Ghost Point
The Ghost Point was an event in 2001 when humanity became culturally sterile, beginning the "ghost point" era of human history which lasted 10 million years until the posthuman era. This halt in progress occurred at the exact point before humans should have developed new methods of thinking unknown to the Great Houses. (PROSE: The Book of the War) A Shift explained that the basic shape of human history was an exponential curve that suddenly flattened in the early decades of the 21st century and remained that way until the end of the universe. (PROSE: Head of State)
While the Doctor very regularly interfered with the lives of 20th century humans with minimal effects on history, his decision to take on Sam Jones from 1997 London as a companion led to a significant loss of human potential possibly related to the Ghost Point. Jones was fated to live to live for a century as a prominent 21st century activist, but after travelling with the Doctor this future was averted (PROSE: Interference) and she died of a drug overdose in 2003. (PROSE: Sometime Never..., The Gallifrey Chronicles)
Projections indiciated that if not for the Ghost Point humans would have become a post-organic superculture by the mid 21st century, capable of envisaging, processing, and manufacturing entire universes. (PROSE: The Book of the War) In le Pouvoir's mirrors, Aphra Behn saw a vision of humanity's lost future: "an idyll, a sunless world with iron skies patrolled by stained-glass birds, above a glistening landscape of crystal trees and pillars of solid light. Men and women strolled here, sometimes clothed, sometimes naked, sometimes in machine-like cages of hissing steam, sometimes in bodies that rippled into new shapes with each step, yet never hurried or distressed." (PROSE: Newtons Sleep)
Goralschai hid Primo de la Vega in 2012 and Todd Calavero in 2009 because both years were beyond the ghostpoint and thus of little interest to the Great Houses. (PROSE: Against Nature)
In a potential timeline heavily influenced by Lolita wherein Dracula took over the British Empire, the date of the Ghost Point was protected by a brigade of organic Enemy timeships. (PROSE: A Bloody (and Public) Domaine)
The Younger World Story was largely based around the existence of the Ghost Point. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
Many years into the War, Earth's history began to slowly curve upwards again, starting in the first decades of the 21st century. An agent of one of the Wartime powers identified the cause for this as being Matt Nelson's campaign for President of the United States, which was being manipulated by Lolita. (PROSE: Head of State)
