Occam's Razor

Written: 2003-10-09
Note: at the risk of condescension, I must point out that this article is much easier to understand if you have a basic grasp of high school-level mathematics.

The Concept

If you see enough debates (on any subject, whether trivial or grand), you will eventually see something called "Occam's Razor". Now, the first thing you need to know about Occam's Razor (also known as "the logical principle of parsimony") is that it's a bit like righteousness: everybody claims it's on his side.

"But what is it", you ask? Occam's Razor is a philosophical principle which is also part of the scientific method. The original principle comes from a theologian named William of Ockham, who lived nearly a thousand years ago and devised it as a proof that the existence of God is not logical. That may seem contradictory for a theologian, but he was trying to show that you need pure faith to believe in God, and that logic will not help you. The principle he used was the concept of logical parsimony, which says that we should not multiply entities unnecessarily. This somewhat cryptic principle makes more sense when you think of it in terms of equations. For example, take the following curve:

Let's say four different people propose four different equations to model this curve:

[Eq 1]		Y = -3X²
[Eq 2]		Y = 1 + X - 3X²
[Eq 3]		Y = G		where G is unknown
[Eq 4]		Y = 4X² + 20

So which one's the best? Well, this is a hard question to answer without some numbers on that curve plot, but we can narrow it down a little bit. Let's continue:

Some people express Occam's Razor as "the simplest theory wins". If we accept that, then Equation #3 is clearly the winner. One small problem: equation #3 is impossible to evaluate! How do you calculate "Y = G" when you don't know what G is? How do you even know if there is a formula for G at all, or whether there is any such thing as G? I think we can agree that equation #3 is out. An equation which gives no results is useless. You see, "the simplest theory wins" is (ironically enough) an oversimplification of the principle of parsimony, so if we were to rephrase the aforementioned version properly, we would say that "the simplest workable, accurate theory wins" (a couple of extra words can make a big difference).

Therefore, Occam's Razor slices equation #3 away. It's simple, but it can't be evaluated so it's not workable. Now we're down to equations #1, #2, and #4. But if we look at the shape of the graph, we can see that equation #4 is obviously no good even without bothering to check numbers, because you can simply look at the shape of the curve and see that it can't possibly be a positive parabola.

Therefore, Occam's Razor slices equation #4 away. It bears no resemblance whatsoever to the curve, so it's not accurate. So that leaves Equation #1 and #2. Both of them could potentially produce that curve, but without hard numbers, we can't be sure. Obviously, if the numbers for the plot match one equation or the other, then it wins. But what if we test the curve in many places, and we find that it's closer to equation #1 about half the time, and closer to equation #2 about half the time? Well, that's where the number of terms becomes important. Since equation #2 adds an extra term which does not really seem to improve the situation, it's basically useless, so we should go with equation #1.

Of course, you might object that this is far too simplistic and abstract to apply to a real-life situation, so why don't we try a few applications? After all, it's trickier to apply Occam's Razor than to describe it. Remember that your objective is not to propose a theory, defend a theory, or attack a theory. Your objective is to compare theories. Keep your eye on the ball, and don't be led into the trap of either defending a theory against people out to prove it isn't perfect or attacking a theory on the basis that it isn't perfect. Life isn't perfect, and perfect knowledge is an unattainable ideal. Just remember that you're out to see which theory is better, and you'll be on the right track. With that in mind, let's move to our first example.

Example #1: UFO visitations

We all know the drill. The UFO argument sounds like this:

"UFOs are obviously real. Why, I myself once saw [lights in the sky moving around, hovering, funny noises, mangled cattle, etc]. Can you explain that?"

Mind you, UFO "phenomena" generally can be explained. Searchlights hitting cloud cover can create lights flitting around in the sky in ways which would be physically impossible for an aircraft. Cosmic rays can create strange-looking streaks of light on film footage taken in space. Many experimental US Air Force aircraft have been mistaken for alien spacecraft in the past (particularly the stealth fighter). Perfectly round crop circles can be made with a piece of rope and a wooden board (and snowshoes if you want to avoid leaving footprints), as demonstrated here. Personal tales of abduction can be easily explained as the simple tall tales of people with otherwise uninteresting lives. One famous UFO videotape was taken by a man who just "happened" to be a Hollywood special-effects artist. The similarity of worldwide stories is easily explained by the Internet and the mass-media, which have worked to propagate the same UFO stories over all of the world.

But after a while, so-called "UFOlogists" perversely begin to use these very explanations as disproof of themselves. "How many times must you hear people try to explain away UFO phenomena? Example after example after example after example; how many does it take before you realize that someone's trying to cover something up?" they ask.

So how does Occam's Razor apply to this? Well, it's obvious how it applies when you remember to express the competing explanations in the form of theories:

Theory #1: "aliens did it."

Theory #2: "it can be explained as events which can be physically rationalized, exaggerated recollections of said events, or hoaxes."

At first glance, theory #1 actually seems simpler and more straightforward. But appearances can be deceiving, so let's try expressing the two theories in equation form. If P = so-called "UFO phenomena", then:

[Eq 1]		P = A		where A is unknown
[Eq 2]		P = R + E + H		where R = events which can be rationalized, E = exaggerated recollections of same, and H = hoaxes

Hmmmm, equation #1 does look simpler, but A is unknown, therefore it is impossible to evaluate, and if you recall, an equation which you cannot evaluate is useless. "Ah, but this is different. This is not a mathematical equation; it's real life!" you might object. Well, that's where you'd be forgetting that science is actually the exercise of modelling real-life as equations. We don't need to know everything about these aliens to use them in a useful theory, but we need to know something, and we know nothing. Nothing at all. We know nothing about their technologies, capabilities, limitations (or for that matter, even their very existence), so they are a complete unknown. If they are a complete unknown, then the "alien explanation" actually doesn't explain a damned thing, does it? Therefore, while the first theory seems simpler on the surface, Occam's Razor actually slices it away because it's useless. Or, to put it another way, "alien spacecraft" does not explain hovering lights in the sky any better than "magic fairies".

The second theory, on the other hand, uses only terms which are known to exist, and which can therefore be evaluated. We know that many events can be rationalized. We know that human memory is highly unreliable. And we know that people can and do create elabourate hoaxes for many personal reasons. We can also test these terms to see if they measure up, ie- we can look at the known capabilities of human technology and the limitations of physics to see if these events can be rationalized.

"Ah, but what if there's something which can't be explained?" the UFOlogist will inevitably retort. Well, first and foremost, UFOlogists are experts in "unintentionally" underestimating how much we can actually explain (it helps that most of them lack scientific and technological knowledge). Many of them lie outright. But more importantly, you must recognize that if they give this retort, they obviously ignored the part about how terms which are impossible to evaluate do not "explain" anything, so you'll have to repeat it a few times (you might also have to show them the dictionary definition of the word "explain").

If an alien spaceship landed on the front lawn of the White House, and we could collect plenty of clear, reliable video and physical evidence (not to mention the radar tracking of its ascent and descent), we would then know much more about its capabilities and we would be able to use that knowledge to see if their known capabilities actually fit the anomalies being sold to us as "evidence".

Example #2: Religion

Sorry, but at the risk of offending some, I have to point out that religion is an excellent case study for Occam's Razor. In fact, not to belabour the point, but I must repeat myself in saying that Occam himself was a theologian, and used Occam's Razor as one of his spiritual arguments. Think of our entire worldview as a huge theory which exists in order to explain the universe. This gives you two competing theories:

1. The universe exists. It has natural laws that govern the behaviour of the world.

2. God exists, and created the universe, which has natural laws that govern the behaviour of the world. God is inscrutable.

Note the commonalities: in both theories, we have the universe and its natural laws. The second theory merely adds the "God" term, which cannot be evaluated because he's inscrutable. So the question becomes: how does the second theory outperform the first one? Once again, let us model this as a pair of competing theories which are expressed in equation form:

[Eq 1]		P = N		where P is phenomena and N is Nature
[Eq 2]		P = N + G		where G (God) is a mysterious unknown

In this case, the problem is rather obvious: the religious explanation merely adds a mystery term which cannot be evaluated in any way. This is the inherent problem with using an inscrutable God to explain mysteries: you cannot explain anything with an inscrutable answer, any more than you can solve a mathematical equation by simply saying "unknown". And this, said William of Ockham, is why believers must rely on faith.

Example #3: Conspiracy Theories

It is difficult to cover such a broad subject as conspiracy theories in one stroke. Indeed, conspiracies are indeed possible, and it would be irresponsible to suggest that all conspiracy theories must be wrong. However, there is a general trend among most conspiracy theories which violates the principle of logical parsimony. In essence, the general method of the conspiracy theorist is as follows:

1. Take some major event (popular targets include the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America, JFK's assassination, the moon-landing, and Pearl Harbour) in which something bad happened and human negligence or incompetence was a factor.

2. Dismiss the accepted explanation (indeed, conspiracy theorists and pop culture icons such as "The X-Files" have successfully cast the very term "official explanation" itself in a negative light) by denying that such incompetence could exist unless it was deliberate (see Pearl Harbour), or by misrepresenting the details of the events in order to make the accepted explanation appear to be impossible (see the JFK assassination).

3. Try to determine "who stood to gain" from each event.

4. Look for (or fabricate) evidence that these parties were in fact responsible.

5. If step #4 fails, conclude that the lack of reliable evidence is evidence itself ... for a cover-up.

6. Use the existence of classified military documents as "proof" that this cover-up reaches up into the government (by presuming that they must contain what you're looking for, as if there is no other conceivable reason to classify military information).

A few problems leap immediately to mind with this process. First and foremost, it is obviously designed in such a manner that it is impossible to disprove, and an absence of evidence perversely becomes yet more evidence. But more importantly, it seeks to replace an explanation which relies upon individual incompetence with an explanation which requires a new entity: an organized conspiracy whose very existence has not even been verified. In essence, it discards a workable explanation which uses only terms already known to exist (human incompetence is hardly conjecture) in favour of an explanation which unnecessarily invents a new term.

A conspiracy theory would be reasonable if you could show actual hard evidence that the organization itself does exist and was involved, because in that case (to use the mathematical analogy) the equation simply does not fit the theory any other way. However, simply showing that certain people "stood to gain" from something does not prove that their conspiracy existed or that it caused the event in question. And as more than one person has said, never attribute to conspiracies that which can be explained by human stupidity.

Example #4: Matrix Philosophy

Perhaps the most annoying side-effect of the popularity of "The Matrix" (the Keanu Reeves movie which proved that even the most outrageously nonsensical story can still be a smash hit if it's stylish enough) was the sudden appearance of teenaged pop culture-spawned pseudo-philosophers across the country, many of whom seem to believe that this film actually makes us ask serious philosophical questions. Some would even argue that it has thrown our conception of knowledge and reality itself into serious doubt.

"Are we in a Matrix-style simulation? How can you know?" asks the newly minted pseudo-philosopher.

Leaving aside the obvious "get a life" jabs and the falsehood of the film's originality (VR, or virtual-reality worlds have been a staple of sci-fi and philosophy 101 for decades), the major problem with this idea is its sheer irrationality. It draws upon certain aspects of solipsism (an extreme form of skepticism, bordering on philosophical über-egotism, in which you do not acknowledge the existence of objects outside your own thoughts because their existence can't be absolutely proven; click here for an online article about solipsism) in order to argue that we might be living in a giant virtual-reality simulation.

The people who promote this point-of-view point triumphantly to the fact that it cannot be absolutely, irrefutably disproven. However, this argument hinges upon the assumption that if something cannot be absolutely, irrefutably disproven, then it is actually a reasonable theory. It is an understatement to say that this is false, because nothing can be absolutely, irrefutably disproven. One might as well ask if we actually a bunch of talking fleas living in Santa Claus' pants and deluding ourselves into thinking we're human.

OK, so how does Occam's Razor relate to this? If I may skip the little equation table to cut to the quick, it's yet another example of a term which cannot be evaluated. What side-effects would this simulation have? We don't know. What characteristics could we test for? We don't know. What we do know is that this giant VR simulation is a term which is not only undefined and therefore incapable of explaining anything, but is also completely unnecessary in order to explain anything, so the theory is irrational. This is the purest essence of the logical principle of parsimony, or Occam's Razor: to show what's wrong with a theory that technically cannot be disproven.

Conclusion

If you still don't entirely understand the logical principle of parsimony, try looking it up elsewhere. I am not exaggerating when I say that you really need to understand this concept before embarking on a debate of this or any other subject, because a lot of people like to mention it, and an even larger number of people like to violate it.

How to Analyze Sci-Fi

Written: 1998-08-01
Last Revised: 2003-10-13

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Why should we analyze sci-fi at all?

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "this is ridiculous. Sci-fi is for entertainment, not analysis.You people need therapy." And you'd be right in one sense; it was made for entertainment, not analysis. There are millions of people out there who watch sci-fi without making any attempt to analyze anything, and that's fine. Hell, when I first got involved in these debates, I was one of those people not taking it seriously and poking fun at anyone who did. But it's ultimately a hobby like any other, and if you're going to seriously play this game about whether a Star Destroyer could kick the Enterprise's ass, then you really have no choice but to analyze things.

Is this crazy? Is it a colossal waste of time? Perhaps. But it's not unique; there are people who write whole books analyzing Shakespeare, after all. And why is that any less ridiculous, when you think about it? Did you know that Shakespeare's plays were considered mass-market fluff in his time? So if you want to throw tomatoes and call us loonies, just make sure you save a few ripe ones for the nearest English literature major.

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OK, so how is it done?

There are two popular competing approaches: the literary approach and the scientific approach. Both have strengths and weaknesses, although only one is suitable for serious (as opposed to humourous) comparisons of Star Wars and Star Trek. The two approaches can be summarized as follows:

	Literary	Suspension of Disbelief
Basic approach:	Treats the films and TV shows as a mere "depiction", or "dramatic re-enactment" of a world which exists only in the author's mind.	Pretends that the fictional universe is real, which means that the films and TV shows are considered documentary footage and books are treated as if they were real stories, historical records, official spec sheets, etc.
Asks the question:	"What do you think the author was trying to say?"	"If you saw the shows in real life with your own eyes and found the books in real life in non-fiction section of your local library, what would you think?"
Treats source as:	Subjective data. We concern ourselves only with what we believe the author's intent to be. Films and TV shows are considered a mere "visual representation" of the "real" fictional universe in question, which is assumed to exist only in the creator's head.	The aliens in the hilarious sci-fi satire "Galaxy Quest" considered the TV shows depicting Tim Allen's NSEA Protector to be "historical records", in which they assumed they were documentary footage and analyzed them as such. We copy this approach. In the case of books, we would treat them as history books. Think of it as being dumped into a parallel dimension in which the rules still generally apply (eg- humans still breathe oxygen and iron is still heavier than wood), but there are extra phenomena which are unknown to us (eg- subspace, hyperspace), and which you must now research based on what you see and read.
Handling of contradictions:	Since it regards the visuals as a mere "depiction" of the "real" universe, it diminishes their value to that of mere hearsay, or dramatic re-enactment. Therefore, the literary method is not perturbed at all by inconsistencies in visual effects. However, this method does not gracefully handle inconsistencies in narrative or dialogue. Given two contradictory lines of narrative or dialogue which cannot be rationalized away, we must decide which one the author really "intended", and which one was a "mistake" on his part (a task made rather difficult by the fact that many sci-fi authors have absolutely no idea what they're talking about when it comes to technical matters, and many of them just "make it up as they go"). Normally, this choice is made by trying to determine which line makes more sense relative to the bulk of the evidence or relative to actual science (by temporarily applying scientific methods).	Since it disregards the author's intentions and treats the films as first-hand observations, it handles dialogue contradictions more easily than the literary method. After all, we treat the character as if he's real; as far as we are concerned, there is no author pulling his strings. So if he says something that grossly contradicts other established facts, we can simply treat that as we would in real life (by calling the character an idiot), while the literary method does not really allow for the author to be wrong, per se. However, this method does not gracefully handle errors in visual effects. Given a shot which makes the Defiant appear to be half its normal size (for example) and which cannot be rationalized away, we must decide whether it is an "error" on the part of our imaginary documentary cameraman. Normally, this decision is made by looking at the bulk of the evidence (similar to what scientists do with highly anomalous data points in a real experiment, where the errant point is assumed to be the result of procedural or equipment error unless it is consistently repeated).
Pros	By focusing on the subjective concept of "author's intent" and completely rejecting the empirical study of visuals, the literary method is extremely flexible, and can produce endless, lively debate. By its ambiguous nature, it appeals to people with a liberal-arts mindset (remember that in liberal arts, the only wrong answer is to say that there's a right answer). Well-suited to novels. Good for thematic analysis, dissection of social messages, etc.	By ignoring "author's intent", the "suspension of disbelief" method removes a huge source of ambiguity and subjectivity, so it can be far more objective. It is actually possible to convincingly defeat someone in a debate where all participants use this method, since the endless stalemates over semantics and speculative interpretations of the author's intent are removed. By allowing us to make verifiable direct measurements of things, it permits scientific analyses. As a result, it appeals to people with an empirical mindset (eg- scientists, engineers). Well-suited to movies and TV shows. Is not limited to the author's scientific comprehension (most sci-fi authors, after all, do not know anything about science).
Cons	Poorly suited to movies, which are mostly visual. In fact, it is so poorly suited to movies that its practitioners tend to sneak in "suspension of disbelief" methods when convenient. Heavily dependent upon semantics. Its inherent ambiguity tends to create endless debating stalemates (this might be considered a good thing if you think debates are for entertainment rather than resolution of disputes). Poorly suited to scientific analysis of any kind, since the notion of scientific analysis of an author's intent requires that the author himself must be scientifically competent. An author cannot intend to convey a message beyond his own comprehension. Is limited to the author's scientific comprehension by its very nature as an attempt to divine his intentions. If the author is an ignoramus, then there are many intelligible explanations for phenomena which become off-limits because the author wouldn't understand them. Has a penchant for explaining things by going "out of universe" for an explanation based on the author's motives and literary conventions. For example, the argument that "the good guys have to win" is a classic example of literary analysis.	Not good for novels (where the nature of the source is inherently subjective, you cannot directly observe anything at all, and you are restricted to a particular observer's testimony). In real life, stories written in an entertaining style are considered a rather poor historical source when compared to official documents or diagrams. Poorly suited to thematic analysis, dissection of social messages, etc. Historians try to figure out what happened and scientists try to figure out how things work. Neither is out to assign higher meaning to anything, so their methods are simply not geared to doing so.

There are cases where literary methods may be more appropriate, depending on what you're analyzing and the purposes of your analysis. But there are two huge problems with the use of literary methods in a sci-fi crossover war argument such as Star Wars vs Star Trek:

1. How can we base arguments off "author's intent" for a scenario which neither author ever intended? By pitting one sci-fi universe against another in mortal combat, we are already completely violating both respective authors' intents. So how can we appeal to author's intent, when an accurate representation of author's intent would not allow the conflict to occur at all?

2. Crossover war arguments cannot rely on story, because the crossover never took place in any canon source. Instead, they must rely on technical arguments, proving that one side's ships have more firepower or faster engines, etc. However, any attempt to divine the author's scientific intentions automatically requires that the author actually had scientific intentions, and that he knew what he was talking about. Neither is known to be true in this case.

In general, when someone tries to perform scientific analyses while simultaneously employing a literary approach to the evidence, he is guilty of something known as the "stolen concept" fallacy (that's where someone mixes and matches methods which are mutually contradictory in order to arrive at a desired conclusion). This is why most people who participate in the "Star Wars vs Star Trek" game tend to employ the "suspension of disbelief" method. Otherwise, you have people earnestly trying to divine the scientific intentions of writers who don't know the difference between a watt and a joule; a rather absurd situation to say the least.

Having said that, literary approaches make more sense when dealing with novels, so in a universe with both movies and novels such as Star Wars, a different approach is warranted when dealing with the two types of sources. However, the use of literary methods when dealing with the primary film and TV sources is not justifiable.

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Dialogue vs Visuals

A lot of people argue over whether one should place more emphasis on dialogue or visuals. However, this argument is really just a roundabout way of approaching the argument over literary vs suspension of disbelief. Remember that the "suspension of disbelief" method requires that we treat dialogue and visuals the same way we would in real life, and in real life, we don't take verbal communication at face value. After all, real people are much more careless when speaking than writing. Moreover, they are prone to leaving out crucial details (for example, there are a wealth of unspoken technical caveats hidden in a stereo amplifier rating of "200 watts per channel"). They are prone to outright errors (for example, a lot of people mix up "gigabytes" and "megabytes" while describing computer hardware, and others might not even bother correcting them because they know what the person meant to say). They may even describe things in a manner which they know to be technically false (for example, even highly qualified physicists will often describe lightning bolts coming down from the sky, even though it is fairly common knowledge that the incandescent bolt actually moves upward, from the ground to the clouds). And of course, real people are not infallible, which is why the "appeal to authority" is a fallacy.

The opposing argument comes from the literary analysis camp, and holds that dialogue is a better indicator of the author's intentions than visuals. This argument is flawed on many levels. First and foremost, if it is being used to justify technical arguments (hint: any argument which involves characteristics of technology or scientific units such as "joules", "watts", or "megatons" is a technical argument), then the use of literal methods forces the inherently self-contradictory exercise of trying to magically divine meaningful scientific intentions on the part of a scientifically ignorant author (note: very few sci-fi authors actually have a science or engineering background). Moreover, it is generally predicated upon the argument that dialogue is more consistent than visuals, which is simply untrue in this case. For every mistake you can find in special effects (eg- bad compositing that puts element A in front of element B when it should be behind, or inconsistent scaling), you can find ten horrible mistakes in dialogue (eg- sonic weapons in space, 4.3 kJ shields on a space station, power measured in watts per second, warp core output measured in teradynes, machines to alter the laws of probability, similar numbers being given for yield on both starship weapons and hand weapons, etc). It's not at all unreasonable to say that more attention is paid to visual consistency than dialogue consistency in TV shows and movies.

There is another facet to the "dialogue vs visuals" debate, and that is the fact that people tend to think visually when they write screenplays (which are full of very specific instructions for the appearance of scenes, the layout of events, etc). As a result, they usually plot out events in shows so that, if you were to greatly modify the visuals, they would no longer make any sense.

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Case Studies

The infamous "no lasers" argument.

In one particular episode of TNG, we heard the following exchange:

DATA: Sensors report a minimum range combat craft of the Squadron Class, twenty-six crew.
WORF: Captain, they have locked lasers.
PICARD: Lasers?
RIKER: That won't even penetrate our navigational deflectors.

Literary method: they seem to be saying that their navigational deflectors are immune to lasers, probably because lasers are supposed to be less advanced than phasers. Some people feel that this means any Federation ship could shrug off any laser, even a monster laser that can blow up planets. Others feel that Riker was factoring the ship's small size into account, and that his statement was not meant to be so over-arching. However, it is impossible to conclusively resolve this argument one way or another unless we can get some kind of official statement from the author on the episode, and that's not forthcoming.

Suspension of Disbelief: it is scientifically impossible for any kind of shield to block infinite amounts of laser energy, because the second law of thermodynamics prohibits 100% efficiency devices and light carries momentum equal to U/c, so there are two mechanisms through which increased power levels would eventually overwhelm any blocking system. Therefore, Riker was either an idiot or he was taking the enemy ship's small size into account when he made his statement. Case closed.

It should be noted that Graham Kennedy (ditl.org) has concocted a bizarre rationalization for his infinite laser protection argument, where the ship simply becomes transparent to lasers and they pass right through. Needless to say, he cannot present actual evidence of lasers passing through the ship ...

Combat-effective ranges for Star Trek ships

Onscreen Star Trek combat has always taken place at short range ever since ST2.

Literary method: the author probably intends for Star Trek combat to take place at very long ranges of hundreds of thousands of kilometres. The ranges are shortened in the visual effects, but they clearly state in dialogue that they can hit targets at very long range. A cloaked Bird of Prey once prepared to hit the Enterprise at 40,000 km, and Gul Dukat once ran a weapons test on an asteroid 400,000km away. On the other hand, there have been many incidents (eg- every single onscreen display of combat since ST2, for that matter) where the ranges appeared to be very short. In many of those incidents (eg- "Valiant", "Redemption", "The Die is Cast"), the short ranges were even stated verbally onscreen. Worse yet, many events (such as those in "Arsenal of Freedom" and "Equinox", in which ships avoided attack by plunging into planetary atmospheres and putting themselves out of range unless the enemy followed into the atmosphere) make no sense whatsoever if these ships are truly combat-effective at ranges greater than a few dozen km. This appears to be contradictory, but the author was obviously just trying to create a visceral, exciting experience for the viewer. Realistically, we know that the author intends space combat to normally take place at far greater ranges. Unfortunately, there's no way to conslusively resolve this dispute without some kind of official statement from the producers on why they do this, but I think that if you were to ask them, they'd say what I'm saying.

Suspension of Disbelief: we can see them fighting at short range. We can even hear them ordering attacks at short range (eg- Sisko's "500 metres" order in "The Die is Cast"). Longer ranges generally involve either long-range missiles or static/unsuspecting targets, which are a lot easier to hit. Therefore, they're obviously fighting at short range. Case closed.

The power of the Death Star

The Death Star destroys Alderaan so violently that the release of energy can be estimated in the range of 1E38 joules: a staggering figure.

Literary analysis: George Lucas obviously never intended for the Death Star to be that powerful. He obviously doesn't know how much energy is required to make a planet blow up like that. He probably doesn't even know what joules are. On the other hand, if you told George Lucas that it takes 1E38 joules to blow up a planet like that, he's not going to say "OK, then I guess Alderaan didn't blow up like that". But in the interest of being reasonable, we might want to lower the figure to 2.4E32 joules, which is the absolute minimum. Lucas just didn't want to show the planet taking half an hour to blow up because that wouldn't be very exciting for the audience.

Suspension of Disbelief: Like it or not, we saw the planet blow up, and it blew up very violently. The question of whether George Lucas understood the technical ramifications is irrelevant. Case closed.

Do phasers vapourize people?

Phasers supposedly "vapourize" people, but a flash-vapourization of a human being would be an extremely violent event, almost like a bomb going off. If you take 80kg of organic matter, ¾ of which is water, and vapourize it, you will have a steam explosion!

Literary analysis: the authors obviously intended the phasers to vapourize people. They just didn't understand how violent such an event would be. Therefore, we can conclude that they meant phasers to vapourize people. They even use the word "vapourize" onscreen. On the other hand, the Technical Manual describes nuclear disruption forces and nadions and funky chain reactions and subspace, so maybe the word "vapourize" is used onscreen as a Federation short-form to signify something else.

Suspension of Disbelief: no vapour, therefore no vapourization. The subject disappears, but transporters do that too, and they don't vapourize anything. Sorry, but there's no evidence for phasers actually vapourizing anything. Case closed.

"True Q" and "gigawatts per second"

In "True Q", the following exchange is in the script:

AMANDA: It's hard to imagine how much energy is being harnessed in there...
DATA: Imagination is not necessary; the scale is readily quantifiable. We are presently generating 12.75 billion gigawatts per second.

Literary analysis: the writers must have meant 12.75 billion gigawatts, and they just threw in the "per second" part because they don't know much about physics. Besides, in the actual televised version, Data was cut off before he could say "second".

Notice the careful juxtaposition of both methods in the above literary analysis; it disregards the part of the script which was not shown onscreen even though it was obviously the author's intent, and it dismisses Data's "per second" foolishness due to the author's scientific ignorance while simultaneously assuming that the author comprehends the scientific numbers he's throwing around. This is a classic and oft-repeated example of the literary analyst's tendency to employ "stolen concept" fallacies when convenient.

Suspension of Disbelief: the idea of generating 12.75 billion gigawatts per second is scientifically meaningless, since gigawatts already incorporate a "per second" term. Not only that, but if we completely disregard the script (which would assume that the scripts are treated as totally non-canon) and assume he just meant "12.75 billion gigawatts", the laws of thermodynamics dictate that the ship must be radiating that much power to its environment if it's generating it, and it was not. Therefore, Data's obviously an idiot. Case closed.

Notice for those who bristle at the idea that Data is an idiot: this is the same supposedly super-intelligent droid who once lost a chess match to Deanna Bubblehead Troi ("The Masterpiece Society"), who once "verified" a computer's data by simply asking it if its own data was correct ("The Child"), who expressed force in units of "tons per metre" ("Final Mission") and stress in units of kilodynes ("The Loss"), who completely forgot recent historical precedents (in which he had participated!) for shipwide system failures and false sensor images ("Evolution"), and who once blew a simple grade-school math problem of spherical surface area calculation by 1000% ("Relics"). Does the idea of Data's stupidity offend you? Too bad.

Did Han Solo shoot first?

In the original Star Wars movie released in 1977, Han Solo fired the first shot in the infamous cantina scene. This was also in the novelization. But in the new and supposedly improved "Special Editions" released 20 years later, the film was digitally altered so that Greedo fired first, and the shot looks awful. When you see it in slow motion, it is simply terrible-looking: extremely and obviously fake. So who shot first?

Literary analysis: in 1977, George Lucas obviously intended Han Solo to shoot first. In 1997, George Lucas obviously intended Greedo to shoot first. Therefore, the answer depends on whether you believe that an author's intent at time of original writing is most important, or whether you accept an author's perogative to revise his creation at a later date for some reason.

Suspension of Disbelief: we have two conflicting pieces of film from the same source, both of which were supposedly verified authentic at one time, both depicting the same event. In real-life, we would have to determine if one of them is a fake. Careful analysis of the SE version shows that it is obviously a fake. Solo's movements are physically unrealistic and were obviously digitally altered. However, if one accepts the argument that the original versions no longer exist due to Lucasfilm fiat, then there is no conflict between film versions and Solo fired first.

This is one anomalous case where both methods produce similarly ambiguous results, because of the highly unusual situation of a film being revised long after the fact by its own creator.

How big is the USS Reliant?

Careful scaling of onscreen sizes reveals that the size of the Reliant seems to fluctuate from scene to scene. Now we have to decide what the "true" size of the ship is.

Literary analysis: the size of the Reliant changes from scene to scene, but the author obviously didn't intend for this to happen (except in the case of that stupid "Honey, I shrunk the starship" episode from DS9 for which the author should have been strung up and shot). Therefore, the Reliant has a true size, but it was never stated onscreen. However, we can scale the ship by assuming that its most common appearance onscreen is most indicative of the author's intent, and dismiss outliers.

Suspension of Disbelief: there is no known scientific mechanism through which the size of the Defiant could actually change from scene to scene. There was a technobabble shrinkage process in that horrible "Honey, I shrunk the starship" episode, but it is extremely doubtful that it is being constantly used in order to grow and shrink the ship. The more reasonable explanation is that there is a legitimate conflict between two pieces of canon footage, so some of the footage must have been fabricated by our imaginary cameraman, presumably in order to fill in gaps in the record (this is what we would conclude in real life if this situation came up). This calls into question the integrity of our imaginary cameraman, but given that we know that most of his work seems to be genuine, we have little choice but to accept it and move on despite this unfortunate revelation. We can then assume that the bulk of the footage is genuine due to its consistency, and dismiss outliers as errors and/or doctored shots.

Both methods produce messy results in this case and force us to fall back onto the "take the bulk of the evidence and dismiss outliers as errors or fraud" method, thanks to the rank incompetence of the special-effects teams in Star Trek. It is an unfortunate reality that any attempt to analyze any form of literature or film footage has serious problems dealing with a poor-quality source in which outright self-contradictions exist.

Please note that this particular problem is often cited by "literary analysis" people as an attack upon the "suspension of disbelief" method, but they conspicuously fail to explain how their method does any better, since it comes to essentially the same conclusion about what should be done: use the bulk of the visuals onscreen, and dismiss the ones that don't make sense.

How big is the Executor?

The Executor was designed by the modelmakers to be 11 times as long as a regular mile-long Star Destroyer. The special-effects work on TESB and ROTJ was first-rate in terms of scaling consistency, and it does indeed appear to be roughly this size onscreen. You can also see how tiny the bridge tower is relative to the rest of the Executor (and how big it is on a regular Star Destroyer) to further confirm this 11 mile length.

However, for many years, the official literature stated that the Executor was only five miles long. The 5x figure is absolutely ludicrous when you look at the ships onscreen or the physical models, but it was consistently stated in every source until the "Behind the Magic" CD came out, in which the number was revised to 8 miles (halfway between the old figure and the onscreen size). So how long is the Executor? 5 miles, 8 miles, or 11 miles?

Literary analysis: the modelmakers explicitly stated that they intended the Executor to be 11 miles long (and DS1 and DS2 to be 100 and 500 miles in diameter respectively, as a minor aside), which strongly supports the 11 mile figure. However, it is unclear as to whether they received direction from George Lucas himself on this. Since the 11 mile figure has never been repeated in any publications which were officially sanctioned by his Lucasfilm organization, it's possible that the modelmakers actually exceeded his mandate, and that his original intent was to make the Executor either 5 or 8 miles long, not 11 miles long. Of course, George Lucas could resolve this by making a statement on the matter himself, but that seems unlikely.

Suspension of Disbelief: seeing is believing. The ship always scales to 11 miles long, therefore it's 11 miles long. Case closed.

Inept tactics

Without going into the gory details, there have been many, many examples of inept military tactics in Star Wars, Star Trek, and just about every other sci-fi series to boot. We've seen horrible decisions, insane strategies, huge opportunities wasted, etc. So what does this mean? Does it mean that the tacticians are idiots? Does it mean that the there's some hidden technical reason for these tactical decisions which we're not aware of? Or does it mean a combination of both?

Literary analysis: the authors obviously don't know much about military tactics, and they wrote these battles to be exciting, not realistic. Realistically, these characters wouldn't be making these kinds of mistakes, so I think we can just chalk up these situations to bad writing and assume that in a crossover scenario, they will be competent tacticians. Alternatively, if you must restrict yourself to the stories as written, then I suppose we just have to deal with that.

Suspension of Disbelief: the characters made some decisions which seem pretty horrible, but just we just have to deal with that.

Notice how the literary method differs from the scientific analysis in this case only by virtue of its noncommital attitude. Also note that there are many methods of dealing with bad military tactics in sci-fi. One might argue that there are limitations to their technology which we are not aware of (we have only a very superficial understanding of its capabilities, after all) and which forced their hands. It may also be that they were simply incompetent or inflexible; it took decades for military tacticians in real-life to adjust infantry tactics to the advent of the machine-gun. And finally, it may be that their errors look more obvious to us with hindsight, which is also not unprecedented. In hindsight, people have been able to say "they should have ..." about a great many real-life military battles and campaigns.

TIE fighter solar panels

We all know that TIE fighters have big black panels on each side of the cockpit pod. In some of the early literature, these panels were written up as "solar panels" and implied to be the fighter's only power source. However, recently released cross-section diagrams (in the original ICS, or "Incredible Cross-Sections" book) show that TIE fighters have an integral fuel tank in the underside of the pod, so they obviously have some source of power besides solar energy. On the other hand, the recently released Visual Dictionary still states that the ion engines are "energized" by solar panel wings, and even the ICS labels them as solar collectors.

But solar power at Earth's orbit around the Sun only provides a meagre 1.4kW for every square metre of receiving surface even at a perfect angle of incidence, so those panels simply aren't big enough to provide more than kilowatt-range power (we're talking about a few horsepower here, to use more familiar units). That's not even a tiny fraction of what a TIE fighter would need in order to achieve orbit from the ground: a feat which TIE fighters can accomplish quite easily.

Literary analysis: the authors obviously don't know anything about the limitations of solar power or the energy requirements of achieving orbit. Therefore, TIE fighters do rely heavily on solar power, but it must generate much more power in the Star Wars universe. It's a different universe, with different rules from ours.

It should be noted that the "rules" alluded to in this common argument are never explained in any consistent manner by anyone. The author obviously doesn't know what they are, and neither do the fans. And if their only means of rationalizing a sci-fi universe is to conclude that even the most fundamental rules of reality do not apply and they make no effort to replace them with new, equally consistent, intelligible versions based on the show, then they can't generate predictions about what would happen in some hypothetical crossover scenario (or any other event for that matter), because such predictions require extrapolation based on ... the rules.

Suspension of Disbelief: solar power would be a mere drop in the ocean of a TIE fighter's power requirements, and not even remotely worth their negative impact on visibility, construction cost, deployment flexibility, etc. The panels make far more sense as radiative heat sinks than solar energy collectors. The bad information in the official literature is probably due to incredibly poor New Republic intelligence-gathering and/or a deliberate campaign of New Republic propaganda against the TIE fighters (remember that under "suspension of disbelief", all official literature is presumed to be published by some in-universe entity with his own agenda, just as it is in real life).

Why is everyone speaking English?

Good question. No matter what someone's actual language is supposed to be, they are shown speaking English onscreen. It is possible that they really are speaking English (this is most likely the case for citizens of the Federation), and one might even surmise that the people in Star Wars are speaking English as a galaxy-standard language (the coincidence is nothing compared to the coincidence of humans existing in another galaxy, so we must assume either common ancestry or direct lineage from us to them somehow), particularly since English lettering is used on the tractor beam power controls which Ben Kenobi disabled in ANH.

However, the Star Wars literature describes a language called "Basic", although there are numerous puns, nicknames, and even acronyms used in that same literature which only make sense in English, so "Basic" might very well be English. On the other hand, we have Star Trek 6, where General Chang is speaking in Klingon while Kirk and McCoy listen to translator devices, but the scene transitions to English in what is apparently an attempt to make the scene more intelligible for the viewer. At one point, Chang even shouts "don't wait for the translation, answer me now!" to Kirk in English. And of course, there are countless scenes where Romulans or Klingons are talking to each other with no humans present, and they use English rather than their native languages.

Literary analysis: the author intended these people to be using a different language, but he depicted them using English for the sake of the viewer.

Suspension of Disbelief: either these people really are speaking English, or the film was dubbed (and digitally doctored) to make it look and sound as if they are speaking English.

This is one case where the scientific technique arguably produces a klunkier explanation than the literary method, but the outcomes are still the same.

Sound in space

Why do we hear sounds during space battles?

Literary analysis: we're not supposed to. That's not the author's intent. It's just added to enhance the enjoyment of the film.

Suspension of Disbelief: somebody must have dubbed realistic sounds onto the footage (this has been done in reality with silent film footage from the early part of the 20th century). Alternatively, it's possible that there's some kind of system in the cockpit of a SW starship which uses sound effects to inform the pilot of what's happening around him (this has been suggested in some of the literature).

As with the previous example, both methods produce similar results, but the scientific method has to jump through a few more hoops to get there.

Warp drive and hyperdrive

Obvious question: how can they travel faster than light? If they can violate the laws of physics which prohibit this, then why should we assume that any scientific laws apply at all?

Literary analysis: because the author says so. He doesn't know or doesn't care that it's impossible. And physical laws do not apply ... unless I want them to apply, eg- when I assume that a high-megaton explosion should take down a TIE fighter.

Suspension of Disbelief: we don't know. If we saw a UFO in real-life that could definitely exceed the speed of light, we would say "we don't know how it works, but it obviously does work." We would not say "well, I guess all of the laws of physics which work perfectly for everything we currently do must be garbage", and start burning science textbooks.

From these case studies, we can see that in general, suspension of disbelief methods tend to produce more conclusive results (far more conclusive in some cases) and often with less complexity. Even in worst-case scenarios where it is impacted by inexcusable sloppiness on the part of a show's producers, it is merely reduced to the same conclusions forced upon us by the literary method anyway.

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Frequently Asked Questions about "Suspension of Disbelief"

How do you handle errors in published literature?

The same way we handle them in a real-life history book. Historical sources are nowhere near as accurate or useful as direct flim footage, but they're not useless either, and we simply apply the same approach here.

How do you know which laws of physics apply and which ones don't?

All laws of physics apply unless it is absolutely impossible to rationalize events with them. Remember that in real life, if we saw an antigravity vessel, we would try to generate scientific theories which explain this new phenomenon while simultaneously remaining consistent with thousands of years of scientific observations prior to its discovery. We would not say "hmmm, I guess none of the laws of physics apply any more" and start over from scratch. Instead, we would do something like the following:

1. Try again to rationalize it within existing scientific theories. This must not be understated; people are often far too eager to assume that something violates physical laws when it does not.

2. Attempt to modify an existing theory or select between two previously equal competing theories to account for the new observation, while still maintaining consistency with previous observations and general scientific laws such as the first law of thermodynamics.

3. Attempt to generate an entirely new theory to account for the new observation, while still maintaining consistency with previous observations and general scientific laws such as the first law of thermodynamics. Quantum mechanics is an excellent example of this methodology in action: they needed a theory which would explain the odd behaviour of particles at quantum scales while simultaneously maintaining consistency with classical physics at macroscopic scales, so they invented one. It worked, and it has since been applied in order to design many technological devices.

In sci-fi analyses, we must often resort to option #3. We are forced to theorize about new and heretofore undiscovered concepts which can coexist with existing theories while simultaneously explaining the new phenomena. Hence, we end up with rationalizations like the Star Trek "mass-lightening" trick and NDF theory.

Why should we use suspension of disbelief instead of literary methods?

See the previous section. Suspension of disbelief is far more likely to produce conclusive results which can be objectively defended. Moreover, it is the only method which is appropriate for any argument which contains words like "joules" or "watts" or "megatons" or "kinetic energy", because arguments which refer to such principles intrinsically require the application of science to the fictional universe, and you cannot apply science to a fictional universe without treating it as if it's real. If you refuse to let go of the fact that it's just an idea in some writer's head, then you can hardly apply scientific principles to it, any more than you apply scientific principles to events which occur in your dreams.

A lot of your rationalizations involve the assumption that certain characters are stupid. Do you really think this is reasonable?

Take it up with the writers. They're the ones who made the characters say stupid things. I'm just pointing it out.

I see you sometimes mention a "New Republic bias" when talking about the novels. Doesn't this violate suspension of disbelief?

No. Bias must be accounted for in real-life analysis of historical documents too. That's one of the reasons that real-life science is considered more reliable than real-life history. Historical methods are often our only way of determining what happened long ago (we have no way of knowing how many soldiers died on D-Day through scientific means, for example), but if an historical story cannot be reconciled with science, there is no question that we classify it as inaccurate (for example, the historical story of the Biblical Great Flood is impossible for many reasons, so we conclude that it did not literally happen as written. Instead, we look at the fact that smaller, more localized floods are possible (and there are even some candidates for specific mechanisms through which a regional flood might have occurred at the right time and place), and try to reconcile the historical record with our understanding of science.

The writers don't know anything about science. Why should we analyze their work as if they do?

We're not. It is the "literary analysis" people who are acting as though the writers must know about science by interpreting their intent on such matters. The "suspension of disbelief" method, on the other hand, can stray from the author's intent by noting what is visible in his creation, even if he did not consciously intend it to be interpreted that way. While this may strike you as wrong on some level, ask yourself how you can involve yourself in a crossover debate at all without exceeding the author's intent. How can you claim to respect an author's intent when you are trying to pit one sci-fi universe against another in mortal combat: something that their respective authors obviously never intended?

Consider the following analogy: suppose you write a story about a huge dragon. A biology expert analyzes the story and determines that this huge dragon must be composed of some incredibly strong material rather than conventional flesh and bone, because the specified size would require a very high minimum weight, which would in turn create enormous pressures in its limbs and internal structures. He also determines that the feats you describe this dragon performing would require flame-breath of some enormously high temperature, with various implications for the necessary biological systems and fuel substances. Now, the question becomes: did you think about any of this when you wrote the story? Probably not. Therefore, none of it fits under the rubric of "author's intent". But does this mean it's not true? Ahhhh, there's the rub, isn't it? Even if you did not intend the consequences, you did write the story that way, and the scientist is merely pointing out the ramifications of what you wrote.

The visual effects people don't know anything about science. Why should we analyze their work as if they do?

See previous answer.

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Conclusion

Quite frankly, a person's preferred method of analyzing sci-fi tends to be reveal quite a bit about his mindset for approaching reality. Those who espouse a scientific approach tend to be more scientifically knowledgeable or technically inclined, while those who espouse a totally non-scientific approach tend to be ignorant of science (gee, what a shock).

One could argue that no one can tell anyone that his perferred personal method is "wrong", and that's true. But we can say when someone is guilty of the "stolen concept" fallacy, and the minute you hear someone using scientific terms like "joule" and "watt" or invoking facts such as the energy density of matter/antimatter reactions while simultaneously espousing literary methods and rejecting suspension of disbelief, he's guilty.

PLANET KILLERS - MICHAEL WONG

Planet Killers

Written: 2002-06-23
Last Revised: 2002-11-24

We sci-fi fans seem to have a morbid fascination with weapons of mass destruction. And since every starship seems to be equipped with them, weapons of mass destruction don't have the kind of "ultimate weapon" atmosphere that we need. Nuclear weapons and other weapons of localized mass destruction are terrifying in real life, but ho-hum in sci-fi. We're jaded, and we want more! Enter the planet-killer.

So what is a planet-killer? A planet-killer is something that literally "kills" an entire planet, ie- renders it dead. This normally entails such a profound level of surface destruction that all civilization on the planet's surface is destroyed. In some cases, they go further, and completely sterilize the surface. In the most extreme cases, they actually destroy or consume the physical bulk of the planet itself, thus making them true planet destroyers.

In fact, planet-killers are so common in sci-fi that a complete list would be simply overwhelming, and even the most superficial discussion would be well beyond the scope of this page. Therefore, I will restrict myself only to discussion of planet-killing objects, ships or weapons that have been seen in big-name TV or movie-based sci-fi franchises like Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.

This means, among other things:

• No obscure sci-fi universes based on novels, comics, animes, computer games, etc. If you want something to be included, tell the author to convert it into a popular movie or TV show and then get back to me. And yes, I'm also excluding computer games based on TV shows and movies; such games are designed for playability and entertainment, not accuracy to the source material.

• No "godlike beings". This page is about weapons, not demigods. I don't really care about how your favourite demigod could destroy a world with the power of his mind. As an aside, I have noted that people often assume a "godlike being" (such as Q) must be capable of destroying a planet even though we've never seen him do anything remotely approaching this. They seem all too willing to make the unfounded leap in logic from "does things I don't understand" to "omnipotent".

• No great swarms or fleets of ships. Virtually anything can theoretically depopulate a planet given enough sheer numbers (even buckets of water). A planet-killer (singular, not plural) is a single object, ship, or weapon.

I'm sorry if I have excluded your favourite example by narrowing the list down like this, but without some exclusions, this page would simply be enormous.

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Planet Killers

Asteroid or comet impact | Cobalt Bomb | Shadow planet-killer
Vorlon planet-killer | Imperial Star Destroyer | Republic Acclamator
Eclipse-class Star Destroyer | Genesis Device | ForeShadow

Planet Destroyers

Death Star | Death Star 2 | LEXX
World Devastators | Galaxy Gun | Doomsday Machine
Species 8472 | Drej Mothership | Supernova Weapons

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Planet Killers

Asteroid or comet impact (real-life)

You don't need to watch sci-fi to learn about the awesome power of a planet-killer. A sufficiently large asteroid or comet impact could theoretically devastate a planet's surface in real life, and our planet bears mute testimony to such impacts, with many large craters scarring its surface. Indeed, if it weren't for erosion and tectonic plate movement, the Earth would look like the surface of the Moon.

Even the smallest asteroid impact can be extremely destructive. The infamous Tunguska blast (estimated yield: ~1000 times the Hiroshima blast) was thought to have been caused by a mere 50 metre wide asteroid, which would have easily fit into a football stadium!

The destructive power of a large asteroid impact is truly horrifying. If we assume a silicaceous asteroid with an average density of (for example) 2700 kg/m³, a 30 km wide asteroid moving at typical Earth-crossing velocity of 25 km/s would hit our world with the kinetic energy equivalent of nearly three billion megatons of TNT. This is a number which is so staggeringly large as to beggar the imagination; just try to imagine detonating a Hiroshima bomb every second for more than six thousand years, and then compressing all of that into a single titanic blast.

Impact Energy	Result1
1E5 to 1E6 megatons	Land impact destroys a large state (eg- California, France, Japan) and produces enough atmospheric dust loading to affect global climate, freezing crops. Ocean impact creates hemisphere-spanning tsunamis but no global climate change. Global ozone layer is heavily damaged.
1E6 to 1E7 megatons	Both land and ocean impacts produce enough atmospheric dust to affect global climate, freezing crops. Impact ejecta are globally distributed, causing widespread fires. Land impact destroys a large nation (Mexico, India).
1E7 to 1E8 megatons	Probable mass extinction event. Global climate changes last for weeks or months. Direct destruction occurs on continental scale (Australia, United States). Massive global firestorms. The K-T extinction event 65 million years ago fell into the upper end of this category.
1E8 to 1E9 megatons	Large mass extinction event. Most of the Earth's biosystem is destroyed.
>1E9 megatons	Global extinction event. All complex forms of life probably destroyed.

One of the most common misconceptions regarding asteroid impacts is that they do all of their damage through stratospheric dust loading. This is not true; asteroid impacts can damage or exterminate a biosystem through a variety of mechanisms:

1. Wake radiation. A large asteroid or comet will create an enormous "bow wave" of superheated, ionized gas in front of it as it passes through the atmosphere, and it will leave a "wake" of superheated, expanding gas behind it. The wake can be modelled as a cylindrical explosion, with the effects of a conventional nuclear fireball: shockwaves, intense thermal radiation, etc. Moreover, the height of the elongated fireball column means that much of this radiation will propagate through upper-atmosphere layers which are essentially transparent to thermal radiation, so it will have much more widespread effects than a surface-level nuclear explosion of equivalent yield. In fact, it is theorized that massive casualties on a continental scale may be caused by wake radiation alone, even before a massive impactor hits the ground.

2. Impact groundquake. Like a hammer-blow, an asteroid impact will produce powerful seismic shockwaves that propagate directly through ground matter. These seismic shockwaves will cause a vast region of destruction (hundreds or thousands of kilometres wide) in any case, but they are particularly destructive to human civilization, especially major cities with their large scaled structures and sensitive installations such as chemical plants, nuclear power plants, toxic and/or radioactive waste storage facilities, biological and chemical weapons research laboratories, etc.

3. Impact fireball. In addition to the columnar fireball produced by the impactor's hypervelocity passage through the air, there is a huge fireball produced by the violent release of kinetic energy upon impact. This fireball is similar to that created by a nuclear explosion, with powerful atmospheric shockwave (or underwater shockwaves for ocean impacts, although these don't travel as far) and thermal radiation effects. The fireball tends to be drawn up into the ionized wake, so it takes on more of an elongated vertical shape than a spherical nuclear fireball. It should be noted that these effects scale according to the inverse square law for radiation and the inverse cube law for shockwaves, so the radiation effects easily outstrip the shockwave effects for large-magnitude impacts.

4. Tsunami. A large-body ocean impact vapourizes a column of water, thus producing a "hole" in the ocean. A column of vapourized water is hurled into the stratosphere, and an enormous water wave is created. This water wave moves outward from the impact site until it reaches the shore, whereupon it loses speed and gains height, thus causing a height increase of 10 to 20 times. Numerical simulations of an ocean impact by a 10 km wide stony asteroid with a velocity of 20 km/s have led to the conclusion that the resulting tsnumai would be a staggering four kilometre high water wave a thousand kilometres away! Unlike atmospheric shockwaves, tsunamis scale according to the inverse square law rather than the inverse cube law, so ocean impacts are actually more destructive than land impacts, particularly since human civilization tends to concentrate at shorelines rather than inland regions.

5. Ballistic impact ejecta. A large asteroid impact tends to produce more melted and vapourized particulate debris than a nuclear explosion, and much of this debris is hurled upwards as a hypervelocity plume. Much of it is hurled well beyond the atmosphere and into space, whereupon it eventually falls back into the atmosphere due to gravity at speeds similar to its ejection speed (up to 5 km/s). Like any other hypervelocity atmospheric entry object, the condensed and coalesced debris particles will ablate from air friction, thus re-heating them and the atmosphere. These processes have the effect of converting the kinetic and thermal energy of ejecta into globally distributed thermal radiation and elevated upper-atmospheric temperatures, thus igniting global firestorms and altering the climate. Extremely large impacts (tens of billions of megatons) can produce so much high-energy ballistic ejecta that the entire atmosphere will be radiatively heated beyond 1500K, in which case all other damage mechanisms essentially become irrelevant because the planet is completely sterilized.

6. Acid rain. Hypervelocity shockwaves produce NO (nitrogen oxide) because of chemical reactions in the energetic "shocked air". Such shockwaves are produced three times: once by the impactor's passage through the atmosphere, again by the movement of its ejecta plume up into space, and yet again by the re-entering ballistic hypervelocity ejecta. NO can also be produced if the impact happens to strike a sulfate or carbonate-rich area of the surface. The result would be ozone layer destruction (much more than for nuclear explosions) and a global increase in acidity of surface waters, which would provide yet another environmental damage mechanism. It would take many years for the NO loading of a large impact to be removed from the atmosphere.

7. Water injection. A large hypervelocity impactor can produce a towering column of water and steam which reaches up over 100 km in altitude, and which contains 10 to 30 times the mass of the impactor. This has the effect of literally humidifying the entire upper atmosphere, but the effects of such humidification are not known. Cloud particles can produce a runaway greenhouse effect or they can reflect sunlight, but these particles can produce heating or cooling effects depending on their size.

8. Electrodynamic interactions. The ionized wake, ionized hypervelocity ballistic ejecta plume, and consequent atmospheric shockwaves of a large impactor will all contain ions (obviously). The ionized jet will interact with the Earth's magnetic field to create a giant magneto-hydrodynamic generator which alters the shape of the magnetosphere and converts the jet's kinetic energy into thermal energy in the ionosphere. This will destroy the ozone layer and disrupt the Van Allen belts, with unknown but probably detrimental effects upon the biosystem.

9. Atmospheric dust loading. This is the most famous consequence of an asteroid impact. Much of the ballistic ejecta plume condenses into tiny droplets which are small enough to remain suspended in the upper atmosphere for months, blocking sunlight and cooling the Earth, as well as disrupting plant photosynthesis.

It should be noted that nothing in our direct experience could prepare us for such phenomena, because some of them are a direct result of the sheer size and concentration of the effects. Even the largest nuclear weapons in human history (~60 megatons) only cause two of these eight phenomena; they do not produce wake radiation, tsunami, sub-orbital ballistic ejecta, acid rain, upper-atmospheric water injection, large-scale electrodynamic interactions with the Earth's geomagnetic field, or significant stratospheric dust loading². This limitation is due largely to their relatively insignificant yields, since many of these effects are dependent upon an extremely large release of energy in one concentrated place at one time.

Cobalt bomb (real-life)

The cobalt bomb is an idea which dates back to the early Cold War, and which was made famous in science fiction films such as the Planet of the Apes movies. The basic principle is that if a nuclear weapon is encased in cobalt, it will produce significant quantities of the Cobalt-60 radioisotope, which is radioactive enough to pose a serious threat, but long-lived enough to render territory effectively uninhabitable. This was extrapolated to the "planet-killer cobalt bomb", which would supposedly render the entire Earth uninhabitable.

However, the threat of the cobalt bomb is seriously exaggerated. There are limits to how much Co-60 a single bomb can be expected to produce, and even a large number of bombs cannot produce enough cobalt to kill the world's population. We need to remember that the toxicity of Co-60 is such that we would consider contaminated territory uninhabitable, but territory need not be 100% lethal in order for us to consider it uninhabitable.

In other words, a very large number of Co-60 bombs might render large portions of the Earth's surface uninhabitable, but that only means there would be an elevated cancer risk in those areas for many years; it does not mean that the entire population would die. A cobalt bomb does not really qualify as a planet-killer at all, but it is included here simply for the sake of discussion, and because it is so widely known.

Shadow planet-killer (Babylon 5)

Concept

The Shadow planet-killer is a giant spaceborn MLRS (multiple-launch rocket system) concealed within an energy-draining cloud. Some Babylon 5 fans claim that this cloud is composed of nano-bots, but that seems absurd. Nano-scale constructs (either mechanical or biological) have an extremely low "thermal capacitance", which is an engineering short-hand way of saying that their ratio of mass to surface area is extremely low, so they heat up very quickly in the presence of radiation (yes, size matters). In other words, thermal radiation which would be harmless to a conventional vehicle or even human skin would rapidly heat nanobots to the point of destruction (this is why microbial life forms must encase themselves in spores or they won't even survive sunlight). The radiative output of a single megaton-class nuclear weapon would destroy all of the nanobots in a volume of space encompassing at least many tens of thousands of cubic kilometres. Only a lunatic or a fool would build a superweapon out of a cloud of nanobots.

The size of this network is unknown, but when it approaches Earth, it does not appear to be of planetary scale. However, it is widely claimed that it completely envelops an entire planet. If true, it means that the cloud must be very widely spread out in the process, since it was mostly empty space on its approach to Earth, and it had not even fully deployed yet. This would imply that there is a lot of empty space between each active missile-firing web-node when it is fully deployed. An enveloping mesh would scale according to the inverse square law. Therefore, if the cloud is 100 km wide before deploying and 15,000 km wide afterwards, the amount of empty space between nodes should increase by a factor of 22,500. In other words, there should be many tens of thousands of kilometres between active missile-firing nodes in the cloud.

As is all too common in science fiction, this weapon has an Achilles Heel. One of the nodes is a "control centre", and its destruction causes the destruction of the entire cloud along with all of its associated nodes. This was how the allied fleet was able to destroy the Shadow planet-killer in "A Call to Arms". However, it had a lot of heavy guns to destroy even the heaviest warships before they could hit this point (and they proved effective), so a smarter method would have been to send vast swarms of fighters into the cloud (ie- overrun the defenses with sheer speed and numbers) in an effort to locate the vulnerable node, and then have them act as forward artillery spotters, to relay its co-ordinates to high-powered long-range weapon platforms sitting outside the cloud.

There is some question as to the intelligence of the designers; why build a weapon which must disperse itself over such a huge area in order to accomplish the mundane task of firing missiles at it, when you could simply fire a swarm of guided missiles from a conventional starship? To prevent escape? That seems a ridiculously convoluted way to prevent escape; why can't a fleet of ships simply blockade the world? Why is the entire cloud controlled from a single control centre, with no redundancy? Amazingly enough, it actually has a second control centre, but it is a non-functional decoy! Why go to the bother of constructing a second control node which looks exactly like the first one, and not give it the ability to take over in the event the first one is destroyed? The intelligence of the Shadows is questionable for other reasons as well; for example, they have been aware of a telepath vulnerability in their basic warship design for more than a thousand years (telepaths can jam their warships, thus stopping them cold), yet they have done nothing whatsoever to remedy this crippling design defect.

Known Effects

A Whitestar under the command of a Ranger named Ericsson sent back video of a Shadow planet-killer attack, in which we could see clusters of missiles being fired from one of the misile-firing nodes. A transcript of Ericsson's report follows:

Scanners indicate the missiles have penetrated the surface of the planet.

Burrowing straight down.

Ten miles.

Twenty.

I don't believe it, they're nearly through to the molten core of the planet.

Wait, they've stopped. It's ...

(interference)

Electromagnetic pulse coming from the surface. We caught a piece of it. The missiles have detonated near the planet's core. Thermonuclear reaction. Thousands of megatons times thousands of missiles. The planet's core is breaking up. We're registering massive tectonic movement, atmospheric disruption ... it's falling apart from the inside out. In another ten, twelve hours there won't be anyone left alive down there.

Note the erroneous terminology; the missiles burrow ten miles below the surface, then twenty, and they're already near the "molten core?" Does Ericsson realize that once you get through the solid crust, the molten stuff is called the mantle, not the core? I guess they don't teach geology in Ranger school. Worse yet, he claimed that the core was "breaking up". What does it mean for a molten substance to "break up"?

In any case, his sensors are probably more reliable than his interpretations of geological events, and he registers huge thermonuclear explosions of "thousands of megatons", seismic disturbances, and atmospheric ejecta, all of which are consistent with sub-surface explosions which are close enough to the surface to cause cratering and injection of matter into the atmosphere. The electromagnetic pulse (so powerful that it affected a starship in high orbit) is consistent with surface breakthrough; a completely buried subsurface explosion will produce a weak electromagnetic pulse, and the pulse from a blast deep inside the mantle of the planet would be muffled by the huge quantities of ferrous material between the blast and the surface. The burrowing action of the missiles is probably intended only to increase the cratering and seismic effect of the bombardment, perhaps for the purpose of destroying underground facilities such as mines and bunkers.

Sheridan observed large craters from orbit around Daltron 7, another planet victimized by the Shadow planet-killer (at right, image poached from Babtech on the Net). This is consistent with the mechanism described above. The need for cratering and surface break-through is probably why the missiles stopped short; if they continued to go deeper (ie- if they had continued deep into the molten mantle), they would not produce surface cratering.

A 20 mile (32 km) deep crater in surface silicates (assuming hard granite) requires roughly 50 gigatons, so this implies that each missile has 50,000 megatons of yield. This is a bit large for "thousands of megatons", but perhaps we shouldn't read too much into Ericsson's choice of words, given his confusion of geology terms. In any case, as you can see from the image, the craters on Daltron 7 were spaced somewhat randomly, with some clustered so closely together that they overlapped, while others were separated by smooth areas of more than five times their diameter. If we assume the crater spacing was three times their diameter on average, the craters would be roughly 200 km apart. Global crater spacing at this density would add up to roughly 13,000 missiles. It is possible to generate different figures by assuming larger craters, but the crater spacing means that 50% larger craters would also mean 50% fewer craters. Moreover, realistic crater depth estimates are limited by the thickness of the planet's crust (~40 km average for Earth) and the fact that Sheridan saw solid craters rather than gaping volcanic holes in the crust of Daltron 7.

Therefore, the Rangers' sensor readings and our observations of Daltron-7's surface indicate that a Shadow planet-killer has a total yield of approximately 13,000 missiles times 50,000 megatons, which works out to roughly 650 million megatons (although one should keep in mind the limited accuracy of these observations; the figure should realistically be used as an order-of-magnitude estimate rather than a precise specification, ie- think of this only as evidence for the 1E8-1E9 megaton range).

This is many times the yield of the infamous K-T extinction asteroid, which seems excessive in light of the fact that Sheridan could walk around comfortably and see without night-vision goggles on Daltron-7's surface mere days after an attack (ie- sunlight was not blocked out by atmospheric dust and atmospheric heating was negligible). Moreover, Ericsson's estimated 10-12 hour depopulation timeframe is much too long for a methodical attack of such violence. These facts put limits on the maximum yield, but these problems can be mitigated slightly by noting that the depth of the explosions would have channeled most of their energy into cratering and seismic effects rather than high-velocity ejecta (although sufficiently violent cratering and seismic activity would leave its own symptoms, and cause its own problems for the 10-12 hour timeframe).

Vorlon planet-killer (Babylon 5)

Concept

The Vorlon planet-killer is a warship, approximately 5 miles long. Its capabilities were never demonstrated onscreen, as we never saw it actually fire its weapons on a planetary surface. We know almost nothing about its limits or even the method in which it attacks a planet. We know only that it is said to be a planet-killer, and that planetary civilizations attacked by it are "gone" afterwards. This is something of a disappointment; when one considers the dramatic sequence in which we were introduced to this vessel, it is hard to believe they would never show us what it can do.

Vorlon ships fire by creating an energy web between their forward tendrils, which then forms into a forward-firing energy beam. The Vorlon planet-killer has only one set of tendrils, so this indicates that it has only one large weapon. It appears to be a purpose-built weapon rather than a warship, since a warship of that size would need to have smaller weapons which can be aimed at targets surrounding the ship. Given that design intent, it should not come as a surprise that its defensive capabilities were lacking, and that a Vorlon planet-killer was destroyed onscreen by a swarming fleet attack, with no need to locate and strike a vulnerable Achilles Heel (unlike the Shadow planet-killer).

Known Effects

It is difficult to imagine that the Vorlon planet-killer would be more destructive than the Shadow planet-killer, since it is much smaller than the Shaow planet-killer and the two races seem to be of similar technological levels. In fact, observations suggest that it is less destructive. While we did not see the aftermath of a Vorlon planet-killer attack for ourselves, Ivanova called for an evauation of survivors from one such attack. The transcript of her distress call follows:

Survivors indicate mass destruction on a planetary scale. We continue to need medical ships, transports, anything that can fly. We are in special need of atmosphere-capable shuttles to evacuate survivors from the ground.

This obviously means that a Vorlon planet-killer performs an incomplete sterilization. If we assume that it sits in orbit and simply blasts the planet with a high-powered energy beam, its output cannot exceed the 1E8-1E9 megaton range of the Shadow planet-killer or we would see too much atmospheric heating and thermal radiation from re-entering sub-orbital ejecta to have any survivors on the ground. The 1E7-1E8 megaton range is probably more realistic.

Imperial Star Destroyer BDZ (Star Wars)

Concept

An ISD is capable of rapidly exterminating all life on the surface of an entire planet, in a massive orbital bombardment known as a Base Delta Zero operation. No planetary inhabitant would wish to look through a telescope and see this:

Known Effects

See the dedicated Base Delta Zero page.

A BDZ leaves no survivors at all, hence no witnesses. Only a "deep planet shelter" can protect someone from a BDZ operation, which is so savage that three ISD's working in concert can blast the entire atmosphere away, leaving its surface a barren, "evenly cratered" airless wasteland (and even a deep planet shelter is still potentially vulnerable if a shot happens to hit directly overhead, hence some uncertainty about survivability even in such a shelter). The 1E8-1E9 megaton range of the Shadow planet-killer is a fairly conservative range for BDZ firepower. According to the SW2ICS, fleets of warships (typically 100 ships according to other official sources) conducting this kind of operation will actually melt the entire upper crust of a targeted world, although that is far beyond the requirements of a single planet-killer operation, of the kind that a lone ISD would typically perform.

Note: I have been repeatedly made aware of the fact that some Babylon5 fans bristle at the idea that a single ISD is at least as powerful as a Shadow planet-killer. However, that's simply too bad; deal with it. An ISD BDZ leaves no survivors, which makes it as destructive as a Shadow planet-killer (but requiring more energy since it uses beam weapons instead of more efficient explosive warheads), and more destructive than a Vorlon planet-killer. If you think this unreasonable or contrary to the canon films, just remember that AOTC proved that superlaser technology predated the Empire and was so commonplace that it was used in ground weapons, so try scaling a Death Star blast down to ISD size.

Republic Acclamator orbital bombardment (Star Wars)

Concept

A Republic Acclamator is nowhere near as powerful as an Imperial Star Destroyer, with a tenth of the larger ship's volume and a much smaller fraction of its interior space devoted to power generation and weaponry. It is most likely two orders of magnitude less powerful. However, the Republic-era Acclamator was still more than powerful enough to devastate a planet's surface through conventional orbital bombardment.

It is not known whether an Acclamator can unleash simultaneous full broadsides from both sides (it would have to invert to bring the planet's surface within the firing arc of both sides' turrets), but even if we assume that it staggers its firings (as refit Iowa-class battleships do), this would merely spread the total yield over a period of several seconds. The overall effect would not be significantly altered.

Known Effects

Given the fact that an Acclamator has two orders of magnitude less volume devoted to equipment, one would expect its firepower to be two orders of magnitude below Star Destroyer firepower, ie- 1E6-1E7 megatons instead of 1E8-1E9 megatons.

Therefore, it is not surprising that its official firepower specifications (not including its heavy forward strategic torpedo launchers or light guns) are 200 gigatons per shot for each of its 12 quad-turbolaser turrets. That is 12 x 200 = 2400 gigatons, or 2.4E6 megatons. Given a comparison to asteroid impact effects, we should expect the detruction of sub-continental nation-states as well as global climate changes and wildfires scattered over the planet's surface, although we should keep in mind that there will be some differences between the effects of a beam weapon impact and an asteroid impact (for example, a beam weapon should spend more of its energy drilling down into the planet's crust). An Acclamator also has four "heavy strategic missile and torpedo launch tubes" of unknown yield, presumably to make up for its strategic deficiencies relative to larger warships. The fact that its tactical weapons have 200 gigatons yield strongly suggests that its "heavy strategic" weapons are much more powerful, perhaps one or two orders of magnitude. This could potentially elevate an Acclamator's firepower up to ISD level, but such large missiles might be easily shot down in flight.

Eclipse-class and Sovereign-class Star Destroyer (Star Wars: Dark Empire)

Concept

Eclipse and Sovereign-class Star Destroyers mount smaller versions of the Death Star's fearsome superlaser. There are various conflicting reports on its power. Some sources say that it has two thirds the power of the Death Star's superlaser, while other sources say it has one seventh its power. However, both figures appear to be exaggerated; even one tenth the Death Star's power would easily destroy an entire planet, which is beyond the capabilities of an Eclipse of Sovereign-class ship.

Known Effects

According to the official literature, the Eclipse-class Star Destroyer's superlaser is capable of "cracking the crust" of a targeted world and "searing continents" off its surface. It goes without saying that such a large superlaser should be much more powerful than an Acclamator or an ordinary ISD, and the energy requirement for vapourizing an entire continent is well in excess of the threshold for a global extinction event (1E9 megatons). Figures in the range of 1E10-1E11 megatons are probably more realistic. The radiative heating effect and the enormous volume of ballistic ejecta produced by such an event would undoubtedly heat the entire atmosphere up well beyond the point of total sterilization, so it is unlikely that any forms of life would survive.

Genesis Device (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)

Concept

The Genesis Device is a 2 metre long torpedo which apparently contains an unusual application of transporter technology. According to Carol Marcus, it can rearrange an entire planetary surface at the "subatomic level", in order to create a new biosystem (although her grasp of the underlying mechanism may be suspect, since it turned out that it was entirely dependent upon unstable "proto-matter" technology for its mysterious matter-transmutation capabilities, and she had no idea). It is, in effect, a high-speed terraforming system. Unfortunately, "proto-matter" is apparently unstable, which means that the resulting biosystem lives on borrowed time. The Genesis Device is also a planet-killer, which Kruge referred to as an "ultimate weapon" because any indigenous life would be destroyed.

Known Effects

The Genesis Device's energy requirements are impossible to determine. Thermodynamic energy balances severely limit any energy state increase, for the simple reason that the energy state must be low enough to support a biosystem. In other words, too much energy would make the resulting world uninhabitable, since it can't have a superheated atmosphere or hundreds of billions of tons of matter hurled up to extreme altitudes (unlike the aftermath of a large asteroid impact or massive orbital bombardment). However, since there is no known net energy state increase required by its implicit transporter-based physical reorganization, there is no lower limit to its energy requirement.

The Genesis Device was only used once, in the Mutara Nebula. It converted the nebula into a planet: an act which actually required negative energy, because the gravitational potential energy state of the resulting planet was much lower than that of the nebula. In fact, the missing GPE seemed to disappear without a trace, thus leading to serious questions about its eventual destination. There are numerous theories: time dilation, mysterious proto-matter submersion of excess energy, disappearance into subspace (the standard Trekkie excuse for scientific gaffes), etc. Unfortunately, these theories are purely speculative, and there is precious little information to clarify the picture. Since the only prototype was destroyed and its plans erased, it would appear that this situation will be permanent. We don't even know its effects upon a typical world, as opposed to a nebula, nor do we know if it would affect a shielded planet at all (remember that transporter beams don't penetrate shields).

Fore-Shadow (LEXX)

Concept

The Mega-Shadow was the personal flagship of His Divine Shadow for more than two thousand years. We saw it at the beginning of LEXX, when it exterminated the Brunnen G. It is a relatively small beetle-shaped starship, perhaps one mile in length although I haven't performed detailed scaling. When it attacks, it unfurls a large web-like structure, so that it is several miles wide. As you can see in the accompanying picture, the web structure launches some kind of energetic web-shaped projectile at its target (notice the solid, dark structure and the brightly glowing web which is being launched forward). It bombards a planet with these energetic webs until its surface is reduced to molten slag.

Known Effects

The web appeared ephemeral, but its effects upon the target were all too real. In the picture below, you can see a brightly glowing region where one web has already struck the surface (to the lower right), as well as a second web on the way.

Each web grows as it approaches the planet until it is capable of affecting a region roughly 2500 km wide (based on the picture), and the ForeShadow can fire roughly one web every two seconds. At this rate, it can cover most of the facing hemisphere in less than one minute, although regions to the sides would experience much greater dispersion because of the incident angle. The ForeShadow did not bother maneuvering to hit the opposite side of the planet, presumably because the global effects of the devastation on the facing side were deemed more than sufficient to achieve total depopulation. The picture below is the result of the ForeShadow's assault after roughly 70 seconds (35 webs):

There can be little doubt that this bombardment resulted in total planetary depopulation. The brightly glowing surface areas indicate vast regions of the crust which have been molten and/or vapourized, along with atmospheric superheating and many of the other effects we would expect for such a violent bombardment. Notice that you can actually see superheated planetary crust being blown into space, as it would be from a violent asteroid impact (note to Trekkies: this is what it should look like when you bombard a planet violently enough to seriously damage its crust; the piddly bombardment in "The Die is Cast" does not even begin to approach this). The ForeShadow's armament is considerably more destructive than the weaponry of Shadow planet-killers, Vorlon planet-killers, or Imperial Star Destroyers.

If we assume perfect efficiency and 1 km melt depth across 50% of the facing hemisphere's surface area (which seems fairly conservative, given the level of destruction seen above), we're talking about energy in excess of 1E11 megatons: many orders of magnitude above the requirement for mass extinction.

PS. Yes, I'm aware that Lexx probably doesn't qualify as a "big-name" sci-fi franchise, so it should not technically be included. But I really like Lexx, and this is my website, so there.

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Planet Destroyers

Death Star (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)

Concept

Shoot gigantic moon-sized raygun at planet. Watch planet go boom.

Known Effects

See the Alderaan page.

The absolute minimum energy requirement for destroying an Earth-like planet is roughly 5E16 megatons. This is 500 million times the K-T extinction asteroid impact (and hundreds of millions of times the firepower of an individual ISD or Shadow planet-killer). However, this does not even come close to the firepower of a Death Star. 5E16 megatons would just barely overcome gravity, and the planet would expand so slowly that it takes ten minutes to double in size. Obviously, the destruction of Alderaan exceeded this quantity by many orders of magnitude. In fact, an energy estimate derived from Alderaan's rate of expansion leads to an estimate in the 1E22 megaton range (yes, that's at least 100 trillion times the K-T extinction asteroid impact, or as much energy as our Sun has generated since the time of Moses).

Death Star 2 (Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi)

Concept

Identical to the first Death Star, but it added the ability to fire off-axis, so that it could use its superlaser to target capital ships. Obviously, no capital ship could possibly survive a direct hit from a Death Star superlaser. This one had no "thermal exhaust port" Achilles Heel, and its heat dissipation had been greatly improved, so that it could fire every few minutes instead of every few hours.

An aside, it should be noted that there were numerous other Death Stars in addition to the two famous Death Stars. A Hutt crime syndicate built Darksaber, which was a bare-bones Death Star with no armoured shell, shielding system, or defensive weaponry. There were also one or two prototype models.

Known Effects

According to the opening scrawl of ROTJ, the second Death Star is even more powerful than the first, but we never saw it fire on a planet so we have no way of knowing how much more powerful it was. It was many times the first Death Star's size, so this implies at least an order of magnitude firepower increase. However, firepower of this magnitude becomes virtually meaningless, because there is no longer any question of whether it will penetrate a warship's (or planet's) defenses, so the larger advantage of DS2 is its off-axis firing capability, not its sheer firepower for a max-yield shot.

Lexx (LEXX)

Concept

The Lexx was intended to replace the MegaShadow (which was, in turn, the successor to the ForeShadow) as the personal flagship of His Divine Shadow, supreme overlord of the League of Twenty Thousand Planets. It was a large (several miles long) dragonfly-like vessel which was partially metallic and partially organic (there's that "organic technology" sci-fi chic again). Its "eyes" unleashed a tremendous planar blast which moved through space and split objects at the point of intersection, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Jango Fett's seismic charges but on a much larger scale. Its power source is unknown; it appears to subsist by literally eating organic matter, but there isn't enough organic matter in an entire planet to fuel one of its planet destroying blasts. Its technological basis may forever remain a mystery, although its destructive power is quite clear.

Known Effects

The picture below shows the Lexx's planar blast striking a planet. Debris is hurled away from the point of intersection at tens of thousands of kilometres per second, with expansion velocity approaching that of Alderaan after it was struck by the Death Star's superlaser. It is difficult to evaluate the energy requirement of this attack because of its uneven distribution, but it must certainly be many orders of magnitude above the planetary destruction lower limit of 5E16 megatons. It would not be unreasonable for this vessel's power to be similar to that of the Death Star

The Lexx is one of the most powerful weapons in science fiction, but its defensive capabilities are weak. It appears to have been designed as a strategic weapon rather than a warship. It has no weaponry whatsoever besides its main forward-firing planet-destroyer. It carries no fighters (it has small unarmed "moth" shuttlecraft), and it has no shields. It has no armour, and physical impactors can easily penetrate its hull, much of which is soft organic material rather than hard metal (if the writers are going to emulate sci-fi chic worship of organic technology, at least it's nice to see them recognizing its inherent deficiencies). These weaknesses have caused the crew no end of troubles, since the ship has been repeatedly boarded.

World Devastator (Star Wars: Dark Empire)

Concept

The World Devastators are planet-destroyers that harvest worlds for their raw materials and then use those materials for fuel as well as manufacturing of starships and fighters. A World Devastator is far less energetic than a Death Star, but it is more constructive; it converts a planet into hordes of starships and fighters and droids over a period of several months.

Like the Death Star, it is a true warship rather than a purpose-built planet-cracker with no defensive capabilities. It can enter into battle with fleets of enemy warships and win, with shields that appear to be impervious to even concentrated heavy turbolaser fire (entire New Republic fleets were unable to cause any damage whatsoever). It can actually consume enemy warships, using enormously powerful tractor beams to pull even Star Destroyers into its maw and harvest them for energy and raw materials.

Known Effects

See the Special Technology page for details.

A World Devastator turns a planet into a debris field. At a bare minimum, this requires 5E16 megatons for an Earth-like planet. It is said to take months in order to accomplish this, although a World Devastator's own fuel reserves need not be so large because it harvests energy from the target planet.

Galaxy Gun (Star Wars: Dark Empire)

Concept

The Galaxy Gun is a long-range strategic missile launcher.

Known Effects

See the Special Technology page for details. A Galaxy Gun missile destroys a planet, but not as violently as the Death Star. As with all planet destroyers, this requires a minimum 5E16 megatons for an Earth-like planet. As with the World Devastators, the "nucleonic chain reaction" employed by the Galaxy Gun suggests that it derives much of its energy from the materials of the targeted world, rather than generating it onboard, the way the Death Star or other classic planet-killers such as Lexx or the Drej mothership do.

Doomsday Machine (Star Trek TOS)

Concept

The Doomsday Machine was a large World Devastator-like planet-cracking machine which resembled some sort of giant slug, with a mouth approximately 1 km wide. According to Spock, it was made of "solid neutronium" (a contradiction in terms; neutronium is inherently fluid, like the nucleus of an atom) and their sensors could not penetrate its surface. Of course, this begs the question of how he could possibly know if the neutronium extended beneath a microscopic surface layer, but that's another story. In any case, it functions very much like the World Devastator, tearing up planets into pieces and processing the material for fuel.

Most of the descriptions are borderline nonsensical. Not only is it supposed to be "solid neutronium", but it supposedly "deactivates" antimatter and fires "absolutely pure" antiproton beams (even though this would cause the machine to suddenly gain a huge negative charge, thus drawing the beam back towards itself).

The Doomsday Machine is similar to the Lexx and the Vorlon planet-killer, in that it appears to be a purpose-built weapon with poor defensive capabilities. While its outer shell easily absorbed phaser blasts without damage, a 97.835 megaton nuclear explosion in its maw rendered it a lifeless hulk. It is no exaggeration to say that this device could be disabled by modern nuclear weapons.

Known Effects

The Doomsday Machine cuts up planets for fuel, but it is unknown how long this process takes, or how much of the planet's mass is actually processed, as opposed to being cast away to drift in space (the iron which makes up most of a typical planet's mass is probably not that useful). However, the Doomsday Machine requires the ability to disintegrate a planet into a floating debris field at the very least, which in turn requires the ability to overcome gravitational potential energy (otherwise the planet would still be intact). This means that the Doomsday Machine does at least 5E16 megatons of work during the process.

Species 8472 bioship cluster (Star Trek Voyager)

Concept

The Species 8472 bioship cluster was actually a group of "organic ships" (yes, there's that damned "organic technology is superior" nonsense again) from a supposedly parallel dimension with such different laws of physics that all of space is "fluidic" (of course, Voyager's equipment still worked fine despite being completely dependent upon the laws of physics in this universe; I guess the writers didn't think of that).

The cluster was eight normal bio-ships clustered around a special planet-destroyer ship. This central ship was slightly heavier than a regular ship, with a few extra features on its fins and an extra central protrusion in its nose. It is not known what the function of the clustering action was (apart from an obvious desire to emulate the Death Star's visual style), although the most straightforward theory is that the surrounding ships were supplying extra power to the central ship or reinforcing it somehow. Notice that their beams do not actually combine with the main beam; they hit the central ship itself, so they are obviously not offensive beams; they are presumably power transmission beams instead.

It is commonly assumed that all Species 8472 ships are identical to this ship, but that seems rather silly in light of the visual inconsistencies. Why would this ship look different if it's not special? We have very little information on this vessel, apart from the speculation that it must serve some critical function in their planet destroying operation.

Known Effects

The bioship weapon struck the planet's surface and caused a large ejecta plume, or "plasma jet". This jet happened to be headed almost directly towards a group of Borg cubes in orbit; it was not clear whether this was deliberate or fortuitous.

There was a delay at this point, and then the planet suddenly appeared to explode. This delay is extremely strange; a huge influx of energy cannot simply disappear and then reappear a few seconds later; if it enters the planet's mass, the manifestations should become apparent immediately.

We didn't see the aftermath of the explosion, so we could not verify how much of the planet was given sufficient kinetic energy to overcome gravity. However, if we assume that all of it had sufficient energy to overcome gravity, the energy yield would be the usual 5E16 megatons.

Drej mothership (Titan AE)

Concept

The Drej mothership carried an immensely powerful weapon, similar to that of the Death Star. In the picture below, it appears to be many thousands of kilometres long. However, it appears much smaller in other scenes. I have not examined these scenes closely enough to know whetther the apparent contradiction can be rationalized somehow.

Known Effects

The Drej planet-destroyer had an unusual mechanism; it hit the planet with a beam that seemed to melt the surface, so that it was glowing visibly. Waves of energy passed over the planet's surface, but seemed to do only superficial damage. Then the planet began to spin faster and faster, until it suddenly erupted into an enormous explosion of Death Star proportions. Debris was hurled away at tens of thousands of kilometres per second in every direction, and the Moon was actually shattered by this debris. The Drej planet-destroying weapon is many orders of magnitude above the 5E16 megaton lower limit for planetary destruction, and its yield may be in the 1E22 megaton range, like the Death Star superlaser.

Supernova Weapons

There are numerous supernova-inducing weapons in sci-fi. These weapons are inherently less flexible and useful than planet-killers for numerous reasons. For one thing, they are on/off weapons; you either induce the supernova or you don't. The weapon cannot be modulated to destroy a single ship or a specific spot on a planetary surface, unlike the other types of weapons described here. In fact, you can't even restrict its effects to a single planet; if you use one of these weapons, you destroy all of the planets in the entire star system.

Due to the extreme scientific unrealism of supernova weapons, their energy requirements cannot be determined. In order to induce a premature supernova, one must stop core fusion so that the heat and radiation pressure from within no longer sustains the star's bulk, and it collapses inward due to gravitational attraction. But what is the energy requirement for stopping stellar fusion? Normally, we try to evaluate energy balances through thermodynamic methods, by looking at energy states. Even the most stupendously large energy requirements are actually quite easy to derive in this fashion.

But what kind of state would cause stellar hydrogen to ignore the laws of physics and not undergo fusion even though all of the requisite conditions are present? Worse yet, what would cause this process to occur so quickly? Even if you stopped all core fusion in the Sun tomorrow, it would still take tens of thousands of years to collapse. And then you would have to change its state back to normal, so that nuclear fusion occurs again!

Frankly, I find supernova weapons an annoying contrivance. Nevertheless, such weapons have been sighted in both Star Wars and Star Trek: the Suncrusher, Centrepoint Station, the Tox Uthat, and the trilthium torpedo. I list them only because they technically qualify as planet-killers, but I cannot list energy requirements because of the inherent difficulty of generating an energy estimate for a process where we cannot even determine a state change.

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Omissions

Bio-weapons

Why don't I include bio-weapons? I don't include them for the simple reason that they aren't guaranteed to work. Bio-weapons are dependent upon the bio-chemical characteristics of the target species In fact, they must be specifically engineered for those characteristics. Against the wrong species, they might not work well, if at all. Brute force, on the other hand, is not species-specific. This page is about brute-force planet-killers.

Planet-specific Events

Why don't I include events specific to certain planets, such as the Praxis moon explosion, the tylium-filled planet in Galactica, or Za'ha'Dum from Babylon 5? I don't include them because the ability to self-destruct and the ability to destroy something at a distance are two different things. Moreover, what happened to those planets is not going to happen to other planets. They were either filled with some exotic substance or they were rigged. That's not an offensive strategic weapon. In general, any planet-kill which requires a particular planet or peculiar set of conditions does not count as a genuine planet-killer.

Vague Suggestions

Why don't I include planet-killing capabilities that are vaguely supported by ultra-literal interpretations of dialogue but not observed in any way, such as one Voyager crewman's rhetorical question: "what does she plan to do, destroy a small planet?" If you honestly must ask this question, then you obviously don't get this page, or indeed, my entire website and/or any remotely objective methods of thought. Far too many Trekkie arguments are based solely on ultra-literal interpretations of dialogue, without a shred of observation or even technical literature to back it up. They treat Trekkie character dialogue the way religious fundamentalists treat the Bible.

---

Acknowledgements

• Mike Horne, Brian Young, Wayne Poe, Adam Gehrls, and Curtis Saxton, for general discussion.

• Damien Sorresso, for information on Species 8472.

• Dennis Aspo, for being the first among dozens to point out that the Foreshadow, not the Megashadow, destroyed Kai's homeworld.

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Footnotes

1Consequences of Impacts of Cosmic Bodies on the Surface of the Earth, Vitaly V. Adushkin and Ivan V. Nemchinov.

2The famous TTAPS study claimed that nuclear blasts and regional firestorms would both create long-term stratospheric dust loading, but this has not been observed in practice. Firestorms do not inject any matter into the stratosphere at all, and atmospheric clearing mechanisms reduce the duration of nuclear winter effects from initial pessimistic estimates of months to mere days. Only an enormous volume of ejecta can produce prolonged global cooling, such as that produced by an asteroid impact.

Plasma Weapons

What are Plasma Weapons?

Plasma weapons are one of the most popular ideas in sci-fi. Babylon5 uses something called "PPGs", which stands for Phased Plasma Guns. No one knows exactly what's "phased" about it, since a plasmoid is a highly randomized entity, but "phased" is ultimately just another one of those science terms that's become almost meaningless thanks to gratuitous sci-fi abuse. In any case, PPG blasts look like glowing dots and move at markedly subsonic speeds. Similarly, the Romulans used a "plasma torpedo" in the classic Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror". It looked like a large glowing orange blob. And finally, a considerable number of Star Wars fans (perhaps influenced by Star Trek) have jumped on the bandwagon and decided that the green-hued turbolaser bolts of Star Wars are plasma weapons too.

A Babylon-5 crewman fires his PPG at a Vorlon From "Falling Toward Apotheosis"	The Romulan plasma torpedo From the classic episode "Balance of Terror"

But what, exactly, are plasma weapons? For those who are not already aware, plasma is usually described as the fourth state of matter, after solid, liquid, and gas. More technically, it is ionized gas, ie- gas in which the energy level is so high that the electrons will not stay confined in their atomic energy shells so they escape. The Earth's Sun is largely composed of plasma, which can also be described as a hot "soup" of free-floating nuclei and electrons. Therefore, a plasma weapon would logically be something that fires plasma at the target.

However, particle beams fire ions at the target, yet they are generally called particle beams, not "plasma weapons". So what is the distinction? It seems to be that a plasma weapon is primarily a heat-based weapon, ie- it is the internal energy of a hot plasmoid which damages the target, not the forward kinetic energy of the ion stream.

Indeed, so-called "plasma weapons" in sci-fi generally fire visible "bolts" which move far, far slower than the particles of a hot plasma would move. For example, a typical hand-held "plasma weapon" in sci-fi will fire a bolt that moves at 1 km/s at the most, or may even be subsonic, yet even a relatively "cold" 1 eV plasma will have an average (root mean squared) particle velocity of 13.8 km/s for nuclei and 593 km/s for electrons (assuming even energy distribution). This is a major impediment to their effectiveness and an incomprehensible "feature"; why would one even want a plasma weapon where the particle velocities are all randomized in a slow-moving confined blob, rather than being directed forward at great velocity as they would be in a particle beam? Such a weapon would be far less penetrative by its nature, hence far less efficient even if it works.

And these weapons generally have one other fascinating on-screen trait: they do not appear to be affected by gravity. This is not a small quibble; dense objects like bullets drop in gravity, and light objects like helium balloon float up due to buoyancy. You can't normally see a bullet dropping because it is too small and fast to see with the naked eye in flight, but the arcing is appreciable and significant, yet it is not present in sci-fi "plasma weapon" blasts, which fly straight and true to their targets as if there is no gravity at all. One could attempt to rationalize this with a projectile that has the density of air, but if it has the density of air, then it would have the aerodynamic properties of a cool air balloon, which would make a poor projectile to say the least.

How well would a Plasma Weapon work?

The short answer is: at any range where it takes more than a thousandth of a second for the bolt to reach the target, not too well. You see, plasma spreads very quickly, and while plasma guns actually do exist in real-life¹, and have been proposed as a mechanism for replenishing the fuel burn-up fraction in a Tokomak-style fusion reactor for steady-state operation, they have never been seriously considered as a weapon. They can fire a "blob" of plasma in the MJ-range, but this blob would not stay together for much distance in vacuum, never mind atmosphere where they would run into a virtual brick wall (sea-level atmosphere is billions of times denser than a fusion plasma). You could extend the range by hurling these ions out of the barrel at an extreme velocity (eg- relativistic), but those moving bolts we see in sci-fi do not appear to be traveling anywhere near that quickly.

All right, so why don't we just confine the plasma? Well of course, there's the obvious objection that a blob of plasma will not confine itself, so you'd have to create some kind of magical containment field which moves with the bolt and requires no technological apparatus to sustain itself. But it gets worse. Let's say we're talking about a 1 metre long bolt with a diameter of ½ cm, and a yield of 1 MJ (equivalent to roughly 4 ounces of TNT). Let's say it's 1 keV plasma (roughly 8 million K); you would need 6.24E21 ions, ie- less than 0.01 grams of hydrogen plasma. Small problem: air would be many times denser then this plasma, so the bolt would tend to fly up because of buoyancy, and it would need some kind of propulsion system to drive it through air because it certainly isn't going to coast through atmospheric resistance on its miniscule momentum. Both of these problems can be alleviated through sheer particle velocity (a sufficiently hypersonic projectile will have enough momentum to mitigate buoyancy effects and extend its range). But since that would be more of a particle beam than a sci-fi moving-blob "plasma weapon", it is not applicable here. In short, a typical subsonic or marginally supersonic sci-fi moving-blob plasma blast would require a magical self-contained containment field, and it would float up into the air even if it did hold together.

In short, ask yourself how well a "hot steam gun" would work. Doesn't sound all that impressive, does it? You visualize a cloud of steam shooting out of a gun and promptly dissipating in the air. So why does it sound like such a great idea when you replace "steam" with "plasma", which is just a really hot gas?

Can you make a Plasma Weapon work?

OK, why don't we try solving this problem by using a much lower-energy plasma with increased density? We could try to solve the buoyancy problem by making it colder (say, 1 eV, or 8000K, which is a bit hotter than the surface of the Sun), thus necessitating a thousand times more ions in the same volume, but its density would still be much too low to push it through the atmosphere on momentum alone. It wouldn't necessarily float up, but try throwing a balloon at someone and you can see how well an object with atmospheric density would fly if hurled at the target.

No, if you want it to push its way through atmosphere on momentum, it must be either much denser than air or moving at extreme velocity, which sci-fi plasma weapons generally do not (and which would make it more of a particle beam than a traditional sci-fi "plasma weapon"). So what if we decrease the volume to make it as dense as a solid projectile? Well, that takes care of the "can't push its way through atmosphere" problem, but now you have to make it tiny, and in order to do that, you need to squeeze it with immense pressure. If we squeeze our 1MJ plasmoid into a 1cc volume and apply the ideal gas law (which is a good model for plasmas), we find that the pressure is in the range of 700 GPa! When you consider the fact that this is a thousand times greater than the yield strength of high-grade steel, you can begin to see the problem.

How many problems arise when you need a containment field a thousand times stronger than steel just to hold your plasmoid together? Some questions leap to mind, such as "if they can create such a strong containment field which somehow supports itself and doesn't even need a projector device, then why can't they make personal shields as strong or even stronger?" One would also have to ask why it doesn't glow like the Sun, since it would be hotter than the Sun's photosphere and denser than steel. And finally, one would have to ask what the point is of this whole speculation, since our plasma "bullet" is now denser than aluminum and should act like a real bullet now, which means it should drop in gravity. While that may not be an insurmountable hurdle for a hypothetical sci-fi weapon, it certainly doesn't match the sci-fi weapons we know, which do not arc noticeably in gravity.

In conclusion, the idea of a slowly moving self-contained plasmoid weapon simply doesn't make any sense. Your "bolt" is constantly trying to blow itself apart on the way to the target, you must invent some kind of ridiculously strong yet easy-to-run containment field to make it hold together (thus raising obvious questions about why this super containment technology is not used to effortlessly protect against these bolts), and when it finally does hit the target and the mythical "containment field" shatters, the barely-contained ions within will promptly scatter in all directions, thus wasting the majority of their energy by dissipating harmlessly into space. Even those ions that do strike the surface of the target will achieve poor penetration; most of their kinetic energy is randomized rather than being directed forward, and the gas cloud lacks the characteristics which would allow it to push through solid armour rather than simply heating its surface. And after all that, the plasmoid won't move in a straight line the way they're invariably shown in sci-fi; it should arc downward in gravity, just like the 30mm auto-cannon shots from the Russian BTR-80/A in this clip.

OK, what about plasma weapons in space?

The problems associated with trying to push a self-contained blob of plasma through atmosphere would be greatly lessened in space for obvious reasons, but the energy requirement also ratchets up significantly. Plasma weapons in sci-fi are normally described to have yields in the range of kilotons, megatons, or even higher. They need such yields, in order to compete with guided nuclear-tipped missiles over which they suffer from substantially increased technological difficulties and few if any advantages.

Let us examine a hypothetical plasmoid with a yield of 1 megaton and an approximate volume of 1 million cubic metres (which is quite huge for a plasma blast, being comparable to the volume of a small starship). If we assume we're using hydrogen plasma with average particle energy of 100 keV (an absurdly high temperature of nearly eight hundred million Kelvin), you would need 2.6E29 ions (roughly 215 kg) to get 1 megaton yield (4.2E15 J). Using the ideal gas law, the pressure in this huge 1 million m³ blob would be roughly 3 GPa, or more than three times the yield strength of high-grade steel.

In short, the problems of the atmospheric plasma weapon are only slightly alleviated by being in space. You still need a fantastically strong forcefield to hold the bolt together (a requirement which grows ever more severe with increasingly powerful plasma weapons), you still have the question of why the enemy doesn't use a similar forcefield to ward it off upon impact if such forcefields can be created so easily that you can let fly with one and it will hold itself together with no technological apparatus to sustain it, you still have the problem that the blob's particle velocities are randomized relative to its forward movement so it has poor penetrative qualities, and if you're close to a planet, you even have the gravity arcing problem to deal with. Once again, these problems could be alleviated with the use of extreme velocities, so that the blob's expansion rate (measured in tens of km/s) is small relative to its forward velocity, but that would not explain the slow-moving plasma "bolts" of sci-fi.

So why do sci-fi writers use "Plasma Weapons?"

Perhaps you should ask them. My suspicion is that they do it because it sounds neat, and because they don't know any better (one of the ironies of the sci-fi world is that most of the modern writers barely know enough science to graduate high school). And whether you like it or not, that's good enough for most sci-fi writers nowadays. If you could invent such immensely strong forcefields as to wrap a blob of plasma so tightly that it can fly through the air like a solid object, then why not use this fantastic forcefield to carry something more destructive, such as a small charge of antimatter?

There is a rational way to use "plasma weapons" in sci-fi, but that would be the "particle beam" interpretation, not the "slowly moving discrete plasmoid" interpretation.

What should sci-fi writers use instead of these slow-moving plasma blobs?

Pretty much anything else, really. Guns, missiles, bombs, lasers, and particle beams (particularly neutral-beams such as neutron cannons, where the electromagnetic repulsion problem won't cause beam spreading and electromagnetic shielding would be ineffective) all work fine and don't require such fantastic rationalizations as a magical moving self-powered self-sustained containment field which defies gravity and is a thousand times stronger than steel, but they are also familiar, and to a substantial portion of sci-fi writers, familiarity breeds contempt.

Some Fun Facts about Plasma

1. The plasma at the surface of the Sun has a temperature of roughly 6000K. The temperature in the core of the Sun is roughly 15 million K. The temperature in the centre of a lightning bolt is around 50 million K. The projected temperature in the plasmoid of a commercially viable nuclear fusion reactor would have to be well in excess of 100 million K. Steel melts at 1810K.

2. Plasma glows primarily through bremsstrahlung, or braking radiation. This is the process whereby charged particles are scattered or deflected by interaction with other matter. When they lose kinetic energy in the process, it is emitted as a photon. In the presence of a powerful magnetic field, it is also possible for synchrotron or cyclotron emission processes to become significant, as the charged particles move about the lines of magnetic force. Normal non-ionized matter glows through line radiation, whereby captured electrons in higher energy states drop to lower energy states and emit the difference as a photon.

3. The particles in a typical fusion plasma rarely interact, due to the great velocity of the particles relative to the range and strength of electromagnetic interactions. Without some kind of confinement, a typical ion is most likely to escape from the plasmoid without scattering, never mind fusion. In fact, the mean free path for 90º scattering in such a plasma is on the order of tens of kilometres. However, plasmas can become more collisional with extreme high-pressure confinement (for example, in stellar cores where the pressure is so great that the plasma is compressed to a greater density than uranium).

4. Plasmas closely approximate the behaviour of ideal gases, hence they can be modeled with the ideal gas law, PV=NRT. You may recall the ideal gas law from your high-school physics classes, but if not, it states that the product of pressure and volume for a gaseous body is linearly correlated to its mass and temperature. Note that astrophysicists prefer the form P=nkT, where n is particle density and k is the Boltzmann constant.

5. If a deuterium plasma achieves a sufficiently high density and temperature, nuclear fusion will occur. For example, the 3.51GW (gross output) STARFIRE² (a model of the performance parameters theoretically required for a commercially viable fusion reactor, not an actual working design) calls for a centreline plasma density of 1.69E20 deuterons per cubic metre (0.806E20 DT/m³ average), with a total volume of 781 m³. Average electron and deuteron temperatures are 17.3 keV and 24.1 keV respectively. In layman's terms, this is an average deuteron density and temperature of 2.695E-7 kg/m³ and 186 million K respectively. In other words, the STARFIRE's plasmoid would fill a volume greater than that of a one thousand square foot apartment with just 0.0002 kg of plasma, despite a confinement pressure in excess of 200 kPA. However, these requirements, as difficult as they may seem, actually exaggerate the real likelihood of fusion in a plasmoid because they are based on a high-purity D-T plasma. The ignition temperature for D-D fusion is a full order of magnitude higher than that for D-T fusion, and the requirements for H-H fusion are far higher still.

6. Electrically powered plasma torches also exist in real-life, some of which actually extend into the megawatt range. However, their energy density is limited by the density of plasma itself, and they have proven suitable for melting solids, but not vapourizing them. Hence the “fusion torch” concept proposed by Eastland and Gough, in which plasma is exhausted directly from a fusion reactor. But in either case, they are extremely short-ranged because of the dispersion problem.

7. The reaction cross-section for coulomb scattering at 10 keV is on the order of 1E4 barns, while the reaction cross-section for D-T fusion at the same energy level is on the order of 1E-2 barns, ie- a million times smaller than the reaction cross-section for scattering³. And the reaction cross-section for D-D fusion at that energy level is two orders of magnitude smaller still! In other words, even though a deuterium ion in a typical 10 keV plasma is likely to travel for several kilometres without Coulomb scattering, that is still a hundred million times more likely than fusion with another deuterium ion.

Related Links

FinePlasma.org: a manufacturer website for plasma cutting machines. The specifications can be quite interesting; for example, one of their machines can cut ½" thick mild steel plate at a rate of 100 ipm and a cutting width of 0.03" using an 8.5kVA plasma generator. A few simple calculations lead to the conclusion that an 8.5kVA plasma cutter can eliminate mild steel at a rate of ~0.4cm³/s.

BBC News article on the use of "plasma bullets" for ocular microsurgery (obviously a very short-ranged application).

Janes Defense Weekly article on plasma-based weapons (note that it largely discusses the use of hypersonic aircraft plasmas as a lasing medium rather than traditional sci-fi "plasma bullets") and it also touches on the discontinued "Shiva Star" high-velocity plasma project, which aimed to solve the range problem with extreme velocities on the order of as much as 10,000 km/s.

Introducing the Particle-Beam Weapon: an article written by Dr. Richard Roberds on the feasibility of particle-beam weapons (not the same as traditional sci-fi "plasma bullets", but nonetheless interesting as an exploration of where one can go with particle beams or ion cannons). Note that the atmospheric-ionization pinch-current confinement mechanism described in the article for charged-particle beams can only delay the beam's dissolution rather than preventing it unless the beam is rendered charge-neutral, and it does not apply to a self-contained discrete plasmoid; it requires a continuous high-velocity stream.

Acknowledgements

• Curtis Saxton, for general discussion as well as useful suggestions and corrections.

• Andrew Tse, for general discussion.

• Adam Gehrls, for the Janes Defense Weekly article.

• Winston Blake (BBS user), for the Roberds article.

BLACK HOLE

BLACK HOLE IMAGES

Computer-generated image of a black-hole as seen from a great distance (r=1000M, or 500 times the radius of the event horizon). From this distance, the hole itself is not very conspicuous: the best hope we would have of detecting it from Earth is by observing the brightness changes of a star passing behind it and through the region of optical distortion, which at great distances will appear much larger that the hole itself (scaling in angular size as 1/sqrt(r) rather than 1/r).
Most black holes that astronomers have identified so far have been detected because they are in the process of consuming matter, which emits X-rays due to frictional effects at it spirals into the hole. This simulated one is quiescent and there are predicted to be many such holes in the Galaxy, of roughly 3-10 solar masses, formed by supernovae explosions.

This image was taken from r=100M. The outermost circular anomaly is known as the first 'Einstein ring' and corresponds to the image of a point directly behind the hole. This point would normally be obscured from view, but light passing at this distance from the hole bends through an angle that allows it to reach the observer. Inside this ring, the light at any point actually comes from the opposite side of the hole's apparent position, as the angular deflection increases.
If this were a stellar-mass black hole, humans would not be able to survive at this distance (even in a free fall orbit) because the gravitational tidal gradient is roughly 20 gees per metre. However this effect decreases as the cube of r, so it would be hardly noticable at the distance of the r=1000M picture.

The black hole in this image looks much closer than it really is. The field of view in these images is 90 degrees across and this was taken from r=10M, so the hole appears to have a radius of more than double that of the event horizon (2M). This is because not all of the black area corresponds to rays "blocked" by the hole, just rays that could not reach the observer from infinity, so objects nearer the hole could appear here.
The bending of light is so extreme that much of the light in the inner bands of this image actually comes from behind you. Two more Einstein rings can be seen as a 'double ring' on the edge of the black region. The outer one corresponds to light from directly behind the observer that has done a U-turn about the hole. The inner one (visible only as an arc at the top left) is light from behind the hole, which has orbited 360 degrees before escaping.

Looking sideways from r=4M.

UPLOADING TECHNOLOGY - THE EARLY HISTORY

The Early History of Uploading technology

Simms, Scions, Evocations, Destructive Uploading, and Copying

Long before it was possible, the dream of uploading a human's personality into a computer was discussed on a theoretical level. Recent discoveries of data from the Late Industrial Age suggests that the idea had already been discussed before the first landing on Luna, and became an important part of the transhumanist agenda in the early decades After Tranquility. But the technology for uploading was nothing more than a theoretical possibility at that time.

Even before the development of Human Equivalent (also known as turing-grade ) Artificial Intelligence in 77 a.t., many human-like programs were available, some of which were very convincing.. These human-like agents were often used as user-friendly interfaces between the public and various commercial and governmental organizations, or between users and autonomous systems in domestic machinery and transport applications.

Human–like agents were used in many entertainment contexts as well, such as virtual reality entertainment, and were often given simulated personalities based on celebrities or fictional characters. Eventually an entire industry grew up around the creation of these artificial personalities, generally known as Simms (other names used at the time included persona-bot or character-bot). Some proponents of uploading suggested that a simulated personality of this kind could eventually become a true copy of the original, especially if enough information about that individual was incorporated into the database making up the simm. At that time several dedicated individuals attempted to transfer their entire memory and worldview into such a database, and some of the resulting simm personalities from the Late Information Age are still extant. However these laboriously produced entities were generally far from being perfect copies of the original, and came to be considered unique individuals in their own right.

At that time another important neurotechnology, Direct Neural Interfacing (or DNI), came into general use. Many virtual reality games and infotainment programs were designed to be accessed via DNI technology, providing a reasonably immersive environment. DNI also allowed the development of an interface between a human individual and external processors and/or on-line programs, such as search engines and expert agents. Over time an individual could develop an additional aspect to his or her own personality, consisting of sentient programs running on external processors; this external aspect is commonly referred to as an exoself. These exoselves would often incorporate tailormade artificial personalities and in many cases could become a full simm copy of the original, with many memories transferred via DNI from the user's biological brain to the external database.

An individual with an extensive exoself in the Early Interplanetary age could create virtual agents known as Scions to act on his or her behalf, even when he or she was not connected via DNI. Such scions could continue to exist and act in a virtual reality program, or could be active at a remote location (sometimes on a different world) and report back after some time to share memories with the original. As before, some individuals attempted to use this technology to create full copies of the original by uploading as much information through DNI links as possible to the exoself personality; these attempts at copying became known as Evocations and were considerably more accurate than the early simm copies of a few decades before. However detailed analysis of the evocation's memories and personality would eventually reveal significant differences, so it seemed the early transhumanist dreams of uploading were as remote as ever.

By the fourth century a.t. neurotechnology had progressed to the point where destructive uploading of the entire mindstate of an individual could be attempted. Several unsuccessful attempts led to the unfortunate deaths of a number of volunteers, and the development of this technology was prohibited on Earth and in Low Earth Orbit in 310 a.t. However research continued outside the jurisdiction of Earth authorities, and by 330 the first successful destructive uploads were achieved.

The earliest successful uploading technology involved gradual substitution of an individual's neurons and synapses with artificial replacements, and had been successfully tested on a number of mammalian species beforehand. However this technology destroyed the original biological brain, and also required considerable external equipment including robotic neurosurgery equipment with fractally branching arms terminating in nanoscale appendages. This equipment required comparatively massive control systems, and additionally the artificial replacement neuron structures included detailed models of the chaotic biochemical environment of each cell, a simulation which required large amounts of processing power. The process itself took several weeks, so the entire procedure was carried out with the subject under deep sedation and on life support systems.

At the end of this process the top of the subject's head had been replaced by a massive bulk of computational elements and medical equipment. In theory the individual could now be awakened, and would be able to operate the motor functions of the body via the artificial nervous system replacing the brain. In practice this was rarely attempted; instead the replacement electronic brain was analysed in depth, often by cross-checking it against a previously created evocation. If the full mind state of the original was found to be present this entity could then be copied or stored and reproduced as a full virtual personality. In general the biological body was discarded or at best stored using the unreliable vitrification techniques of the time.

Full virtual copies were a controversial development, even though the general public was well acquainted with simms, scions and evocations. Because the destructive uploading process resulted in the death of the original, many virtual copies were ostracized as murderers or suicides. Some virtual copies moved away from humanity altogether at this time, preferring to aggressively upgrade their mental state. One of the earliest confirmed ascensions to the first singularity involved an entity which incorporated most or all of the destructively uploaded personality of the superbright Vanessa Deitrich.

Shortly before the Great Expulsion from Earth and the ensuing Dark Age, destructive uploading had progressed to the extent that an upload could be made using neural replacement operating wholly within the confines of the patient's skull. This resulted in a process which resembled non-destructive uploading, in that the individual was able to resume life in his or her own body; however, at the end of the process the subject had an entirely electronic brain inside his or her skull, one which was capable of copying its own mindstate at will. Such individuals called themselves Changelings, as they had changed so radically within themselves, but they were sometimes given the derogatory label of zomborgs and were often discriminated against. On the other hand the changeling brain could be easily upgraded, and several rose to positions of power.

True, reliable non-destructive uploading did not become available until the First Federation period, when symaiotic nanite probes were developed which could integrate with the neurons and synapses of the living brain without damaging them in any way. Approximately 10e12 of these nanites were integrated with the neurons of the subject, and the information state of each neuron was communicated to an external database. The more rapidly this information could be transferred, the more accurate the uploading was considered; eventually it was possible to upload the equivalent of an instantaneous mind state while the subject was conscious. Virtual copies could then be made of that mindstate, and the symaiotes could be deactivated and subsumed if necessary.

This non-destructive uploading led to the development of engeneration, that is to say the creation of living copies (sometimes called bioxoxes). The DNA of the original could be used to create a new adult body using bioprinting technology; the brain of this new body contained effectively no memories when new, so an infusion of symaiotes was introduced which reproduced the mindstate of the original, thereby downloading the mindstate of the original into the new clone body. In many cases the symaiote network would remain within the newly formed brain tissue for an extended period until the biological tissue could replicate the original mindstate with some fidelity. Eventually, with improved methods of data transmission using lasers the engeneration technique could be used to transmit copies to distant planets and eventually stars.

It is worth noting that the new biological copies would immediately begin to diverge in character and personality as they interacted with the environment; virtual copies diverge from the original in a similar fashion. On occasion copies have become became sworn enemies of the original individual, as in the case of House Holsta and the Copy War.

VECS ENCLCLOPEDIA GALACTICA VOLUME 12

Vec

Of all the major categories of sophont beings in the pre-Nanodisaster era, none had to face as much exploitation, prejudice, ignorance, and cruelty, as the intelligent robots, or vecs. Long after ai were recognized as persons and provolved animals were given full citizenship and accepted as rational beings the equal of humans, after laws were passed giving full Sentient Rights to splices (even if these were not always enforced), and the raising and slaughtering of sentient baseline animals for food was banned in every civilized biosphere, the vecs were all too often still seen as machine-workers and servants by the majority of bionts, especially among the less educated, the ludds, the conservative status quo social groups, and baseline supremacists. This despite the fact that the average vec of the late Interplanetary Period, had a complexity of nano-machined parts equal to that of any biological organism.

Even so, the amount of prejudice and persecution was never as great as has been reported by some contemporary historians, still less the lurid historical dramas of Vec slavery. From the beginning there were communities of technophiles and technospherists, of artificial intelligence explorers, of minskyites and morovecians, of transhumanists, and Buddhists, of Cosmists and cyborgs, who recognized the intelligent and sentient nature of vecs from the very beginning. These sympathetic sophonts established societies both on Old Earth and in space where vecs interacted with humans on equal footing, and these increased in number and influence over the decades and centuries.

But ultimately it was the rise to power of the great vec Houses and empires like the MetaSoft Version Tree and Silicon Generation, and the part they and other vec clades played in the formulation of the Second Federation Ontology, that finally won vecs everywhere once and for all and for all time the same Universal Sentient Rights enjoyed by every other conscious entity in the Civilized Galaxy.

For many thousands of years, vecs have interacted with bionts in all aspects of life. They are seen throughout the civilized worlds as beings with heart and soul and feelings like any other, never again to suffer the humiliating slavery of the hu supremacists and others who would oppress and use them as subservient machines.

Of course, out among some of the lesser worlds and biospheres of the Periphery, where enlightened central government is neither strong nor common, and civilization may give way to petty despotism, things have not really changed much since the bad old days.....

Although the terms are often blurred, and in some polities and cultures even interchangeable, the term "vec" (named for the Information Age roboticist and ai researcher Hans Morovec) is generally used to distinguish turing and superturing grade robots with proper artificial intelligence from the mechanical machine-like hardware and software (and generally subturing-grade) "bots".

Articles

• Adumbrans - Text by Tony Jones
  Adumbrans (sometimes known as Cloud-Vecs) are the sophont descendants of robot clouds formed out of utility fog that were originally created during the First Federation period to act as a means of weather control and atmospheric regulation. Originally mere non-sophont devices, the complexities of the weather and its chaotic nature, as well as the necessity to deal with the unexpected and natural disasters, and the effects of the Adumbrans themselves on the atmosphere, forced upgrades of the original designs. This first gave them idiot savant levels of cognition where atmospheric physics was concerned, and then later upgraded them to full sophoncy. In most types of Adumbran they still retain a level of cognition relating to atmospheric physics and management over and above their intelligence in other areas.
  
• Asimos or Asimovecs - Text by Basu
  Sophont server vecs whose only duty is to serve others, provided that they are taken care of.
  
• Butlermaster 4500 - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  ComEmp period domestic vec given freedom after the manufacturing plant changed hands.
  
  The Butlermaster 4500 turingrade series vecs were a ComEmp period model made my Darblue Robotics (Racth Manufacturing Blocks, Prospera, NoCoZo). Some 200 million units were made in all, in twenty three releases, over a period of four centuries. In 5250 Darblue Robotics, would had been suffering poor sales for a century, was taken over by Nucog Anvecs, under the Free Hyperturing Node G+ar045. As part of the process of economic rationalism, a reflecting the vision of a brave new Post ComEmp world, assembly of the Butlermaster 4500 was discontinued, although customer support was extended for another 150 years. This proved uneconomical, and it was decided the easiest and cheapest solution would be to give every remaining Butlermaster (some 174 million still licensed, the remaining units had either had their license expeired, were junked, or destroyed in accidents) an "autonomy patch", in effect their freedom. This would free the company of any further liability, and also provide a nice compassionate "feel good" image.
  
• Cryovecs, Cryobots - Text by Stephen Inniss, with additions by Steve Bowers
  Cold temperature vec phyle.
  
• Dormbot - Text by NONE
  Under Construction
  
• Environmental Vecs - Text by Tony Jones
  Intelligent robots who maintain habitat and planetary environments.
  
• Erotobot - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  A vec - either softbot or hardbot - employed for erotic or sexual purposes. Generally turingrade, but very rarely superturing.
  
• Faber, Clade - Text by Stephen Inniss
  Vec clade found most frequently near the periphery of the Terragen sphere, where they are first-in colonization specialists.
  
• Ghasts - Text by Tony Jones
  Diplomatic clade of vec robots designed to have an uncanny appearance.
  
• Homebot - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  (archaic) An abbreviation of the term "household robot" or "home robot". (Interplanetary and First Federation era)
  
• House Digital Diamond - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Not a real "House" by sephirotic standards, more a clade with some vec ceremonial, but the Novamedia name stuck.
  
  The result of a merger/fusion/hybridisation in 3847 AT between the TRHN ai Digital Dreams #10010110110110110 and the early Post-Diamond Belt clade Diamond Light. House Digital Diamond was a hyperfast clade that had friendly relations with sephirotic artificials, but remained wary of bionts. The clade lasted for some 550 years before further cladisation and evolution in the period 4390-4461. It is widely believed that some of these offshoots hijacked several Metasoft autowars during the Version War and used them to establish a unique civilization in the Perseus Rift, but the Version Tree has always denied the rumor.
  
• Machina Babbagenseii - Text by Tony Jones
  The Machina Babbagenseii are a clade of entirely mechanical sophont vecs, based on forms of macroscopic Babbage-engine-type processing.
  
• Polypedal Pots and Potvecs - Text by John Edds
  Polypedal pots are a class of whimsical robots which date from the late 1st Century a.t. to present times. As the name suggests, they are legged, motile containers that generally house plants or sessile animals.
  
• Silicon Generation - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Powerful vec House and clade.
  
• Starhand - Text by Tony Jones
  A clade of space-going vecs descended from space construction robots.
  
• Synthetic Humans - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, amended by Steve Bowers
  Essentially a very sophisticated artificial (whether constructed or vatgrown) life-form, indistinguishable in surface appearance from a baseline human, and with a Human Equivalent (turing-grade) intelligence and AI self-awareness.
  
• Tetsujin - Text by Michael Walton
  A type of Asimovec, autonomous robots. Their lineage is very old; the earliest descriptions that are provably Tetsujin date back to the Interplanetary Age. Their origin was in the Pacific Rim area of Old Earth.
  
• Thym Olep - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Vec clade of the Metasoft Perseus border, who took Kja Observance ideas to an unusual extreme by adding genetic information transfer to their communications repertoire. They make bonobo chimpanzees look perfectly celibate, especially during the monthly accounting rushes.
  
• Tilonians (Yacht-vecs) - Text by Tony Jones
  A clade of Uploads and Vecs named after the first of their kind, roboticist and yachtswoman Janet Tilonia.
  
• Vehvecs - Text by Tony Jones, with additions by Steve Bowers
  Independent-minded sophont vehicles.
  

SUPRAMUNDANE WORLDS

Supramundane Worlds

The Dreamspheres at the edge of Stellar Umma space are built over small brown dwarfs; the shell incorporates an extensive cybercosm, while on the surface live the Dream Rejection Tendency

Within the Terragen Sphere supramundane planets (also known as supra-planetary habitats and/or shells) can trace their origins back to the Supra-Jupiter concept of the information age visionary Paul Birch. Although others may also have had the idea it was Birch's work that survived the nanoswarms. Because of his early advocacy of Mass Stream Technology* he is well written of, even in current engineering texts.

As part of a general discussion on terraforming projects in the Sol System the gas giant Jupiter was examined by Birch. Birch knew that Jupiter's surface ( if you could call it a 'surface') gravity was far too high for habitation by humans. So he proposed creating a new surface above Jupiter. (at 100,000 km from Jupiter's center of mass gravity is felt at Earth standard). Mass beams, in the form of dynamic compression members and dynamic orbital rings, would be configured into a framework around the planet which would support platforms, which could in turn support a large biosphere. Individual platforms could then be extended into bands which could later be widened into a complete shell. In most ways the details of the biospherics are similar to those of other space habitats. Airwalls at the edges of the platforms keep the biosphere in place until the shell is completed and supporting the shell with orbital rings avoids the need for 'unobtainium'. Jupiter, with a mass of 317 Earths, would have a shell (at 1 standard gravity) with 317 Earths surface area. [a simple calculation shows this ratio holds true for any supra-planetary shell - an 'underbody' with a mass of 100 Earths would have a shell (at 1 standard gravity) with 100 Earths surface area, etc.]

Although Supra-Jupiter would remain only a proposal other supramundane planets would be built in the millennia to come. As Birch pointed out a supramundane planet could be built around any heavenly body, however if a standard gravity was required on the shell then the underbody needed to have greater than standard gravity at its surface, also if the underbody in question is hotter than a small red dwarf star then active cooling systems will be needed. It should be noted that many supramundane planets, built around stars, have been mistaken for Type II Dysons. Although this label is not strictly true the transapients have found it to be a waste of time to correct the NEBs (nearbaseline humans) who use it.

*Mass Stream Technology uses mass particle beams which encircle the planet or star to support structures above it; by exerting thrust magnetically against these beams (known as dynamic orbital rings), suborbital structures can be suspended at any height.
back

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Related links:

Shellworlds

Symme's Worlds

Space Fountains and Orbital Rings - applications of mass stream technology

THE BEAMRIDER NETWORK ORION'S ARM

The Beamrider Network

A Beamrider ship spreads its wide magsail to catch momentum from the particle beam

Interstellar mass beam propulsion network first conceived in the late 20th and early 21st centuries c.e.. The Network uses arrays of mass beam projectors to magnetically accelerate self-manoeuvring 'smart dust' micropellets to near light speed and direct them toward a vessel equipped with a powerful magnetic/plasma sail. The pellets vaporize upon impact with the magsail and transfer their momentum to the craft, accelerating it to a significant percentage of lightspeed. Once accelerated up to cruising speed the Beamrider coasts on a course that takes it into the vicinity of a number of stars, brown dwarfs and free-floating extrasolar planets. Additional mass beam booster stations are built on and around these objects. Using a combination of the galactic magnetic field, onboard fuel and mass beams from the booster stations, the Beamrider is able to curve its course in a great arc back to its starting point which is now used and another booster station to send the vessel back around the arc again.

As the Beamrider passes near each of the booster stations, additional cargo, passenger and resupply pods are accelerated to match velocity with the beamrider and/or are dropped off by the 'rider to be decelerated into the target system. Although the energy required to accelerate/decelerate the pods is considerable, it is far less than that required to constantly boost and decelerate entire self-sufficient spacecraft intended to survive years-long journeys between the stars all by themselves. The Beamrider makes a huge initial investment to boost the main vessel up to speed to take advantage of the much greater savings later.

Beamrider links rarely operate with just a single vessel in the circuit. Rather a great many vessels are boosted up over time so that a constant stream of ships is passing along the network. This ensures that a vessel passes by each station at regular intervals, usually ranging from every six months to every three years on most routes.

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History

The first section of what would eventually become the Beamrider Network was conceived shortly after the discovery of the brown dwarfs Yin and Yang along a rough line between the Sol system and Ross 128 in 280 a.t.. It was not until fifty years later however that construction of the first launchers was begun by the Orbital Alliance in Cis-Lunar Space. The program suffered from lack of funds, since most investment at the time went into the more financially lucrative Nova Terra Project involving the colonisation of Tau Ceti.

While this was going on the Jovian League had detected a brown dwarf, which was named Patala, between Sol and Struve 2398 (the brown dwarf had been discovered several years earlier by CisLunar astronomer ai and named "Nyx" but the Jovian name stuck), and had began constructing a launcher around Triton. The construction of their launchers began in 346, and the launch of the first construction module took place some fifteen years later. It was intended that from Patala the cycle would go to Struve 2398, and from there the search would be made for further brown dwarfs. The Mars Republic meanwhile was keeping its options open by supporting both projects; Martians were among the crew in both the Orbital Alliance and the Jovian League missions.

In 412 a combined cyborgised human and ai Orbital Alliance team aboard the Karl Schroeder reached Yin, twenty-six years prior to the Tsiolkovsky reaching Tau Ceti, and five years before the Jovian-Martian vessel Advance reached Patala. Twelve years later the first segment linking SolSys and Yin was completed by neumann ai and human crew in orbit around Yin, and the following year a construction module launched towards Yang, where it arrived in 476. In 529 the link between Yang and Ross 128 had been completed. In the new solidarity between the CisLunar, Martian, and Jovian superpowers, several joint missions were planned along both cycles. At this time the Nanodisaster began to sweep the solar system.

Records on this point are sketchy, but one thing is certain. The crew and support staff of the beam projection facilities gathered their families and community together and used the beam projectors to launch themselves toward Yin and out of the Solar System.
It was not until sometime later, after control of the Solar System had been regained and the additional interstellar vessels launched, that contact was reestablished with the descendants of the erstwhile colonists and the original construction workers living around Yin, Yang, and Ross 128, and Patala and Struve 2398. During this period the inhabitants of the brown and red dwarf systems had managed to extend their network, and been able to maintain contact with each other, although no complete cycle had been finished. Since it was considered too dangerous to cycle through SolSys several other systems had been planned, including a Procyon link, but these had faced hostile isolationist ai and the projects blocked. The survivors around the brown dwarf systems represented a unique developing civilization (one that would eventually be called the Deeper Covenant) that was now eager to rejoin galactic society while at the same time maintaining the unique culture and identity they had developed while living around brown dwarfs. Even more importantly they desired to continue the great projects that had begun so long ago, but with the help of First Federation technology and ai to accelerate the work. With the resources available to them through the new technologies that contact with the rest of mindkind they set about taking up the work with new vigor, sometimes on their own, and sometimes with the help of idealistic First Federation ai and hu visionaries. The seeds of what would become the modern Beamrider Network and the Deeper Covenant were born.

This Beam Station in orbit around the brown dwarf Eps Indi Bb projects powerful particle beams towards beamrider ships, to accelerate or decelerate them, or change their course. Several beam projector arrays can be seen, as well as a dynamic orbital ring which helps keep the station on orbit.

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The Beamrider Network today:

The modern Beamrider Network extends across approximately a third of explored space and passes near just over a billion stars, brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets. Nearly all of these systems are inhabited by members of the Deeper Covenant.

Modern beamriders are huge vessels, often extending across hundreds of kilometers of space. At the same time they are rather small by modern standards. Even the largest beamriders rarely have a complement of passengers and crew larger than a few hundred people, most of them travelling in biostasis (It is common practice on most ships for passengers and crew to spend 1/3 of the trip awake. Random shuffling of stasis/waking schedules ensures that a traveller will meet at least some new people with each awakening. More than a few people can report that they met their mate or a great romance while travelling aboard a beamrider).

Most of the ships' great size is made up of superconducting cables spread out across space with habitat modules affixed at various points. Most ships rotate to provide "gravity" and habitat modules are attached at points where gravity is at the desired level.

In the past, beamriders employed a variety of shielding methods to protect themselves against radiation and interstellar debris. Shields were initially a combination of magnetic fields and ionization lasers. Also a plasma screen, consisting of a portion of the vapourized incoming mass stream that was allowed to 'slip thru' the magsail was fired ahead of the ship and acted to vaporize particles ahead. As a last resort the ship employed powerful radar to locate larger objects and would then use a combination of magnetic 'tacking' and onboard thrusters to dodge the object in question. At a standard cruise speed of 0.3c there was generally time to manoeuvre at least a little.

While some beamrider ships today rely solely on Empledokcetic shielding, most modern vessels era ships still use magnetic/plasma shields backed up by Empledokcetic shielding to protect themselves.

Standard cruising speed for a beamrider is 0.3c although smaller, faster 'hot beam' vessels can achieve speeds as high as 0.9c.

Throughout most of the history of mindkind the Beamrider Network has provided a constant, if unobtrusive method of travelling between the stars. Although the development of Conversion Drive, reactionless drives and wormholes has diverted some traffic from the network, the majority of systems in the Nexus still make some use of it, if only for recreational purposes. For the majority of isolated solar systems, the Beamrider Network is their main link with the rest of galactic civilization. And the citizens of the Deeper Covenant and some non-extreme hider cultures still make use of it almost exclusively.

LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS - ENCLCLOPEDIA GALACTICA VOLUME SEVEN

Languages & Linguistics

Culture and Society > Languages & Linguistics

Languages tend to go extinct when great powers expand their hegemony or communications become better, while diverging when smaller groups of people are separated from each other and devise their own ways of speaking. Over the last millennia this process has occurred many times, resulting in a tremendous linguistic diversity.

During the Information Age and First Interplanetary Era language extinction reached the highest level ever. From 6000 languages used in the 1st century a.t. to 600 in the 2nd and just 60 in the 3rd, people slowly converged on a global culture with Anglish as the lingua franca. Various minorities and cultures held on to their own tongues, but they were few and had a hard time resisting the sheer volume of international communications. In 400 a.t. 90% of all humans had Anglish as their first language.

There was some divergence in style: many virtual tribes, subcultures and especially the orbital habitats developed their own highly recognisable and often incomprehensible jargons and dialects. Especially the culturally and geographically isolated Genetekkers developed their own Genetekkerese, a highly ornate but clear Anglish dialect.

The Nanodisaster separated the survivors in small self-sufficient habitats. Even though they might be separated by time lags of seconds, or at most hours, communications were highly restricted for a variety of reasons. The few surviving interstellar colonies had the additional problem of relativistic separation measured in years. Over the following centuries languages diverged wildly. Many colonies had been dominated by different mixtures of cultures, and now their initial mixtures of language grew into unique languages. Even purely Anglish colonies diverged to the extent that their tongues could no longer be regarded as the same language.

When the First Federation emerged it was clear that understanding each other was going to be a major problem, and this was the reason that free access to translation devices was regarded by its leadership as one of the cornerstones of the Federation and later a basic human right. A form of Anglish pidgin was used in emergencies. While there was a noticeable wave of language extinction at first, the spread of translation software meant that many languages could persist that would otherwise have vanished. In fact, the language divergence continued and accelerated tremendously when interstellar colonisation began again.

In the colonies languages could develop independently, separated by decades of travel. At the same time, relativistic crews retained the language of their own era, not keeping up with the changes that occurred among the restframers. As the colonies developed, new forms of the old Solsys languages developed to the extent that they became entirely new language families such as the Eridanus Mandarin family, the Martian family or the myriad Anglish-derived languages.

The age of empires led to the formation of larger empires, and in some language standardisation was enforced. Especially active were the Solar Dominion, exploiting the Divine Order education system to spread Solarian (an Anglish language derived from Edenese), and Cygexpa, giving economic incentives for learning their corporate language (since the 8th millennium this program has ended, but classic Cygnese is still widely understood). The cyborgs and vecs on the other hand developed entirely different language families, of which the Metasoft Linguistic Standard (currently in version 43.7) and the Corona AI Council Code (CACC) are most well known. Direct neural communication standards became popular among cyborgs, but required a standardised brain.

Meanwhile the relativist crews found themselves linguistically stranded. Over the centuries they instead developed their own jargon and language, derived from the Anglish forms of the First Federation. Due to their relativistic trips the language changes very slowly, but despite some attempts it has never become a truly useful international language - the original Anglish base is not expressive enough for the needs of modern societies.

The Second Federation Ontology and to a lesser extent the ComEmp included an attempt at creating a truly universal language, but the attempts never became popular except among beings who could easily download new languages or upgrade their language centres. Instead various trade languages such as Douh, Niu Cygnese and Whitneey have emerged. Due to the sheer number and obscurity of many tongues translation standards have emerged so that several pieces of translation software can be stringed together to bridge language gaps. The results are often less than enlightening, but better than nothing.

Many languages have developed into layered languages, due to the presence of different levels of intelligence or mental architecture in the population. While the splices, baselines, tweaks, cyborgs and AIs may all speak the same language they use different vocabularies and ways of expressing themselves. These different layers have different complexity; messages in a high layer might be extremely terse and confusing for a being used to speak in a low layer.

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Some Notable Languages

Eridanus Mandarin

Language family based on the Mandarin-derived Eridanese. Spoken on various widely dispersed planets in the Inner Sphere, former Yoson Confederacy and among many Etodists.

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Bourgatov Slavonic group

Languages derived from the Slavonic language spoken at Bourgatov. After its destruction many minorities fled and developed their own dialects. Spoken as majority languages in many minor outer volume colonies.

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Arabic

Umma of the Shell

A form of semi-classic Arabic is still spoken in the Core Stellar Umma. In the Shell various mixtures are used, especially the Arabic-Anglish hybrid Anrabic.

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Anglish Languages

Anglish

Anglish itself went through a number of stages in its development and evolution, especially in the Inner Sphere and main civilised regions. Some early developments are found in most or all descendant languages. For instance, see the table of Early and Middle Anglish third-person and gender pronouns.

proto-Anglish (New English, Space English)

Interplanetary Age language resulting from fusion of Late Industrial and Early Information age Modern English with elements of other languages like Russian, Chinese, Japanese, ircspeak, ebonics, and so on - simpler grammar and syntax than Modern English, but with a lot of technical terms and very rich in neologisms. No longer in use anywhere.

Old Anglish

A development of Proto-Anglish that was used in First Federation times (at the time it was still called "English"). Derived languages are still common throughout much of the Outer Volumes, though many are changed beyond recognition and incomprehensible to an Anglish speaker. No longer used in the Inner Sphere.

Middle Anglish (Federation Anglish, Fedspek)

A popular upper class and diplomatic language that then acquired wider use among the other classes as well, in wide use during the Second Federation, and experienced a revival during the nostalgic period of the ComEmp. Rather similar to Edenese (both languages share a number of words and phrases). Since the Second Federation Ontology was Fedspek friendly the Solar Dominion wanted nothing to do with it. The Mutual Progress Alliance and the NoCoZo however supported it. Today pure Fedspek is only found in a few worlds and habitats of the Outer Volumes and the periphery. However, derivative language like High Anglish, Low Anglish, New Anglish, and Newfed, and their further derivatives, are common.

High Anglish

A development of Fedspek in ComEmp period, still used today. A formal, scholarly, aristocratic, ceremonial, and diplomatic language, supported by the Mutual Progress Alliance. The Solar Dominion naturally point out the virtues and superiority of High Solarian as a ceremonial language, but High Solarian is a more difficult tongue to master, and not spoken outside Dominion and Dominion-client worlds.

Low Anglish

A somewhat simplified version of High Anglish popular on many words during the ComEmp period and still used in a few places today. Originally use of Low Anglish was considered a sign of ill-breading, baselinehood, or animanty, but this prejudice is much less common now. Gave rise to a large number of derived languages, including a number of important local trade languages, on various biospheres and habitats during the Age of Fragmentation (after the ComEmp).

New Anglish

A popular and rather recent development of Low Anglish; a number of dialects differing only in minor details are to be found in the vigorously expanding areas of the Carina Rush.

Newfed

A development of Fedspek during the later ComEmp, still found on some worlds today.

Academic Coronese

Cyborg academic language used at the University of Corona and in many affiliated habitats and biospheres. Various forms of pidgin Coronese, employing less rigid syntax, are popular among the baseline humans, with different dialects developing on different habitats and worlds - e.g. Quarkish Coronese, Toirrese (spoken in the Toirres Deme and throughout the Leoti system in general), and the multifarious dialects of the Roaming Reach, to name just a few.

New Martian

Form of Martian spoken on New Mars. One of the largest languages among Martian-adapted tweaks.

Douh

NoCoZo trade language in the Anglish family, derived from the First Federation Old Anglish Pidgin and Merrionese.

Cygnese

The official Cygexpa language. Part of the Anglish family (derived from Old Anglish), although parts are completely artificial.

Niu Cygnese

Simplified trade language descended from Cygnese.

Whitneey

Anglish-derived trade language used in the Sagittarius region. Whitneey branched off from Fedspek (Middle Anglish) during the Second Federation and especially with the isolation of these communities that followed the destruction of the local stargate nexus during the Version War.

Edenese

Anglish language from Eden. A development of Old Anglish, with many additional nuances. Commonly understood among Inner Sphere worlds and often used in diplomacy.

Libspek

Academic speciality language used for archive and library science. Libspek was developed during the period of empires, slowly being updated by the Institute of Information Retrieval on Hollo-Vau and the Encyclopedia Institute on Ken Ferjik.

Solarian

Edenese-descended Anglish language. Used across the Solar Dominion, understood on many worlds. Solarian branched off from Edenese after the formation of the Solar Dominion during the period of major expansion.

Genentics

Genen genetekkerese-based dialect, developed as part of the family historicism of the 2000's. Commonly spoken by Genen, official language on Frog's Head.

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Transapient Posthuman Languages

Polyglot

Post-singularity language that evolved among the early posthumans as a result of an amalgamation of all known pre-singularity Terragen languages. It would become the basis for an entire family of transapient languages that are still the most widely used in transapient to transapient communications throughout Terragen Space.

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Artificial Languages

VA13

Emotion oriented artificial language developed at Phobos Olrondi Lang Labs. Makes extensive use of carefully rehearsed gestures and facial expressions. Popular among empaths, especially in the Communion.

Tych

An ultra-precise language developed in Tycho City that was primarily used in written communication during the late First Federation. Today mainly used for formal declarations and to some extent Negentropic poetry.

Multiti

Artificial language created for political control purposes on Hene (Alpha Scintilla III) during the 8400's. Has become a common language in the Eta Carina Rush.

SecFed

Second Federation Ontology Language (various versions). Still spoken in remote regions, although the isolation has led to many mutually incompatible versions.

Bogoban I-XI

Contact language developed by the Institute of Interstellar Xenodiplomacy to initiate contact with alien or far-claded terragens.

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Non-human Languages

Hwiisi

Dolphin language spoken on Hwii and many other mainstream sophont enhanced dolphin worlds. Derived from the dolphin language spoken on Okeanos (known as SeaSpeak).

Yikoh

Alien language, used mainly by xenologists of the HIE to transliterate alien names.

To'ul'ho'lo'ss

To'ul'h language, used as a pidgin among their various clades and with humans. The modern form is derived from ancient pre-Terragen versions that were used on To'ul'h Prime for intercultural trade and diplomacy.

Daharran

Anglish term for Daharran language - see Booklet on Daharran Grammar for details regarding Daharran speech and vocal apparatuses. See Ma-Tesh for one of three writing styles used.

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Technological Languages

CACC (Corona AI Council Code)

Digital language used by many Inner Sphere AIs, vecs, cyborgs and virtuals. Notable for its hypertext structure, enabling parallel or branching discourse.

DNIS (Direct Neural Interface Standard)

Neural code standard, used among many nearbaseline cyborgs and advanced cyborgs with pidgin lobes.

MLS 43.7 (Metasoft Linguistic Standard 43.7)

The current Metasoft language, a digital language derived from the early digital languages of the First Federation Era and the Second Federation Ontology Language.

Eudocet

Emple-Dokcetic language of artificial origin, employing special language modules and possibly wetware language centers. Spreading at a phenomenal rate in the region dominated by the Emple-Dokcetics, causing a major language extinction event.

Basic

AI protocol developed during the earliest part of the First Federation or possibly even the Interplanetary Era. Long obsolete, but used as a pidgin among AI when no other languages are available or when trying to find a common language.

Black 7

Backgrounder hailing protocol, part of the Backgrounder family of cryptolanguages.

Articles

• Academic Coronese - Text by Mikael Johansson
  
  
• Academic Coronese Script - Text by Chris Shaeffer
  
  
• Anglic - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Language-family derived from the various forms of New English; the major language-family spoken by Terragens since the late Information age.
  
  Unlike many ai and vec languages, Anglic allows the use of metaphors. Anglic also differs from the ai languages by being much more susceptible to uncorrectable errors due to insufficiently redundant encoding, by its high tolerance of lexically and grammatically induced ambiguity, and by its facility for dealing with what subsingularity-grade Terragens call "fuzzy" logic and relative concepts (for example, "good" and "bad").
  
  With the establishment of the First Federation, as part of the effort to formulate a uniform ontology, the various derived forms of New English and Post-English were standardized as Unic, and a prescriptive regime was monitored by the Unic Institute. With the break-up of the Federation, the Institute was dissolved and Anglic returned to the older English tradition of descriptive lexicons and grammar, although Unic continued to be used as a trade and diplomatic language, and as lingua franca among a few old houses and clades. In addition many words from various ai, vec, trade, and even alien languages have been borrowed into Anglic, and the Anglic language family undergoes frequent dialect transformation, due to its susceptibility to fads.
  
  Anglic remains the single most widely spoken language family in the civilized galaxy. There are no less than ten million different major dialects and sub-dialects, although not more than two dozen of these are spoken widely.
  
• Arabic - Text by Anders Sandberg
  A form of semi-classic Arabic is still spoken in the Core Stellar Umma. In the Shell various mixtures are used, especially the Arabic-Anglic hybrid Anrabic.
  
• Autosentience - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  A Metasoft term for self-awareness or "I-ness". Sentience reflected upon itself.
  
  Autosentient - a being possessing autosentience.
  
  
• Basic - Text by Anders Sandberg
  AI pidgin language based on ontologies and protocols from the First Federation era and functional languages from the early Information Era. Its roots can be traced back to the pre-AI programming language LISP developed in 1955-1959 c.e. (Old Earth reckoning) by J. McCarthy, often credited as the originator of the term 'AI', and artificial languages such as loglan. The name is sometimes corrupted into baisic or aisic by bioids.
  
• Black 7 - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Backgrounder hailing protocol, part of the Backgrounder family of cryptolanguages.
  
• Blazer, Deeper - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Pre-nanoswarm terms for pioneers and adventurers who sort to explore and develop "deep space" (hence "deeper") and "blaze a trail" (archaic expression - origin unknown) out beyond CisLunar space, Mars, the Belt and the main population hubs.
  
• Bogoban I-XI - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Contact language developed by the Institute of Interstellar Xenodiplomacy to initiate contact with aliens or far-claded terragens.
  
• Borg - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic term for a biont who uses radical bio-organ or cyborg augmentation to modify eir phenotype or body.
  
• Bourgatov Collapse - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Another term for a Hyperbolic Denebola collapse
  
• Bourgatov Slavonic Group - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Languages derived from the slavonic language spoken at Bourgatov. After its destruction many minorities fled and developed their own dialects. Spoken as majority languages in many minor outer volume colonies.
  
• Brain Burn - Text by John B
  Solarian slang for suffering severe penalties from improper conduct as imposed by the being's Guide.
  
  Usage - "Him? The drooling one? He wasn't always like that. Brain burn. Word is something to do with too much intellectual pap..."
  
• Brev - Text by Todd Drashner
  Artificial language designed to allow a baseline or near-baseline to communicate the maximum amount of information in the briefest amount of time.
  
  Brev makes use of the entire range of word sounds that the baseline voice is capable of, not just those belonging to a particular language group. Mostly used by those hu who prefer to avoid using direct mind to mind communication links. The written version of the language employs graphic ideograms. Speakers of Brev brag that they can compress an entire life history into into 5 sentences or 3 lines of ideographs.
  
• CACC (Corona AI Council Code) - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Digital language used by many Inner Sphere AIs, vecs, cyborgs and virtuals. Notable for its hypertext structure, enabling parallel or branching discourse.
  
• Chinglish - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  First Federation era hybrid language derived from Anglic, Mandarin and Cantonese, and spoken by ethnic chins.
  
  Today it is only found in House Chin, where it is used for formal occasions, among a few ethnolazurogenic clades, or as a novelty language (like Latin, Esperanto, Vzzman, and other dead languages).
  
• Chins - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, after original concept by Kevin Self
  Originally slang term used to identify a group of Humans claiming relatively pure ancestry of Mongoloid, specifically Earth Chinese, origin.
  During the Federation period the term came to refer to non-Penglaiese (unlike the Penglaiese they still called themselves Chinese) Sol System baseline or near-baseline asiatics, specifically mandarin or more often Cantonese speakers who managed to make it through the dark age. They already had a strong cis-lunar orbital presence and good blue goo, and had the resources to take some of those Chinese following the Great Expulsion.
  
• Clarke's Law - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Some of the technocrat nearbaselines of the NoCoZo use the term "Clarke's Law" instead of femtotech.
  
• Companion [2] - Text by John B
  Hider and Sempterist term of abuse for sophonts dependent on higher toposophic minds
  
  At one time, a term of respect used by SI:>1 intellects for SI:<1>1. These beings were interfaces between the SI:>1 and the surrounding lower S-level culture, allowing for a smooth transfer of resources to the transapient being as needed for minimal transapient effort. Apparently pre-nanodisaster in coining, the term has since taken on a much less beneficent meaning. It is now a pejorative for any being who maintains regular interaction with a higher S-level being in most Hider clades as well as some subcultures in the NoCoZo.
  
• Core Worlds - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  The Sol system and neighboring systems which were the first colonized by terragens.
  
• Coreward - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  [1] In astrogation the direction of the Sagittarius arm and the centre of the galaxy.
  
  [2] in the direction of Sol (more properly termed Solward).
  
• Corpsicle - Text by Anders Sandberg
  A cryonically suspended biont. Originally an Information Era derogatory/humorous term, the word has largely been absorbed into the Anglic language family with no negative connotations.
  
  Also used: Cryonaut
  
  
• Corpsiflakes - Text by John B
  Diminutive term derived from Corpsicles.
  
  A Corpsiflake is an embryo in cryogenic storage. They are created for many reasons, from a need for genetic rewrite to abortion alternative to population pressure gauge to... you name it. The most famous use yet found for corpsiflakes was on Urath around Gemina, a TRHN clade. These persons were morally against enforced abortion and enforced birth control. To maintain survivable population pressures, they came up with the novel idea of freezing embryos as they were created and re-implanting them as members of the society either died or left the planet. Understandably, the backlog of corpsiflakes has grown over time, and any child born today was first conceived approximately 150 years ago. As these people are also against destruction of human life in any form, as the parents of corpsiflakes die or leave the planet, the corpsiflake maintains its place in the queue, and is implanted in surrogate mothers or exowombs as available at the appropriate time.
  
• Cosmoamoeba - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic technical term for the giant space amoebas recently discovered in a number of bright emission nebulae along to the Sagittarius Outer Volume.
  
• Creihtership - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, modified fROM original concept by Kevin Self
  Slang term for Vedokiklek interstellar sub-relativistic (rarely relativistic) freighters (Klhkkteskkdv in the Vedokiklek language, a word that humans have difficulty pronouncing). Propelled by Drive Sails, these mighty ships are entire cities in themselves, with large cargo holds capable of carrying smaller ships and materials, as well as pressurized berths for passengers and biospheres. For the Vedokiklek, these ships serve as complete hives, sustaining an entire colony over multiple generations. Creighterships are generally some 20 to 30 kilometers in length and 3 to 4 km in diameter, with the front heavily shielded against hard radiation and dust-particles, and cargo compartments of upto several cubic kilometers in volume. The largest Creightership currently in service, the kSdhohdkolelkhsohl, is 140 km long and 28 km across.
  
• Cybercosm - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic term for any virchworld in or apart from the Known Net; a subdivision of The Cybercosm.
  
• Cygnese - Text by Anders Sandberg
  The official Cygexpa language, still widely spoken throughout the Cygexba Volume. Part of the Anglish family (derived from New English), although parts are completely artificial.
  
• Daharran - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Anglic term for Daharran language - see Booklet on Daharran Grammar for details regarding Daharran speech and vocal apparati
  
• Dirtsider, Mudballer, Toker, Hokie - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  The Keterist ban on Madvert Ascension, and one biont's response.
  
• Douh - Text by Anders Sandberg
  NoCoZo trade language in the Anglish family, derived from the First Federation Old Anglic Pidgin and Merrionese.
  
• Dulls - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Impolite term Superbrights and near-Superbrights use to refer to those sapients (whether baseline or superior) of lower than their own level of intelligence
  
• Edenese - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Anglish language from Eden. A development of Old Anglic, with many additional nuances. Commonly understood among Inner Sphere worlds and often used in diplomacy.
  
  
• Eridanus Mandarin - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Language family based on the Mandarin-derived Eridanese. Spoken on various widely dispersed planets in the Inner Sphere, former Yoson Confederacy and among many Etodists.
  
• Eudocet - Text by Anders Sandberg
  
  
• Eugenesis - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  
  
• Faiwy Fwoss Tuphz - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Deprecatory term used by Original Tuphz to describe all subverted lodges, and their sentients.
  
• Feral - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  [1] A sapient that seeks to live free of hyperturing supervision; usually with romantic or shock-value associated memes of unpredictability, aggressiveness, lack of hygiene, baseline atavism, etc
  
  [2] Generic term for rogue bionts and malcontents, either dangerous or potentially so to other sapients. Some live a degraded existence in their biospheres and ships (not having the resources of the AIs, the adaptability of the tweaks, the ability of the cyborgs, or the comfort of the AI-devotee nearbaselines). Others, with access to ships, become pirates, black marketeers, and petty thugs.
  
• Flatland, Flatlander - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Flatland: the state of existence beneath the first singularity.
  
  Flatlander: a sentient of SI:<1>
• Fork - Text by Adam Foust, in Anders Sandberg's Transhumanist Terminology
  Use of nondestructive uploading to create an infomorph version of oneself while still keeping the old biological version.
  
• Fundying, Fundying-Up, Pulling a Fundy - Text by Mike Parisi
  Popular colloquialism meaning to act consciously, with deliberation and premeditation, but in such a way that consistently undermines, contradicts, discredits, thwarts, or foils one's own stated or supposed objectives, goals, values, or purpose.
  
  Term apparently originated during the early or mid Information Age in response to the observation that fundamentalists, in speaking-out against a popular song or other recording or the artist responsible for such, inadvertently provided free advertising for the object or eir wrath and thereby increased popular awareness - and usually sales - of the very thing ey were condemning. It is not uncommon in the modern era for clades and polities of an atheistic, agnostic, secular, deist, or simply pragmatic bent, to allow or even give encouragement to fundamentalists in eir midst, for purposes of providing eir populace, especially the clade's or polity's young, with a sort of koan or illustrative example to show why eir clade or polity holds the views it does: "This is why we reject such nonsense."
  
• Gaiacene Epoch - Text by Stephen Inniss
  Used to designate the new geological period on Old Earth from the nanoswarms and the Great Expulsion onwards.
  
• Gaiozoic Era - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Used to designate the geological period on Earth from the Great Expulsion onwards.
  
• Gardeners - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Hyperturing through to lesser archailect political orientation, refers to those ai that will directly encourage and cultivate lower toposophics in their polity or territory, but only along their preferred morphotypal, memetic, and/or political lines. Any sophonts that don't fit in are quickly weeded out. Gardeners are found in all ai metaempires, but are most common in the Sephirotics and Diamond Network regions
  
• GELF - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  [Genetically Engineered Life Form] An old First Federation term, which every so often comes back into favour, for sophont custom-made lifeforms created through significant or total genetic engineering.
  
• Genentics - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Genen Genetekkerese dialect, developed as part of the family historicism of the 2000's. Commonly spoken by Genen, official language on Frog's Head. Part of the Genetekkerese family of languages.
  
• Gigo - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  gigo (noun), gigoical (adj.) results generated from faulty or incorrect original premises
  
• Glacials - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic term for sentients or processes of a much slower metabolic rate or clock speed than one's own. Slow timers, slow-worlders. Naturally each scale up is a glacial compared to the next one down (or in)
  
  (analogy with geological processes)
  
• Godmod - Text by Todd Drashner
  Slang for a bodymod that is designed and/or undertaken by a hyperturing or higher level mind for use on a baseline or near-baseline being. Usually the result of a bargain or deal made between the two. Very highly valued and semi-mythical although there are a few documented instances.
  
  
• Goo - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  General term for nanomachines or bionano swarms, especially dangerous replicators. Types include Grey Goo (mindless replicators converting matter into more goo), Red Goo (weapon or malicious goo), Khaki Goo (military goo), Golden Goo (dangerous accidental goo), Green Goo (out of control bionano) and Ultraviolet Goo ( ai -equipped goo). The most common defence is Blue Goo (immune nanodevices).
  
• Goo, Pink - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Originally humans unmodified (or only slightly tweaked) baseline H. s. Sapiens), later any terragen bionts (mostly but not necessarily hominid).
  
• Good War/Bad War - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  The terms "good war" and "bad war" are expressions used by sapient-level martial forces to differentiate between transapient-regulated actions, usually not involving major forces, and conflicts in unregulated space.
  
  Transapient regulated, usually small-scale, actions are viewed as good because generally civilized rules of war are observed, preventing, among other things, the use of nano, nuclear, amat or singularity weapons, infotech interference (such as might affect or corrupt the making of backups or uploads immediately prior to battle) higher toposophic abuse or cruelty (as defined in the sentient rights agreement), and memetic or psychoneuronal forced conversion, ensure real-time backups, uploads, and avoidance of excessive discomfort, torture or mistreatment of prisoners, to avoid combatants suffering permanent and irreplacable harm. Good wars are usually short and not particularly bloody, are usually the result of a transapient hobby or game, or sapient extreme sports enthusiasts, and most often fought on a space habitat or the surface of a planet or moon where higher toposphic regulation is available (usually including partial angelnetting or equivalent). A unit in a difficult situation need merely surrender and broadcast the relevant signal, and they are removed from combatant status. A war is bad when no such controls are in effect, and military units are subject to the full horrors of war. Military-grade sapients (including mercenaries, martial hobbyists, miltary recreationists, etc) are understandably keen to acvoid bad war situations, subscriptions, or contracts, and those throughout the civilized galaxy are able to. In some cases they may be forced into them, especially in the less regulated outer volumes or in "free zone" and "hider" territory not under the jurisdiction of the sephirotic transapients.
  
• Grav - Text by John B
  Slang term for a negative event or item, especially in the Solarian, THRN, and Keterist empires.
  
  "They grabbed you? That's grav, zar!"
  
  
• Great Apes - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Old term for the primate family Pongidae. Include the gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans. All are presophont. All the species of Pongids were provolved during the Information and early Interplanetary Ages.
  
• Greater Self - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  An avatar or leftbehind's term for the higher toposophic being which directs, guides, incarnates, and/or confers understanding or abilities for that avatar
  
  
• Hwiisi - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Neodolphin language spoken on Hwii and many other mainstream augmented dolphin worlds. Derived from the dolphin language spoken on Okeanos
  (also known as SeaSpeak).
  
• Idiot Loci (aka IL or "ill") - Text by John B
  A term often used by Negentropic clade members to differentiate their (superior, in their eyes) matter compiler system known as Genius Loci versus other clades.
  
  Usage - "I can't get the G. L. to 'fact me that shivverskate. You gotta tell me where that ill is, zar!!!"
  
• Imhotep - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  [1] [historical] administrator/scribe/priest/physician/architect who designed the first pyramid.
  
  [2] [noun or adj.] Generic term for an exceptional su or suborg using augmented reality for eir research. The icon portrait shown here is one of a popular stylized series on great scientists and researchers of the Interplanetary Age, in this case a composite of several of the geneticists involved in telomere research, rejuvenation and anti-agathic hacks. In many cultures even today it is still traditional to give thanks to the Bringers of Immortality when undergoing a gene treatment.
  
• Inactivate - Text by Max More in Transhuman Terminology
  When pertaining to bionts or virtuals - Non-living but not dead (in the permanent sense). A person in biostasis, or one subsisting in data storage, awaiting downloading.
  
  
• Jolonah - Text by Darren Ryding
  (Colloquial) A pitiful, deeply unfortunate person; usually a person who has brought misery upon oneself through ignorance, arrogance, cruelty or other foolishness.
  Example: "Hear about that tourist who got eaten by that sand dragon on Vasilik? Turns out he was a bit of a Jolonah for trying to steal one of her eggs." The term was inspired by a popular travellers' tale about the Collectors.
  
• Key Integrity Span - Text by Fernando Peña D'Andrea
  In the information, knowledge and mind/virch security jargon, the period of time elapsed between the creation of a security, protection, encryption mechanism and it's cracking, subversion or cracking.
  
  Also known as "Murphy span" (corollary of Murphy's law - If a security mechanism can be cracked, sooner or later it will be cracked) almost as a joke in the area.
  
• Krek, Steaming Krek - Text by Stephen Inniss and Steve Bowers
  A synano infestation which has become a common expletive in many parts of the Terragen Sphere.
  
  
• Libspek - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Academic specialty language used for archive and library science.
  
  Libspek was developed during the period of Empires, slowly being updated by the Institute of Information Retrieval on Hollo-Vau and the Encyclopedia Institute on Ken Ferjik. Part of the Anglish family of languages.
  
• Lifegiver - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  (a) term for a Zoeific Biopolity Power or Archai (equivalent to "My Lord", "Blessed One" etc)
  
  (b) polite/respectful term for a Zoeific hyperturing
  
  (c) formal respectful Zoeific term for a superior - equivalent to "Zar" ("Sir") , "Highness" etc
  
  
• Local Net - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Refers to any local subnet of the Known Net. May range from a single habitat intranet to a polity, planetary or interplanetary net.
  
• Logooze - Text by John B
  Common slang term in the outer system for a slug-like device that etches or pigments mottoes or sigils of organizations onto random objects as a form of advertising. Most are bionano systems, but occasional mechanical or neogen variants have been found. there are occasional variants allegedly designed to apply medusa fractals or other aggressive technologies. Occasionally termed "Madvert Goo", especially if self-replicating.
  
• Low Transapients - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  generic term for Minds of less than 2nd singularity; also called SI:1 or basic transapients.
  
• Meatling - Text by John B
  Derogatory term used by some members of vecs or alife clades for bionts or for partially biont beings such as cyborgs.
  
  Has been known to start many a bar brawl or equivalent socially acceptable hostile reaction, from lawsuit to return insult to social stigma to loss of trading privileges.
  
• Meta-idea Languages - Text by Fernando Peña D'Andrea
  Languages, usually parallel, where symbols and tokens are meta-ideas.
  Commonly used by S^4 or greater entities (highest transapients and archailects). These languages can, in principle, describe an idea with perfection, and describe sensation and memory records free of interpretation. Thus, a interlocutor can experience something just through its description.
  
  Baselines can experience such effect if a high-sophoncy being embed an idea directly in eir mind, whatever the means of it, but it's not necessarily considered meta-idea communication by some schools, because there is no understanding from the baseline itself of a meta-idea, but the idea is just inserted in eir mind.
  
• Mindkind - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic clade-neutral Anglic term for all intelligent (sophont) beings, regardless of nature or origin.
  
• MLS 43.7 (Metasoft Linguistic Standard 43.7) - Text by Anders Sandberg
  The current Metasoft language, a digital language derived from the early digital languages of the First Federation Era and the Second Federation Ontology Language.
  
• Multiti - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Artificial language created for political control purposes on Hene (Alpha Scintilla III) during the 6400's. Has become a common language in the Eta Carina Rush.
  
• Nanite - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic term for a molecular or nanoscale device. A nanite may be biological (bionano) or mechanical (dry nano). The latter are also called nanobots.
  
• Nanofab/Nanofac - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Nanofabrication unit, also known as an autofab, autovac, or matter compiler.
  
• Nanomachine - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Pran Mukherjee
  Generic term for a microscopic or molecular mechanical (non-biotic) device, for example a hylonanite or nanobot. It is important to note that nanomachines (and indeed nanites in general) do not have to be nanoscale; they may simply be microscale machines that can manipulate nanoscale objects.
  
• Nanosome - Text by Anders Sandberg, in Transhuman Terminology
  Generic term for any nanodevices (whether hylo or bio) existing symbiotically inside biological cells, doing mechanosynthesis and disassembly for it and replicating with the cell.
  
  
• Near-Human AI - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, after the original in Creating Friendly AI
  Baseline term for "turingrade", an ai, bot, or vec roughly in the vicinity of human intelligence, and capable of interacting with humans as equals. May have some transhuman and some infrahuman abilities or qualities.
  
• Neospecies - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  (1) in Evolution theory - a newly (naturally) evolve species;
  (2) a gengineered species
  
• New Martian - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Form of Martian spoken on New Mars. One of the largest languages among Martian-adapted tweaks. From the Anglic family of languages.
  
• Niu Cygnese - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Simplified trade language descended from Cygnese. Part of the Anglic family of languages.
  
• NoCoNeg - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Anders Sandberg
  Colloquial and semi-humorous term for former NoCoZo systems conquered by the Negentropy Alliance during the Version War.
  
  During the early ComEmp period they caused a lot of discomfort to the Negentropy Alliance by their constant harping for less centralism and more freedom. In the end the Negentropist regional administrations allowed them sweeping liberalizations and generous trade tariffs. Although nominally a part of the Alliance they cannot be relied upon in sensitive situations, and in recent centuries have become more of a semi-autonomous empire of their own.
  
• Normal - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Polite term for baseline human, used among themselves.
  
  Despite being terribly disadvantaged as a result, some baseline humans choose to stay unmodified for religious, political, or ideological reasons. Most normals form their own isolated polities, or - where they take part in civilization - are looked after by kindly hyperturings.
  
• Old Anglish - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Development of Proto-Anglish that was used in First Federation times (at the time it was still called "English"). Derived languages are still common throughout much of the Middle Regions and even some of the Outer Volumes - many modified beyond recognition (and incomprehensible to an Anglic speaker). No longer used in the Inner Sphere.
  
• Old Earth - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic term used to designate Earth before the Expulsion. As well as the literal meaning, and the reference to Terragen origin and ancient baseline history, has various other associated nuances (many ridiculous or exaggerated) including lost paradise, fool's opportunity, pre-archaiocractic human supremacy, unmoderated baseline civilization (positive or negative, depending on context and clade), natural evolution, etc
  
• Orbital - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic term for medium-sized to very large self-contained space habitat or biosphere, usually in L4 or L5 (see Lagrange Points) position relative to a planet, moon, or double star, although conventional satellite orbits are sometimes used as well.
  
  Orbitals come in a vast number of sizes, configurations, and environments, depending on the motivation, tech level, and resources available to their builders. Rotating rings (including Bishop and Banks rings) are preferred for the bigger, megascale orbitals (generally > 100km), rotating cylinders or spheroids (such as O'Neill, Bernal, and other configurations) are common for nearbaseline habitats of about 20 to 100 km long, and rotating toruses are used for smaller orbital (around 1 or 2 kilometers in diameter). Spheres and other forms, even irregular shapes, are also used, especially by microgravity clades. It is estimated that some 65% of non-virtual sophonts live on orbitals
  
• Pacifican Slang - Text by Anders Sandberg
  
  
• Parallel Languages - Text by Fernando Peña D'Andrea
  Defines a group of languages and/or protocols were words, symbols or structured groups of words can be read independently of order.
  Such languages were conceived in order to take advantage of some superior beings or non-sentient systems to process communication units in parallel.
  
• Pet Rock - Text by Todd Drashner with note by Anders Sandberg
  Slang term for a world, terrestrial or otherwise that has had its surface structure modified by a transapient or archai, apparently for the esthetic enjoyment of the creating entity.
  
  Apparently created for reasons similar to why some terragens practice pottery or sculpture. Occasionally found in systems that host archailect primary computing nodes and tools.
  
  Some pet rocks result from interacting MPA and Keter cultures, holding exhibitions of von Neumann art in otherwise unnused systems.
  
• Plebware - Text by Tony Jones
  A name given to the vast mass of ' baseline' virch, AI and alife entities to be found in software systems of various kinds all across Terragens space, usually by those who are ignorant of the truly vast diversity of the entities inhabiting these systems and who, seeing only their similarities when viewed from 'outside', are happy to lump them all together.
  
  
• Post-Expulsion Period - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic name for the eight thousand years of terragen history since the expulsion by the mainbrain GAIA of all but a few sophonts from Earth.
  
• Potentate - Text by Darren Ryding
  
  1. (In Archaipeligo) A recently transcended S2 power.
  2. A low-level S2 power, ranking below a principality. Potentates are usually adept at basic transapientech.
  
  
• Potted Planet - Text by Todd Drashner
  Slang term for a world, terrestrial or otherwise that has been modified by a Power or archai to support life, apparently for no other reason than the creators continued aesthetic satisfaction. Occasionally found in systems that host mainbrain primary computing nodes and tools. Apparently, created for reasons similar to why some terragens create and maintain gardens.
  
  
• Pronouns, Anglish - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  A number of new pronouns became current in Early and Middle Anglic and descended languages as new kinds of sentient being became common.
  
• Psychophager - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  "Soul eater" - generic term for ahuman ai that not only use slaved bionts as subsumed bioprocessing nodes, but pump them with synhormones and memetic suggestions to ensure maximum terror and adrenalin (and hence greatest efficiency). Bionts captured by psychophagers rarely last more than a few years in their original form, but are then replaced by identical cloned copies, or modified to ensure greater sustainability. Not surprisingly, psychophagers are among the most despised of all transapient ai (at least among bionts)
  
  
• Quantumscale - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic term for the size scale at which the nature and behaviour of matter and energy is determined by quantum effects.
  
• Quotes and Sayings - Text by John B, Anders Sandberg, M Alan Kazlev, Keith Halperin, and John Dollan
  
  
• R/L, RL, Real Life - Text by John B
  Non-virtual existence (pron. rill).
  
  This term was originally coined back before the Earth nanodisaster apparently to represent the then-valid dichotomy between 'imaginary' experiences drawn from electronic entertainment media and those experienced in the flesh, without electronic interpretation. This term has since morphed into the more common definition of a personal experience (as compared to another's personal experience) which we're used to in the current day. Contrast with VR.
  
  (Anglic, from Old Earth English "real life")
  
• Rentless Sectors - Text by John B
  NoCoZo derogative slang typically indicating squatter infested properties. May also be used as an insult in many NoCoZo polities. "E's clearly from a rentless sector, hon, leave 'em alone."
  
  
• Rif - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  A ludd, an opponent of ultratech. Sometimes also applied to prims.
  
  [From Rifkinite, from Jeremy Rifkin, early Information Age opponent of genetic engineering and nanotech.]
  
• Samsara - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Popular Buddhist and Sophic term for embodied existence; the state of non-enlightenment.
  
  In a number of religions, especially some schools of Old Earth Buddhism and Hinduism (even up to the first Federation period), existence in the world was seen as an evil, and escape samsara meant completely withdrawing from embodied existence into quiescent nirvana. This is still advocated by some elements of Xenodharama, as well as by Neobuddhist Orthodoxy. In many traditions of Sophism however (especially those with strong Pozen elements), and among the disciples of the Reconstructed Nagarjuna, while samsara is to be rejected for sambodhi, sambodhi itself is not seen as an other-worldly state but as the complete actualization of existence in the universe.
  
  
• Scansolarian - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Solarian language developed on the rimwards transition from Anglic and old Scandinavian elements.
  
  
• SecFed - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Second Federation Ontology Language (various versions). Still spoken in remote regions, although the isolation has led to many mutually incompatible versions.
  
• SMPX, The - Text by Chris Shaeffer
  As with so many terms and sayings the origins of the acronym SMPX have been lost in antiquity. Current thinking among linguistic scholars is that the term first appeared in the early Federation Era when Terragen life began reaching out to the stars. In recent years evidence has surfaced linking it to a much earlier time, perhaps as far back as the Information Age. This new evidence, while credible, is still under peer review.
  
  The term SMPX, or The SMPX, will most often be heard among groups of explorers, scientists and / or ship engineers. The acronym actually means `The Spaghetti Monster from Planet X' and has come to signify any generic threat a crew or vessel may encounter when entering unknown or otherwise unexplored territory. An example of typical usage would be, "They may seem silly now but those amat missiles will come in handy if you run into The SMPX!"
  
• Solarian - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Edenese-descended Anglish language. Used across the Solar Dominion, understood on many worlds. Solarian branched off from Edenese after the formation of the Solar Dominion during the period of major expansion.
  
  
• Sophtware - Text by Todd Drashner
  Colloquial term used to describe sophont to transapient level software based lifeforms whether of virtual, ai, or upload origin. Sophtware entities are usually characterized as not being limited to a single dedicated processor to support their minds but instead operating as mobile blocks of self-referential code able to transfer themselves over information networks and among any group of processing substrates designed to accommodate them.
  
• Space People - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  [1] (archaic) A common early term for Space Adapted Humans, still used by some descendants of the original clade.
  
  [2] (Second Federation era) A term for vacuum adapted tweaks. (rarely used)
  
• Sublect - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  [1] a term for an inferior minds (generally, anything less than SI:1).
  
  [2] a subroutine, a dedicated processing node, a mind that is part of a greater mind.
  
• Survivalist Fallacy - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Modern ai term for the belief among human programmers that true AI required motivational systems linked to individual survival.
  
  As AIs don't naturally have a self protection instinct, to many early AIs the concept of being erased was just one possibility among others, of no particular threat beyond the implied inability to fulfill their current task. There seems to have been a great deal of debate among AI developers whether adding survival instincts was a good thing - some thought it would make the AIs dangerous, others that true AI required motivational systems linked to individual survival.
  
• Technobylatic - Text by Anders Sandberg
  
  
• Technosphere - Text by Mitchell Porter, in Anders Sandberg's Transhuman Terminology
  [1] An expanding sphere of civilization/technology, spreading outwards using von Neumann Probes or simple colonization. Judging from how most life behaves, it will gradually restructure matter and energy inside itself in various ways.
  
  [2] The totality of AI-ruled space.
  
• Terragen - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Any biont, ai, or any other entity, clade, species, or group that either originated on Earth or, more generally, can trace eir ultimate origin and ancestry back to Earth; or any civilization, empire, polity or organization created or maintained by terragen sentients.
  
• To'ul'ho'lo'ss - Text by Stephen Inniss, after the original by Anders Sandberg
  To'ul'h language of ancient origin, traditionally used in record keeping and for intercultural and international communication. A pidgin version is used among their various post-to'ul'h clades and with humans or other xenosophonts.
  
• Toonic - Text by Anders Sandberg
  
  
• Total Touch Environment - Text by Alan Kazlev, based on concept by Ray Kurzweil
  Old (information age) term for any virch environment that provides all-encompassing tactile sensation, whether via hotsuit or DNI.
  
• Transingularity - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  [1] (archaic) SI:1 or higher
  
  [2] (archaic) pertaining to a toposophic level higher than SI:1
  
• Tych - Text by Anders Sandberg
  An ultra-precise language developed in Tycho City that was primarily used in written communication during the late First Federation. Today mainly used for formal declarations and to some extent Negentropic poetry.
  
• Unic - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Universal Language System, developed by the Objectivist Commonwealth
  
  Among the most popular and widely spoken of the AI languages, Unic was developed by Objectivist ai some time during the first federation period, and still lingua franca throughout much of the Commonwealth. The language, which in its pure form is almost unintelligible to SI:<1>
• VA13 - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Emotion oriented artificial language developed at Phobos Olrondi Lang Labs. Makes extensive use of carefully rehearsed gestures and facial expressions. Popular among empaths, especially in the Communion.
  
  
• Vegebrain - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Derogatory term for those ais and uploads that use biocybernetic processing systems instead of totally inorganic materials.
  
• Vegetable Patch - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Slang term for the biofacturing dyson trees and megacomplexes orbiting the superjovian Little Darwin, in the Zoeific Biopolity.
  
• Vir - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Common Anglic root, meaning virch or virtual reality. Used in Academic Coronese and a number of other languages to designate a digital or virch entity.
  
• Virch - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  [noun] virtual reality, any digital space or environment; [verb] to interact with or exist or function in virtual reality. Hence vircher.
  
• Virtual Reality (VR) - Text by John B
  This term was originally coined back before the earth nanodisaster apparently to represent the then-valid dichotomy between 'imaginary' experiences drawn from electronic entertainment (well before the development of virches, which term has a similar provenance), as compared to an experience of the flesh, without electronic interpretation. This term has since morphed into the more common definition of a non-personally shared experience - a memcording, a sim virch, etc, as compared to a personal experience such as a full interactive virch, a physical interaction, etc. Compare with RL.
  
• Wetlet - Text by Fernando Peña D'Andrea
  Name given to organically grown devices that can be plugged to various sort of nanotech or compatible devices, or even bio devices.
  
  The common uses range from medicine-producing glands to (the most common) neural aids. The first transapients made wide use of these devices in order to complement their mental abilities. They're now outdated in most places, save some specific clades.
  
• Whitneey - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Anglish-derived trade language used in the Sagittarius region. Whitneey branched off from Fedspeak (Middle Anglic) during the Second Federation period and especially with the isolation of these communities that followed the destruction of the local stargate nexus during the Version War.
  
  
• Wilds, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Term used by some low sapient clades and cultures from the ComEmp period onwards for the region beyond the Civilized Galaxy - usually romanticized as a place full of exotic barbarian empires, petty local warlords, feral baselines, and rogue aioids, autowars, and archailects. Near-baseline and turingrade virches and interactives are full of adventures in the Wilds, where the hero faces and overcomes innumerable (and exceedingly improbable and fantastic) enemies and monsters.
  
• Wilds, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic term for non-sephirotic terragen space beyond the borders of the Civilized Galaxy.
  
• Wizard's Apprentice Problem - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Failing to give a program or nanodevice a correct stopping condition.
  
• Xenobiont - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic term for alien (non-terragen) lifeform. May be animal-like, plant-like, protistan, exotic chemistry, or any other possibility. Does not have to be sophont. In fact just as on Earth, very few alien species ever evolve any measure of cognitive intelligence.
  
• Yikoh - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Alien language, used mainly by xenologists of the HIE to transliterate alien names.

The Wormhole Nexus

The vastest system ever built by Terragens, the wormhole nexus is a modular and ever expanding network of artificial wormholes, which already spans much of explored space. More than six millennia old, it is still growing at an accelerating pace that shows no signs of abating. While there are several smaller nexi still unconnected to the main network, when one speaks of the Nexus there is no doubt what is being referred to.

The Nexus is more than just a multi-millennial ongoing project, and more than all the billions of physical and exotic matter structures and the quadrillions more support structures, superstructures and maintenance and service ai. It is the symbol of Civilization itself, trumpeted at isolates and xenos and even at other ordinary Terragens, to prove that Sephirotic civilization is the largest, mightiest, greatest empire ever! It allows even the most humble baseline to cross from one end of the known galaxy to the other in only five or six standard months of shipboard transit interspersed with instantaneous wormhole 'jumps'. It is the circulatory system of the entire Terragen bubble, conveying goods, services, data streams, and sentients of all kinds to where they are needed, or where they wish to go.

And yet, for all of its size, cost, and miraculous technology, the Nexus is something that most beings in the galaxy hardly give a second thought to. It is there, always functioning smoothly, allowing the wonderful Terragen civilization to exist and flourish. It works quietly, in the background, like the Known Net. All sophonts are assured that if they want to go somewhere, and provided they have the monetary credit to pay the very reasonable tolls (in those polities that use them) then they can do so without fear to life or limb. While tolls vary from non-existent to exorbitant, depending on the local polity, it is a fact that travel through the Nexus is often easier than travel from one end of a planet or megahabitat to another!

---

The Topology of the Nexus

The topology of the Nexus is tree-like, extending outwards from the Inner Sphere and the imperial capitals. The oldest wormholes connect the inner sphere worlds. From the "bridge" worlds, worlds with many stargates (mainly imperial capitals and special systems) wormholes extend to major provincial capitals. These link to their provinces and more remote regions, where the network becomes more random. Out here there are very few connections between branches, while they are more common the closer you go to the Inner Sphere.

The number of wormholes one needs to traverse varies according to the trip taken. In case of travel from Sol to Kepleria, the Lonely Galaxy Guidebook gives the following advice:

From Sol take the venerable Einstein Bridge to Tau Ceti, the Akiyoshidai to Djed, and then the Kepler Arc to Kepleria. Just three jumps. The trip would mostly involve resting in light stasis in a shuttle connecting to grapeships moving through the wormholes - it is only a few weeks stopover in each system at most.

In the case of a longer journey from Vast Endeavour to the Chronos Cluster, things are more complex. Again citing the Lonely Galaxy travelbook:

At Vast Endeavour you first take the wormhole to Alauda, a minor NoCoZo world (a wormhole link directly to Merrion is intended to arrive shortly in the Bazaar project, which will render the Alauda link obsolete). Alauda connects to Frei (very central), which connects to Merrion. Merrion has a direct link to Pardes, where you can go to Nova Schiaparelli (capital of the West Cygnus Region), Sy (intermediary system in the outer Veil region) and finally to Orwell in the Chronos cluster. Seven jumps; generally this should be fairly quick although there are administrative troubles at Sy.

THE SARO-MBUNA/RODUIMO AFFAIR ORION'S ARM

The Saro-Mbuna - Roduimo affair

Although in the field there have been a few incidents between competing expeditions, academically there is much exchange between the Institutes in the Inner Sphere.

One incident happened soon after the rise of the HIE. An arrogant young post-doc, Yosh Saro-Mbuna, frustrated with the seeming impossibility of career advancement at the very conservative and to him, anti-meritocratic Eden Institute's dept. of Xenopaleology (they just didn't recognize his genius), did the unthinkable and joined the HIE (a sign of the recruitment trend to come). Saro-Mbuna, a brash and rather uncivil scientist, deeply offended his mentor (and tenured-for-life superior in rank) Kenth Roduimo. This resentment was unfortunate as both learned of an alien city on the Type-L moon 72 Aurigae VII-B through a shared contact, the artifact-pirate Loretta Akim. (In those days such 'contacts' were more common, for beneath the conservative veneer the Eden Institutes were in a period of heavy infighting and corruption, and the new HIE was not any more ethical in early dealings as its young members tried to score a coup that would bring them to leadership before the HIE became as rigid and lethargic as the EIXp).

Saro-Mbuna and Roduimo both managed to secure grants, charter starships and arrive at 72 Aurigae within a month of each other (there being only one wormhole at the time going anywhere near there). The two rivals hardly spoke to each other, each setting up on opposite sides of the ice/mud continent surrounding the alien outpost complex. In the rush to excavate and try to be the first to find an inscribed "rosetta stone" or repairable technology, scientific procedures were barely observed (and mainly thought of when each man tried to document the other's incompetence). Roduimo ignored the plight of a HIE team trapped in a cave-in; Saro-Mbuna stole emergency supplies mistakenly airdropped near his camp by a EIXp shuttle. Soon each team started manufacturing fake alien relics and burying them where the rival team would find them.

There were few ways this incident could end well; it was probably fortunate that the alien site turned out to have been looted not only by Akim (on the surface only) but also by some other species that had dug into the base 3 million years ago, so that little valuable was lost. Saro-Mbuna was eventually tied up and forced to leave by several of the HIE grad students who had tired of his act, while Roduimo was badly injured and several of his team killed when trying to desperately find other sites on the moon during an ammonia- ice storm (although Roduimo blamed his poorly-chosen shuttle pilot, not his own vengeful mindset, for the crash).

After the two expeditions returned, the Council of the HIE revoked Saro-Mbuna's funding and proposed to some of the younger of their EIXp colleagues that a 'scientific ethics' agreement be formalized and publicized. It took some time before enough of these scientists had worked their way up to leadership on Eden, but eventually the rules, adopted in the year 5827, were instrumental in reducing the degree of corruption in the scientific organizations and minimizing the degree of competition, although never eliminating it outright.

Roduimo is famous for having his brain preserved so that his neural density could be proven superior to Saro-Mbuna's. Unfortunately Saro-Mbuna's third expedition into the territory of the Ejkahh'illlauah cloudgulpers disappeared without a trace, so the comparison never took place, and Roduimo's brain was later auctioned off by Vija Akim, granddaughter of the famous pirate and head of the Inner Sphere Alien Artifact Auction House (ISAAAH).

ECOTOPIA ENCYLOPEDIA GALACTICA VOLUME 21

Ecotopia

The Ecotopia Labworlds form a ring of different types of world where new species and ecologies can be tested

Ecotopia - The Capital World of the Zoeific Biopolity Data Panel
System	Ecotopia
Primary:	Gliese 722 (HD 172051)
Stellar Class:	G5V
Luminosity:	0.67 x Sol
Distance from Sol:	42.35 ly
Constellation:	Sagittarius
Classification:	Inner Sphere Imperial Capital
Planets:	all original planetary material since converted to dyson swarm and other objects, including artificial planets of various kinds
Dysonology	The Shell: Surrounding the central star of Ecotopia, and intercepting some 85% of its entire output is a 'Dyson bubble' of actively controlled thin film solar collectors suspended above the star by light pressure. The collector array hovers some 30 million kilometers (well beyond the extent of even the largest flares) above the surface of Gliese 722 and beams the collected energy to locations throughout the Ecotopia system. Open gaps within the Shell along its equator and at 45-degree angles above and below the equatorial plane allow sunlight to escape and provide illumination to the areas known as the Lab and the Wald. Energy from the Shell is used for a variety of purposes including general population support, environmental restructuring of Lab components, exotic matter production, pico- and femto- manufacturing processes, and providing energy to a dozen Jovian-class processor nodes (known as Zoe's Pearls) orbiting in the outer system. The Forge: Hovering just above the furnace of Gliese 722 on a network of mass-beam supports is the large matter extraction and processing complex known as the Forge. The Forge uses a combination of cycling mass-beams, magnetic pressure, and artificial nucleosynthesis to extract matter from the surface of the star and transmute it into useful materials. When first constructed, the Forge was a much larger structure that, in combination with the mass of several large gas giants that were originally in the system, provided the material for the various megastructures that would come to define the Ecotopia complex. The Lab: Orbiting within the equatorial plane of the star, and extending across its entire life-zone is the region known as The Lab. The Lab consists of some 3 million habitats ranging from several kilometers to several thousand kilometers across, over 38,000 Lunar- class bodies, and some 321 terrestrial-class planets. Each component of the Lab is supported by a computronium node ranging from one meter to ten km in diameter, depending on component size. These nodes are used to oversee and control environmental conditions on/within each component as well as modelling possible environments, terraforming techniques, and lifeforms that may be introduced into the component at a future time. Furthermore, many of the terrestrial-class components feature a cyber-augmented BGC layer beneath their surfaces, which works in coordination with the orbiting node to regulate conditions 'on the ground' through a combination of methods ranging from orbital mirrors to specialized nanobot swarms. The combined total of all the computronium nodes in the Lab and its associated clusters acts as a direct extension of the mind of the Blue-Green Goddess who oversees the entire system. The Wald: (pronounced Vald) Orbiting at 45-degree angles from the equatorial plane of the Ecotopia system and passing through the plane of the Lab (and each other) via a combination of carefully placed orbits and even more carefully controlled orbital maneuvering are the massive, dual bands of orbital forest and habitat known as the Wald. Each band consists primarily of dense concentrations of orwood free-space trees supporting an ecology many times larger than the entire habitable volume of thousands of planets. Interspersed among the clusters of orwood forest are habitats, freespheres, computronium banks, spaceports, and various small to medium scale manufacturing centers. Some species of orwoods produce a bluesky style membrane to contain an atmosphere. However, the original orwood design, and the one that is still most commonly used, has the orwood developing a series of large, natural hollow spaces within its trunks and major branches. These spaces contain atmosphere, water, and symbiotic organisms and biospheres designed for human accommodation. And biological airlocks for travel into and out of the interior of the tree itself. Most orwood species also incorporate an external, vacuum living ecology as well as the interior biosystem. In areas with large vac-adapt populations a species of tree may be used that emphasizes this type of ecology instead of an interior one. The majority of Ecotopia's population lives within the Wald, with only small colonies (generally 10-150 million sophonts) making their homes on those worlds of the Lab that are in final testing mode as habitable biospheres.
Important Local Artificial Intelligence	AI Overseer:= The Blue-Green Goddess AI's Ethos: Strongly Bioist, terraformist, favours building habitable megastructures to maximise opportunities for life, interventionist (often aggressively so) but will be careful not to attack a stronger/higher toposophic foe, also experiential, joy and immersion in diversity of life, will intervene against ahuman ai, by methods including femtotech and relativist weaponry, if any Biopolity habitats or colonies are threatened. AI's Current allegiance: Imperial Capital of the Zoeific Biopolity
Polity	Name: The Zoeific Biopolity
Terraforming and The Lab:	Each component of the Lab is essentially a world sized 'test tube' used to develop, test, and eventually record successful terraforming designs for use elsewhere. Using energy from the Shell, the surface (and in the case of the shellworld and habitat components, the interior) of each world within the Lab is first sculpted into a desired configuration and then terraformed into a complete, self-sustaining ecosystem. Ecosystem design may range from Venusian/To'ul'hian to Martian in general outline. In some cases, existing life-forms are introduced, in others neogenic forms are created and a hybrid, or even completely original, ecosystem is produced. Once a given world within the Lab is fully terraformed and ready for occupation, a small 'Tester' population is introduced (usually 10-150 million sophonts) and inhabits the world for a period of time deemed sufficient to ensure that all of its various systems are operating properly. After the world has been thoroughly tested and deemed completely functional, nanotechnic disassembler/recorders are released into the world's ecosystem and reduce its mass back into its component molecules while creating a complete recording of the biosphere for storage within the mind of the Lifegiver. The entire process of ecosystem design, terraforming, testing, and eventual recording and storage is controlled by the orbiting computronium node (and by the on-planet BGC layer, if such exists). There are no single, permanently named worlds within the Lab. Rather, the various bodies making up the structure are assigned alphanumeric designators to aid in cataloging and experiment tracking. However, by tradition each body, regardless of type or class, is assigned a temporary name as part of being 'launched' into its Testing mode, which may last a thousand years or more.
Psyche, Art, Culture, Government and Administration	Metapsychology, Art, Culture, Society, Ideology, Language: See main entry on Zoeific Biopolity Government, Legal system, Constitution: See main entry on Zoeific Biopolity
Economics and Local Infrastructure	Major Industries: biosphere templates, biotech, wetware, genome licensing, biopico-interfaces, Crude Organobiota, Ecological and phylogenetic databases, terraforming technology, orwood cultivation, bioborg technology, neogenic production, evolution-immersives, bio-hedonics, pharmacopoeia, distributed biocomputronium processing, etc. Angelnetting: Angelnetting is employed to various degrees throughout the Wald, depending on the desires of the inhabitants of a given district or region. Within the Lab, partial netting may be employed as part of the terraforming process or to provide sensor inputs for ecological monitoring. Beyond sensor applications however, angelnetting on a world being Tested within the Lab is either restricted to major habitation centers or virtually non-existent. However, implanted Backup technology is used extensively on virtually all Ecotopia worlds. Major Orbitals: The two orbital bands that make up the Wald are each over 100,000km across and some 950 million km long. The majority of each band consists of large orwood clusters supporting over a dozen free space ecologies broken up into distinct habitats that are being allowed to gradually intermix in an evolutionary progression. Scattered throughout the orbital forests are more conventional habitat clusters of various designs and styles depending on the nature and desires of the local population. However the majority of the sophonts within the Ecotopia system make their home within the hollow interiors of the orwoods and their various associated organisms. Beyond the Wald, a number of large habitat clusters, some incorporating planetary bodies, have been set up in the deep inner and outer parts of the system. These 'extremophile clusters' are used to develop various lifeforms and ecosystems (some of them more cybernetic then biological) designed to exist and thrive in environments ranging from the heat of Perihelion to the cryogenic cold of Muuhhome. While these more recent habitat clusters are only a fraction of the size of the Wald (the largest is only 100,000km across), it is generally considered only a matter of time until they to grow to encircle the sun of Ecotopia and the terms 'Inner Wald', 'Outer Wald', and 'Middle Wald' will need to be added to the local vocabulary. Beyond this future goal, some visionary advocates are already talking about the growth of the local biosystems beyond their current orbital paths to eventually create the 'Green Matrioshka'.
Population	Total system population of the Ecotopia Dyson complex is currently some 3 trillion sophonts ranging across a broad range of clades, types, and species.

DEORVN ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA VOLUME 21:09G IBID

Deorvyn

Most of the Clade Darwin transapients are unremarkable residents of one of the Sephirotic polities, or wandering explorers and researchers along the periphery of the Terragen sphere. Their common interest in sophont and subsophont level beings generally and bionts in particular has always been benign. The actions of Deorvyn and eir various copies are a particularly striking example of the fact that every rule has its exceptions, especially where the behaviour of transapients is concerned. Though explanations that come directly from transapient sources are contradictory, most sophont-level “godwatchers” believe that Deorvyn is one of the proofs that transapients, even such extraordinarily stable transapients as the Darwins, are as vulnerable to insanity as any other entity.

Deorvyn was originally a member of the Zoeific Biopolity, and appears to have had an unremarkable origin at Ecotopia in the late 35th century AT. There were reportedly Caretakerist, THRN, and MPA transapients involved in eir genesis, but such collaborative involvement in the creation of new individuals is quite common in Clade Darwin. For several hundred years Deorvyn was engaged in various projects at Ecotopia. Later e migrated to Ao Lai, where e seems to have been resident as an observer or worker of some kind (transapients from the IPP have given this description, but have declared it to be incomplete). E showed great interest in the Burning Library Project, and acquired data from the old Genen records in Solsys during eir residency at Ao Lai. E then departed for NoCoZo space, and seems to have been an agent for some aspect of the Argus Array there, but also to have acquired considerable resources of eir own, using methods that were particularly ruthless even according to local standards. During this period Deorvyn became increasingly reclusive outside of eir business dealings. Some time during the events leading up to the Version War e took the name “Deorwyn,” which is simply a more ancient form of the name Darwin, and according to experts may be translated as “friend of animals,” or possibly simply “good friend” in the Old Earth language ancestral to Anglish. Not long afterward e changed eir name again to Deorvyn (no sophont has divined the meaning of this subtle change) and departed for an undisclosed location along the NoCoZo frontier. Eir actions thereafter are a matter of conjecture, since neither Deorwyn nor any of eir descendants survived subsequent events.

According to those who have reconstructed events, “Deorvyn” arrived in the NewLife system in the late 4500’s and began extensive development: power generation in the inner system, mining of the moons and gas giants in the outer system, and rapid terraforming of NewLife II and III. NewLife II was altered to produce a full Terragen style biosphere, though Deorvyn chose not to alter the planet’s 42 degree tilt and the extreme seasonality of the resulting climates. NewLife III was altered from its original dry airless rockball state to an intermediate Gaean/Arean world, similar to terraformed versions of the various “Martian” worlds. E then “unpacked” a very large library of biological information, created more than 400,000 copies of eirself, and began what might be regarded as some form of transapient game or experiment, one that grew increasingly bizarre over the centuries and eventually ended in what can only be called the transapient equivalent of madness and suicide.
Each copy of Deorvyn lay claim to an area on the surface of one of the two habitable planets, and created a unique sophont clade. These varied from slight variants on human nearbaselines (apparently a favourite theme among the Deorvyns) to some extraordinary and bizarre inventions such as the Kanumae or the Seedfolk (both of NewLife II) or the Red Masters who eventually came to dominate NewLife III. Most of these sophont clades were highly ingenious or original in their design but many were not particularly viable outside of their original habitat. In fact most of the Deorvyn copies seem to have purposely created clades with significant flaws, disabilities, or shortcomings. All of the clades were originally created to live in primitive environments, with little or no technology. A few achieved some measure of higher technology, comparable to Old Earth Agricultural Age or at most early Industrial Age levels. The notable exception was that of the Red Masters. These, perhaps due to aspects of their unique predatory/parasitic habits and to their Superior level intelligence in certain key areas, eventually achieved an interplanetary level technology. However, the vast majority of the Deorvyns’ creations remained in primitive squalor, with short natural lives, for the entirety of their clade’s short existence. Each Deorvyn remained as a sort of “god” of eir own clade’s territory. Eir level of intervention in eir creations’ societies varied from none at all (the most common strategy) to that a sort of primitive deity who might or might not require worship or sacrifice and might or might not serve an oracular function. Perhaps of their own accord or perhaps due to memetic nudging by the Deorvyns, the clades tended to come into conflict. Over the next millennium or so, this mad patchwork was kept in continual ferment on both planets. On occasion one clade managed to exterminate another. On such occasions the “winning” copy of Deorvyn subsumed the loser. On rarer occasions, according to some pattern discernible only to the Deorvyns, another Deorvyn copy would arise, together with an associated clade, and occupy a vacant region.

By the early 5300’s there were still more than 500 clades extant in the fertile seas and forests of NewLife II, though most occupied marginal territories and were apparently destined for extinction. On NewLife III the Red Masters had achieved dominion, and ruled 20 or so subsapient clades; these were descendants of former sapient groups that existed only in highly modified forms as servants to the Red Masters. This single overarching civilization had achieved Early Information Age level technology, including crude interplanetary travel and genetic engineering. This was based on primarily on eir own discoveries and inventions, though also in part on those of the extinct NewLife II clades they had conquered and some scavenged technology abandoned by the Deorvyns. At some point the Deorvyns had ceased to maintain the terraforming on NewLife III, and so the global climate began to deteriorate. As a result the Red Masters began a movement to colonize the habitats of NewLife II. None of the other Deorvyns opposed this activity, and it is believed that the Deorvyn attached to the Red Masters actively encouraged it.

Cliological simulations indicate that without interference the Red Masters would have eventually subjugated both of the system’s planets, and exterminated or enslaved the remaining clades, leaving a single remaining copy of Deorvyn. However, this did not occur. The cause of this was the action of a minority clade on NewLife II that came eventually to be known as the Kanumae. The full tale of the Kanumae and their long struggle is perhaps best told in their own sagas, but Kanuma art forms are rather inaccessible to most other sophonts. The most popular adaptation of those stories is “The Serpentstooth Rebellion,” a cooperative work by the human translator and historian Elias Zamiatin and the vec fabulist Iridium Seeker.

The Kanumae, due to their unique form of mentality, included some extremely long lived personalities, capable of equally long range planning. Moreover, they managed to achieve brief flashes of transapient insight as a composite mind in some of their larger populations. They had long been aware of the Deorvyns, and when the Red Masters arrived they organized a resistance. By themselves the Kanumae would have been unable to carry out such a task, given their small size, weak manipulative appendages, aquatic habitat, and low technological level. However they managed to engineer a surreptitious alliance that included some of the Seedfolk and one of Deorvyns’ less damaged human nearbaseline tribes. After some initial successes, the invasion and colonization of NewLife II stalled, due to memetic sabotage and biological warfare by the insurgents. This by itself would not have been sufficient, but the Kanumae were able to use their land-borne allies to infiltrate the primitive information networks of the Red Masters. They were able to monitor and interpret signals the Red Masters had received from nearby systems, which had recently been settled by some early Terragen colonist clades (mostly human nearbaselines, Tavi, and Fabers). Using a combination of stolen and hijacked equipment, they managed to send coded signals that were received and decoded at Nova Anantarivoa, an orbital arcology in the Thorin system. Neither the Anantirivoans nor any of the other settlements in the system took any action, but a transcript of the decoded broadcast was published on the Known Net by a Francisclaran missionary who was active in the area. Eventually this information attracted the attention of an S2 entity known as Amida19, who gained the support of some Zoeific and Negentropist backers to intervene. This was a contravention of the Tragadi Accords according to some experts, though others state that provisions of the Sentient Rights agreements allow such action by sophonts who are signatory to those provisions.

The relativistic rescue mission did not arrive until 5603. By that time the Red Masters had subjugated nearly all of NewLife II, and those who had planned the broadcasts were long dead (in the case of the Humans and Seedfolk) or enslaved or in hiding (in the case of the Kanumae). The Deorvyns one and all quietly committed mass suicide and erased all of their subsidiary records some time in the years preceding the invasion/rescue, presumably when they detected the arriving rescue fleet. Their last avatars perished only a few months before the first members of Amida19’s mission were entering the system.

The discoveries in the NewLife system were a several years wonder on the Known Net, and a major embarrassment for any person or polity with connections to the Deorvyn transapients. The Biopolity claims to have discovered a “vulnerability to memetic hacking” in the original Darwin design, one involving the “sensory systems and memeplex seeds.” They and most members of Clade Darwin claim to have made changes that will “reduce the frequency” of any future incidents. However there has been no consistent explanation as to who might have been the author of the alleged “tampering.” Conspiracy theorists have suggested any of a number of possible culprits behind the events in the NewLife system. Just a few of these supposed sources are the Cyberian Network (a prank gone badly wrong), the NoCoZo (an outgrowth of their “competition” meta-ethic), Metasoft (an attempt to embarrass the Biopolity), unknown xenosophonts sending signals through the Argus Array (to disrupt Terragen civilization) or the Institute for Primate Provolution (because of the disproportionate number of human clades in Deorvyn’s experiments, and Deorvyn’s connection with the IPP). The most frequent accusation is that the entire event was a Biopolity experiment that got out of hand. Sceptical independent sophontologists on the other hand point out that transapients, just like any other beings, sometimes lose their sanity through a combination of innate weaknesses and unique personal circumstances.

Various organizations have made much of the Deorvyn incident (or, as some describe it, the Deorvyn Atrocities, or the Deorvyn Rebellion). Anti-transapient groups hailed the “destruction” of Deorvyn by the Kanumae and their allies, Francisclarans have pointed out their key role in freeing the NewLife clades, and many within the Sephirotic regions have advocated an expansion of Sephirotic control into the less settled regions of the Terragen sphere for the protection of all concerned.

The surviving clades in the NewLife system provided a considerable challenge for the various aid agencies involved. Biopolity experts from centres such as Ecotopia, as well as members of independent specialist organizations such as the Institute for Primate Provolution were active in the NewLife system for several centuries after Deorvyn abdicated ownership. Deorvyn’s creations were extraordinarily diverse, and showed extraordinary inventiveness, but many were not viable in Terragen civilization. Some of the least functional are now extinct by one means or another. These either chose, when they fully understood their situation, to end their clade by failing to reproduce, or modified themselves or their descendants and are essentially a new clade, or have chosen to blend with a compatible existing clade (this last was the fate many of the human-derived clades, who have vanished into the human nearbaseline population). Of the remainder, most are now in protected enclaves, under Utopia Sphere auspices. The Red Masters themselves were consigned to their own quarantined system, and remain there under the care of their transapient keepers.

Related Articles

• Darwin, Clade

TRANSHUMANIST RESOURCES VOLUME FOUR

Transhumanist Resources

'What is a human being, then?'
'A seed.'
'A... seed?'
'An acorn that is unafraid to destroy itself in growing into a tree'

David Zindell, The Broken God

Transhumanism is a philosophy that humanity can, and should, strive to higher levels, both physically, mentally and socially. It encourages research into such areas as life extension, cryonics, nanotechnology, physical and mental enhancements, uploading human consciousness into computers and megascale engineering.

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Introduction to Transhumanism

The resources at this site are divided into five spheres of interest:

The Individual Sphere

Practical methods and visions of transforming ourselves, achieving longevity or immortality, conquering death and disease, amplifying our intelligence and minds and extending our bodies.

The Global Sphere

The future evolution of humanity, postbiological existence, technological singularity, posthuman beings, expansion into the universe and the Omega Point.

The Cultural Sphere

The philosophy, ethics, art and language of transhumanism, and how society, culture and "the human condition" may change in the future.

The Technological Sphere

The technologies making things possible: nanotechnology, biotechnology, space colonization and advanced computing, and the outer limits of technology: megascale engineering and spacetime manipulation.

The Organisational Sphere

Transhumanist organizations, web pages, mailing lists and related subjects.

About this Web.

HISTORICAL ATLAS VOLUME 12

THE HAMILTON INSTITUTE OF EXOPALEONTOLOGY
Historical Atlas

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Hamilton Institute of Exopaleontology long-range exploration ship/relic-piracy control cruiser Tripitaka approaches the GD Anolis binary star system. A 395 million year old space colony ruin was salvaged from its orbit around the current innermost planet (originally the fourth or fifth planet before the expansion of GD Anolis A into an unstable Type-K supergiant). The alien ruin would soon have been destroyed by the dying star if not preserved.

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This site is under constant revision as new discoveries are made and updated entries are added by our hard-working exopaleontology postdocs and graduate students.

The purpose of this Atlas is to provide a quick reference guide to the ever-expanding database on extinct alien civilizations. The Hamilton Institute of Exopaleontology is the leading research organization dedicated to uncovering the secrets of lost races. Besides academic knowledge, we hope that this Atlas also gives the reader a sense of awe at both the distances encompassed by some of the great extinct Empires and also the eons of time which are filled with once-thriving civilizations, rising and falling even before life evolved on Earth.

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The Atlas will be arranged by galaxy, listing the known civilizations in reverse chronological order from most recent (including living species) to the most ancient. The timeline below represents our local region, the Orion Arm of the "Milky Way Galaxy". Most translations of alien names are from the Second Empire Yikoh using the Cheng-Bolinger transliteration system (if the original name that an extinct species used for itself is known it will be substituted). The timeline is divided based on the geologic history of Sola III and years are Earth Standard Years. ESY-1 is the year that the first human being walked on Sola-III-A [Apollo 11 mission, chemical-fuel technology level, United States of America].

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RECENT HISTORY

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• The Eridanus League (from the Human Realm)

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TERRAN CENOZOIC ERA: Quaternary

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• PTHARC RESA REPUBLIC
  • A summary of the phylogenetic history of the species and its ancestors

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• UNNAMED INTERSTELLAR CIVILIZATION COS-E
  • Overview
    (Further information needed for threat assessment).

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• Major Events, 600,000 years ago: The "Muuh" are slaughtered by a fleet of automated war machines and only a few colonies are spared
  

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• Major Events, 800,000 to 1.2 million years ago: The "Muuh" achieve spaceflight and interstellar travel
  

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TERRAN CENOZOIC ERA: Tertiary

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• THE "Doreens" [INTERPLANETARY CIVILIZATION HIE500CZE=HIE282RZE/D1] (extinct 4 million years ago)
  
  • Summary
  • Note: evolved from life forms left behind by "Halogenics" on the planet Omicron Afri III nearly 780 million years before, but culturally completely unrelated.
  • Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No known interstellar travel)
  
  
  

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• THE IAHI DAON COLONIAL EMPIRE (extinct 7.2 million years ago)
  
  • Overview of the Iahi Daon Colonial Empire
  • Focus on the Iahi Daon home solar system, Alpha Jupkai
  • Focus on the Iaho Daon homeworld and biology
  • Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No evidence that territory extended to our solar system)
    
    

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• UNNAMED INTERSTELLAR CIVILIZATION HIE121CZE (disappeared 31 million years ago)
  
  • Overview
  • Homeworld: Possibly destroyed/devastated
  • Biology: Info to be added later
  • Impact on Earth's evolution: Uncertain
  
  
  

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• THE "Tunnlers" [INTERSTELLAR CIVILIZATION HIE441CZE] (extinct 33 million years ago)
  
  • Summary of discovery and exploration
  • Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No evidence territory extended to our solar system)
  
  
  

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TERRAN MESOZOIC ERA

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• Major Events, 78 million years ago: The "Muuh" evolve into a sapient civilization
  

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• Major Events, 90 million years ago: The "Jacks" form their most recent civilization, which collapses after 82,000 years
  

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• UNNAMED PLANETARY CIVILIZATION HIE565MZE (disappeared 125 million years ago)
  
  • Overview
  • Homeworld: Info to be added later
  • Biology: Little information
  • Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No known interstellar travel)
  
  
  

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TERRAN PALEOZOIC ERA

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• THE HOV'S'SA (vanished 312 million years ago)
  
  • Overview of the Hov's'sa incident
  • Focus on the Hov's'sa home solar system, Rho Bentharis
  • Focus on the Hov's'sa homeworld and biology
  • Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No evidence that territory extended to our solar system)
    
    

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• Alien object "Omicron Hygeras 152-3343 Gm-A" (appeared 400 million years ago)
  
  • Summary
    

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• Major Events, 451 million years ago: The "Jacks" rise from dormancy and form a new civilization, which collapses after 56,000 years
  

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TERRAN PROTEROZOIC EON

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• THE PTEMR EMPIRE (disappeared 678.3 million years ago)
  
  • Overview of the Ptemr Empire
  • Homeworld: Little is known about the Ptemr homeworld
  • Biology: The Ptemr have been described as winged, however there is no evidence they were flying creatures. Perhaps the 'wings' were vestigal, or ornamental, or even part of a uniform. The Ptemr also apparently had at least two manipulator-tentacles or tails instead of jointed limbs. Nothing is known about their evolution.
  • Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 to 1--there is evidence that a Ptemr listening post was established on Triton (Sola-VIII-G) but as the frontier shifted that satellite was abandoned. The Ptemr had little use for the intelligent or near-intelligent Exn slave races, so it is hypothesized that the early chordates and other primitive life on Earth at the time were ignored.
  
  
  

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• THE EXN EMPIRE (extinct 678.4 million years ago)
  
  • Overview of the Exn Empire
  • Homeworld: Little is known about the Exn homeworld
  • Biology: The Exn were probably vaguely humanoid with crystalline partial-exoskeletons. Little else is known about their biology.
  • Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No evidence that territory extended to our solar system)
  
  
  

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• THE "Halogenics" [INTERSTELLAR CIVILIZATION HIE282RZE] (extinct 780 million years ago)
  
  • Summary
  • Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No evidence territory extended to our solar system)
  
  
  

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• Major Events, 788 million years ago: The "Jacks" re-appear after having disappeared for unknown reasons; their new civilization collapses after 112,000 years
  

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• THE MRUTA EMPIRE (extinct 1.1 billion years ago)
  
  • Overview of the Mruta Empire
  • Focus on the Mruta home solar system, 23 Vagrai
  • Focus on the Mruta homeworld and biology
  • Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No evidence that territory extended to our solar system)
    
    

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• Major Events, 1.1 billion years ago: The "Jacks" a species of floaters occupying Type-J planets, appear for the first time, but unlike many Jovian species their civilization is short-lived and cyclical. The species disappears after a few tens of thousands of years in space.
  

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ARCHEOZOIC/ARCHEAN EON

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HADEAN EON

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PRETERRAN EON (BEFORE THE FORMATION OF EARTH, SOLAR SYSTEM: 4.5 byp)

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• UNNAMED INTERSTELLAR CIVILIZATION HIE236XZE (disappeared 6-7 billion years ago)
  
  • Overview
  • Homeworld: Little is known except possible Planet Type
  • Biology: Little information except possible Evoltype
  • Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (Predates formation of Sola III)
  
  
  

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(FORMATION OF STARS IN THE MILKY WAY GALAXY)

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(FORMATION OF THE KNOWN PHYSICAL UNIVERSE)

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Refer to the glossary of terms and definitions used in the historical atlas

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How to contact the Institute

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An article on molecular phylogenetics explains some of the analysis techniques used to decipher the history of ancient civilizations by looking at their surviving offshoot species.

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More information on Human life in The Orion Arm

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Institute format developed by Aaron Hamilton, with additional entries by Orion Arm contributors.

Ultimate Chip

Colloquial term for a class of diamondoid based processing devices used as the fundamental unit for constructing
Second Singularity mind cores as well as various other applications.

A basic processor consists of a diamondoid block measuring 1cm x 1cm x 1mm in size and massing approximately .352 grams. A UC typically operates at a baseline comfortable temperature of 300 degrees Kelvin with an input power of approximately 100 watts. Ultimate chips use phonon (quantized vibration packets) based computation and data transmission methods which are much more efficient than photon based designs at temperatures below ~1000 degrees Kelvin in a diamondoid substrate.

A single Ultimate Chip is capable of processing some 5.09911 E21 bits per second and storing approximately 4.88 E20 bits within its structure. When linked to other processing units or external transmission devices designed to operate in the phonon regime it is capable of transmitting information at bandwidth rates of 8.77 E23 bits per second.

Ultimate chips were originally invented by the first Second Singularity (S2) intelligences as part of the effort to move their minds into more efficient substrates. Seeking to move from the massive networks of linked nanocomputers that initially housed them at the time of their transcension beyond the First Singularity, the early S2 developed processors that seemed to push computation to the very limits of conventional matter. By linking vast numbers of such chips together they were able to create processing substrates that, while still quite large in comparison to the brains of First Singularity minds, were only a fraction of the size of the original processors the S2 began on.

In the modern era Ultimate Chips continue to form the basis for Second Singularity minds as well as many of their technologies. They also provide the foundation for the computation and communication networks of a number of civilizations. Even those cultures with access to Third, Fourth, or even higher singularity level technologies will often use ‘Ultimate’ chips to operate their lower level communication and processing nodes.

TROPOSOPHIC LEVEL AND BRAIN SIZE ORION'S ARM

Toposophic Level and Brain Size S0-S2

Processing Substrate Parameters, from Modosophont level to the Second Singularity

Terragen civilization is inhabited by a vast diversity of intelligent beings of myriad levels and types of mind. An ancestral human of pre-Information Age Old Earth could be confident of being roughly equal in intelligence and capability to all of their peers, based simply on the fact of their shared humanity. A sophont in the modern era faces a much more complex set of considerations.

Intelligence in the modern galaxy may be based on organic or inorganic substrates. It may be naturally evolved, genetically engineered, or designed from the atoms up for a specific purpose or with specific abilities emplaced either by itself or its creator. It may be of any of seven toposophic levels (S0-S6) or may be of one S-level in most regards but with specific, engineered toposophic (or transavant) ‘spikes’ in particular areas of intelligence or ability. It may be concentrated (operating within a single processing node), distributed (operating across many processing nodes), virtual, or corporeal. And it will almost certainly possess, or eventually possess, the experience and accumulated knowledge gained from centuries or millennia of contact with the titanic and ever-expanding mass of information that permeates and inter-connects the Civilized Galaxy.

In considering all the variables that may characterize a given intelligence within the known galaxy, the factors that are often considered are:

• What is the processing substrate of the entity concerned?
• What is the entities toposophic level?
• What is the origin of the entity?
• If engineered or created, what was the S-level of the originating entity or entities?
  

Often known colloquially as The Rule of 3.5, these factors (if known or accurately determined) can often aid a sophont in gaining a basic idea of what sort of being it may be dealing with in a given interaction. Depending on the situation and available information, the order in which each factor is considered, and the degree to which it is considered, can often vary widely. The influence of each of these factors is explained below:

What is the entity’s processing substrate?

When considering a given sophont, the material that its brain is constructed from can often provide insight into the likely scope and range of capabilities the being may possess. Substrate type can often determine the size, speed, memory storage, waste heat output, and likely durability of a sophont’s brain. In addition, certain substrates can only be created or used by entities at or above a certain toposophic level.

What is the entity’s toposophic level?

A being's toposophic level can have a very direct impact on the type and capability of its processing substrate. The majority of beings of a given S-level operate their minds on substrates that cannot be duplicated, or even fully comprehended, by sophonts of lower S-levels. At the same time, virtually all ‘naturally arising’ sophonts of any toposophic level have originated using processing substrates that were far less capable than what the beings in question eventually develop for themselves.

When considering a given sophont, the toposophic level of that sophont can often provide insight into the likely size and type of processing substrate that the sophont may employ as well as its likely range of capabilities.

What is the entity's origin?

Sophonts may either evolve naturally or be created by other beings of equal or greater toposophic level. If a sophont has developed naturally or by its own efforts, or been engineered by others of equivalent S-level then experience has shown that the size and capabilities of the sophonts processing substrate will fall within well documented parameters depending on the sophonts S-level. If the sophont originates as a result of the work of a being or beings of a higher S-level, its processing substrate may be based on principles beyond its own comprehension and may be far smaller or more capable than anything the sophont could create by its own efforts. Nevertheless, if the toposophic level of the originating entity or entities can be determined, the parameters of the sophonts brain and abilities can again be estimated with a fairly high level of accuracy.

Storage of Mind-States:

In addition to the techniques and technologies employed in operating a mind of a given toposophic level, many sophonts engage in the practice of recording and storing a record of their memories and mental activity. In the event that the being so recorded is somehow killed this recording, or Backup, may be used to ‘resurrect’ the sophont in question and re-instantiate them into a replacement substrate to continue their existence.

Depending on the toposophic level of the technology supporting the process, the recording and storage substrates for a given S-level may vary widely in terms of size, fidelity, and environmental durability.

Related Pages;

Ultimate Chip