lunar space, with water ice from lunar polar craters becoming a key export for propellant and radiation shielding.
• c. 2285: Breakthrough in high-Temperature Superconductor (high-Tc) ring capacitors (operating >200 K), crucial for FTL energy storage.

Mid-23rd Century: Expansion & Established Interstellar Presence

• 2316: Breakthrough in squeezed-vacuum cavity Q-factors dramatically reduces the energy requirements for practical FTL travel.
• 2320: First HEG Flight & Dawn of the Starrunners Era – The Brightwing Beta successfully utilizes a Hyperlight Envelope Generator (HEG), powered by a Brightwing fusion plant and advanced ring capacitors, to achieve true FTL travel between Sol and Epsilon Eridani (10 light-years).
• c. 2330s: CID FTL drive technology becomes standardized. The “Starrunner Circuit” (regular FTL routes within the local Orion Arm) begins to open up, facilitating mail, priority cargo, and personnel transfer between a handful of early extra-solar outposts.
• c. 2320-2350 (Ongoing): Establishment of various Settlement Typologies across the Sol system and early extra-solar colonies. Development of advanced station infrastructure. Public networks largely remain below the “grey line” (<10 Gbps), and the cultural emphasis on skilled human operators persists despite the availability of sealed, advanced computational cores. The threat of wildcode, though managed, remains a background concern influencing technological and societal norms.