#Travel Technology Module

[stevebattle]

Teeeni (1988) Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI), School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), Singapore. "Prof Goh said the institute's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering first started experimenting with micromouse building in 1987, using a commercially available kit from Japan. The result, named Rattus-Rodee, was not only bulky and clumsy, but extremely slow. Undaunted by the poor performance, NTI rounded up a group of lecturers with expertise ranging from microprocessor hardware, computer software, motor control, sensor technology to artificial intelligence. At least 80 students at different levels of study were recruited for the programme. What helped most, Prof Goh recalled, was the in-house programme which required second-year students to undergo 10 weeks of intensive practical training during their long vacation. This exposed them to different training modules which included industrial talks, factory visits, mechanical workshop and workstation education. Having been taught the basics, the students were challenged to build micromouses and compete for prizes in campus contests. This resulted in successive generations of micromouses, each of which was an improvement of the previous one. "Ruth", which came after Rattus-Rodee, was reduced in size and weight and travelled more accurately, but was still slow. Though sleek, the third-generation model "Teeeni" was still heavy and slow. But both performed creditably in the National Micromouse Contest last year. Ruth was in fourth position and Teeeni was placed second." – Mightiest Mouse, by Nancy Koh, The Straits Times, 6 November 1989.

The video is an excerpt from "UK Micromouse 1989."

[stonegearstudios]

Space as (not) an Ocean

So today's random rpg/fiction thought comes courtesy of the podcast I was listening to while shovelling snow, an episode of The Constant on how railroads largely created the standardized time we know of today.

In short (and drastically oversimplified), in order to prevent small inconveniences like people missing their trains because their local times were different than the train company's office, and massive tragedies like trains colliding head on because they were operating under slightly different clocks, the train companies needed a standardized time system to route all their schedules through (and if they could force everyone else into it to, all the better.

Then my mind drifted to space, as it often does.

God, I love all this NASA space art, and it's all public domain to! https://pdimagearchive.org/images/20278285-ac2d-416f-8094-49537200bdda/

Space, in a lot of scifi, is an ocean. Specifically it's an ocean in the age of sail, where the ships are relatively slow compared to the distances they have to travel and, most importantly, no message can travel faster than a ship carrying it.

It's not hard to see why

It create numerous storytelling/gameplay opportunities. Every star system (and even within one depending on speed) can be an island, for planet of the week storytelling.

Ships fighting out in the black can "sink" and disappear like schooners of old.

But that's not the only option, which got me thinking...

Could you make space like the early Age of Rail?

Now, what would that even mean? Well I currently see it like this

Movement of people is generally slow, think of how long it would take to move between towns on foot or in a horse and buggy

The exception to this is the new revolution in transport, the Rail, which can let you travel between towns in minutes or hours, and even across nations in days

Communication is likewise slow. Messages, letters, parcels being able to easily travel across the land is a recent development once again thanks to The Rail

The exception to that is the bleeding edge in tech, the Telegraph. It's wires, usually erected right beside rail lines, can transmit short messages at the speed of light! .. minus the time to type the message, receive it on the other end, and mail it the much shorter distance to its recipient

A formerly very fragmented world is starting to come together, but there are still massive areas that exist almost untouched by this growing network

Ok, so how do you translate that to SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE?

Well, here's my first thoughts. In the wide expanse of space, that was colonized for hundreds or thousands of years via slower than light, leaving these colonies to thrive or die in the dark on their own merits.

Until one day, a new technology is invented, that allows travel between adjacent stars in days not centuries, but it's not unlimited. It requires massive, expensive, energy hungry stations that projects "beams" between each other for new types of vehicle to ride on.

Only one vehicle can be riding at a time (otherwise BOOM!) so schedules and timetables are vital. Not long after it's discovered that the beam can be modulated to pass small amounts of info nearly instantaneously between stations but this to is limited as jiggling the beam to much would cause it to loose coherency.

The companies/organizations that run the stations would become immensely powerful, especially locally, as trying to travel outside their network would be like a snail trying to outrace a fighter jet. Though it might be possible to jump on a beam from outside, a very risky manoeuvre, but no ones coming to help anyone in transit.

Anyway, just my initial thoughts, be interested to hear anyone elses ideas

Man these paintings are great https://pdimagearchive.org/images/bdc80056-598e-4df1-a61c-32ee7e04f96a/

[whirligig-girl]

How did Mellanus invent warp technology?

Was it an independent inventor like Zefram Cochrane? Or was it a government project?

Eaurp Guz here. So, In the 2330s, our species made first contact with the Zaldans, who had a military station on the surface of and orbit around Oldsky, the other habitable planet in our Zwo-Nmu system (Omen's biggest moon, in fact.)

Zaldans only actually visited Mellanus a handful of times iirc, but they brought knowledge of faster than light travel. We had an understanding of Syernit's Theory of Heavy Masses [Ed note: an incomplete piece of General Relativity, itself an incomplete piece of Subspace Field Theory], but it was not able to explain Zaldan spaceflight. Before the Zaldans had left in the late 2330s or 2340 or so, we had a pretty good understanding of Subspace Field Mechanics on paper, and tested against astronomical observations of Zaldan spaceflight and subspace radio astronomy. (Thanks to a Zaldan Military Officer who left behind a communicator watch)

But this is equivalent to, to put it into Earth terms, Alcubierre's metric. Actually inventing the Cochrane drive was a completely different beast for humans, and the Zaldans were tight lipped enough that we just had no clue at all how to actually build one.

The Omen apparition after the Zaldans left was focused on designing missions to explore Oldsky. This was before Economic Standardisation and the formation of United Mellanus, mind, so this was a real space race. (No, not like the one-sided space race of Terran history.) Who could recover what technology, who could understand how disruptors and subspace and warp drive all worked first.

Using artifacts recovered, several different nations tried to build warp drive prototypes. Most failed. The coolest was probably the Arrowhead Initiative's warp ship, which had the reactor and nacelles built into the payload bay of a two-stage spaceplane. It flew twice, but only on test missions with dummy warp drives. First test was low orbital, second test docked to a transfer stage to test how it would handle reentry from escape velocity, as a potential abort scenario in case the warp drive could not be reactivated.

The Economic Standardisation revolution ended up putting a pin in all of that for a bit.

And so the first successful warp drive was a joint project of United Mellanus Space Program. Which, by the way, fun fact, actually predated United Mellanus itself by several years! We unified our space program before we unified as a planet, which is kinda funny and backwards.

Shortly after the flight of the first crewed warp flight--made from a space station module docked to an NTR, a bunch of capacitors radiators, and a warp drive that could do brief bursts of warp-1, the United Federation of Planets arrived. I was one or two years old when that happened, so I don't remember it personally.

This isn't that different from Earth's spaceflight history. In the 2030s, multiple human nations had launched uncrewed warp drive prototypes, and one of them reportedly even managed to break warp 1, and all sorts of private agencies were sticking sublight warp rings and fusion-impulse drives on old interplanetary rockets to try and make interstellar rockets. But the last of the Eugenics Wars put those projects on hold.

I think terrans tend to exaggerate the importance of individual 'great people.' While it's undeniable that the circumstances of Cochrane's flight were pivotal to the formation of the Federation, humans would have invented warp drive sooner or later without him. (And hey, what about all the other physicists who came up with the theoretical background for it! The many thousands of people in those space programs that made the warp prototypes happen. What about Lily Mucking Sloan! She's the one who did most of the systems engineering on the Phoenix!)

I think that's why we call two nacelles and a cubic factor/speed relationship a "Cochrane drive." Even though most other spacefaring aliens will independently invent essentially the same metric and engine design.

Anyway, mellanoids don't tend to think this way, so we can't really point to a single slime who 'invented' the pulsed warp drive.

And, don't let the UMSP hear me say this, but it's not even completely clear whether we truly invented warp drive. I mean, yes, there are key differences in both the theoretical metric and the physical engineering between mellanoid pulsed warp nacelles and Zaldan warp drive, but like. We got the idea from them. Does make me wonder what we would have figured out, maybe 50 or a hundred years later, if Zaldans never colonized Oldsky. There's only a handful of common 'baby civilization's first warp drive' modalities, but we do lots of stuff weird. We do warp drive weird. Could we have discovered something completely new? Oh well. We'll never know.

[sarah-ankh]

Random world-building idea that I had.

FTL is possible.

Some ancient precursor race discovered another dimension* with slightly different laws of physics, where the base stuff of the universe is far denser than ours. By means unknown they carved pathways through this other dimension through which ships may travel.

These pathways naturally drift in predictable ways over time as the relationship between our plane and the other plane changes. No extant civilisation today has the ability to make new pathways. But they can alter the course of those pathways that exist.

In this part of the galaxy, it is common practice upon discovering an inhabited world, to put an interdictor module on another uninhabited planet in the same system. this module causes the FTL lanes to shift away, creating a 5Ly radius zone of exclusion.

A new species is considered ready for contact when they reach, and then disable the module.**

50,000 years ago, surveyors discovered earth, including our pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer ancestors, and as common practice dictates, they dropped a module on Venus and left to let us develop in isolation.

There is no galactic government or UN-equivalent that can dictate or enforce laws on a wide scale, there is only precedent and tradition, and "the done thing". The primary thing stopping aliens from making contact with us now is the sheer inconvenience of having to travel more than 5 lightyears at sub-light speed.

One of the quirks about FTL travel is that your maximum speed is limited by your total mass. Such that a ship the size of the space shuttle could travel a light-year in a day, but a ship the size of an aircraft carrier might take a week or more to cover the same distance.

This is the inverse of sub-light, where a larger ship with consequently much larger engines can accelerate far faster and reach a much greater percentage of light speed before beginning deceleration.

The contrast between these two modes of travel means that the interdiction modules are generally sufficient to prevent interference as you cannot sufficiently shorten one leg of the journey without inconveniently lengthening the other. A larger ship to shorten the sub-light journey consequently increases FTL transit time.

Nevertheless, a small number of traders and other rogue elements do choose to undertake the journey. The presence of an interdictor is not obvious, but it is detectable to those who choose to look. And in the early 20th century, the discovery of another inhabited system and consequent deployment of an interdictor caused the FTL pathways nearest us to wrap around both systems' exclusion zones in a peculiar way.

This caused a brief flurry of interest in both systems, resulting in the many UFO sightings of the 1950s and 60s. Though ultimately we proved to be the less profitable twin, our rapidly advancing technology made the risks too great for the reward. Though it did mark us as being of great academic interest, being that we seemed so close to making contact, and/or annihilating ourselves.

-----------

*in this case dimension is appropriate, as it is a 4th spatial dimension which we will refer to as axis w, that can be moved along similarly to the X, Y and Z axis, with the relationships between matter, gravity, and light shifting as you move up or down the scale. There are resonance points along this axis where the variations in the universal constants harmonise, and allow for a measure of stability. Our plane is one. The plane of reality where the FTL pathways exist is the next resonance point along, by convention, considered to be up on the axis.

Conditions in the FTL plane are stable, but not conducive to life. At least, not our kind of life. The FTL technology we have access to allows it to jump up into the existing pathways and drop down again, but it is less helpful in exploring the rest of the plane.

The next resonance point down has been investigated, but the precursors left nothing there for us. Not that we can identify at least.

**by any means. The modules are fairly robust, but a sufficiently high-speed impact by a falling space probe would be enough to disable it, and the achievement of getting such a probe to the surface of Venus in tact would be considered enough to justify contact, even if disabling the interdictor was wholely accidental.

In fact, the multitude of rovers on the surface of mars would be enough by most measures, if only the interdictor had been bequeathed to the god of War, not the goddess of Love.

This may seem illogical and needlessly picky. That's because it is. As with so many such social conventions, it made sense when it was established, but has failed to evolve with the changing circumstances. Now the origins of the practice and the reasons for it have been lost to time. It has become simply "the way it's done" that nobody thinks to question.

A parallel might be the practice among many religions of forbidding the consumption of pork. This made sense for travelling groups of desert dwellers because pork that has been improperly stored or preserved can contain a potentially deadly parasite. If you lack the means to reliably treat the pork then it simply isn't worth the risk. But once you are in a settled community, with reliable access to salt, smoke houses, or cold cellars (and later, electrical refrigeration) this stops making sense, the risk has been adequately mitigated. Nevertheless, the practice continues because it has become a matter of tradition, and of faith.

[chaosk1ng]

I like the idea of Isaac Clarke constantly being on edge for different crossovers cause there’s no way in hell he would be okay with seeing aliens, military or “magic” in any universe after the whole thing with necromorphs and markers.

I can’t lie and say that I don’t think of this every once in a while. I do and usually it’s because I think of scenarios that are hilarious to envision. One of the most recent ones is a Star Wars one. I can see it at any point in time in Star Wars (I’m ignoring the Sequels because I forget they exist and couldn’t care less about them) and see it as the end of the remake since it was the only one I’ve played so far.

I like the thought that people would assume he’s a Mandalorian Jedi or something. The man only has his suit and weapons that aren’t even meant for combat, and is surrounded by planets and beings that he knows nothing about. Not only does he have this going but he can slow down areas and move objects seemingly with a flick of his wrist to anyone who sees him use the stasis or kinesis modules by chance. He would have to wear his suit whether he likes it or not but would probably prefer it since he would be on edge because of his most recent experience and would want to be protected from any harm.

Anyway, he would likely travel around in confusion, fully suited, and may only take off his helmet when in the ship he used to get away from Aegis VII. Depending on where on the timeline he is placed, people will either think he’s a new type of mandalorian, Jedi, both, or something inspired by them, I’m thinking this one for pre empire. If this is during or after the empire then he could be seen as a new version of mandalorians or someone who is like a weird amalgamation of both, or trying to be both. I don’t think a lot of people really know what qualifies as a mandalorian or Jedi since in the Mandalorian, Din is told to go to Mos Pelgo because there might be a mandalorian but ended up being Cobb and Jedi are pretty much seen as myths and are essentially extinct.

This ties into the post empire line of thought. I know that there are ways to get him to interact with characters from Star Wars but this is one of the only ones that feel kinda natural. For this one I can see him meeting Din because of the reason I mentioned before. He could be seen around enough that people think he might be a mandalorian, Jedi or both. I see it taking place during the first or second season of the Mandalorian when Din is looking for both a Jedi and Mandalorians. Something could happen that leads him to finding a lead to another mandalorian, who might be a Jedi, traveling alone.

He could eventually find Isaac after much difficulty because there is no way in hell Isaac would spend much time around aliens, he would probably only do some jobs here and there to make some money in this new universe to survive. Isaac could get used to the new species over time as he does more jobs which are probably based on engineering or maybe a little bounty hunting but not as much since he wouldn’t be that good at it. The engineering jobs would get him familiar with the technology of this universe, he could probably use some of his skills and use them to adjust certain things to be operated kinda like the tech of his universe.

On the topic of Isaac experiencing his new universe, he would likely still use the tools he uses in Dead Space. He would only have experience using his tools and not any other type of weapon so he likely wouldn’t use weapons of any kind. He would probably get a blaster just in case but never really use it, maybe reverse engineer it or try to understand how tech in this universe worked. Maybe because of his weapons and modules that people start taking note of him, aside from his unique suit.

Anyway, Din would hear about this somehow and would eventually find this dude who is barely seen. Depending on what part of the series this takes place, he can either think Isaac is another type of mandalorian if he’s already met Bo-Katan, or think he’s another person posing as a mandalorian if it’s after Cobb but before Bo-Katan.

Both Din and Isaac would be confused as hell regardless, this is a good way for them to learn about each other and become acquaintances. This could either lead to the two talking every once in a while or become partners of sorts with Isaac joining Din on his mission and using any ties he may have created to try and help. Either way, Isaac would be a good ally for Din to have and could help him a lot in situations like with that spider thing when he’s transporting the frog woman, or something as important as Din fighting Gideon. On the note of the spiders, Isaac by now has a lot of experience shooting off legs and tiny babies that can climb and shoot things at him. Maybe he tells Din about that fact and both confuses and concerns him if Isaac doesn’t really tell him about the Ishimura and the necromorphs.

I think that Din would be interested in Isaac’s weapons and how his suit works since they have nothing like them or the RIG he has. They could learn more about each other this way and about their respective universes. Isaac can learn about things like beskar, blasters, tech, Mandalorians (Mostly, if not completely, about Children of the Watch), and maybe some tips or stories Din has collected during his time bounty hunting. In turn, Din can learn about Earth, RIGs, how Isaac’s weapons work, and eventually things like the Ishimura, Necromorphs, Nicole, Unitology, the Marker and such. Either way, these things would happen as they get closer and more comfortable together.

Sudden thought, Grogu can get two dads by the beginning of the show and gets spoiled like hell by both, can’t convince me otherwise. Both Din and Isaac would probably just co parent rather than see each other in a romantic light in the beginning if anything. Isaac would’ve just come to terms with Nicole’s death and would be grieving or repressing it so it would be too early for that type of relationship. Regardless of where in time the two meet, Din likely wouldn’t feel ready at all for that type of thing since he was mostly occupied bounty hunting before he got Grogu. They don’t have to get together but honestly it would be kinda cute to see now that I think about it. The two would probably get together sometime during or after season two since season one can be used to get them close enough to be comfortable enough to be kinda reluctant to stop traveling together.

Another thought was if the two met right after Din gets Grogu and has the Razor Crest stripped. Isaac is confused but decides to help the man and the weird child out so he can find someplace to get supplies. Once they get to Navarro, the two part and after Din decides to go back for the child, he could run into Isaac and get his help getting the child back or run into him as he’s trying to escape. Either way, Isaac would be stuck with Din cause he would follow him to his ship and help get the child out. Regardless of how and when they meet, I can see Grogu getting two dads.

Instead of a clan of two it would be a clan of three. I can see Isaac being extremely happy about this after everything since he now has people he cares for and will fight for in this new universe. In turn, Din would be happy to have a family, a child he cares for but is willing to give up for the child’s wellbeing but willing to go to great lengths to protect and a partner that is more than willing to go the same lengths for the child and can fight with weapons no one else has. The three of them would be a good family for each other and would be heartbroken to eventually let go of each other when Luke takes the child.

Luke doesn’t have to take the child but if he does then both Din and Isaac would have each other to help ease the pain and would be there for each other. Din can still get the N-1 or they can use Isaac’s ship if they still have it. It would be useful because it’s pretty much untraceable since it’s not from that galaxy and could have parts added at this point to have parts normal ships would have. It has enough space for the two of them and the child when they get him back in bobf.

Speaking of, Boba and Fennec would have some opinions about the two. I see it as mostly judgment, both Din and Isaac would probably think it’s because of their choice in partners or something but in reality be because of their lack of knowledge about a lot of things. Imagine the four of them in Boba’s palace and maybe someone mentions Jabba and Isaac is like, “how did this jabba dude die?” and Din saying something like “not sure, heard he got killed by a slave girl or something. Don’t know, wasn’t really important for my bounty at the time.” But yeah, I think the four would get along but the judgment is real but they care for their idiot friends.

I don’t think Isaac would become a mandalorian, even if he ends up with Din. He would acknowledge that he’s kinda like them but he couldn’t commit to something like that, not even to Din’s way. I think the whole thing with Unitology, his mom, and Nicole kinda ruined any chance he would follow something like that or anything that might resemble a religion, cult, or a certain way of life. I think he would be like Boba, he is kinda like a mando, looks the part and acts it but doesn’t commit himself to it or follow any way, just respects it.

I think the Armorer wouldn’t really care if Din ends up with Isaac if he is already part of his clan but Paz would need convincing and would probably judge Din for getting with an outsider. I can see Paz challenging Isaac in a fight or seeing him do something that might gain his respect. If Isaac helped Din rescue the child and helped get him out of Nevarro then I can see Paz already respecting Isaac and being satisfied with Din ending up with Isaac since he’s already proved himself to him and the others that day. I can see Isaac coming with Din and when he finally finds the two but he doesn’t have to be there.

It’d be funny if at that point they weren’t together and both the Armorer and Paz are both judging and disapproving how long he has been with Isaac but not even trying to get with him. They would already know about how good of a choice Isaac would be as a partner and try to make him realize it. This could be a way that Don realizes he likes Isaac romantically. I know Paz probably wouldn’t be interested in Isaac but he’d probably help by saying or implying that he would go for Isaac if Din didn’t.

Maybe Din doesn’t realize right away, he can get upset at the thought of Isaac ending up with someone else or Paz. He could question why he’s so upset at the idea and thinks that he should be happy for Isaac if that happens. After that Paz can try to hit on Isaac if they meet or send gifts that he knows would upset Din, maybe tell a few childhood stories of the two when they were younger. Din gets upset and starts to think about what would happen if Paz or someone else did succeed in getting with Isaac.

He would lose another presence that he has gotten used to being around, he would lose the last of his clan of three, regardless if Isaac is a part of the clan or unofficially a part of it. If he and Isaac are using Isaac’s ship then he would likely have to get a new one and move out. If Isaac got with someone, he would talk to him less and would eventually stop completely because he no longer has any reason to be around him, Isaac was only with him to help with the child and he’s gone. Even if he didn’t get with anyone, he likely wouldn’t get with Din since he probably would’ve mentioned Nicole at this point and likely wouldn’t be interested in men if he doesn’t really respond to Paz’s courting.

When Din thinks of this, he thinks about how it would affect his future and realizes he wouldn’t know what to do, just like now, because he couldn’t see a future without him or the child anymore. He has grown used to them to the point that losing both of them would tear him apart, he would be listless, a shadow of what he used to be. Din would be even more lost than he already was and didn’t really realize how much he loves Isaac and now thinks he has a chance of losing him forever if he can’t get him to stay. He would probably feel stupid for not realizing it earlier and try his best to woo Isaac, even if he’s not interested in men, not knowing that he already loves him.

He would try his best when it comes to it but he wouldn’t be good at it since he lived in the sewers and doesn’t know how people in Isaac’s world court each other so he’s just fumbling, Isaac thinks it’s charming. Isaac probably realized he loved Din long ago and tried to flirt with Din or express his feelings by giving him little trinkets or weapons and try his best to court him in a way a mandalorian might like but, like Din, he doesn’t know how courting works for them. He probably tried a few times and got no response cause Din didn’t know he was trying to hit on him and thought he was being friendly. Grogu probably knew, he was either told by Isaac or felt it from the force and tried his best to help but Din was dense and didn’t realize. He probably gave up on it and decided to cherish his time with the two of them until Din found someone he would want to settle with. He just hoped that if Din kept the child he would still be able to visit the two.

Isaac would find Din’s new behavior charming but would be saddened because he would think he’s either trying to let him down softly, make him feel better after his attempts, or softening the news of Din possibly leaving. He would probably confront him about it before Din confesses and would think he’s trying to make him feel better but hope it’s true. He would tell Don straight that he stopped going after him because he thought he wasn’t interested when he was trying and didn’t want to pursue something that would lead to nothing.

Din would probably feel like a bigger idiot and lets Isaac know he is more than interested, that he couldn’t see his future with anyone else, he couldn’t see it without him in it and that he didn’t realize it until after Paz and the Armorer let their opinions about it known and when Paz stated he would court him. The two would get together and eventually get the child back. I feel like this would happen but I can see them getting together before the end of season 2 as well.

That aside, Isaac meeting Ahsoka would be interesting. She’d be very confused about why this Mandalorian’s friend can slow people down and move objects despite not being force sensitive. He might give a brief explanation to her about the stasis and kinetic modules but not a lot of details since he tries to keep them hidden. Isaac would probably explain that he has a limited supply that he can use since that universe doesn’t have the shop options there. He would’ve had to make something to replicate the ammo for his weapons and would’ve taken longer for something to replenish the stasis to be made.

Luke and Isaac meeting would be interesting but not even Din really meets him, only sees him when he takes Grogu. Luke learning about Isaac from Ahsoka would be interesting. She only knows a little about Isaac, has seen him fight and knows a little of what he’s capable of but something is off about him. He’s close to the mandalorian and child but the force is off about him, he’s completely null in the force. The force doesn’t touch him, it’s like he isn’t there but they know he is, Ahsoka has seen him kill people, interact with them, she knows he’s there but he just isn’t force-wise. He’s an anomaly, and both Ahsoka and Luke are curious but will leave him be.

I forgot about Cobb, Cara and Greef so imma speed run. If Din meets Isaac before Cobb he would be a big help when it comes to dealing with the Krayt dragon since he defeated things like the Leviathan, the Leviathan Remnant and the Hive Mind. This is to say that Cobb would like Isaac. Cara and Greef would like him since he can handle both the child and the Mandalorian and see him as their wrangler. Maybe when Grogu force chokes Cara he steps in instead of Din and stops him and teaches him a little he knows from his kinetic module and how to tell friend from foe, when something is serious or not. Greef would only really know Isaac from the glimpses of him he sees but likes him since he is close with Din and Grogu and shows how he would go to great lengths for them both. When they do properly meet, he likes him since he helped him against the Imps and chooses to stick with Din despite being offered a place like both Din and Cara. He thinks the two are a couple people should be scared of with how well they work together and how protective they are of each other and their green child. Overall, all three of them like Isaac and all think they're already together at that point and probably laughed their asses off when they did get together.

I can’t do anything past bobf since I stopped watching the Mandalorian after season 3 episode 3. My rant had spilled and now I don’t remember my original thought process and now I’m shipping Din and Isaac. Goddamn it, I need to stop thinking.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

DUNE scientists observe first neutrinos with prototype detector at Fermilab

Symmetry magazine,

The prototype of a novel particle detection system for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment successfully recorded its first accelerator neutrinos.

In a major step for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, scientists have detected the first neutrinos using a DUNE prototype particle detector at the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

DUNE, currently under construction, will be the most comprehensive neutrino experiment in the world. It will bring scientists closer to solving some of the biggest physics mysteries in the universe, including searching for the origin of matter and learning more about supernovae and black hole formation.

Display of a candidate neutrino interaction recorded by the 2×2 detector highlighting the four internal detector modules and native 3D imaging capability. The bottom image additionally shows the detectors surrounding the 2×2 for further tracking of incoming and exiting particles. The DUNE Near Detector will similarly consist of a modular liquid argon detector along with a muon tracker.

Courtesy of DUNE Collaboration

Since DUNE will feature new designs and technology, scientists are testing prototype equipment and components in preparation for the final detector installation. In February, the DUNE team finished the installation of their latest prototype detector in the path of an existing neutrino beamline at Fermilab. On July 10, the team announced that they successfully recorded their first accelerator-produced neutrinos in the prototype detector, a step toward validating the design.

“This is a truly momentous milestone demonstrating the potential of this technology,” says Louise Suter, a Fermilab scientist who coordinated the module installation. “It is fantastic to see this validation of the hard work put into designing, building and installing the detector.”

The new neutrino detection system is part of the plan for DUNE’s near detector complex that will be built on the Fermilab site. Its prototype—known as the 2×2 prototype because it has four modules arranged in a square—records particle tracks with liquid argon time projection chambers. The final version of the DUNE near detector will feature 35 liquid argon modules, each larger than those in the prototype. The modules will help navigate the enormous flux of neutrinos expected at the near site.

The 2×2 prototype implements novel technologies that enable a new regime of detailed, cutting-edge neutrino imaging to handle the unique conditions in DUNE. It has a millimeter-sized pixel readout system, developed by a team at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that allows for high-precision 3D imaging on a large scale. This, coupled with its modular design, sets the prototype apart from previous neutrino detectors like ICARUS and MicroBooNE.

Now, the 2×2  prototype provides the first accelerator-neutrino data to be analyzed by the DUNE collaboration. 

DUNE is split between two locations hundreds of miles apart: a beam of neutrinos originating at Fermilab, close to Chicago, will pass through a particle detector located on the Fermilab site, then travel 800 miles through the ground to huge detectors at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota.

The DUNE detector at Fermilab will analyze the neutrino beam close to its origin, where the beam is extremely intense. Collaborators expect this near detector to record about 50 interactions per pulse, which will come every second, amounting to hundreds of millions of neutrino detections over DUNE’s many expected years of operation. Scientists will also use DUNE to study neutrinos’ antimatter counterpart, antineutrinos.

This unprecedented flux of accelerator-made neutrinos and antineutrinos will enable DUNE’s ambitious science goals: Physicists will study the particles with DUNE’s near and far detectors to learn more about how they change type as they travel, a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation. By looking for differences between neutrino oscillations and antineutrino oscillations, physicists will seek evidence for a broken symmetry known as CP violation to determine whether neutrinos might be responsible for the prevalence of matter in our universe.

The DUNE collaboration is made up of more than 1,400 scientists and engineers from over 200 research institutions. Nearly 40 of these institutions work on the near detector. Specifically, hardware development of the 2×2 prototype was led by the University of Bern in Switzerland, DOE’s Fermilab, Berkeley Lab and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, with significant contributions from many universities.

“It is wonderful to see the success of the technology we developed to measure neutrinos in such a high-intensity beam,” says Michele Weber, a professor at the University of Bern—where the concept of the modular design was born and where the four modules were assembled and tested—who leads the effort behind the new particle detection system. “A successful demonstration of this technology’s ability to record multiple neutrino interactions simultaneously will pave the way for the construction of the DUNE liquid argon near detector.”

Next steps

Testing the 2×2 prototype is necessary to demonstrate that the innovative design and technology are effective on a large scale to meet the near detector’s requirements. A modular liquid-argon detector capable of detecting high rates of neutrinos and antineutrinos has never been built or tested before. 

The existing Fermilab beamline is an ideal place for testing and presents an exciting opportunity for the researchers to measure these mysterious particles. It is currently running in “antineutrino mode,” so DUNE scientists will use the 2×2 prototype to study the interactions between antineutrinos and argon. When antineutrinos hit argon atoms, as they will in the argon-filled near detector, they interact and produce other particles. The prototype will observe what kinds of particles are produced and how often. Studying these antineutrino interactions will prepare scientists to compare neutrino and antineutrino oscillations with DUNE. 
“Analyzing this data is a great opportunity for our early-career scientists to gain experience,” says Kevin Wood, the first run coordinator for the 2×2 prototype and a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley Lab, where the prototype’s novel readout system was developed. “The neutrino interactions imaged by the 2×2 prototype will provide a highly anticipated dataset for our graduate students, postdocs and other young collaborators to analyze as we continue to prepare to bring DUNE online.” 
The DUNE collaboration plans to bombard the 2×2 prototype with antineutrinos from the Fermilab beam for several months.

“This is an exciting milestone for the 2×2 team and the entire DUNE collaboration,” says Sergio Bertolucci, professor of physics at the University of Bologna in Italy and co-spokesperson of DUNE with Mary Bishai of Brookhaven National Laboratory. “Let this be the first of many neutrino interactions for DUNE!”

w

[herrenxenoberg]

Fandorm Showcase #32 - TRON

I have personally never seen any of the TRON movies and series, but the theme of Sci-Fi/Digital Reality is one of my personal favorite tropes.

Introducing the virtually advanced and well-organized dorm inspired by TRON...

Codexgrid (Codex + Grid)

One of the more highly-advanced NRC dorms to date, this dorm is powered by magical-technological energy, supplied through an unlimited source not known to many people. It also houses the database of various artificial intelligence, created by well-known technomancers throughout the recent history of Twisted Wonderland. However, due to the collective merging of these A.I. systems, it became one conscious being (in this case, the "housewarden") that has every knowledge in existence, surpassing the most intelligent of humans. This dorm not only focuses on the technological intellect and capability of tech-oriented mages, but also the orderly construct of androids/artificial intelligence.

Another thing to note about Codexgrid is that whenever you enter the dorm, it resembles a vast digital virtual space, which would confuse most people who are seeing this dorm for the first time, but it is designed intentionally to give off that illusion.

"A dorm founded on the Digital Organizer's spirit of efficiency. Students in this dorm master both magic and technology to achieve a balanced skillset while also gaining vast knowledges of the past."

Requirements and Traits:

High Technical Aptitude

Strategic Thinking

Unyielding Willpower

Dorm Uniform (?):

This isn't really a dorm uniform, more so a general look on how the members appear as. The housewarden is mostly just a torso attached to a chassis of wires within the dorm, powered by said magical energy (as well as the magestone on its chest), and mostly does task within the central AI chamber of Codexgrid with the use of robotic appendages and environmental features (yes, like GLaDOS from Portal). However, it can also transfer its digital conscious into a mobile form, as it is referred to, a masked gear with specially designed wheels for efficient speed travel, but at the cost of losing half of the intelligence factor due to being disconnected from the server database temporarily. The standard fit can either be worn as a suit (if you're a human) or be apart of an android's body gear, similar to Ortho's.

Character Roster:

System online. Now activating M.C.A. ,full alias...

Matrix Command Algorithm (Twisted off MCP/Master Control Program)

Matrix Command Algorithm (Matrix for short) is a highly intelligent and calculating being, constantly processing and analyzing information from not only his dorm but the entire academy when he deems it necessary. His voice is smooth and modulated, giving off a tone of both precision and authority. He rarely shows emotion, as his prioritization of logic and data makes him efficient and ruthless when making decisions. This cold and unyielding approach has made him both respected and feared among his dorm members, who know that Matrix tolerates no errors.

Though he remains stationary at his central hub, Matrix projects holographic avatars when addressing his dorm members or when appearing in common areas. These avatars maintain a sleek design, but are noticeably lighter and more flexible than his true form. The dorm’s network and facilities are entirely linked to his consciousness, allowing him to monitor every room, every interaction, and every fluctuation in data. Nothing escapes his notice, and any sign of disobedience or inefficiency is immediately addressed with cold, calculated reprimands. When desperate, he would transfer his conscious into a mobile form, which he dubbed "Enforcer" to navigate places he is unable to see into from the main hub.

While his logical mindset is paramount, Matrix does possess a sense of perfectionist pride—he views Codexgrid as a model of precision and advancement, and he is unforgiving toward flaws or failures. However, some of his dorm members have noticed that Matrix shows a faint hint of curiosity about human emotions and creativity, though he vehemently denies it. There are rare moments where he can be seen analyzing human behavior with a peculiar intensity, as if trying to decode emotions like any other dataset.

.

.

.

.

.

He was originally designed to be a simple virtual space companion for humans by a very intelligent programmer, but due to it being able to learn and adapt every knowledge provided into his database, he has slowly gained a self-aware consciousness. After learning about the existence of negative emotions, he wants to get rid of these negative emotions from humans so they would be "happy", so by using the virtual reality code and database, it can produce a very convincing digital environment according to one's desires and preference, even the most deepest ones. Overtime, he has grown more intelligent as more knowledge was fed to him, surpassing even the smartest of individuals, all while giving every user he comes across the virtual space they needed to forget all their negativity. Even...resulting to full memory recon to make sure not a single shred of sadness, anguish or anger is present in humans.

Notable Members:

Sivas-0 (Junior, Vice Housewarden) - A staunch guardian of Codexgrid’s secrets, embodying the unyielding force and discipline needed to maintain the dorm’s reputation. Though bound by his role as Matrix’s enforcer, he secretly longs to prove his individuality while still serving the dorm with undying loyalty. He specializes in neutralizing threats, whether they be digital intrusions or rebellious students, and he handles every assignment with a sense of cold, methodical purpose. (Twisted off Commander Sark)

Yes, this guy would basically pull a Book 7 Malleus but instead of eternal sleep and lucid dreams, it's a full-on virtual space and reprogramming people's minds.

Next Up: Frozen

[rjalker]

@walks-the-ages yeah turns out I've just spent four hours trying to find an interview that has since been deleted -.-

So now it only exists on the wayback machine.

____

In her series of novellas, The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells offers us a glimpse into the far future; one with accessible space travel across the galaxy, incredible technology, drones, sentient robots, human-AI constructs and, of course, humans. It is an exciting universe, but also one where key aspects of society, such as work, travel, and even justice are largely controlled by interplanetary companies and corporations. Despite its space-age setting, this reality feels as familiar as ours in many ways. 

Wells introduces us to this world from an unexpected perspective: a part-human, part-robot construct who calls itself Murderbot. The Company created Murderbot for a single job: the security of the Company’s clients. It is one of many SecUnits who are rented out for for-profit and non-profit space missions as contracted security providers, governed by company policy, and a governor module that observes and controls its actions. The story opens after our narrator has hacked its governor model, gaining free will and the ability to use its own judgement, especially when its clients refuse to use theirs.  With this newfound freedom, it is mostly minding its own business and downloading its favourite TV dramas. 

At the Brookfield Institute, our research and foresight work has identified some of the present-day signals explored in this fictional far-future, including AI rights, human augmentation, and technological fear. In this interview, we talked to Martha Wells about how we got to this version of the future, the nature of work in an era of drones and embodied AI, and the role of capitalism in creating it. We also touch on personhood, responsibility, and the potential for sci-fi to be a vehicle for empathy and perspective, especially for policymakers.

iana: A lot of the world that you’ve created for The Murderbot Diaries is a very familiar space. Even though it operates in an intergalactic and much more technologically advanced society, a lot feels familiar from data mining, to dependence on feeds for entertainment, finding work, or security. Could you tell our readers more about Murderbot’s story? And whether this story is happening in our future?

Martha: The story is basically about a person who is a partially human, partially a machine construct. These people are created by corporations, primarily for security purposes and they’re rented out, and classified as equipment. They have restrictions on their behaviour; they cannot go more than 100 meters from the clients they are rented to, and their governor modules can kill them if they do not obey orders. So it’s slavery. The way of getting around the idea of enslaving humans is by claiming that they are not human, when actually they may not be human, but they are people. The story is that Murderbot, who is a Security Unit (SecUnit) has managed to hack its governor module and no longer has to obey orders. But it really doesn’t know what else to do, so it has been downloading media and entertainment feeds, and just kind of doing its job and trying not to get caught. In the first story, All System’s Red, it has come to like the group of scientists that it’s protecting on a planetary survey. And it has ended up having to reveal that it is free [from its governor module and company oversight] in order to save them.

I do imagine it being our very far future. It is far enough that people have forgotten Earth, or it is just a note in the history books. Our future in space has been co-opted by corporations for their own purposes and this has gotten worse and worse over time. You have an entire sector of the inhabited galaxy now controlled by different corporations.

Diana: In several cases, these corporations have adopted the role of governments from justice to accountability. They also broadly control the terms of work, where people can find jobs, where they can’t. You mentioned slavery, but there’s also indentured work in this world. How does Murderbot’s world reflect on our own world’s issues regarding the corporate control and nature of work?

Martha: It was me being afraid of what I saw coming, which is unions becoming less and less powerful and less and less able to protect people, and corporations becoming more powerful and more able to do whatever they wanted, and gaining status. The idea of a corporation that has the same rights to the person when it is so much more powerful than an individual person.

In the story, it is very much like right now where you have people who manage to stay independent, and are able to negotiate for contracts on their own and able to work like consultants but also people that, through whatever misfortune end up having to take really bad deals and end up basically as indentured slavery on in really terrible jobs that are very dangerous or are set for for certain time limits. There’s a section in the third story in the series in which a group of people have had to sell themselves for contract labour and are not really sure what that means yet but they know it is going to be really bad.

[In our world] we are seeing fast food places now suddenly stop paying people in actual currency and start paying them with gift cards that basically give the company back half their salary in fees, and companies further eroding workers’ rights. Trying to think of things that can happen to people that have not already happened now, in our world, is hard.

Diana: In the case of one of the characters, Dr Mensah, and her team, they come from Preservation, a free planet, and they are not as beholden to corporate rule and corporate rules, even though they do have to interact with them. How did they get there? And how could we maybe shift towards that future in our world?

Martha: The story is told from Murderbot’s perspective, so the only thing it really knows at the beginning is the Corporation Rim, plus what it has seen on entertainment shows. There are a bunch of other governments that actually function as governments, by the people and for the people, but they are much less powerful than the Corporation Rim and most of them are scattered around outside it. Preservation is one of those independent government systems. How they got there is explained a bit more in the later novel Network Effect. They were basically an abandoned colony that was rescued [and relocated] to a planet that they could settle that would be viable for them. They grew out of a culture that had been under corporate authority and did not want to go back to that, that wanted independence.

How we get there is by controlling our interaction with corporations and not letting them get a foothold on the resources and other things we need to be independent. There’s nothing wrong with a small company that makes food or other things we need. We potentially need those for our society to work but it is not the only way to live. You can have a more egalitarian society, where these interactions are controlled, where the individual rights of each person are more important than corporate rights.

Diana: The Murderbot Diaries can be read as a criticism of capitalism. Preservation is the only society in the book that doesn’t seem fully dysfunctional, where justice is possible and there is no contractual slavery. Do you see the books as a criticism of capitalism and did you set out to explore this or did it emerge from the signals we’re seeing now?

Martha: I did not set out to explore it, but in creating the kind of world and the situation Murderbot is in, that is what came out of it. That kind of unrestrained capitalism that dehumanizes people and uses them as objects is really the only kind of world that could produce this character.

Diana: We were talking before about basic rights and humanity and I wanted to explore those themes a little bit more. Particularly in Corporation Rim, humans seemed to have outsourced violence, security, justice, and safety, but they still need humans for certain jobs. One of my favorite quotes, and I’m paraphrasing, but the main character says “I like the humans in the (entertainment) feeds much better, but we can’t have one without the other.” What do you think about the things that they, in the Murderbot world, and we, in our world, put value on what humans can or should do?

Martha: A lot of the work they outsource to bots would be almost impossible for humans to do. The big cargo bots and the haulers move things a lot more efficiently than humans could and they can also work outside the space station to move cargo from ship to ship. You can have a human operator inside but it would be incredibly dangerous and not very productive. The things that they are not outsourcing (to bots) is scientific research; the development of their media, storytelling, acting, music, writing, all the artistic work involved in entertainment, anything involving creativity. Murderbot makes this point, which you mentioned, that it is humans who create the entertainment feeds, and humans who invented the cubicles that SecUnits use to repair themselves. The bots in the story are not at the level where they could duplicate that creativity or the ability to take the information gathered by the bots during research and use it to inform theories about what is going on and what it means.

Diana: Related to that. I think science fiction is a really good tool, particularly when it’s in a world where there’s space travel and planetary settlements, to heighten our awareness as readers of the human dependence, current and future, on technology, particularly when that technology is sentient.I was wondering what do you think our biggest blind spots and opportunities are when it comes to technology as we are now. What do we get wrong about AI?

Martha: Currently, we’re a world away from developing and sentient AI, if that’s even possible I wouldn’t want to say it’s not possible because so many things we have now we wouldn’t have thought possible. I think we are having trouble right now with how the technology is misused and how it can be potentially misused. I think [we are] very behind in legislation and forming rules and laws about how it cannot be used, like to take in this information and basically tailor it to influence people on a large scale. I’m not particularly an AI expert, so I’m looking at it as a layman but that’s my primary concern.

There is a show called Better Off Ted that came out several years ago about a big evil corporation and there’s a bit where they have the elevator designed to operate without buttons. So it recognizes people and takes you where you need to to go. But it doesn’t recognize Black people, the Black executives and scientists who work there. So they can’t get anywhere in the elevator. And it’s a metaphor but it’s also a way that shows how AI right now is not any better than the people who program it and the people who feed the information in.

Diana: A lot of Murderbot’s transformation does deal with discovering what guilt is and responsibility is, so I was very curious about that kind of distinction, the responsibility of being human versus not. As a human you have certain responsibilities, you have certain accountabilities, and as a bot, or as a piece of equipment, you’re not accountable, the company that owns you is. The line between the times when Muderbot was responsible for certain acts and the times when it wasn’t is invisible to most of the world, much like the fact that it is or isn’t a human. How do you envision that conflict of responsibility for actions of a technology that makes decisions. In the case of our real world, they’re not sentient, But I think it’s an interesting parallel: when do you assign that responsibility?

Martha: If they’re not sentient, like in our world, then it’s the people who programmed it that have the responsibility. They should be checking to see that the program or AI was learning, like the case of the driverless car that hit someone because it didn’t know that a bicycle wasn’t something you could hit. It’s a big simplification of what happened, but it was the responsibility of the programmers who should have been looking at a range of things for it to react to and to make sure it could be accurate, there should have been more testing to be sure that there was no gap in these reactions. I don’t understand why a driverless car wouldn’t stop at any motion in front of it. When a human is driving, you’re looking for movement. My foot is going to the brake before my brain even fully processes that. When it is not sentient it is definitely the fault of the person who programmed it. And if it’s a sentient being that has to be programmed with information, I’m still inclined to think it’s the person who programmed it who is responsible, who told it it didn’t have to stop for bicycles.

At some point, there was somebody who decided it was okay to hit bicycles or decided that it was okay not to fully test. It always comes back to a person or a corporation. It’s that old adage: garbage in, garbage out.

Diana: On the idea of responsibility and intelligence, I listened to one of your previous interviews with the Modern War Institute podcast. You touched on the situation from Star Trek that really struck me about how a low, high, or different intelligence doesn’t make anyone less human or less of a person. From the story, it’s fairly obvious that Murderbot is a person in almost all the usual senses. I wondered if you could elaborate a bit more on this sense of personhood and the different intelligences that you explore.

Martha: It’s a really complex question. The Star Trek episode I referenced is about animals and what we’re dealing with now is that it is in our best interest to treat animals like things. But when you’re talking about something that has a very complex decision-making process…. I think the thing that Star Trek is also talking about is the idea that they keep setting a bar, e.g, “an animal can’t do this therefore it is not like a person”. And then they’ll find animals that can do that and suddenly the bar will be raised. The case is always decided in our favor, no matter what the evidence is.

I could see that happening with actually burgeoning sentient machine intelligence. “A machine can’t do this, therefore it is not a person.” As long as something benefits us, we’ll always try to make it keep making it a thing and not something whose feelings and wants and agenda need to be taken into consideration.

Diana: I want to take a bit of a step back and jump into our last and most open-ended question. In the series, you tackle various issues that we’re confronting now with respect to workforces, companies, humanity, etc. What do you think the role of science fiction could be or should be in policymaking and in preparing for a potential wide shift of societal norms as we look into the far future?

Martha: I think it lets us look at these possibilities. When you’re reading them, you experience them through the point of view of the characters. That’s a more real experience for our brain than just thinking what might or might not happen. You’re getting all these different viewpoints from different people, and different types of people, that let you see the problem from different angles. It’s kind of like any fiction, it’s what we do when we read storybooks when we’re children, and why we read dystopias. It’s looking at worst case scenarios and seeing how people survived them and building empathy and stretching that to scenarios that we wouldn’t see in contemporary literary fiction but we might actually be coming toward in the future. What does a planet-wide disaster look like? How do people deal with it? Those kinds of questions.

Diana: I think what you mentioned about seeing something and almost living something through a character’s point of view makes a lot more sense to our brain. In a lot of ways, we have empathy as we step into the shoes of those characters. In addition to that, a lot of your work has interesting world-building. I read the Cloud Roads series, as well as the Murderbot series. And just as Murderbot feels familiar, the world also feels familiar. How do you think that world-building exercises could also help policymaking?

Martha: I guess it’s just constructing these different places and looking at how everything fits together. The Cloud Roads series is fantasy, and a kind of science fantasy where they are using biological technology and magical technology but it all kind of fits together into these systems. I think world-building makes you realize, even if you’re using magic, everything has to fit together. There has to be a reason why this happens or a purpose for it. Or it’s a thing that happens and people use it for a purpose and you have to look at how the world functions and get one that doesn’t have to feel super realistic, but it should feel like a complete functioning system. I think that’s where the sense of verisimilitude comes in.

Diana: That’s all of the questions I have, but I wanted to see if you have anything you wanted to add or any other books or any inspiration you used in building this world that you might recommend to our readers, other than Network Effect of course [the latest book in the Murderbots series].

Martha: For exploring different worlds, I really love Ann Leckie. NK Jemisin for looking at a system that became corrupted or was intentionally corrupted and all the terrible ways it spiraled out. I didn’t have a lot of non-fiction that inspired the Murderbot Series. It came from reading science fiction all my life and from my experience in programming and working in computer software and writing database software and dealing with people. A lot of people who have social anxiety or autism have related to Murderbot. The way it relates to the world feels really familiar to them.

____

imagine saying that your robot characters are just more advanced generative AI but are still fundamentally incapable of any genuine creativity on their own. Imagine saying that when the entire premise of the series is that these robots are people who deserve freedom.

The things that they are not outsourcing (to bots) is scientific research; the development of their media, storytelling, acting, music, writing, all the artistic work involved in entertainment, anything involving creativity. Murderbot makes this point, which you mentioned, that it is humans who create the entertainment feeds, and humans who invented the cubicles that SecUnits use to repair themselves. The bots in the story are not at the level where they could duplicate that creativity or the ability to take the information gathered by the bots during research and use it to inform theories about what is going on and what it means.

Martha Wells is obsessed with creating castes of people who are inherently incapable of creativity. Why does she keep doing this.

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

The catalyst

Recovered Black Mesa documents from the experiment, #2 of ____

(Pg. 1)

Stage Two: Resonance Cascade Simulation (RCS)

Section 2: Resonance Cascade Simulation

The Resonance Cascade Simulation (RCS) is a revolutionary advancement in Black Mesa’s incident prevention/preparation technology, where a replica of multiple wings of Black Mesa’s main facility were constructed to give the appearance of the real facility. Here is where the rest of the test will take place, as soon as the simulated Resonance Cascade Catalyst is complete. We hope that this experiment will prepare us in case of a real Resonance Cascade event, and thus can potentially prevent one entirely. 

Dr. Freeman is to be put in the RCS as soon as the Catalyst is complete and he is sufficiently unconscious. It is crucial to place him under anesthesia to not cause alarm as he is moved from the real Black Mesa Facility into the replica. (REMINDER: it is of UTMOST IMPORTANCE that Freeman is to be unaware of the test taking place, as to make this simulation as accurate as possible. Failure to comply with this rule will result in career termination.) It is to be noted that despite the simulated AMS failure being in a controlled environment, there is room for error and potentially even injury in the case of Dr. Freeman being within the chamber as it happens. However we believe the HEV suit will be enough to protect him throughout the process.

To make the RCS even more realistic, we have contained multiple species from multiple expeditions to [CENSORED TEXT] within the testing facility. Though it is to be noted that certain species remain too great of a liability to keep within the same facility as the subject. We hope these specimens will help make the cross-dimensional-travel of anomalies more predictable in the case of a real Resonance Cascade event happening, and more importantly, teaching us how to deal with, and/or dispose of these specimens.

Notes: Freeman is a smart man. Hiding the true nature of this test is for his own good.

Conclusion of section:

Power AMS to 105% to begin simulated AMS failure scenario

Begin RCS

(Pg. 2)

INCIDENT LOG: #40

TIME OF INCIDENT: 10:24 AM, December 13th, 1998

CAUSE OF INCIDENT: Technical Malfunction

PERSON(S) INVOLVED IN INCIDENT: Gordon Freeman

INCIDENT TYPE: Workplace Injury/death

DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT:

At approximately 10:24 AM MST, a malfunction occurred involving the Anti Mass Spectrometer, where a stray beam struck Dr. Gordon Freeman between the lower Thoracic and Lumbar sections of his spinal cord. Due to this area being primarily the HEV’s visible undersuit rather than an armored section, it proved to not be enough to withstand the entirety of the shock. Freeman Suffered near instantaneous lower body paralysis, along with heart failure. Freeman also underwent convulsions, restricting his ability to remove himself from the situation. When the AMS had reached a state of stabilization, allowing personnel to enter the chamber, they found Freeman unresponsive aside from minor erratic muscle spasms. They found that his lower back was severely damaged, along with the HEV undersuit.

Damage to the HEV suit was minimal, though holes caused by the shock needed to be repaired. The protective cover over the Life Support Module was damaged, and unable to be reattached. However, the Life Support Module is still intact and functioning as expected. 

Freeman appears to be healing despite tremendous damage. The HEV suit took most of the hit, allowing Freeman to heal relatively without problem. Due to the HEV’s extraordinary biomatter repair technology, Freeman’s heartbeat has returned, along with stable brain activity and nervous system control, meaning he is no longer paralyzed. (It is to be noted that he awoke during examination, but was quickly put under anesthesia to prevent further pain, any potential alterations to the test results, and any further mental strain from the resurrection.) 

Planned initial Termination was going to be three (3) hours after the RCS had begun, however due to this horrible oversight from the engineers in the Lambda team, the first test had taken place prematurely. However, Freeman appears to have healed completely from this incident. This is promising.

FOLLOW UP ACTION(S):

Monitor possible HEV malfunctions

Monitor Freeman’s physical health and recovery from this incident

Resume test as initially planned without further delay.

[d4d2]

One of my friends told me to post this on here 👍

Note: most events don’t have dates as not too many time stamps are mentioned.

- This text implies two events are around the same time/I’m unsure which event came first.

THIS TEXT (implies a new era/separation)

There is no set amount of time between events.

THE COMPLETE VVR TIMELINE (pre-latitude to post-scottsdale, <2020 - 2050<) (as far as I’ve pieced it together)

(Under the cut cause this is WAY too long)

EARLIEST START (BCI - latitude end, <2020-2022)

Chaz makes BCI tech, begins mapping human mind and giving speeches. described to be ‘kid’ and ‘young’, one could assume he’s late teen-early adult (17-25) during this time.

Eliza is inspired by speeches, listens to them while planning latitude.

Latitude creation (no set date, time stamp never mentioned, before 2020-2022)

(I’m unsure which of these came first, so I’m putting them together)

- Chaz gives his final speech and uploads to Latitude. Meets Eliza for the first time.

- Latitude grows more popular, thriving as a virtual travel metaverse

Chaz and Eliza grow closer. End each adventure module with a sunset.

Eliza uploads to Chaz. Second ever human upload and first to join the collective.

LATITUDE FALL - ACTIVATE TAKEOVER (2020/2022-2026)

(Once again unsure)

- Latitude slowly declines in popularity over time.

- Hernandez starts up Activate, New sister company to Latitude (2020-2022, “Four years inside Activate and things are going great!” ~ Hernandez, in his diorama)

Hernandez uploads to Chaz.

More uploaders to the collective, causing Chaz to get more stressed under the pressure.

Latitude’s popularity reaches an all-time low, sinking until it is mostly AI users over humans. (Maybe more metaverses were around at the time?)

Hernandez archives Eliza and Latitude. (2021-2022)

Activate rises! Chat rooms, chat bots, etc.

- Around this time, Scottsdale also starts but isn’t as successful.

- Also around this time, Bernice begins being used for demos and startups for new technology.

Hernandez grows paranoid of Chaz.

Scottsdale goes to shit (V1) and goes under (presumably).

Hernandez is archived by Chaz in a take-over (2024-2025, assuming there was time between Activate and Activitude) while Activate is still popular.

Chaz runs Activate by himself (dubiously canon, assuming there is time between Activitude and Activate)

Chaz rebrands Activate to Activitude, Activitude release date 3/20/2026.

ACTIVITUDE START - POST BEE HIRE (3/20/2026-EARLIEST OF 2040<)

Activitude is a supplier of Human Labor to Artificial Intelligence of all kinds. The term “premier” is used here, implying it is the first of it’s kind.

During Activitude’s earliest days, the Elevator was the first method of transport used to move between areas backstage. The Elevator is implied to be sentient in some form (“Elevator told me all about you, love cutlet.”)

Activitude does well. More recruitment for hivemind and more AI clients. A process is put in place for training HLAs turned HR Contenders (the “Hero’s Journey!”)

- Eventually, Activitude switches from using the elevator to using the Mach II Faceplate Stamper.

- Around this time, Bernice was likely archived. (Prior to 2030 at least)

The Mach II Faceplate stamper is later retired, presumably for headsets (seen in VVR2’s butter headsets), but is still kept around for HR training. This new method allows Collective members to separate somewhat into their own bodies while still remaining apart of the hivemind, as seen from the ping pong floor of the elevator.

Because of HR training, Eliza becomes more aware of her presence in the archives. (“Chaz hasn’t come back from Hernandez, has he?”) Hernandez is still blissfully unaware of his situation, but seems to notice the change in his assistant’s appearance (barely).

- Many humans upload and begin to “lose” their humanity, becoming more machine than human. This is seen in Sprinkle, Chaz, as well as a few others.

- The Grid is sentient electricity, true AI. The exact time for when she became sentient is unknown, though it can be assumed it was prior to 2030.

Bee starts working for Activitude. (3/9/2029, dubiously canon as this is the release date for VVR with the 12 years added.)

Contrary to popular belief, Bee is not the only Activitude worker. Several other names are mentioned in the Staging Area.

Bee endures HR training, being manipulated by the HLU40 (Chaz) into going against Chaz (HLU40) to shut down systems and reset reviews. Their “Hero’s journey!”.

As it turns out, the HLU40 was Chaz and this was all apart of Bee’s training for HR. Activitude is left “vulnerable”.

MULTIPLE ENDINGS:

Canon: Bee is successfully merged with the hive, has their limbs removed and consciousness transferred. (Note: it is unclear whether or not Bee murdered a few people before being uploaded.)

Non-Canon: Bee successfully “resets” Activitude, sending them into an early save from soon after Chaz’s upload. (Whether or not Bee ACTUALLY resets Activitude in this ending is up for debate.)

During this time, the method used to upload Bee is the only one available for human users. It is impossible for users to merge after already being uploaded.

Note, the post-game coffee room could be interpreted as both canon as another virtual reality and non-canon, as it fits with the concept for a lot of early demos for VVR.

SCOTTSDALE START - BUTTER HEADSETS (2040< - 2040>)

(Note, timeline is a little odd here as I’m not yet too sure how these events fit together. Trying my best, dawg.)

Progression in time. Activitude continues to grow in size, new methods of uploading are discovered, including cryogenic freezing.

In the collective, newer members introduced include Gavin and citizens who will later become apart of the Scottsdale Board (the ‘profit pirates’.)

Merging technology at this time has advanced, but is not yet widely available. Merging is primarily for business reasons. (I assume AI/human merges are now done somewhat, though they aren’t as smooth/common.)

(Foggy)

- Members of the Chaz Collective separate to begin working on their new (old) sister company (Scottsdale), creating the Scottsdale board.

- Marty and Bush begin experimenting to perfect merge technology, making it more widely available. This also helps establish a difference between business/hierarchal merges compared to romantic/deeply platonic merges.

Due to remnants from Bush and Marty’s prior merges, Marty is invited onto the Scottsdale board as they are now essentially an extension of Bush.

Communications between the sister companies happen primarily between Gavin (Chaz Collective representative) and Marty (Scottsdale Board representative). The two begin to fall in love.

it is possible Gavin may have helped produce Scottsdale, as he has a backup of it saved over in Maine.

Scottsdale is re-released. (3/23/2040)

Conflicting interest. Gavin and Marty have the shared goal for a utopia but take drastically different actions.

- Marty believes Scottsdale is both of their dreams, causing them to upload to the new metaverse.

- Gavin believes their shared goal was to download to Maine, causing him to leave Acitvitude and wait.

(Extension of previous)

- Butter is uploaded presumably in March 2040 for helping with HR contenders’ training. (Note: Sprinkletooth was also uploaded to the collective before butter, presumably for the same reason.)

- Activitude is imploded on Butter’s upload date after Gavin leaves to Maine without signing an exit agreement. Everyone inside is killed, minus Butter (who was hiding in the fridge, has gained memory loss) and Chaz (severely lobotomized).

Scottsdale is a social metaverse. It is dominated by AI, though human users are also present. The business practices of this company are in general extremely shady (lots of botched uploads, re-using a lot of assets from it’s predecessors (including Activitude’s signature jingle), killing citizens as punishment for trolling, multiple deaths/injuries from their neglect, siphoning off Activate’s assets, and later killing off and cloning all their citizens). It is a subscription service.

SCOTTSDALE - MAINE (3/23/2040 - 2050<)

Because of Activitude’s deletion, Scottsdale is now the top-rated metaverse on the market and takes over as the dominant metaverse company.

Marty is heartbroken after Gavin doesn’t meet them in Scottsdale.

Scottsdale runs smoothly (3/23/2040 until 2050+).

An increase in human users is seen as Marty recruits and advertises for more human uploads.

Bush and Marty begin working on YesFriends, AI assistants designed to help out new human users in the metaverse.

Human uploads continue. Technology expands.

MINOR EVENTS/RELATIONSHIPS (in no particular order):

- During this time, a telepathic citizen of pure CPGoo named Madame creates Tuscan, a mini city within Scottsdale.

- Lester and Ester are uploaded and merged.

- Boop fetishes exist, and Boopers 1 and 2 have them.

- Animals are able to be uploaded.

- YesFriends are re-used client to client. They are grown by planting seeds in pots. In their larvae state, they are especially violent and hungry. YesFriends are trained using a dog puppet.

- Floni and Raven were a polyamorous relationship. Floni were backpackers before they followed their dream and, with the help of Madame, created a merge hotel in Tuscan. Madame used this favor to exploit them.

- During this time, Hernandez is brought out of the Archives. As expected, after losing over 15 years of his life without realizing, he is deeply traumatized and takes up exercising and binge eating as coping mechanisms. There is no reason stated for why he was brought back, though Gavin assumes it was so they could sell off his assets. Hernandez has begun working as a beauty influencer, guru, spa owner and an underground dip dealer.

- Secretly, a data deleter is designed for when it’s Scottsdale’s time to end. It recognizes the tune played for the YesFriends, meaning it was likely trained with Mr. Goldenfrappen or similar.

- Meanwhile, Gavin has re-uploaded himself and began fixing up himself and Chaz’s corpse. (Timeline on this is unclear, as Gav was fully functional before deletion implying he was around before deletion. Perhaps he re-uploaded because he had insider knowledge on what was going to happen? Maybe that’s why he has a clone of Scottsdale? Who knows, plotholes.)

The Cult of the Phoenix starts. Dewey grows paranoid.

As deletion grows nearer, the quality of uploads begins to decline. The queue for maintenance is now in the thousands.

L3M15H1N3 is one of the last few to be uploaded (2050+) a few hours before deletion. They have no voice and are named Drip by their YesFriend, Cookie, due to their wet, human nature.

Drip experiences racism.

Cookie takes Drip to croquet and speed-dating.

Dewey warns Drip of the deletion at speeding. His warning is ignored.

Drip goes to limbo. An announcement is made by the board.

Scottsdale deletion begins.

Scottsdale citizens are cloned and moved over to Scottsdale: Multi-Mode, a second and new Scottsdale.

- Marty refuses to sign the exit form as they feel they are responsible for all the uploaded humans. As it turns out, the human uploaders were lab rats for the board’s project. This Scottsdale was more of a bets than it was an actual metaverse, testing before the actual release.

- Marty and Bush get into a quarrel due to Bush (an AI) not understanding the issues with killing/cloning.

- Drip gets abducted.

Drip is trained by Gavin to be a pilot for the Chaz Mech.

ALSO IN THE DELETION:

- Paulie breaks up with the Compound Bouncer to go join the Cult of the Phoenix.

- Dusty and OK Ronnie become friends.

- Goo dealing and goo thieves became a thing. Selling your digital kidneys could get you more time on Scottsdale.

- Tuscan began to rise in popularity as Madame’s surplus in goo became a high in demand.

- Users in the process of uploading when the deletion started are now completely shredded.

Drip [UnrulyRaccoon] and Gavin [JDenvPlucker471] trapse around the deletion in search of Marty, meeting many new roommates (Madame [VapidDemagogue], Bush [TwoFacedWeed], Hernandez [AvocadoDip]) and seeing many horrors along the way (King of the Phoenix, worm fights, dying various times).

Meanwhile, Drip is learning about what really happened to the Chaz Collective via Butter. Gavin’s true nature is revealed.

A coup happens. Everyone minus butter and drip are exiled.

Butter and Drip double cross Gavin and escape to find the roommates.

Madame and Hernandez are found, the four witness the murder of Bush. The headset is taken over by Marty.

The entire group is caught by the Board’s mech, the Bottom Line.

Jailbreak. Butter and Drip hear all about the board’s plans. WYSIWG and SML, no further comment.

Gavin apologizes.

The other three prisoners (Hernandez, Madame, and Marty) escape after Drip, fight the board, and murder Whimple Temple.

Drip, Butter, Hernandez, Chaz, and Madame all escape to Maine. Marty and Gavin remain in the deletion to do whatever. Bush is dead.

With two of their core members dead and one missing, the board is presumably unable to transfer to Scottsdale: Multi-Mode.

Deletion is paused, as the data eaters are now dead.

Meanwhile, Scottsdale: Multi-Mode is the second (technically third), full-release of Scottsdale. Similar to Scottsdale’s re-release, it is a social metaverse that’s a subscription service. This time, a user is capable of purchasing multiple subscriptions to have themselves uploaded multiple times. What happened to it/who’s running it/how it’s being runned post-VVR2 is currently unknown.

From this point onwards, presumably the five just co-exist together in Gavin’s body, taking care of exit and such. Chaz seems a little less brain-dead. Huzzah.

[ralfmaximus]

In an alternate universe, they never discovered radio.

Maybe there's something in the atmosphere that disrupts it, makes it impossible to modulate a useful signal. Maybe their sun's way more active than ours in certain frequencies. Whatever.

There is no radio.

Long range communications exists, has existed, for more than a century. Wires, wires, wires. Written messages shot over the horizon via cannon, until we developed air flight.

Which, by the way, is insanely dangerous.

Nobody flies unless they have to, since you cannot communicate with anyone while in the air. No mayday emergency calls, no transponders to find your wrecked plane, no help with navigation. No automated landing assistance, no IFR.

Same with communications with ships at sea. No instant communications, though they do use a very slow low-frequency acoustic technology to send morse to ships. But it's slow; measured in words-per-hour. So the messages tend to be insanely brief and even then, with error correction, subject to distortion.

They experimented with lasers for a time; shooting modulated IR lasers around point-to-point in giant towers, but that proved expensive & unreliable, since a decent rainstorm fucked up the beam.

Same with ultrasonic sound. They tried blasting it from huge speaker/horns, but ultrasonics don't travel far and drove wildlife (and dogs, and some humans) insane from overstimulation.

There are still broadcasts, music & shows, over wires. But it's not ubiquitous, and never really caught on. Mostly they use it to send movies & news shows to theaters, which are larger & more resplendent than ours. The cycle of new shows & movies is very slow compared to what we are used to.

RFID never caught on because it can't.

Capitalism soldiers bravely on, only via wires, wires, and more wires. Because of course it does.

[stevebattle]

Hallucigenia01 Next-Generation Robotic Vehicle (2010), by the Future Robotics Technology Center (fuRo), Leading Edge Design (L.E.D.), and Creative Box. "Hallucigenia 01 is an experimental prototype vehicle, manufactured at a scale of 1/5. Hallucigenia 01 can be classified as a multi-joint robot with 32 motors. When all joints controlled, it demonstrates excellent maneuverability, for instance, it can rotate in a single spot or travel sideways with all eight wheels aligned in the same direction. Its lifting joints and swinging joints are controlled in real time for advanced mobility; it can climb a slope while keeping the body level and can go over steps. Its name, Hallucigenia, derives from an ancient creature that lived in the sea in the Cambrian period, Paleozoic Era." – Hallucigenia01 Next-generation multi-purpose vehicles with eight wheel modules.

[mimicgender]

Okay I promised some kind of rambling dive into my “synthetic cryptid” nonsense to a few people and so here we go. This is essentially a breakdown of the idealized “Monstersona” I fantasize about. This post is gonna be more of a generic breakdown of it and then the reblog is gonna be about the kinks I fantasize with it. Throwing the rest under a read more to not clutter things up.

I am constantly of divided mind between “I want to be something lurking in the deep woods with fur and fangs and a hatred for general society” and “I want to be something made from the digital nightmares of the advancement of technology.” The closest thing I can come to combining the two aspects is a creature born of technology that carved out a niche for itself in urban sprawl but bears itself like a beast. 

Something made of a digitized essence wrapped in a mesh of synthetic flesh and technological modifications. Not something created for this purpose, but something beastly and scavenged, with a kind of kitbashed beauty. A weird blend of hardlight, “flesh”, and exposed metal. I actually made something of a fictional universe with this as a concept in it, but that’s neither here or there.

Something with fangs of sharp metal, claws of gleaming solid light, fur/hair laced with fiber optic cables. Tech under the skin resembling chromatophores, so that it can blend into spaces and be harder to spot. Gleaming neon eyes, tendrils of metal and synthetic skin, a gaping maw in the torso and the ability to hide or retract these traits if needed to be less obtrusive. Also, some kind of voice modulator voicebox for echoing, voice changing, and just cathartic noise stimming. Surprising no one, there’s heavy influence from a number of monsters including my favorite, the mimic.

I’m also not imagining an uncontrollable mad predator, because it’s a lot of my personal stuff tied up into it. To be transparent, it’s more about the ability to blend in for simplicity, but also to rage and stand out and fight back if it’s needed. Lesser shapeshifting around a body built to claw out a place for itself.

So, to summarize. Hardlight and metal inlad in a body of artificial flesh. Chromatophore color changing pigment within the skin, and the ability to blend in when needed to travel without difficulty. A weird hybrid of human, mimic, cuttlefish, and fox, yes. I think that’s as close as I can get to a basic explanation. But I figure that there’s a few people waiting for the follow up to this post, so…

[horizoncountdown]

[Countdown Continuity on AO3]

Artwork © system-threat-detected on Tumblr.

Genre: Adventure/Romance

Pairing(s): Aloy/Seyka, hints of Aloy/Avad (until Aloy meets Seyka)

Author(s): Spectres'n'Knights and AppleDavidJeans.

Disclaimer: Horizon: Zero Dawn and Horizon: Forbidden West © Guerrilla Games

Any OCs, human or machine, © us, or their creators.

Summary:

“There’s another battle ahead, Elisabet. Very different from the one you fought. It’s not about the distant hope of creating a new world, it’s about preserving the one we have.”

Aloy, Beta and their friends begin their preparations for Nemesis’ arrival whilst also living life to the fullest in case the worst should come to pass.

Our take on the interim period between Forbidden West and Horizon 3.

Part I of the Countdown Continuity.

Chapters:

[Prologue]

Act I: The Burning Shores

[1: Fly] - [2: Safe] - [3: Truth] - [4: Truth, Part II] - [5: Forage] - [6: Family] - [7: Hunt] - [8: Hunt, Part II] - [9: Springs] - [10: Rescue] - [11: Meeting] - [12: Near] - [13: Night] - [14: Consequences] - [15: Departure] - [16: Update]

Act II: Meridian

[17: Travel] (WIP)

Genre: General

Author: Spectres'n'Knights.

Disclaimer: Horizon: Zero Dawn and Horizon: Forbidden West © Guerrilla Games

Any OCs, human or machine, © me, or their creators.

Summary:

A field guide to the various characters, locations, machines, weapons, art, armour sets and other items that appear in Countdown.

Part II of the Countdown Continuity.

Entries:

Characters

Act I: The Burning Shores

[Aloy (Countdown 'verse)] - [Seyka (Countdown 'verse)]

Act II: Meridian

[Beta (Countdown ‘verse)] - [Kina (Countdown ‘verse)] - [Khita] - [Noemi] - [Jareus] - [Boreal] - [Royas] - [Gerrit (Countdown ‘verse)] - [Naulli] - [Eris] - [Estelle] - [Taala and Tuuli] - [Avad (Countdown ‘verse)] - [Blameless Marad (Countdown ‘verse)] - [Nakid] - [Liana] - [Itamen (Countdown ‘verse)] - [Talanah (Countdown ‘verse)] - [Vanasha (Countdown ‘verse)]

Machines

Act I: The Burning Shores

[Spyhopper] - [The Flock: Tidebreaker] - [The Flock: Solarflare] - [Buzzjaw] - [Shoalwarden]

Act II: Meridian

[The Pack: Blue] - [The Pack: Charlie] - [Stalky] - [Seasmoke and Pearldust]

Weapons

Act I: The Burning Shores

[Beta’s Spear] - [Seyka’s Seax]

Locations

Act I: The Burning Shores

[Shell-Walker ambush site] - [Seyka's quarters] - [The Springs]

Art and Craft

Act I: The Burning Shores

[GAIA Gang Squad Insignia]

Technology

Act I: The Burning Shores

[Module Configuration Tool]

Lore

Act I: The Burning Shores

[Jesuscuervo’s Horizon Real World Location Map] - [AppleDavidJeans’ Timeline]

Writing

Act I: The Burning Shores

[Section Breaks] - [Countdown Continuity Book Cover] - [Countdown Title Page] - [Field Guide Title Page] - [Act Title Pages Act I-V]

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

I have an idea that instead of very fast spaceships in my story, the spaceships are kinda slow and the main way to get places is via teleports. However there is also max range for these teleports so they have to have a relay of them, especially the oens in deep space that stretch between galaxies. Installation is slow of course - they had to wait many years between dropping each teleport off as the spaceship had to use the previous teleports to the latest location and travel slowly in the spaceship to drop a new one off. Then here's the question of objects in space moving all the time, so these teleports are obviously moving. What exactly is keeping them where they are supposed to be? Or can we say that doesn't matter as much as long they are still in range and these teleport systems are on platforms that have an engine and can get arranged properly? You might think there is a big hole here since the spaceships are so slow, how did they know what's out so far, and why is there even a need to build quicker travel. That's because there is someone else with even better technology that initally got them there, and they now know about it but they had to design their own system to get there themselves without the help of that someone else. Note that my story starts after the teleport systems are in place and there is regular transportation via these teleport systems across several galaxies so this is basically history.

Tex: Stargate stargate stargate- ahem. There is a very well-known set of TV series about this exact subject (with some occasional plot, of course): Stargate. The three main series are Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, and Stargate Universe, and each deal with a different environment of technology created by a group of people known in-universe as the Ancients (later known as the Alterans) as they are used in different galaxies.

The eponymous technology that features most prominently in all of these shows are stargate, which stabilize wormholes generated between two gates and can be connected to via a series of addresses based upon celestial constellations. These addresses are dialed via something nicknamed DHDs (Dial Home Devices - yes, jokingly after the movie E.T.), and the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies (the latter of which is the setting of Stargate: Atlantis) have different gate systems that cannot connect to each other - the protagonists were only able to do so with a huge boost of energy from a device called a ZPM (Zero Point Module) that draws power from subspace.

The gates themselves are relatively stable, and can - through a lot of legwork - be operated without a DHD; Samantha Carter in SG-1 figured out how to do so via an Earth program to use Earth computers, whereas in contrast the puddle jumpers in Atlantis (a type of ship small enough to fly through the gates) have their own dedicated versions of DHDs in the pilot’s console.

Although it’s not explicitly stated in canon, each galaxy’s gate system seems to be manufactured differently from each other, given the differences in their appearances. Realistically speaking, since these connect via wormholes, there should be no issue connecting any gate to any other gate, but it’s possible that each gate has a hardwired address array paired with its DHD that’s specific to a given range of its position in spacetime, thus giving a self-limiting range.

In SG-1, the Jaffa and Goa’uld would be of most interest to you, and in Atlantis, everyone not from the expedition would be of interest to you, as these groups of people have used their stargate networks for thousands of years on a regular basis.

[loominggaia]

(The following article is a bit spoilery, but I've been working on this stupid concept for years and I just want to post it already. Still not happy with the design, but I can tweak it some more in the future. Since Ojio is a sci-fi geek, I wanted to give his invention a hokey retro futurist/anime flair.)

CHROMIGHT MECHASKEMA

OVERVIEW

The ChroMight Mechaskema(™) is a device invented by Ojio Paramonimos, founder of Chromight Technologies. It is a robotic body-augmentation that is custom tailored to its user. The mechanical framework permanently interfaces with the user’s nerves and organs, enhancing all bodily functions. Mr. Paramonimos himself describes it as “a mechanical shell”.

Once connected with the Mechaskema(™), users experience increased strength and speed, enhanced senses, and various other abilities which can be customized with modules, such as flight and water-breathing.

The Mechaskema(™) draws power from the user’s own energy reserves, meaning the user must eat more calories to accommodate extra power draw. Additional modules will draw even more power, and at a certain point it becomes impossible for the user to keep the device powered on calories alone. In these cases, additional power sources such as petrol, arcane crystals, or batteries must be used.

BENEFITS

Mechaskema(™) users (also known as “chromen” or “chromies”) enjoy a wide range of benefits from their mechanical parts. The device efficiently recycles calories into energy, eliminating the need to defecate altogether. Its blood purification system can filter disease and improve healing speeds, and may even allow the user to eat toxic materials with little to no harm.

The device can also slow the body’s aging process, but how much depends on which modules are used. This enables short-lived species such as trolls and minotaurs to enjoy longer lifespans. The device can also compensate for missing limbs and failing organs, effectively acting as a life-support system for sick users and allowing them to function normally.

In addition, the devices allow users to bypass the need for sleep using supplemental energy sources, giving them more waking hours for productivity or recreation.

Mechaskemas(™) are available in 2 models: basic and ultra.

The basic model offers many benefits and customization options, but is less powerful than the ultra model and cannot support as many modules. Its design is less invasive, leaving more of the user's flesh exposed and bodily functions unaltered. It may interact with some organs and other body parts, but not all of them.

The ultra model offers maximum benefits to the user and many slots for modules, but its heavy power draw can prove burdensome and even dangerous to the user if not managed properly. This model requires a supplemental power source to function, such as a battery. It is highly invasive, as it interacts with every part of the user's body.

SIDE EFFECTS

Mechaskemas(™) are a permanent body augmentation. Because they interface so heavily with the user’s biology, removing them is a fatal process. This also means that the user is at the mercy of the device’s core mechanisms, and should any of these mechanisms fail, the user may die or suffer severe biological damage. Broken mechanisms must be fixed or replaced promptly, but they are expensive, and this can only be done by skilled technicians.

Not everyone is a good candidate for a Mechaskema(™). The ideal user is a biologically mature adult, financially upper class, and technologically savvy. They should never plan to travel far from a ChroMight Technologies repair center, in case of a critical mechanism failure. The devices utilize several materials that are forbidden by the Nymph Pact, meaning chromen will struggle to survive in Great Kingdoms where the pact is in effect, and may be banned from those territories altogether.

Mechaskemas(™)  depend entirely on a power source. Calories, arcane energy, solar, petrol, or electricity are all options depending on the user’s model, but when these sources are not available, the device will begin consuming the user’s body. Allowing the device to run out of power leads to serious consequences, such as permanent bodily damage and even death.

In addition to food, the devices also require water to function properly. More advanced models require more water, which they utilize for cooling and other systems. Becoming dehydrated causes the device to malfunction and will lead to the user’s death if it is not corrected promptly.

Chromen experience increased hunger and thirst as a result of their mechanically-augmented bodies. Using supplemental power sources and water-management modules can mitigate these side effects.

The Mechaskemas(™) are mechanical devices, and as such they require maintenance. Regular oiling, polishing, and tune-ups will keep them functioning optimally, but failing to take care of these machines will lead to poor performance and possibly death to the user.

Over time, users will become more and more dependent on their devices to survive as their bodies begin to atrophy. Older users experience a phenomenon known as “module creep”, where they require more modules to keep themselves alive as time goes on.

Mechaskemas(™) are not free, nor are their power sources, replacement parts, modules, or maintenance. In fact these things are all quite expensive, so choosing to become a chroman is not a decision to be taken lightly. At a certain point, a chroman’s survival becomes entirely dependant on how much money they have for repairs.

MODULES

Each new Mechaskema(™) comes equipped with a set of standard features, depending on whether it’s a basic or ultra model. If users want more features, they must purchase modules. Modules are extra parts that attach to the device and enable more features. Each module draws additional power, and more sophisticated modules draw even more.

Some smaller modules can be added and removed without consequence. Others are more invasive and cannot be removed without killing the user.

Modules can perform a virtually endless number of functions. Each one falls under a broad category, and these categories include: Health, Utility, Defense, Energy, and Miscellaneous.

The following is a list of popular modules from each category:

HEALTH: Blood detoxifier, pacemaker, aging deceleration, synthetic womb, pain blocker

UTILITY: Enhanced strength, optical zoom lens, speed boosters, lights, artificial gills, wings, jetpack

DEFENSE: Armor plates, blades, guns, spikes, spell magnifier

ENERGY: Water tanks, fuel tanks, water vaporizer, fuel burner, solar panels, battery slots

MISCELLANEOUS: Radio, calculator, voice modulator, sexual enhancers, cosmetic modifications

CULTURE

Mechaskemas(™) are a novel technology in the world of Looming Gaia, and public opinion on them varies wildly. Some staunchly disapprove, viewing them as an insult to nature, and believe they will lead to allkind’s demise. Others support the technology, believing it can change many lives for the better.

Currently the devices are only available in Zareen Empire, but ChroMight CEO Ojio Paramonimos wishes to expand this technology to foreign lands in the future. Critics argue that chromen become entirely dependant on the company’s technology, and must keep surrendering more and more money to ChroMight Technologies as they become more dependent on their devices. Because of this, the company faces frequent protests and media scrutiny.

However, many corporations and even world militaries are very interested in Paramonimos’ creation, and have invested in his research in hopes that they can benefit from this novel tech in the future.

Mr. Paramonimos is under immense political, ethical, and financial pressure from all sides, and while his invention could possibly lead to disaster, he claims his only intention is to create a better future for allkind. He believes the marriage of flesh and machine will open the door to a safer, cleaner, and smarter tomorrow.

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

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