Subject: (urth) 1000 blooming timelines -- starter kit

From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 20:59:41 +0000

Stella timeline: 5 billion years in the future (Sol's lifespan).

Gabriel timeline (from Talos's play): 50 million years
(geological/evolutionary scale).

Wolfe timeline: 1 million years in Earth's future (plays hell with
constellations). _Plan[e]t Engineering_ clip: "Imagine then what the
situation will be in Severian's time for the scholar-heirs of a sequence of
civilizations that may be over a million years old" (6). (Difficulty in
dating our own civilization's geneology: 6000 years?  Beyond that, it
becomes arbitrary -- in some pre-literary sense, we are already heirs of a
sequence over a million years old.  Starting with Homo erectus.)

MAD timeline: around 100,000 years in Earth's future (factoring in
precession of equinoxes while largely ignoring constellations themselves).

Jeff Wilson timeline: much less than 100,000 years in future (factoring
stellar movement/constellations).

Agia timeline: 30,000 years in our future (I, XIX; technically she is
talking about the span of time between the first appearance of the
Conciliator and the next).

Jordan/Duggan timeline: deep in the past, a previous iteration of universe
(so toss out Armstrong, Apu Punchau, South America, stars, planets, etc.;
it is all analogy, not direct).

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