Our story starts in the year 2157. We are at a party and it is 148 years after the SSP '99 Exploration design project report was published. The setting is a neighboring solar system at the Intergalactic Space University Summer Session in a city called Tokama Bay on planet Marov. A variety of civilizations take part in the summer session. Everybody is very excited. Participants include Sopa (Martian), Jean Louis (L5er), Keiko (Earthling), Frieda (Lunatic), Giovanni (Marovian) and a new species who communicate by virtual reality (via a copy of themselves in cyberspace).

The strategy outlined in the '99 report was so successful that ...

"Sopa, do you want to go to the 'intergalactic gate' for a beer? I hear they are singing Martian Karaoke and that the beer is much cheaper."

"No please Keiko, I am so sick of singing Karaoke. Don't start me on that again."

"But I am just trying to avoid the Policy & Law guys as much as possible. They keep telling us what we can't do. It's so boring."

"I don't think that you could be more boring than the Business & Management guys. They keep telling us that we have to think about the financial issues. It is such a damper on our creative ideas. How can I think about financing a space program when I can't even balance my own checkbook?"

"Who is that new student who just showed up? His name is Peter something ... Peter Diamond ... NO ... Peter Diamandis ... I think."

"He's not a student. He looks so good because he had his genetic makeup revamped last year. He must be close to 200 years old by now. He is now working on the X26 prize."

"I heard this other guy, Jim Dator, also had the same procedure performed. He is over 200 years old and still claims he is 20. And he is still giving his 'What if?' lecture. "

"Oh, yeah, he's cool. Did you know that he is also the originator of the third choice on the gender box choices: female, male, or other? It is funny how we thought that was such a strange idea 50 years ago."

"Speaking of others, do you know when the aliens are presenting their distinguished lectures? The emulation packages are already on the way but they are still arguing about the relativity calculations and they bungled their arrival time. Someone should give the staff a lecture on unified theory. The standards of ISU are really slipping."

"Hopefully they'll be here within the next week. The press is already getting antsy."

"We already told them that we were experts in unified theory. I hope the aliens won't find out that we are a bunch of idiots. They might be too embarrassed to associate with us. Then we'd miss out on their lecture about hyperkinetic space travel. What do you think about that, Frieda."

"Why would they think we are idiots, Sopa?"

"Well, they are still laughing about why we, the humans, did not make contact earlier. For years the SETI were trying to make contact with extraterrestrials. It wasn't until they built a telescope on the far side of the moon that SETI was taken seriously. As it turns out, German tekkno radio stations were interfering with the extraterrestrial signals."

"That's news to me. But anyway, we need those lectures for our design projects. I know you guys from 'Management of Nanotechnology Disasters on Asteroids' don't care."

"Well it's your own fault. You chose 'Human Exploration away from the Local Group'. It's a ridiculous subject! Who in their right mind would waste their time on such a subject!"

"Yeah, but do you actually know how your design project was chosen?"

"Of course. There was this accident on 2003KP07. The nanobots went completely out of control and took the asteroid apart."

"Yeah but that's not the whole story. Did you know that the accident happened because a lonely neominer idiot was distracted by the noncertified virtual reality porn world that he was forbidden to observe during working hours ..."
"Whoa-ho, unbelievable."

Jean Louis comes onto the scene and changes the subject to sports.

"I am so sore after that wild game of basketball and volleyball. It is unfair that the Earthlings are constantly winning because they are used to living in a 1-g environment. We should make a new rule that they have to wear weights while they are playing."

"Listen Jean Louis, it's not my fault that you are all a bunch of sissies. We live our whole lives working in 1-g. Maybe you need some toughening up, you L5 puffy face!"

"Keiko, if you call me puffy face one more time, I will Sumo wrestle you and then we'll see who is a sissy!"

"And you tell me you are proud of your round face."

"Hey Jean Louis and Keiko, chill out. We were only playing for fun. How about if I buy you a beer?"

"Anyway, basketball is completely absurd since we do not even have a Coriolis force here. What is the challenge in getting the ball in the basket?"

"The only really cool sport that we can all agree on is night soccer. It's so much fun now that everyone has infrared sensor implants. Let's see who wants to play? Are you coming?"

"OK."

"I'm in."

"Aren't you coming, Frieda?"

"No, I can't play. Yesterday at "Unique" my infrared amplifier was fried because this damn Finnish guy was messing around with his laser pointer. They don't even have any spare parts at the front desk."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. But you can get them everywhere in downtown Tokama Bay. Don't forget to barter."

A group of people move outside to play ...

Frieda watched the others play night soccer. Suddenly, Giovanni came onto the scene and joined her.

"Giovanni, what do you think of the lectures so far?"
"Pretty interesting. I didn't know anything about the history of your solar system. We don't have any history here on Marov. We don't ever think about the past. The future determines the present, not the past. Tell me what is this democrapy idea that everyone is talking about?"

"Oh you mean democracy. They had that before they came up with central computing systems. Democracy was just a system introduced by the policy makers to cover up for their hidden agendas. The policy makers controlled the transfer of knowledge back then. And most of the people were unaware of what was really going on. You know, they didn't have central computing systems?"

"Is this related to a story I once heard? The story was about these boxes called TV that Earthlings would sit in front of for hours totally unaware of the effects of the frequencies on the creative parts of their brains."

"Exactly. Another example is that the ancient American dollar used to contain an eye on the pyramid which actually symbolized the tiers of society. It took the public 150 years to figure that out. Plug into my extended memory to see what I mean."

"Cool. Please, tell me more ... what happened since then? Were there any Dream Drivers back then?"

"No, they came later. To be clear, Buddhism is the only religion that has survived the last two millennia. The Dream Drivers and the VR Nerds emerged at around the same time that Bill Gates set his foot on Mars. He died in poverty when his Windows? '14 pacemaker crashed. But a revivalist group emerged in his memorium who were nicknamed the Microsofties. They still live on Earth and Martian reservations and refuse to integrate with society. They wouldn't even use Linux."

"That's hilarious. The Virtual Reality Nerds like me and the Dream Drivers are relatively new.

"You know that Dream Drivers are idealists. They believe in the 'We principle'".

"The Virtual Reality nerds came into being because virtual reality became more popular and at one point human/computer interfaces were invented. It turned out that telekinetic communication is just another form of neuronal networks and therefore is a part of cyberspace. This is also reflected in the governmental systems of our solar system, which as you know mainly consists of regional central computing units. Each person can voluntarily connect part of his brain to the computing units where they get their local news and information and are able to take part in the decision making process."

"Yeah we tried that but it didn't work at all. We had a big revolt on Marov last year against the last regime. We had coordination panel meetings in which no decisions were made because no one would go to the meetings. People preferred to attend the local beer drinking parties."

Frieda just laughed. "We had similar problems on the Moon. Our regional central computing units are connected to each other and to a higher level decision making body and this system works on autopilot. It is monitored by humans and can be turned to manual mode. But the last two times this was done complete chaos resulted and now there are heavy debates around the galaxy about whether we should ban manual mode. We have a referendum planned for the year 2158."

"I didn't quite understand what you meant when you discussed VR nerds?"

"We VR nerds don't think that there is any practical use for a human body and there is not much use for it beyond our yearly holiday. That is when we take a few weeks off and experience the gluttony of good food and extreme sports. We consider the virtual reality worlds to be more real than the old physical world and it is obvious to me that it is the ultimate destiny of mankind."

"WWWHOOOAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! I can't believe what you are saying. What do you mean, the body has no use anymore? I don't think that is true. What about sex?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I know, OK. Of course at first we were really excited about VR sex. We could get as much as we wanted whenever we wanted. But soon you realize that it's not a challenge anymore. Ultimately, real sex is much more satisfying. Back in evolution we used to fight for women. Where is the adventure now? Where is the excitement?"

"Look buddy. We waited around way too long for you to figure out what you wanted. And then we experienced virtual reality sex for ourselves. Now, finally we have found a way to be completely satisfied. No more waiting or coaxing you into giving us pleasure. In fact we can get it much more often because everyone knows we don't have as much of a lag period as you. Now we can just plug into our virtual reality network and realize all of our fantasies because the VR male actually takes the time to satisfy us in spite of your established philosophy of faster, cheaper, better."

"Uh ... uh ... uh ... anyway - our computer systems still are not perfect ... every once in a while there are huge computer system crashes. Don't come crying to me the next time the computer crashes and you are plugged into the virtual reality network."

"Really funny ... but remember these crashes caused Microsoft to go bankrupt and caused the unfortunate poverty of Bill Gates."

"To overcome this problem the VR nerds clone themselves before downloading. Sometimes people forget ..."

"So do you really believe that space exploration is complete nonsense?"

"Yes, I think space exploration is complete nonsense and I would prefer to explore cyberspace."

"But if Dream drivers like Geoff and Victor could hear you now they would turn over in their grave. Oh well, I have to go….it was nice talking to you."

"Take care."

Having finished the night soccer game Keiko and Sopa join Frieda.

"Sopa, what do you know about the history of the moon?"

"I don't think the Moon is very interesting. The really cool things happen on Mars. The Moon is boring, it doesn't even have an atmosphere."

"I do not agree. Remember those guys in 1999 who proposed the legendary step-by-step strategy? However, there was one great visionary who was ahead of his time. He proposed going to Mars first but he was committed to a mental institution before he could promote his ideas."

"Look, Frieda, if the Moon was exciting it would have colors. The moon is not even a planet! Going to the Moon is totally useless."

"It's not true because the Moon is where we learned to use international cooperation. Isn't this true Keiko?"

"Yeah, well, I agree, in the end it worked. But it wasn't that simple. About 100 years ago humans had almost lost all of the cultural diversity on Earth due to the harmonization of the cultures that resulted from globalization. This led to an increasing lack of innovative ideas. Only a counter movement implemented when humans established their research labs on the Moon saved us from complete cultural destitution. The genetic preservation of members of each original culture was established just in time. The uniqueness of cultures has been restored and many of the minor differences between cultures are more readily appreciated. Since cultural diversity is more highly valued we finally got more or less rid of the problems with racism that we had in the past."

"That's interesting. We on Mars never had these problems. We always remained diverse and creative since we evolved in a harsh environment. Your government tried to dominate us for over 100 years. The conflict provided the necessary drive for creativity. It only took us 53 years to gain independence from Earth. You are welcome to join our celebrations for Martian Independence day on July 20."

"Hey what is Martian Independence Day all about?"

"Oh wait, Giovanni, my auditory interface is ringing…someone is trying to reach me. I have to go, but I have a book on the subject in my backpack that you can read. Let me scan my EMS (extended memory system) for a moment….it's on page 367. Take good care of it. It's rare".

"What are you talking about? What is a book? ... Wow what a strange thing. What am I supposed to do with it? How do I interface with it?"

"You can't interface with it. You open it and read it."

"Cool, thanks."

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