2031
Grand European Market opens; Prizes of Slovenia awarded
The Republic of Slovenia completed construction of the Grand European Market outside the capital, Ljubljana, in 2031. At a cost of $50 billion (USD), the Market showcased the latest advancements in science and technology, providing a forum for international high-tech business. To commemorate the inception of the Market, the EU instituted the Prizes of Slovenia, rewarding innovators in the applied sciences. Over the course of the twenty-first and twenty-second centuries, the Prizes of Slovenia gained the prestige accorded Nobel Prizes.
Outbreak of Hashish Wars in the Middle East; MEANA established
Hashish wars between rival smuggling gangs began in Syrian-controlled Beirut in 2031. When two hundred and sixty-four people were killed in one night, the Syrian military authority declared martial law in the city. An emergency meeting of Middle Eastern nations in Istanbul, gave birth to the Middle Eastern Anti-Narcotics Army (MEANA). Twenty-two nations joined MEANA, providing a rare example of regional cooperation.
First Hydrocolony built; Hydrocolonization; Ocean mining
Hydrocolonies were the brainchild of Ramas Amritaj, an Indian engineer who viewed floating settlements as the solution to densely overcrowded living conditions in his native Calcutta. Amritaj’s prototypes employed twentieth-century oil rig and deep-sea mining technology, as well as techniques discussed in the novels of Henry Fleshtoldf, a little known twentieth-century science fiction writer.
Mahatma, the first hydrocolony Amritaj designed, was completed in 2031. Its steel girders and gaseous float cushions, provided a home to forty thousand people. Mahatma’s success was followed by three similar hydrocolonies: Vishnu in Calcutta, and Gandhi and Nehru outside Mumbai. The latter two hydrocolonies each housed eighty thousand people and included business districts employing the majority of the hydrocolonies’ adult inhabitants.
Amritaj’s design was adopted in other parts of Asia. Manila, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Djakarta and Tokyo improved on Amritaj’s model, in part by anchoring the hydrocolonies to the ocean floor with corrosion resistant super-strength steel. Carrying capacity increased, as did resistance to disturbances like cyclones and typhoons. In 2053, the Zhing Zemin colony outside Shanghai housed three hundred thousand people in a self-sustaining environment.
In 2060, Californian architect Rebecca Rubins perfected the Aqua Complex. Using the hydroelectric power of the ocean to generate electricity, this new design exploited magnetic force fields to keep itself afloat. By 2090, twenty-seven Aqua Complexes had been built, while an additional fifteen hydrocolonies adhered to the steel girder structure of the older Amritaj model. A modified Aqua Complex was used for hydrocolonies established in the Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean and off the west coast of the Americas in the early twenty-second century. Over thirty-six million people were living in four hundred and fifteen hydrocolonies by 2153.
The location of a population base on the ocean’s surface, greatly enhanced the efficiency of deep-sea mining. Coincident with the depletion of land-based mineral resources by the late twenty-first century, iron, zinc, coal, cadmium, chrome, gold, silver and porginine[9] were mined from the floors of the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Oceans. Though these minerals proved difficult and costly to extract, laser digging and ultrasonic mining techniques, developed by the hydrocolonies themselves, greatly improved the viability of these ventures.
By the mid-twenty-second century, hydrocolonies in the Pacific Ocean became the chief centres of iron production and were thus able to maintain a high level of autonomy in the global political framework. Atlantic hydrocolonies off the European and North American coasts, gained similar leverage through the large-scale mining of aluminum and zinc. Ocean mining grew rapidly well into the twenty-third century, by which time it was producing ninety-eight percent of minerals mined on Earth.
Ocean mining and hydrocolonization ultimately formed a crucial foundation for stellar exploration and colonization. Bartholomew Ching, a prominent Chinese geo-historian, later described the development of hydrocolonies as an “unparalleled leap in the Techno-Industrial Revolution of Humankind.”
Unfortunately, sea mining also resulted in the alteration and in some cases, the wholesale destruction of certain segments of the Earth’s ecosystem. Marine areas once populated by a rich diversity of sea life, suffered a severe decrease in plant and animal populations. The ecological devastation reversed many of the positive gains made during the Clean Seas Programs of the 2010s and 2020s.
2032
Land-speed record shattered
The land-speed record was broken by a Dane, Ole Nielson, in his third run on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Plains. Travelling at six times the speed of sound, Nielson smashed the twelve-year-old record held by the Venezuelan daredevil, Santiago Hiero. Nielson used a super-charged hydrogen fuel to propel his vehicle, the same fuel later used by many aerospace vehicles.
Syntho-Blood a practical solution
None Rejecting Synthetic blood became readily available for the first time in 2032. Developed by the Onjami Clinic of Tokyo, Syntho-Blood’ was comprised of chemical analogues for erythrocytes, leukocytes and platelet blood cells. The Onjami invention saved countless lives during the Third World War.[10]
Voyager IV loses contact
Voyager IV finally lost contact with Earth in 2032. One of three probes released in the 2020s to explore the edges of the solar system, the probe gathered voluminous information about the planet Pluto, setting the stage for colonization in 2118.[11]
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