The longevity treatment, commonly called simply “the treatment”, is a medical procedure developed in the 2040s which dramatically increased human life span.

The treatment was developed by the Acheron medical and biotechnology team on Mars, led by Vlad Taneev, in the 2040s. It was first given to those who visited the Acheron complex. It was then administered to all Martians. Sax Russell secretly passed it on to the Areophany.

On Terra it was only accessible to the rich. Transnationals used it as an argument to attract employees, who were awarded with the treatment in their contract. The resulting rift was one of the causes of World War Three.

Humanity was propelled into the hypermalthusian age and Terra suffered from overpopulation problems. A secondary impact of the unnaturally long lives as people reached and exceeded 200 years of age was memory loss.

The treatment proved it had limits when the elderly started dying without a single identifiable cause, a phenomenon called the quick decline. Sax Russell attempted to find a solution to both the quick decline and the memory loss problem. He created the memory treatment in the late 22nd century-early 23rd century. People accepted their fates with the quick decline, having lived sufficiently long lives.

The Greens are the partisans of the development of an open-air biosphere on Mars, and are in favor of terraforming. They are in opposition with the Reds. Sax Russell is commonly acknowledged to have initiated the Green movement, thanks in no small part to his public debates with Ann Clayborne, the original Red. Ironically, they represent a progressive force of change, but they bear a name traditionally linked to movements desiring conservation of wildlife and the environment (on Earth).

The life-celebrating Areophany promoted Green ideas and had a great impact on the Martian underground. Following the progressive changes brought on Mars’s surface, many movements joined by Martian natives, such as Free Mars, were Green.

After the Second Martian Revolution and in a spirit of reconciliation, many concessions were made to the Reds, such as the leadership of the Global Environmental Court. Martian customs changed from mainly Green to something closer to the concept of ecopoesis. As terraforming reached completion, the concept of Browns emerged.

Famous Greens

• Hiroko Ai
• John Boone
• Nirgal
• Sax Russell
• Vlad Taneev
• Harry Whitebook

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The First Hundred are the first colonists of Mars. They arrived on Mars in the second manned expedition to Mars in 2027, on the spaceship Ares. Among their members are some important figures that spawned entire ideological movements, political parties and shaped history. They are composed of 35 persons from the USA and 35 from the USSR, those being the major world powers at the launch of the Ares, the other 30 being from other countries. Names are listed below for 43 of them.

USA contingent

Seven named

• Frank Chalmers, head
• John Boone
• Phyllis Boyle
• Ann Clayborne
• Simon Frazier
• Spencer Jackson
• Sax Russell
• Janet Blyleven

USSR contingent

Nineteen named

• Maya Toitovna, head
• Arkady Bogdanov
• George Bregovic
• Nadia Cherneshevsky
• Tatiana Durova
• Ursula Kohl
• Vlad Taneev
• Marina Tokareva
• Sasha Yefremov
• Alexander Zhalin
• Yeli Zudov
• Dmitri
• Elena
• Evgenia
• Igor
• Ivana
• Tasha
• Vasili
• Yuri

Others, and belonging unknown

Seventeen named

• Hiroko Ai
• Mary Dunkel
• Michel Duval
• Roger Calkins
• Samantha Hoyle
• Rya Jimenez
• Edvard Perrin
• Andrea
• Bob
• Boris
• Ellen
• Gene
• Iwao
• Paul
• Raul
• Desmond “The Coyote” Hawkins, unofficial member

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Transnationals were private mega-corporations that ruled the Earth economy in the period of 2030 to circa 2100. They were the result of mergers of smaller companies in search of economies of scale in the capitalist struggle for greater efficiency. They progressively took precedence over governments in many parts of the world, which resulted in continuing tensions between them and international bodies. The influence of the transnationals extended to Mars, where the entire economic activity and the quasi-entirety of the immigration was ensured by transnationals.

Strife between governments losing power, transnational in-fighting and discontent by the poor resulted in the third World War. This, however, solved but little and accelerated the transition of the transnationals into the metanationals.

Some transnationals:

• Amex
• Armscor
• BoeingMitsubishi: presumably a merger of today’s Boeing and Mitsubishi
• East-Asian Commonwealth: constructed the first elevator cars
• EC: constructed the first elevator cable
• GE: presumably today’s General Electric
• Honeywell-Messerschidt
• Praxis
• Shellalco: presumably a merger of today’s Shell and NALCO
• Subarashii

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