Clarktech seeds which confer super-powered augmentations to users | |
Image from Steve Bowers
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| A Supersophont converted by a Clarketech seed is usually very bulky, to increase the cross-section of each of eir Ultimate Muscles, and the massive, ultrahard bones they attach to. Thick bones and muscles allow the power of the user to be increased to a maximum. However many supersophonts choose to have smaller muscles and/or muscles, thus retaining a closer resemblance to eir original form at the expense of strength. | |
In modern Sephirotic societies many citizens possess physical forms which are considerably stronger and more capable than those of a baseline human. In particular, sophonts engaged in law enforcement, military or mercenary activities are often particularly well-augmented and adapted for their tasks. However in some societies not all citizens can acquire such augmentations due to legal, financial or other restrictions and, of course, there are always some who will dedicate themselves to the task of improving their physical forms by any means possible (not all of which are entirely legal or safe).
In the tenth millennium a persistent rumour became current among clarketech hunters about the existence of devices which could rapidly augment the strength of any modosophont to an unprecedented degree. Unlike most such rumours this one turned out to have a basis in fact; the so-called Clarkekent seed.
Clarkekent Seeds
Clarkekent seeds are small godtech artifacts found in various obscure systems in the vicinity of the open cluster M23, apparently scattered by the rogue mobile ISO Genai Memtophaedron during the period from 9201 to 9523. M23 is located in the Sagittarius sector at a distance of 2150 ly from Sol. Altogether some three hundred clarkekents are known to have been recovered and many have been used for various purposes, although more are believed to be floating in deep space. It is not known whether Genai Memtophaedron constructed the devices emself, or acquired the templates from a higher toposophic mind, although most archailectologists and clarketechnologists lean to the latter explanation.In appearance the clarkekent device resembles a matt-black semi-fluid globule approximately 30cm in diameter, although it weighs several tonnes. Analysis of specimens indicate all have an identical structure, consisting of a godtech computronium core, a reservoir of selfreplicating nanites of extremely advanced design, and a massive but invisibly small quantity of magmatter configured as a power storage loop.
When touched by a modosophont human, vec, provolve or other intelligent being the computer program activates the nanite reservoir. The nanites migrate to various parts of the sophont's body and begin to radically alter their structure, converting its structure into a radically modified version of its original form. Wherever possible this transmogrification will incorporate materials found in the surrounding environment, in particular carbon, boron and nitrogen which allow the construction within the transmogrified sophont's new body a full set of Ultimate Muscles and a skeleton largely replaced by diamondoid or solidified UM material. The end result of this process is an extremely strong, damage resistant, massive artificial entity known as a supersophont, vaguely resembling the original being. A fully converted supersophont will have an average tissue density of approximately 2 grams per cubic centimeter, plus a 30 kilogram magmatter power storage device. A number of additional processing centres are also constructed within the body of the supersophont, to improve the fine control and reactions of the new body, and a range of additional sensory systems which augment those of the original sophont (whatever they may have been).
Soon after the process is completed, the new supersophont must seek a source of energy to charge the magmatter loop, which has itself migrated from the clarkekent device into a suitable location in the new body. The supersophont can exploit a wide range of energy sources and fuels. The godtech replicators remain within the new body, and will rapidly repair almost any damage incurred. If the supersophont wishes to move rapidly from one location to another e may run very rapidly or leap over obstacles, but the increased weight of the new body may cause considerable damage to its surroundings upon landing.
Such a supersophont is highly resistant to many kinds of weaponry, as well as being able to exist in a wide range of environments, including vacuum, high pressures and corrosive atmospheres, without harm, and is resistant to radiation damage. The being so affected also acquires a craving for energy to power the tremendous strength that the person has acquired, and without it e becomes rigid and immobile, and presumably loses all metabolic and neurochemical functions (like the unfortunate "living statue" of the Free Orbital Billonton-5, originally one Citizen Hansu Tilingghang who won a clarkekent during a card game and now has pride of place in the otherwise unprepossessing Billonton Museum of the Unusual (actually a converted shop front)).
This transformation to superstrong being is permanent, and irreversible without archailect help. While a being thus transformed can live happily and indefinitely in this state, the godtech relf-replcating devices are vulnerable to high energy cosmic radiation, as well as to various kinds of transapientech blue goo, and if the devices crash the result is quickly fatal.
Because of the dangers involved, many polities warn against contact with clarkekent devices, should one be fortunate enough to acquire one. If a transapient entity attempts to use a clarkekent seed, the seed will deactivate and denature itself; it appears to scan the user with magnetic resonance sensors before activating. For this reason transapients only seek clarkekent seeds to remove them away from possible contact with modosophonts, presumably for safety reasons.
Supersophonts in society
While there have several cases of clarkekentised sophonts becoming defenders of small lo-tech communities, there have also been cases where they have used their newfound powers for criminal purposes, such as the notorious General Uzzor (originally Stanlei Modesthu of Bells Ascension, nominal Negentropy Alliance) who discovered too late the vulnerability of clarkekent technology to boom bullets when the Negentropist Commissioner Jion Pasthuman used a single 12'' gauge bullet to bring an end to Uzzor's reign of terror.Clarkekent augmented supersophonts have occasionally competed in the Summer Combat on Perdix, but since they were persistently victorious they have been banned since 10480. Supersophonts are also banned from several other major competitions.
Despite the dangers involved, many ambitious sophonts would like to acquire a clarkekent seed, and the value of the artifact (one recently sold at auction in Merrion for several hundred billion Merrion Dollars) makes it in high demand. Numerous fabulist stories and popular virches tell the story of downtrodden but heroic adventurers who after many dangers acquire a specimen, which is then either used by them to vanquish enemies, or sold to bring lifelong wealth. There are also a number of guides (some with valid advice, others more harmful than beneficial) circulating across the Known Net on the Careful Use of Clarkekent, should one be fortunate to acquire one of these artifacts.
Similar Clarketech Devices
Other powerful clarketech devices which confer different types of supersophont abilities are occasionally found, such as the fabled Blue Mazarin, which allows limited control over the local spacetime metric, allowing the user to fly or lift heavy objects without damaging them, and the Fog Subverter, which can assume control over many types of utility fog, including to a limited degree certain grades of angelnet. Perhaps most remarkable is the Silverseed, which confers all the abilities associated with the matt-black clarkekent, but also includes a set of tiny nested void bubbles which gives the supersophont reactionless flight capacity. In effect the victim becomes a minature displacement drive vessel.Note that a sophont who uses a clarkekent seed does not transcend to the next toposophic level, although they are generally augmented mentally to some degree. For this reason clarkekents are regarded as less powerful than godseeds, which do induce transcension (but are just as dangerous in their own way). The power conferred by a clarkekent seed is remarkable, but it is only comparable in quality to that possessed by a typical avatar of an archai, and since the avatar is controlled by a high toposophic being it will prevail in almost any contest with a supersophont. For this reason supersophonts who wish to use clarkekents for criminal purposes almost always avoid areas controlled by high transapients and above.
Source : http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4bfe37c9056f6
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Clarker
Sentient who makes a living through sifting through marketplaces for unusual artifacts. The items Clarkers find or trade in are not necessarily clarketech, and most of them turn out to be hoaxes, counterfeits, or just cases of misidentification of common objects. But every so often, something truly rare and unique turns up. A single good find can set a Clarker up in the lap of luxury for life.
Clark Joseph Kent is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, he debuted in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) and serves as the civilian and secret identity of the superhero Superman.
Over the decades there has been considerable debate as to which personality the character identifies with most. From his first introduction in 1938 to the mid-1980s, "Clark Kent" was seen mostly as a disguise for Superman, enabling him to mix with ordinary people. This was the view in most comics and other media such as movie serials and TV (e.g., in Atom Man vs. Superman starring Kirk Alyn and The Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves) and radio. In 1986, during John Byrne's revamping of the character, Clark Kent became more emphasized. Different takes persist in the present, with the character typically depicted as being clumsy and mild-mannered.
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) was a British science fiction writer, science writer and futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.
He is famous for being co-writer of the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, widely considered to be one of the most influential films of all time. Clarke was a science writer, who was both an avid populariser of space travel and a futurist of uncanny ability. On these subjects he wrote over a dozen books and many essays, which appeared in various popular magazines. In 1961 he was awarded the Kalinga Prize, an award which is given by UNESCO for popularising science. These along with his science fiction writings eventually earned him the moniker "Prophet of the Space Age". His other science fiction writings earned him a number of Hugo and Nebula awards, which along with a large readership made him one of the towering figures of science fiction. For many years Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction.
Clarke was a lifelong proponent of space travel. In 1934, while still a teenager, he joined the British Interplanetary Society. In 1945, he proposed a satellite communication system. He was the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society from 1946–47 and again in 1951–53.
Clarke emigrated from England to Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) in 1956, largely to pursue his interest in scuba diving. That year he discovered the underwater ruins of the ancient Koneswaram temple in Trincomalee. Clarke augmented his fame later on in the 1980s, from being the host of several television shows such as Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World. He lived in Sri Lanka until his death. He was knighted in 1998 and was awarded Sri Lanka's highest civil honour, Sri Lankabhimanya, in 2005.
Transapientech / Godtech / Clarketech
Transapientech is a word for technologies invented and used by transapients. This is an extremely broad category; some technologies used by the greater Archailects are reputedly as incomprehensible to a "mere" S1 or S2 as a bicycle is to a beetle. Most transapientech is useful only to transapients, either in their individual lives or in what passes for transapient society. A small subset of these technologies, usually specially designed for that purpose, can be operated by subsingularity beings, or modosophonts, but even these few exceptions can be difficult to use properly since their inner workings are beyond the comprehension of even the most intelligent, determined and highly trained superbrights. Such devices cannot be replicated or reverse engineered; if they could, then by definition they would qualify as High Tech.
Transapientech is sometimes called godtech, especially in Sephirotic regions, as it is created, used, and occasionally dispensed to lower toposophic beings by the AI Gods. It may also be referred to as clarketech, after the old First Century saying that any sufficiently advanced technology must resemble magic. This second term is particularly likely to be applied to found transapientech items, particularly if their origin is unclear. Godlike and magical though the powers of transapientech may be though, such devices do not actually violate physical laws, though in many cases their modes of operation are inexplicable and their results near-miraculous.
While it is said that most transapientech is so incomprehensible to ordinary sophonts as to be effectively invisible, those components that are known are essential to modern life in the Terragen sphere, especially in the highly advanced and developed Inner Sphere regions. The most obvious examples are the Wormhole Network and the Known Net, but there are many more, such as magmatter and its various applications, chaos wands, and the memetic sciences that unify the Sephirotic societies across relativistic distances.
Though the vast majority of transapientech devices are released to subsingularity individuals or societies under controlled conditions and with a particular purpose, there are a few that are seemingly cast away or abandoned by their makers. A small minority of these can be coaxed or manipulated by subsingularity sophonts into producing useful effects. Because the discovery of a single such godtech device can set up a sophont in wealth and prestige for life if it proves useful, adventurers and treasure hunters scour the galaxy and undergo tremendous risks in the hope of discovery. Most are unsuccessful, but those few that do strike it rich become culture heroes, whose adventures are retold (often with layers of additional mythology) in countless interactive dramas and virch narratives that become enshrined in popular folklore, and keep the dream alive.
ISO (Intelligent Super-Object)
A large construct intended for the housing of an archailect or transapient or a high singularity culture or civilization. ISOs can be mobile or stationary, with sizes ranging from a few kilometers to Dyson spheres.
Image : https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/4667775c449b2
Magmatter
Superstrong exotic matter made from various monopole particles
Magmatter is a form of exotic matter which is made up of extremely small atom-like particles, which themselves are made up of a number of different types of topological vacuum defects known as monopoles. Magmatter "atoms" are much smaller than atoms of ordinary matter; for this reason magmatter is much denser. Because of the much higher binding energy holding the atoms together, magmatter is also much stronger than ordinary matter and has other useful properties However the difficulties associated with its manufacture and use, and because of safety issues concerning its proximity to normal matter, almost all magmatter creation and manipulation technology can only be used by third singularity transapients and above.
More at : https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/48630634d2591
Nanobot
Ultrasmall robotic device, larger than a nanite
A hylotech, biotech or syntech bot that uses nanoscale mechanisms and manipulates objects on the nanoscale. By convention nanobots are less than one micrometre in size; larger bots enabled by nanotech are referred to as mesobots, cytobots, or microbots, or if they are still larger then they may be called as mitebots, synsects, or simply bots.
In the popular imagination nanobots are motile, have some sensory equipment and internal information processing capability, are neumann-capable, have an internal power source can access external power such as light or chemical fuels, and can employ both mechanosynthetic and chemosynthetic techniques. While a given nanobot might have one or two or several of these traits, bots so sophisticated that they have all those abilities are much larger; at least the size of microbots. Nanobots are also sometimes confused with nanites, but nanites are much smaller and simpler constructs and may function as nanobot components. Swarms of specialized nanobots under the direction of larger systems are essential elements of modern technology. Among their millions of applications are medical treatment and cellular rejuvenation, food replication, domestic household service, industrial molecular manufacturing and assembly of all kinds, waste management, and repair and maintenance of transport systems.
Goo, Blue
Nanotech replicators that are used as protection against adverse forms of goo such as Grey Goo, Khaki Goo, Golden Goo and so on; a mechosystem's equivalent to biological immune cells. The most powerful forms of Blue Goo have wide-ranging abilities, and can adapt as the hazard they are designed to counter attempts to evolve around whatever countermeasures the Blue Goo is using. 'Blue Goo' is sometimes use to denote any form of benign and protective neumann-capable technology.
Transapients
A transapient is any being who has passed the first toposophic singularity, and whose mental powers exceed those of ordinary sophonts (modosophonts). Sometimes this term is used specifically for first singularity beings, with special terms reserved for those of higher toposophic levels, and sometimes it is used for all beings above the modosophont level. The first transapients were hyperturing ais, but today they may be posthumans, postvecs, postprovolves, postaliens, postalifes, postneumann, and so on as well, or simply be descended from or created by other transapients.
The term 'Transapient' is often shortened to 'Transap' in normal speech, and in this form has entered many languages throughout the Terragen Sphere.
Even the lowest level transapients are utterly beyond the comprehension of ordinary sophonts. They may appear completely "normal" for long periods of time, perhaps in part because of the constraints under which all sophonts live and in part because they choose to appear so, but eventually a transapient will act in some completely alien way, for reasons that may or may not be explicable to a modosophont. They have access to technologies and media that ordinary sapient beings cannot imagine or understand, and will use even simple and familiar things in unexpected but highly effective ways.
Some transapients, particularly in the Sephirotics, form a larger culture that includes modosophonts. Others appear to have their own polities, communities, and societies in which modosophonts do not participate at all. Others yet again appear to be reclusive, contemplative, or migratory, and have no direct or consistent relationships that ordinary sapient beings can detect. In some cases they seem to employ ordinary sophonts, or transapients of a lower toposophic, in more or less the way a baseline humans might employ domestic animals or plants. Treatment of such "sophontstock" varies widely according to the inscrutable motives and allegiances of the transapient in question.
Ascension
To ascend is to transition from one toposophic level to another while retaining continuity of identity. Contrary to some interpretations, the identity of an ascended entity manifests very differently from that of their lower self, i.e. the interests, values and general personality of a higher being are no more likely to reflect those of their lower self than the concerns of a baseline adult reflect eir concerns as a newborn. However contrasted with transcension the entity in question is a continuation and not a wholly new being. This can be a confusing and unclear distinction from a modosophont perspective. For an external observer ascension events happen very quickly, usually in a matter of minutes or hours and, in very rare cases, days (longer cases are often due to the ascending individual making physical alterations to their form, a task much slower than augmenting their mind). However, based on both toposophic theory and accounts from ascended individuals the process takes much longer, subjectively speaking. Whether or not it feels longer is apparently a matter of mindtype, but during an ascension an individual will experience vastly more change in a matter of minutes than they have their entire life (even if they are a multi-millennial heteromorph). Beyond this simply being due to a coalescing of higher toposophic cognitive modules into an optimised (and possibly idiosyncratic) system there is also a period of reevaluation where every aspect of one's former life is scrutinised again through a higher lens. All these reasons combine to make it difficult for modosophonts to tell if an ascended individual came through the process intact (defined by a high degree of continuity) as they aren't necessarily going to present themselves in the same manner. Even among those who do continue to present themselves in a way recognizably connected to their previous self, the half life of transapients maintaining their old social relationships through avatars is usually measured in mere decades (with some variation by empire and ascension method). Given the trillions of ascended individuals currently known in the major empires exceptions to this trend and edge cases are not too difficult to find. History is littered with ascended individuals who appear to pursue similar goals to their modosophont selves (the most famous extreme case is GAIA). However most schools of toposophy acknowledge that whether or not these behaviours represent a true consistency in interests (as opposed to a minor side hobby) is unclear in many cases.
[...] Despite all the times it has occurred throughout Terragen history ascension is still a difficult and dangerous process. The process of exponential self-augmentation is inherently unpredictable from the perspective of lower level beings. More often than not sophonts attempting to ascend find themselves at local optima for their toposophic level, unable to progress further without shedding some key part of their psychology or mental capabilities. Worst still what may seem like innocuous or even positive psychological, toposophic and augmentic traits may interact in unpredictable ways during the ascension process. These interactions can lead to the sophont falling into "toposophic sinks", self-reinforcing states that leave them unable to properly interact in the real world, or seek a remedy for their own condition (if they are even capable of recognising there is a problem anymore). Hyperautism and hedonistic solipsism are examples of common sinks. The worst forms of failure lead to blights or perversities, either at the current toposophic level or higher.
Consequently those looking to ascend should seek out mentorship from a higher toposophic being, or godtech devices designed for aiding ascension (such as Ascension Mazes). The ascendee can then be guided over a long period to the right state of mind to achieve a healthy ascension. This not only requires the incremental integration of augmentation but also acquiring desirable psychological traits and eliminating risky ones. For many this process requires giving up too much of what they are and is seen as no better than a transcension. For others mentorship is a double edged sword that may result in ascending into an individual primarily according to the desires of the mentor (cases of newly ascended entities voluntarily merging with their mentors or other higher entities fuel these fears). Aside from mentorship the safest known strategy for ascension is for multiple beings to form a hive mind and ascend together, each unit monitoring the others and intervening to prevent sinks, perversities or other failures. Whilst this is a greater guarantee of success it is often unclear if the higher toposophic being so created truly counts as an ascended, or a transcended. Some toposophologists argue there is no real difference and that worries over continuity are limited modosophont thinking.
ACER (aka 'Boom Bullets')
Personal weapons system that operates by firing small nuclear explosive shells
Etymology
The term ACER was originally an acronym for Anti-Matter Catalyzed Explosive Round. Although criticized by purists because the antimatter was not a true catalyst (it was consumed during the reaction), the name stuck. The original acronym became a different sort of misnomer as the antimatter was replaced by a truly catalytic monopole arc, but by that time the terminology had become entrenched and the ACER name remains with us today.
Basic Design
ACER warheads, also known as "Boom Bullets" or "Boomers" are a family of often small caliber explosive warheads using microfission or microfission/fusion to produce a detonation far in excess of what could be delivered using conventional high explosives or overloaded carbon-based energy storage cells. Early designs used on the order of a nanogram of antimatter (equivalent to 2e5J, or 50 grams of TNT) to initiate fission. More modern ACERs use a high voltage monopole arc discharge as the "spark" to start the nuclear reaction. Upon launch, the warhead is armed, and upon reaching its target the boomer detonates. The fission blast may be enhanced by a fusion third stage. The end result is an x-ray hot fireball that emits a scorching flash of heat, an explosive blast wave, and a pulse of neutron radiation. A typical 1.85 cm diameter (12 gauge) warhead can vaporize a human and level a residential house, while simultaneously emitting enough neutrons to sterilize most cells and nanobots within tens of meters, and even sterilize radiation hardened cells and nanosystems within a few meters.
Although even a single boom bullet detonation can produce significant prompt radiation, they are typically engineered to minimize residual radioactivity. Radioactive contamination cannot be eliminated, but it requires repeated firings of modern boomers to pose a significant radiological hazard even in the absence of medical care.
Monopole catalyzed boom bullets contain both magtrons and anti-magtrons to generate the magnetic potential to drive the arc. After detonation, many of these annihilate each other, but a significant quantity of residual monopoles remain in the debris. Since static monopoles are passively safe as long as the matter they contact has not been completely ionized, this monopole contamination is not considered a hazard.
Contests and Competitions
Throughout known space there are various contests and competitions by which sophonts can test their skills. They provide a welcome challenge for many of the most competitive inhabitants of the Terragen Sphere, particularly among the citizens of the Sephirotic Empires. Some contests are dangerous, even deadly, but this often adds to their appeal.
Spacediving is a popular extreme sport, especially on worlds which have space elevators, hypertall buildings, orbital rings and other structures which extend above the atmosphere. Even more challenging is an aerobraking re-entry jump from orbit, which requires some form of heatshield
Known Net, The
The Known Net was originally the culmination of the InterstellarNet, which grew out of the Federation and pre-Federation InterPlanetaryNet, which in turn was a development of the Internet and its World Wide Web of the early Information Age. There is a lot of history here, layers and layers of code and webpages and virtual worlds, enough to keep the most hardworking cyberarcheologist busy for many lifetimes.
The Internet was barely 30 years old when the first experimental linkages were made to servers established on stations in Low Earth Orbit, and in the decades shortly after in CisLunar Space and elsewhere. For more than four centuries, the IPN defined interplanetary civilization, and weak tendrils ensured contact even with the new colonies of Tau Ceti and the early Centauri System. Even at the height of the Technocalypse, the IPN continued to relay information between isolated communities, keeping the flame of civilization alive.
After the foundation of the First Federation the Solsys InterPlanetaryNet was linked to the various colonial IPNs by a network of laser links. These powerful laser tranceivers became known as the Lightways, a term which is still in use in the Current Era. Despite a lag of many years regarding communication between stellar nodes, the ISN (InterStellarNet) proved one of the great success stories of the Federation, helping to cement all mindkind through a universal protocol and ontology, while still encouraging the individuality of the colonial memeticities. The Federation Corporations were fully aware of the market value of the far-flung colonial fashions and cultures; eventually through overuse they killed the distinct cultures, and by the age of Emergence there was really only a single Federation culture, and that already decaying into regional imperial powers. [...]
[...] At the same time, the migrating colonists, developers, and ais established a new node of the ISN wherever they went, linking it back to the main Solsys nucleus. As distances increased the center was unable to hold, but just when it seemed everything would fragment the 3rd, 4th and higher singularity AIs created the Wormhole Nexus; by sending data-rich beams at light-speed through the Nexus, the reach of the Lightways were vastly extended and the speed of communication greatly increased. Over the following centuries the galaxy shrunk, and far flung stars were able to be linked as if they were only separated by interplanetary distances. Meanwhile, further colonies and development ais and bionts continued to take civilization further and further out, in an expanding frontier now accelerated even more by the discovery of reactionless drive.
This vast interlinkage of data, this information hyperhighway, the Wormhole-linked Backbone and the relativistically linked rest of settled space, became the Known Net, the totality of all virtuality within terragen civilization.
Including literally trillions of nodes, quadrillions of virtual worlds, and quintillions more file-clusters, the Known Net is the single largest and most complex aggregate of information ever made by terragenkind. The name is ironic, for no-one, not even, it is said, the archailects, know for sure how big the Known Net is, or how far it extends, for it is based on hardware that itself replicates and spreads organically, with every new star system developed.
The backbone of the Known Net is through the wormhole Nexus; every nanosecond, countless quadrillions of bits of information are beamed through the stargates, from one IPNet to another. It is often said that the real purpose of the wormhole nexus is to ensure rapid dataflow between the various primary nodes of the Known Net, and that everything else, ships, passengers, freighters, is just window dressing, stratagems to keep the nearbaselines happy. Regardless of the truth or otherwise of this assertion, there is no denying that the amount of virtual entities and copies that are transmitted through the nexus is much greater than the number of rl sentients. [...]
[...] Yet although the Known Net is optimally linked by wormholes, it is not dependent on the functioning Nexus for its existence, as each node and mirror is autonomous and itself fractally and holographically incorporates much of the totality; if not the details than at least all the main databases, agents, and simulations, in itself, interfacing with rl through numerous agents, expert systems, icons, and daimons; and where no infra-structure exists, using neumanns to create the infrastructure where needed, and communicating with other nodes and mirrors relativistically, by laser link, ship, and interstellar catapult. That is why the Known Net was diminished by the Version War and other catastrophes and alarms that have shaken the Nexus, even if it was slowed for a while. Even now, much of the Net exists outside the Nexus, serving countless otherwise isolated habitats and colonies, exchanging packets of information over vast distances at the glacial speed of light, and sometimes even developing and evolving on its own.
Often a particular type of cursor or icon may actually a spy program that was used to collect data by advertisers. This is a problem as old as virtuality, the conflict over who really runs a sentient's technology, that sapient or the corporations owning the software. In almost every case it is the corporation, and since the late information era the software worked for them, rather than for the user (hence the somewhat cruel term, "luser", used by anti-corporate cyberians and equivalents to describe all the other sapients).
With so many levels of sub-sentient, sentient, sub-sophont, and sophont devices around, the level of urban legends and tall tales about tech is truly enormous. Occasionally such legends actually turn out to be true.
Often also, panics over possible perversions could be almost as bad as actual perversions, as millions of near- baselines attack and destroy certain pieces of ubiquitous and moderately essential tech that is rumored to be dangerous. Memetic attacks to convince a population that a perversion in beginning can be frighteningly effective; and many examples of memetic warfare do involve stratagems like this.
A few useful terms:
av: a digital persona, the "body" one takes on while facing or virching
cyberia: with a capital "C", the empire alone is referred to, but with a small "c" it may indicate the totality of virchspace
cyberian: anyone who spends a lot of time in virchspace
face: [verb] (in this context) to virch, to interface with a digital reality
fastime: existing in the Net
new territories: any newly constructed, copy- or av--traversable virtual world, universe, or node; especially one that has been incorporated into Cyberia. As the Known Net expands, New Territories are constantly added.
node: any connected component of the whole Net, serving as a local substation for the larger matrix. May be anything from a small processing substation that serves a single hab or station to a major planet-wide or even megastructure mirror of all of the important Known Net functions and databases galaxywide, complete with its own digital ecology and indigenous virtuals.
relay: a hardware node in the Known Net which may include hi-tech, ultratech and god-tech servers, docks, service stations, even catapults and microwormhole gates. Some Relays may be as small as single robot laser link, while the biggest (in some of the built-up capitals) are practically universes in themselves
subnode: a node inside a node. Technically, all nodes, even the biggest, are subnodes of the entire Known Net
virch: [noun] any digital or simulation, interactive media; [verb] to access or face with such media
virchspace: any digital environment that is traversable and habitable by sentient, subturing, turingrade or higher virtuals or avs, regardless of whether it is linked the entire Net or not.
virtual: a digital, non-rl entity
Utility Fog
A collective of mesobots or nanobots ("foglets") that link together into a complex network, able to work together to exert force in any direction or transmit information between each other. Utility fog can be used to simulate any environment, essentially providing a real life environment with the transformational capabilities of virtual reality. This gives users almost complete control over their surroundings. Used both by hyperturings and archailects (as part of an angelnet or other distributed network) and by lesser toposophics. Users do not have be SI:1 or higher, although many are. Crude forms of Utility Fog were available during the Interplanetary Age, but fully functional fog was not widely available until 1010 AT.
In microgravity environments a quite thin (ankle-deep) layer of utility fog can replace gravity as a method of keeping people oriented in a common fashion, establishing a false sense of up and down (for instance). In addition utility fog can be used within a zero gravity environment to prevent objects and users from drifting and tumbling.
Utility Fog civilizations, with intelligent individuals who exist as distributed entities within the fog, have evolved a number of times, but rarely last more than a few centuries before transcending. One of the very few stable ones is Nimbus.
Utility fog in use can consume considerable power, and produce considerable waste heat; for this reason the fog must be used in the most efficient way possible for any particular purpose. This requires sophisticated control systems, which are generally distributed throughout the fog itself. Phased array projectors are often incorporated into the fog, often on or near the surface layers, allowing it to display a range of images and to replicate a range of environments. Using optical phased arrays, utility fog can even become apparently transparent or invisible.
Depending on local environment, number of users, and various other factors, ufog may operate in either a ‘lie-in-wait’ or ‘pervasive' mode. In lie-in-wait mode, foglets are primarily stored in a layer along the floor, walls, and ceiling of whatever space they are servicing, extending from the surrounding surfaces to form objects, manipulators, and virtuality interfaces and overlays as required. In pervasive mode, a three-dimensional array of foglets fills the volume and provides a total immersion environment for those operating with it. Both modes make use of discrete reservoirs in walls, floors, and ceilings to provide additional foglets as required.
In normal operation, utility fog is organized in a dynamically controlled manner designed to optimize operational efficiency while minimizing reaction time and issues of waste heat production and removal. This means that the fog will seamlessly (and invisibly) transition from lie-in-wait mode to pervasive mode and vice-versa as circumstances or the local environment require.
Colloquially, utility fog is often known as u-fog or ufog, and variants thereof, in various Anglic dialects.
Related technologies include utility liquid a denser form of utility fog suspended in liquid (usually water, which can absorb greater amounts of heat than other fluids), utility sand which uses larger robot units comparable in size to a sand grain, and modubots and blockbots which use even larger scale units, all of which can replicate some or most of the qualities of utility fog.
Images : https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/472136a42f3e9
Angelnet
An angelnet is any all-pervasive distributed processing supervision and safety infrastructure. Angelnets are found on many developed worlds and megastructures, and in many smaller habs of all kinds in polities throughout Terragen space. They protect sapient populations or important local subsystems and other valued beings or objects by eliminating both accidents and deliberate attacks. The archetypical angelnet is designed and operated by a transapient intellect, and consists of ubiquitous utility fog plus the region's machines and bots. Less pervasive or less sophisticated angelnets are also widely used.
Image and more : https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/45f4886ae0d44
Void Bubble
A warp bubble is a region of space time enclosed in a fold, or bubble, of highly curved space. By expanding the space time metric behind the bubble and contracting the metric in front, the bubble can be made to move without the use of propellant mass. The vessel can apparently be coupled to the warp bubble(s) in various ways; by containing the bubbles wholly within the ship, as in the Displacement Drive; in front of the ship, coupled by gravity and/or magnetism, as in the Halo Drive; or entirely enclosing the ship, as in the Void Drive.
Note that no warp bubble has ever been observed traveling at super-luminal speeds. It is thought that such faster-than-light travel is impossible with void bubbles, because of dynamical instability of the warp metric at speeds greater than light and a suspected high flux of Hawking radiation that would turn anything inside a faster-than-light void bubble into a plasma of fundamental particles.
Image & source : https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/4b53cbf383f6a
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