Naturally, the economic and political liberty enjoyed during the Golden Age, the wealth, tolerance, and splendor, were sharply curtailed during the warlike colonial age that followed. A greater degree of uniformity in thought and conduct was required in order to preserve the Golden Oecumene from Silent Oecumene attacks, both physical and subtle. Certainly the worlds terraformed and colonies established by Phaethon of Rhadamanth, and, later, by his brothers Bellerophon and Icarus, would not for many generations have the capital available to create the machinery needed to organize their affairs as efficiently and happily as their mother world; even maintaining the infrastructure necessary for individual immortality was problematic for the unsuccessful colonies.
It may be that the Transcendence of the Aurelian period anticipated the final outcome of these events, and knew whether they would, on the whole, involve the human race in weal or woe. But if so, no hint has descended from the aery realms of transhuman thought to tell the men who were to fight in that war whether their efforts were doomed to futility and defeat or would be graced with the plume of victory: even the Earthmind cannot see all outcomes.
But no matter whether the future was destined to lead to joy or sorrow, after this period in history, civilization was destined to spread among the nearer stars; and no single disaster howsoever great, no war howsoever dread, vast, and terrible, would any longer have the power to eliminate mankind from the drama of cosmic history.