[War_ooc] Timeline stuff: Part I

[John Penta]

Okay, I've figured out how I'm going to do this.

There'll first be "global" sections, which aren't likely to have dates
attached, describing developments in various worldwide spheres. I'm going to
repeat my global guideposts here, and I'd like readers to keep them in mind.
I'll likely be writing further, regional guideposts, which I'm going to use
with country timelines (written by players!) to unify stuff, edit them (the
country timelines) to fit country timelines into a cohesive whole, and so
forth.
---
1. A deadly rebirth: Terrorism has spiked upward again, this time more often
committed by homegrown types, not internationalized groups. Less
spectacular, but more of a constant drumbeat. Add to this what's widely been
called a rebirth of racial/ethnic tension worldwide, in part *caused* by the
uptick of terrorism, and you have a potent brew for civil disorder in much
of the world, as nativist sentiment rises in response against migrants.

This does not mean riots in the streets every day, but more a simmering
tension. The comparison is inexact, but think of the *racial tension* (only)
of the 1960s US, applied globally.

2. The Long, Slow Rebound - Ignoring all the alphabet soup descriptors of a
recession, I posit that the recession takes until mid-2010 to begin to end,
and the recovery is still fragile by (2013 - we can stretch things out and
actually do a restart in 2017 if people prefer, but I'm writing assuming a
start date of 2013 for now - though making changes wouldn't be too hard (I
can just continue the trend-lines and add in new stuff that I think of),
I'll go with the consensus of the group).

3. The Twitter society - No, I'm not going to try and figure out how twitter
will make its money. But I figure that social-networking sites will continue
to explode...with unpredictable effects on society.
---
Further guidelines:

Unless otherwise stated, notable personalities (interpreted flexibly) have
-not- died in the timeline. This is a rule I plan on applying unless
presented with extremely convincing reasons not to, because I really do not
want to be "calling" deaths and then seeing them happen; it sounds
superstitious? Well, it *is*. My game, dammit, and I have enough to freak
myself out with without worrying if the Secret Service (or whoever) will
come knocking because WAR was too right. I will make exceptions, but the
choice will remain mine. (Deaths after the start of play are another matter
entirely, worry not - I don't see the same likelihood for being right (or
being confused with being right) after play starts.) Basically, when writing
up timelines, please let me be the arbiter of life and death.

With that, on with the show:
---
The March of Progress?: Technology and science events

Obviously, a long, slow recession doesn't help the progress of technology.
Not to say that technology hasn't advanced over 3 and a half - 4 years, but
there are very few "Big Things" that could be developed.

However, things have developed.

In 2011, researchers announced that they had managed to sidestep firmly the
ethical and moral quandaries of embryonic stem cells - Induced pluripotent
skin cells, basically skin cells tricked into becoming stem cells, have been
proven safe and are used for most of the purposes for which embryonic stem
cells were used.

In 2012, stage III clinical trials began on several artificial blood
substitutes for emergency usage, at locations around the world. As of 2013,
signs look promising for eventual success, but trials will continue for a
while yet before regulatory approval is granted.

The 2011 Model Year saw the (slightly delayed) release of the Chevy Volt -
Toyota came out with a competing car for 2012, and most other manufacturers
got their own plug-in hybrids out on the market by the 2013 model year.
Plug-in hybrids, it should be noted, are still somewhat expensive - they
are, however, showing up in increasing numbers on the streets of Western
cities, and 2014 is slated to see the first versions for performance uses
(police, taxi, etc) hit the markets.

It should be noted, as an aside, that GM exited Chapter 11 and returned to
the stock exchanges on October 1, 2011 - all told, a hefty profit was made
by the US and Canadian Governments and the UAW. So much so that it took
government intervention for UAW not to try to repeat the trick with other
manufacturers; even a Democratic administration didn't really like the idea
of the unions playing at being corporate raiders, and said as much. Nor, for
that matter, did rank-and-file union members, who also said as much.
Chrysler was much the same, though it took only until 2010 for Chrysler-Fiat
to exit government supervision.

NASA's Space Shuttle replacement, the Orion, is scheduled to make its first
flight in June 2013, years ahead of schedule - the ISS still flies, though
landside bickering prevents anybody from planning missions to the Moon or
Mars.

The closing weeks of December 2012 brought news guaranteed to start trouble:
Viable babies at a low point of 21 weeks and 3 days are now delivered on a
regular basis, according to the journal Obstetrics and Neonatology in a
literature review; such infants still have great difficulties to overcome,
but the basic viability of the fetus at 21 weeks is almost a settled medical
fact.

---
Next up comes the first of the regional writeups.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://esteroic.com/pipermail/war_ooc_esteroic.com/attachments/20090622/d4dcd856/attachment.html