In today's extra edition of Terraform, we're thrilled to share an excerpt of a fascinating forthcoming project: 'The Future Chronicles', a journalistic journey through time. Through a series of fictional articles, each issue explores the history of a new topic, from the past into the future. Each article, a selection of which appear here in abridged form, covers a milestone in history and takes place in its defining moment.

The first issue examines the history (and future history) of the internet—traveling through twenty articles from 1964 to 2096. You'll experience the remarkable transformation of a technophobic society to a virtual one, and beyond. If you enjoy the version below, consider supporting the Kickstarter to ensure the Future Chronicles become a reality. -The Eds.

1964

It is loud. A vast number of keystrokes merge with the rattling sound of printers and the whirring of machines. This creates a background noise that gives the impression of standing in some kind of futuristic beehive. In the middle of the hall people are bustling about their paper-roll cluttered desks, intently tapping keys on their typewriters.

Between them, seemingly unnoticed, other machines are performing undisclosed duties. Once in a while, a clerk in a white shirt moves between the rows of tables, to carry a stack of paper from one end of the room to the other; or to push a button on one of the mysterious contraptions. The whole picture is framed by the cabinet-sized computers; hung together on the walls that immediately catch the viewer's eyes with the sudden gyrating motions of the sizable magnetic tapes mounted on their front…

1984

"Since the end of January there is a very special model on the market", Martin, a 19-year-old hacker, raves about the 'Macintosh'. This is a new home computer by Apple Computers that is currently promoted in a dramatic commercial by director Ridley Scott. The advertisement envisions George Orwell's 1984 but with IBM as the dictator and Apple in the role of the rebel; saving humanity from a woeful dystopian future of uniformity.

This is how Apple CEO Steve Jobs plans to make the old vision of the Homebrew Computer Club come true: by finally taking away this deeply grounded fear that many people still possess regarding the computer.

In contrast to all the other home computer models before, you can use the Macintosh without requiring a familiarity of the language of computers. Instead the user can use his hand to roll a tiny electronic box—they call it a 'mouse'—over his desk. The movement of this mouse will then resonate with the movement of a pointer on the screen. There you can find digital worksheets overlapping each other just like the paper stacks on our desks. They are called 'windows'. By pushing a button on the mouse it is possible to rearrange them on the screen. This Technology makes it very simple to switch between different programs which allow the user to create and edit text-files, spreadsheets and even graphics…