First colony to declare indepenance – 2115

As part of my writings I wanted to share some historical facts and my view of them. I am a historian after all, so it’s only fitting part of this experience be about my take on history.

So, it is with great pleasure that my first entry into this section be about the first extra-earth habitation of humans that declared their own Independence. It was really an incredible time to be alive. 75 years after The Singularity event, 50 years after the colony was established, they declared their independence from the conglomeration of countries that founded it. It was an interesting situation, to understand some of the complexities, I’ll briefly go over the state of things then.

It was, as I said, 75 years after The Singularity event. Earth was literally tearing itself apart trying to figure out it’s new identity. Countries were going through periods of civil wars every few years. Twenty five years after the event, the countries of the world attempted to pull together and establish the first extra-planet colony on the Moon, New Luna.  The name was as politically correct as possible of course. They needed to call it something that wouldn’t offend anyway, and that was probably the most difficult task of all.

There were already dozens of space hotels, communities, etc. Some even had attempted to declare their independence. They were mostly ignored of course. No country, organization of any kind recognized them. On that note, the title of should really say the first recognized colony to declare Independence, but I won’t. It’s too wordy.

So, it was then in 2065, trillions of dollars were spent by seventeen countries and unions, over 50,000 volunteers were transported deep beneath the lunar surface into a massive cavern created by nuclear explosions and massive drilling automatons. It was a symbol of ingenuity of mankind, AI’s, Cy’s and Neo’s. It was an example that maybe we could all get along in this new world of post-Singularity confusion. The 50,000 chosen were a representation of every ethnicity and Sentientcy, even though no real declaration of sentient status was made by this time in history, they didn’t even use the word sentient to describe everyone.

With advanced hydroponics, water sources found on the moon, advanced technologies and methods of creating closed ecosystems, the colony was very quickly self sufficient. This was really the turning point of the colonies history in my opinion. Only ten years after it’s founding, it no longer required Earth for supplies.

New Luna thrived. Even though the original inhabitants were representative of the Earth’s population in religion, ethnicity, political views, they actually seemed to get along pretty good. Later sociologists would attribute this phenomena to a low population and a need to work together. Also, they shared a common ground in New Luna itself and being the pioneers they were.

It wasn’t a large surprise to some that the creation of New Luna did not ease any of the pains happening on Earth. Some even feel that it contributed to more hostilities. After all, ten years after it’s creation, they no longer required supplies, they didn’t even need Earth anymore. Whether that really made tensions worse on Earth is in some dispute, by myself as well. I think that though it was a great example of coming together, and the fighting did die down a bit while the colony was being established, once it was created everyone forgot about it and went back to fighting.

For the next 35 years, fighting on Earth intensified. Old ideologies simply would not die. What did it mean to be Human? The Singularity event changed everything and many were having a hard time adjusting. New Luna, however, found that there really wasn’t much difference between Sentients. Though, I will admit, the Cy’s were always a bit arrogant and full of themselves, but they too got along fine in New Luna.

It was Tuesday, in May of 2113 that started the declaration. Though this too is in dispute. It really amazes me with the level of available documentation, vids, and in some cases actual virtual, how arguments can happen about how things developed. Anyway, I digress. In my view the rumblings of revolution started years before, perhaps even all the way back to when Luna found themselves resource independent. But the actual meeting to discuss the reality of independence came in May of 2113.

Alexis Sommers, Thomas Davies and my dear friend aCompius met and discussed the realities of independence. I say my dear friend, but honestly, the aCompius I know is a third generation copy of the original AI. But it was still fascinating to speak with someone who shared the memories of that incredible day. The three sat for nearly a day discussing the possibilities and realities of what they were doing. They thought for sure that the Prime’s would not agree to this under any circumstances. I often think there’s a prejudice towards Prime’s, that since they choose to remain as Humans have been since evolution that they are somehow inferior. I do not share this belief. I think they are as accomplished and capable as any Sentient.

Regardless of such prejudices, the Prime’s went along with the choice whole heartedly. It isn’t a big surprise really, people have been revolting since the first societies of man. It took another two years for the movement to gain steam, bring in the major political parties of New Luna, draft the declaration and announce it to the combined countries of Earth.

Of course, by this time, the countries of Earth were in no shape to do anything about it. Sure some of the super powers would have been able to launch a military attempt to quell the revolution, as many saw it. But, honestly, no one really cared. New Luna had long ago repaid it’s debts though tourism, asteroid belt mining, docking fees of Luna’s massive space port and the technological innovations that streamed out.

Today, New Luna is one of the most innovative, successful and thriving governments in the system. They had a tremendous jump start on the extra-earth colonies and really are responsible for most other colonies being created. Their support, ability to coordinate and provide a jumping off point for the solar system allowed the system to grow as strong as it has. We really are in debt to New Luna and all Lunar Citizens and cities that exist today.