2072
Radical judicial reform
Norway abolished imprisonment for all offenses, except murder, and introduced a drug therapy called Psycho-Pharmacological Redirection (PPR). Drugs administered to suppress deviant urges, allowed the criminal’s safe return to society. Recidivism was reduced significantly, though some criminals proved entirely immune to PPR. Accordingly, Norway’s initial policy was revised, to allow the return of non-responsive criminals to correctional facilities. PPR was soon implemented by many other nations.
2073
Failed coup d’état in Russia; Emergence of the Sporzakov regime
With the world’s attention still focused on the USA and China, a coup d’état masterminded by an alliance of Neo-Bolshevik and Populare groups, was quickly crushed by Russia’s democratic government. In one week, ten thousand people died in street fighting between government and rebel forces. Russian President Yuri Sporzakov, seized the opportunity to implement martial law, spawning the rebirth of totalitarian autocracy in Russia after eighty years of relatively stable democracy.
Sporzakov administered his country ruthlessly, proceeding to abolish the national parliament and sending secret police to arrest thousands of citizens deemed enemies of the state. Sporzakov began rebuilding the Russian military and increasing Moscow’s involvement in the political and economic affairs of the former republics of twentieth-century USSR.
After decades of dismissing Russia as a limited world power, this turn of events caught virtually all political watchers by surprise, creating considerable consternation in the EU bloc and the USA.
2074
The fuel race
Indian-based energy corporation Maraj Chemicals, introduced dodaz, a generic name for a family of porginine-based fuels. Dodaz was used widely for short-distance commercial travel.
Ten years later, the Australian company Bolton Fusion generated another porginine-based fuel, hydrofus, whose later refinements replaced porginine gamma[27] as the principal fuel for interplanetary travel. In 2095, ships powered by hydrofus were able to reach speeds equal to ten percent of light.
Birth of the Biotron
During the twenty-first and twenty-second centuries, the Biotron became the principal unit for mass urban settlement on both Earth and the newly colonized extraterrestrial worlds. Adapting several hydrocolony technologies,[28] the first Biotron was built in Mumbai in 2074. Each Biotron housed thousands of people in a healthy, ecologically adjusted environment, for indefinite time periods.
On Earth, the Alpha Biotron accommodated fifty thousand people, while the larger Beta model housed over three hundred thousand individuals. A typical Alpha model covered a base area of 0.7 square kilometres, extending three hundred storeys up and one hundred storeys underground. Individuals were assigned a cubicle and cubicles were arranged in groups of eight to form an Octraun. Members of an Octraun shared central kitchen, living and washroom facilities. In the developing regions of Earth, and later on new worlds, these living arrangements were relatively luxurious.
An environmental process, dubbed “Octraun node control optimization,” linked each Octraun to the Central Computer Terminus, for efficient distribution of heat, air, water and electricity throughout the Biotron.
Every two hundred Octrauns formed a political and administrative unit, known as a Dodectraun. The residents of each Dodectraun elected a governing Council and participated in referenda via an electronic voting system run by the Biotron’s Central Computer Terminus.
Externally, the Biotron was linked by monorail and subway to the outside world and eventually, to other Biotrons. Later Biotron models, especially those designed for extraterrestrial worlds, contained offices, industries, food production centres, retail stores, recreational and greenery sites and other necessities, allowing the unit to maintain a near-complete level of self-sufficiency. In theory, a Biotron resident could live from birth to death in such an environment.
By 2100, there were over four thousand Biotrons on Earth; by 2125 there were one hundred thousand.
2075
Peace agreement ends conflict in North Africa
Egypt and Sudan signed the North African Peace Initiative in Khartoum. The treaty ended over twenty years of hostility and also laid the groundwork for more efficient use of shared resources, most notably the Nile River and the mineral wealth of the Nubian Desert.
