Marik_SteeleTo rule in hell...Join Date: 2002-11-20Member: 9466Members
edited September 2003
The following is the closest thing I've seen to a "real" answer, as it comes from Flayra. [edit]Revenge's answer above corrects me, there ARE other answers out there from the official NS backstory. A pity I'd forgotten about them. I'll still leave this story for you all to read.[/edit] Some of you may remember us describing in Beta Information about a playtest that almost single-handedly convinced Flayra to make Heavy Armours have gas masks that work against spores. It's towards the end of the midgame on Bast, and I'm on the marine team when the commander (I assume it was Flayra himself) decides to use all of the res saved to this point to make one big push for a hive. We're outfitted with <i>all</i> HA's, welders, and a mix of HMG's/shotguns. 8 fully decked-out marines, we go into the airlock as a unit. On the other side we take out the entirety of the walls of alien structures (varied types), but take enough of a beating from OC's that a sizeable group of various arriving aliens mops us up before we get to a hive. Somehow the commander has enough res to outfit us almost completely again, and because so many structures were just destroyed, we see it as a good idea. We're all given the big guns again, but this time I'm one of the only (if not <i>the</i> only) marine not outfitted with Heavy Armour. I was given welder duty instead and was thus at the very "back corner" of the Bast airlock for when we went as a unit of 8 again. They knew we'd be coming. One onos, one lerk. That's all it took. That one onos stomped our entire group to the point that we couldn't move out of the gas cloud. Back then, spore clouds still "stacked," and I found myself choking on unbreathable air (um...I guess that's what I'd call it when my GeForce2's horrible handling of antialiasing for multiple partially-transparent sprites tanks the framerate). The HA users fortunate enough to have their armor protect them somewhat from the gas found themselves getting charged and gored by an onos they couldn't attack. I didn't get to wear HA, and to that I owe my precious few extra seconds of life, because from back in that crowded corner I was able to see all of the devastation wreaked upon us. In Beta Information later, Flayra had this to say about it in <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=30&t=34012&hl=massacre' target='_blank'>this thread</a>: <!--QuoteBegin--Flayra+ Jun 4 2003, 01:15 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Flayra @ Jun 4 2003, 01:15 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->There's definitely something wrong here, and I need to clarify my thoughts to fix it. I was in the airlock during the HA gassing-massacre of 060303, and there was definitely something wrong there.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->. We all seemed to agree that res-for-res, it just wasn't fair for so many heavy armours and welders to do so little.
Since then, I feel somewhat proud to say that I was there for the Bast Gas Massacre of 060203. The event that best convinced the TSA that it was time to re-allocate the budget and put working gas masks in heavy armor. It's the closest thing I've seen to a "canon" answer to this question. I don't know what 000001 would be based on, though, so it still doesn't answer your question of how far in the future NS is <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--Cheez!+Sep 11 2003, 05:21 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Cheez! @ Sep 11 2003, 05:21 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> well the obvious answer is 20X6!!!!
....1936...now i think i'll do a little dance. *does homestar runner dance* <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> YES!
<!--QuoteBegin--Marik_Steele+Sep 11 2003, 06:24 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Marik_Steele @ Sep 11 2003, 06:24 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin--Flayra+ Jun 4 2003, 01:15 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Flayra @ Jun 4 2003, 01:15 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->There's definitely something wrong here, and I need to clarify my thoughts to fix it. I was in the airlock during the HA gassing-massacre of 060303, and there was definitely something wrong there.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->.
Since then, I feel somewhat proud to say that I was there for the Bast Gas Massacre of 060203. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Uhh, Marik, wouldn't 060303 be 06/03/03, as in June 3rd, 2003?? That would be the day before Flayra posted...
Besides, I still like Revenge's answer, although I couldn't keep up with the math. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Marik_SteeleTo rule in hell...Join Date: 2002-11-20Member: 9466Members
Nice work path, you're the first to get it. Yes, I was quite aware of the direct correlation to our date system, but using no punctuation marks and being able to say it quickly as "oh-six-oh-two-oh-three" makes it sound pretty cool nonetheless.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->MrMojo Posted: Sep 11 2003, 04:21 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My spoon is too big.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But... there is no spoon! <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
It is set exactly one minute in teh future where any thing can happen..........................................................................................................................................if y4r teh "elite" s4it
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Uhh, Marik, wouldn't 060303 be 06/03/03, as in June 3rd, 2003?? That would be the day before Flayra posted... <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Could also be 6th day of March 2003, if you do it Mexican style. Makes sense to do smaller to larger...
How could u forget that one? <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
When the alien threat first arose in the Ariadne Arm, the existing militaries all had a go at it: United America, N.F.O., and a score of smaller trans-system and cargo companies sent in their forces to deal with the problem. The results were ugly - ships filled with dead soldiers and civilians that had to be destroyed before reaching base, or worse - entire stations scuttled, trillions of dollars lost (the people on board were already dead). There were two reasons for the failures: 1. the forces were, for the most part, inexperienced and woefully unprepared to deal with such an unorthodox threat; 2. getting the forces to the infested ships was difficult - often meant negotiating passage through gates, and the forces were usually so far away that by the time they arrived the infestation was out of control.
Odd, since there is no Ariadne arm in the milkyway galaxy...
<a href='http://members.nova.org/~sol/chview/milkyway.jpg' target='_blank'>Link To The Galactic Map</a>
Also, 2050ish would be far too soon. That would mean a lot of stuff would have to happen, including the colonisation of the "Ariadne" arm.
Providing they dont have faster then light drives, 2200's at least, and even that is pushing it since a spiral arm is a LOT of ground to cover in 200 years. Not to mention advancing to the point of phase tech first, getting ships to travel the enourmous distances and such.
We'd probably have to wait till the 2100's to get the technology right, then another hundred years of expansion.
It seems the backstory has a few holes in it <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--supernorn2000+Sep 11 2003, 05:33 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (supernorn2000 @ Sep 11 2003, 05:33 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin--Spazmatic+Sep 11 2003, 07:20 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Spazmatic @ Sep 11 2003, 07:20 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> 42 <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> youre confusing that with the answer to life, the universe and everything.
Lets just say NS takes place in the not too distant future....before Star Wars. (they have big friggin lasers!) <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Impossible. star Wars happened a long time ago... Unless it was filmed far in the future, of course.
<!--QuoteBegin--nukeaqua+Sep 12 2003, 05:19 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (nukeaqua @ Sep 12 2003, 05:19 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> It is set exactly one minute in teh future where any thing can happen..........................................................................................................................................if y4r teh "elite" s4it <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Actually, not anything can happen in the next min, if you happened to know the approximate location and approximate speed (uncertainly principle stops you from knowing entirely) of every particle in the universe at any given time, you could take a pretty good guess at what would happen in the next min, but it would however only be a probablity, and you could give a probability to all other possible outcomes.
how did me asking "what year is it?" turn into 4 pages of crazy! <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
There has always been a little correlation between then and now. For instance the techtrope article one one point mentions that the TSA frontiersmen will be rolling out in June. At the time, the intended release was some time around June, and it just took a little longer than expected to get through all the Release Candidates until there was one Flayra was happy with.
It's because of this I assumed that WHATEVER year it may be, atleast time in general moved at the same pace, and so if the year was infact 2040 in the NS world, then it would be September 12, 2040 today.
That being said, 2040 is definately not to soon for all of this to have occured. Technology moves pretty damn fast. Just think that 70 years ago there was no such thing as a telephone, let alone the internet, personal computers or gaming. If phase gates were discovered in 2010, then 30 years to teleport across space, strip mining everything along the way, is entirely pheasable.
<!--QuoteBegin--Cypher---GorgeLover+Sep 12 2003, 01:11 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Cypher---GorgeLover @ Sep 12 2003, 01:11 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> haha I dont think anyone has even posted a relavent answer to what year it is yet... <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Care to read my first post in this thread?
The year is inbetween 2015 and 2045 (most likely closer to 2045 than 2015)
<!--QuoteBegin--Revenge+Sep 12 2003, 04:14 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Revenge @ Sep 12 2003, 04:14 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> That being said, 2040 is definately not to soon for all of this to have occured. Technology moves pretty damn fast. Just think that 70 years ago there was no such thing as a telephone, let alone the internet, personal computers or gaming. If phase gates were discovered in 2010, then 30 years to teleport across space, strip mining everything along the way, is entirely pheasable. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Although technology could move at that pace, you forget that largest problem would be getting the enourmous numbers of people to settle on worlds in star systems in the orion arm, and then getting the numbers of people to colonise the "Ariadne" arm (which dosent seem to exist).
Now, although the population of the earth is going up at an exponential rate, it would STILL be troublesome to colonise the millions of stars in the orion arm alone. It takes 20 years for a human to mature, and presumably three generations for a colony to be able to send out colonisation ships of it's own. Add to that gigantic megacorporations funding the entire scheme and you NEED centuries of progress.
I'm working under the assumption that humanity cannot travel faster then light and needs a survey ship with a phase gate to get to a star system first.
In the end, the speed of light would be the ultimate limiting factor.
<!--QuoteBegin--Revenge+Sep 12 2003, 11:14 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Revenge @ Sep 12 2003, 11:14 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> There has always been a little correlation between then and now. For instance the techtrope article one one point mentions that the TSA frontiersmen will be rolling out in June. At the time, the intended release was some time around June, and it just took a little longer than expected to get through all the Release Candidates until there was one Flayra was happy with.
It's because of this I assumed that WHATEVER year it may be, atleast time in general moved at the same pace, and so if the year was infact 2040 in the NS world, then it would be September 12, 2040 today.
That being said, 2040 is definately not to soon for all of this to have occured. Technology moves pretty damn fast. Just think that 70 years ago there was no such thing as a telephone, let alone the internet, personal computers or gaming. If phase gates were discovered in 2010, then 30 years to teleport across space, strip mining everything along the way, is entirely pheasable. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> I don't think it would be 2040. That's too late, really, considering we're going to start phasing out humans and replacing them with machines in 2030, or even a bit sooner. Not that all humans will be killed, merely have their brain patterns moved to more reliable and long-lasting hardware. That will also allow us to ignore that annoying life support requirement on spaceships. So, while "humans" may be colonizing the galaxy, I'd expect them to have more efficient custom shapes than that silly biped form.
Wait, you mean you weren't notified about the 2030 human species maintenance program? <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
MouseThe Lighter Side of PessimismJoin Date: 2002-03-02Member: 263Members, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
Actually Revenge, in the first line of the second paragraph of the Engagement Protocol section of the Techtrope Article, Sergeant Haverhill says "We should have had something like this back in goddam twenty-one-fifty." The way he says it, 2150 seems like it was a number of years ago.
I'm guessing the current date is somewhere in the order of 2165.
Comments
Some of you may remember us describing in Beta Information about a playtest that almost single-handedly convinced Flayra to make Heavy Armours have gas masks that work against spores.
It's towards the end of the midgame on Bast, and I'm on the marine team when the commander (I assume it was Flayra himself) decides to use all of the res saved to this point to make one big push for a hive. We're outfitted with <i>all</i> HA's, welders, and a mix of HMG's/shotguns. 8 fully decked-out marines, we go into the airlock as a unit.
On the other side we take out the entirety of the walls of alien structures (varied types), but take enough of a beating from OC's that a sizeable group of various arriving aliens mops us up before we get to a hive. Somehow the commander has enough res to outfit us almost completely again, and because so many structures were just destroyed, we see it as a good idea.
We're all given the big guns again, but this time I'm one of the only (if not <i>the</i> only) marine not outfitted with Heavy Armour. I was given welder duty instead and was thus at the very "back corner" of the Bast airlock for when we went as a unit of 8 again.
They knew we'd be coming. One onos, one lerk. That's all it took. That one onos stomped our entire group to the point that we couldn't move out of the gas cloud. Back then, spore clouds still "stacked," and I found myself choking on unbreathable air (um...I guess that's what I'd call it when my GeForce2's horrible handling of antialiasing for multiple partially-transparent sprites tanks the framerate). The HA users fortunate enough to have their armor protect them somewhat from the gas found themselves getting charged and gored by an onos they couldn't attack. I didn't get to wear HA, and to that I owe my precious few extra seconds of life, because from back in that crowded corner I was able to see all of the devastation wreaked upon us.
In Beta Information later, Flayra had this to say about it in <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=30&t=34012&hl=massacre' target='_blank'>this thread</a>:
<!--QuoteBegin--Flayra+ Jun 4 2003, 01:15 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Flayra @ Jun 4 2003, 01:15 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->There's definitely something wrong here, and I need to clarify my thoughts to fix it. I was in the airlock during the HA gassing-massacre of 060303, and there was definitely something wrong there.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->. We all seemed to agree that res-for-res, it just wasn't fair for so many heavy armours and welders to do so little.
Since then, I feel somewhat proud to say that I was there for the Bast Gas Massacre of 060203. The event that best convinced the TSA that it was time to re-allocate the budget and put working gas masks in heavy armor. It's the closest thing I've seen to a "canon" answer to this question. I don't know what 000001 would be based on, though, so it still doesn't answer your question of how far in the future NS is <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
gg revenge proving me wrong
Oh well, last time I listen to some random ranting forumite. Who <i>was</i> that, anyway?
....1936...now i think i'll do a little dance. *does homestar runner dance* <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
YES!
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My spoon is too big.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I am a banana.
Since then, I feel somewhat proud to say that I was there for the Bast Gas Massacre of 060203. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Uhh, Marik, wouldn't 060303 be 06/03/03, as in June 3rd, 2003?? That would be the day before Flayra posted...
Besides, I still like Revenge's answer, although I couldn't keep up with the math. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
No one will EVAR get that one
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My spoon is too big.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But... there is no spoon! <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
<img src='http://205.240.46.10/ns/html/emoticons/offtopic.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image'> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Could also be 6th day of March 2003, if you do it Mexican style. Makes sense to do smaller to larger...
How could u forget that one? <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
When the alien threat first arose in the Ariadne Arm, the existing militaries all had a go at it: United America, N.F.O., and a score of smaller trans-system and cargo companies sent in their forces to deal with the problem. The results were ugly - ships filled with dead soldiers and civilians that had to be destroyed before reaching base, or worse - entire stations scuttled, trillions of dollars lost (the people on board were already dead). There were two reasons for the failures: 1. the forces were, for the most part, inexperienced and woefully unprepared to deal with such an unorthodox threat; 2. getting the forces to the infested ships was difficult - often meant negotiating passage through gates, and the forces were usually so far away that by the time they arrived the infestation was out of control.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thats from the backstory.
Odd, since there is no Ariadne arm in the milkyway galaxy...
<a href='http://members.nova.org/~sol/chview/milkyway.jpg' target='_blank'>Link To The Galactic Map</a>
Also, 2050ish would be far too soon. That would mean a lot of stuff would have to happen, including the colonisation of the "Ariadne" arm.
Providing they dont have faster then light drives, 2200's at least, and even that is pushing it since a spiral arm is a LOT of ground to cover in 200 years. Not to mention advancing to the point of phase tech first, getting ships to travel the enourmous distances and such.
We'd probably have to wait till the 2100's to get the technology right, then another hundred years of expansion.
It seems the backstory has a few holes in it <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
youre confusing that with the answer to life, the universe and everything.
Lets just say NS takes place in the not too distant future....before Star Wars. (they have big friggin lasers!) <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Impossible. star Wars happened a long time ago...
Unless it was filmed far in the future, of course.
twentiny billionty or something hahaha.
VOTE #1 for best thread.
Actually, not anything can happen in the next min, if you happened to know the approximate location and approximate speed (uncertainly principle stops you from knowing entirely) of every particle in the universe at any given time, you could take a pretty good guess at what would happen in the next min, but it would however only be a probablity, and you could give a probability to all other possible outcomes.
So my guess is that NS takes place 2153.
Guess reference of the first part of this post.
It's because of this I assumed that WHATEVER year it may be, atleast time in general moved at the same pace, and so if the year was infact 2040 in the NS world, then it would be September 12, 2040 today.
That being said, 2040 is definately not to soon for all of this to have occured. Technology moves pretty damn fast. Just think that 70 years ago there was no such thing as a telephone, let alone the internet, personal computers or gaming. If phase gates were discovered in 2010, then 30 years to teleport across space, strip mining everything along the way, is entirely pheasable.
Care to read my first post in this thread?
The year is inbetween 2015 and 2045 (most likely closer to 2045 than 2015)
I think NS is 20X6. Or was that 1936?
<i>1</i>337 BS <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
before satan? <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
Although technology could move at that pace, you forget that largest problem would be getting the enourmous numbers of people to settle on worlds in star systems in the orion arm, and then getting the numbers of people to colonise the "Ariadne" arm (which dosent seem to exist).
Now, although the population of the earth is going up at an exponential rate, it would STILL be troublesome to colonise the millions of stars in the orion arm alone. It takes 20 years for a human to mature, and presumably three generations for a colony to be able to send out colonisation ships of it's own. Add to that gigantic megacorporations funding the entire scheme and you NEED centuries of progress.
I'm working under the assumption that humanity cannot travel faster then light and needs a survey ship with a phase gate to get to a star system first.
In the end, the speed of light would be the ultimate limiting factor.
It's because of this I assumed that WHATEVER year it may be, atleast time in general moved at the same pace, and so if the year was infact 2040 in the NS world, then it would be September 12, 2040 today.
That being said, 2040 is definately not to soon for all of this to have occured. Technology moves pretty damn fast. Just think that 70 years ago there was no such thing as a telephone, let alone the internet, personal computers or gaming. If phase gates were discovered in 2010, then 30 years to teleport across space, strip mining everything along the way, is entirely pheasable. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I don't think it would be 2040. That's too late, really, considering we're going to start phasing out humans and replacing them with machines in 2030, or even a bit sooner. Not that all humans will be killed, merely have their brain patterns moved to more reliable and long-lasting hardware. That will also allow us to ignore that annoying life support requirement on spaceships. So, while "humans" may be colonizing the galaxy, I'd expect them to have more efficient custom shapes than that silly biped form.
Wait, you mean you weren't notified about the 2030 human species maintenance program? <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
I'm guessing the current date is somewhere in the order of 2165.