Personal log - 10-01-2674 - James

The year is 2674, and I'm 700 years old today. My name is James and I've been living on Earth my whole life, Iv'e decided to start a new life in the colonies on Mars. There is nothing left for me here, and the over population has become overwhelming. There isn't a place on the planet that doesn't have at least some people living on it. Even the moon is overrun cities and people. Funny, I thought  the year 2000 was complicated, and there was too many people, but there is no comparison. I would say there is thousands of times more of us humans, and now we are spreading throughout the cosmos like some type of virus. I guess it's a good thing that the universe is a very big place.  I suppose that whatever form we are in the future, we will live wherever we can survive. Or, eventually  we will just die out as our sun slowly fades away in about 5 billion years. It is still strange for me to think that there have been several generations of people that have never known the Earth. Oh, they might have learned some facts about the Earth in there history classes. And sure, they might hear some news stories about the politics of Earth, but they don't know it. All it is to them is a small blue dot in the night sky. Most people on Mars wont even see Earth through a telescope. They will know it's there but wont even give it a second thought.

Well, I suppose you are wondering just how I'm the age that I am. Not all people are able to live throughout the centuries with virtually without age. You see I'm an experiment of the year 2045. At that point I was getting to be very advanced in my age, but at that point we had started to develop ways to repair DNA. At that time there was a select group of people selected for the experiment as part of a lottery, and I was one of the lucky ones selected. Needless to say the experiment worked. At the age of 700 I look to be a man of about 45 to 50, and as long as I keep up the DNA treatments I will stay this age seemly forever. Will I keep up the treatments. I just don't know. I think as long as life is fulfilling I will keep on going. I was happy on Earth for 700 years. I don't see why I couldn't be happy on Mars for 700 more, and be that point there might be other places in the universe that I might want to go. The Universe is basically endless, so why shouldn't my life in it be?

You might ask, why doesn't everyone have the ability to live for hundreds of year? Two words, politics and religion. The two things that have stopped any real progress for countless centuries. Shortly after the small group of us were able to have our DNA repaired, there were several groups that were formed debated that the whole process was unnatural.  They said that there is a whole natural order to thing. You live, you reproduce, and you die. Non-sense, at least I think. Anyway, It was decided that there was to be no more DNA replacement therapy, but those who already had DNA therapy could continue with the therapy. There have been fights ever since, but nothing has been resolved. I believe I'm the only one left. The rest of the people involved either couldn't adapt to the changes that the centuries and to bring, or they just got tired of living. I never understood that. There has been so much for me to learn, and do over the centuries that I never want to die. There is simply too much to see, and the universe is just too big.

A little background on Mars. Around 2060 we started the process of colonization, and terraforming. It was a huge leap and sacrifice for the first to go to the planet. They left everything behind, and never came back to Earth. They couldn't, if they were going to get what they needed to get done. In fact, there were several generations that lived on the planet that never had the chance to go back to Earth, and by that point they didn't want to unless they were very curious. It took several hundred more year before the people of Mars were able to walk on the surface without a space suit. And, only now are they able to walk around outside without a little oxygen mask. It has only been the last 50 or 60 years that the sky has started to turn blue. For the past 20 year or so, we have been in the process of building a moon for the planet to help to stabilize it. Essentially we are trying to keep the planet from wobbling on its axis. The new moon is absolutely amazing in its engineering. A scale of construction never seen in history before. We have even incorporated Mars's two tiny moons that were orbiting the planet before. The moons Phobos and Deimos fit very nicely inside the structure. I myself think it is a great monument to them. They are like the little moons that could. On Mars today there are about 300,000 people that live there full time. So, its only about the size of a small city on Earth. The colony is arranged like a spoked wheel that has a center hub for commerce and pleasure, and spokes coming off of that for living centers. In-between each spoke for living there are farming spokes, and the colony has done very well being self sufficient. Most of the food on Mars are fruits and vegetable. They do have some livestock suck as chickens for eggs, but it's not like you can get a hamburger. I would say that over-all the people live a much healthier lifestyle. All of the transportation is done on foot and mass transportation. From what I'm told it is extremely easy to get around. I'm so looking forward to that kind of life. It has become so difficult to get around on Earth. There are just too many people. I would think that is why the Idea of living on Mars is becoming so popular. On average there is 5,000 people a year that decide to make the move. I have gotten myself a job on one of the farms on Mars. Over the centuries on Earth I have been able to produce most of my own food, and I sold a great deal of it to locals. I was able to make a pretty good mane for myself, and I hope to be able to do the same on Mars. Working with soil is when I'm the happiest.