The Net Ages

"Net Ages" redirects here.

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The Net Ages are defined by the explosion of telecommunication networks on Earth and its stellar vicinity along with the automated technology and collection of data that this communication permits. It is broken up into the period that begins with the invention the transistor during the mid 20th century until the end of the internet in the late 21st century. The second age occurs when the internet is superseded by the quantum net in the early 22nd century which permits communication over vast distances and is seen as a more secure system for telecommunications as humans expand their interplanetary economies until the advent of superluminal transit and the Great Expansion.

Interplanetary Travel

Artificial sentience is cutting edge late 21st century tech deployed for automated systems and drones. The Argo is an example of one such drone. Meanwhile, galactic astronomy deploys increasingly more powerful observatories in our solar system. There are lunar arrays by the end of the century but due to the Long Silence, the arrays in orbit around Mars, Jupiter and Saturn capable of mapping all the planets and moons in Orion's Arm aren't setup until the late 22nd century. The long silence is also responsible for a new telecommunications protocol which will eventually be called the quantumnet and the institution of a certification process for automated system applications. Once agelessness is invented in the late 22nd century, manned interstellar missions are planned to supplement the drones, but the space manufacturing necessary to launch the first mission isn't ready until the second half of the 23rd century.

Biological Engineering

Transgenic species begin to increasingly populate Earth throughout the 22nd century and various different screening processes result in the elimination of congenital defects and preferential selection for phenotypes during this time. Biondria become routine supplements to biologics and surgery during the 23rd century but it isn't until the middle of the 24th century that genomics finally ends pathogen mortality.