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Mollweide

A fast-spinning highly oblate terrestrial world

Mollweide
Image from Steve Bowers
Mollweide's non-spherical shape is easily noticeable from a considerable distance

Mollweide - Data Panel

StarYTS 4442998-67-7552
TypeEogaian (Aeolian subtype, a rapidly rotating, highly oblate terrestrial with strong surface winds)
Luminosity1.9 x Sol
Distance from Sol3866 ly
ConstellationCygnus
PlanetMollweide
Rotation Period2hrs 39 mins
Equatorial diameter13401km
Equatorial gravity0.6 g
Polar diameter11520 km
Polar Gravity1.25 g

Reached by the Hosoko Posthegemonic Management Network (the HPMN) in 7909, the very young world has an unusually rapid rotation, the result of extreme collision events during the formation of this world.

The rotation of this moonless planet is gradually slowing down due to tidal interaction with the star, and over time it will become less oblate. Because of the young age of this world and the tidal action the planet is quite active geologically, and this makes the planet a challenging target for the terraformers.

In addition the strong coriolis forces in the planet's atmosphere cause frequent and ferocious cyclones in both hemispheres.

The Hosokan colonists built extensive, transparent domed habitats containing controlled environments for agriculture and to provide recreational land, and by 8500 these domes covered much of the land surface. Meanwhile the seas were seeded with bioengineered organisms designed to oxygenate the atmosphere, even though the stormy weather made the surface an uncomfortable environment for many clades.

For this reason the culture of Mollweide was mostly confined to the robust domes, and because of the very different effective gravity on the surface at various latitudes, the culture on the planet differentiated into separate bands.

The Mollwiede Exomind

In common with many modosophonts in the Sephirotic Empires, many of the citizens of Mollweide had DNI links and use external processing substrates to run expert software agents and store memory. This external substrate allowed the user to maintain a competent exoself, which was effectively part of their own identity.

In the domes surrounding the poles where gravity was more oppressive, and the citizens there began to increasingly rely on their exoselves for communication, decision-making and recreation.

In these high-gee domes the citizens linked their exoselves together into a heirarchical network, so that all the exosubtrates in a dome would be closely linked and freely exchange data, and all the domes around each pole became linked by high density datalinks. Meanwhile the occupants of the domes around the equator, who could move about more easily because of the lighter gravity, developed a number of separate and diverse cultures of various kinds which were less dependent on external networking.

Around 9000 AT the domes at the North and South poles of Mollweide established datalinks with one another, allowing the exoselves of their citizens to join together into a single entity, the Exomind. At first the Mollweide Exomind was a subsingularitarian entity, but with the help of other transapients from the HPMN ve ascended to the First Toposophic in 9111.

Even though the biological minds of each citizen were still separate from one another they all had an intimate connection with this single external entity, which rapidly developed its own goals and priorities. The Mollweide Exomind closely supervised its citizens, giving advice, praise and criticism in abundance . The culture in the polar domes became highly optimised for efficiency and comfort, with most problems and disputes quickly resolved by the collective entity. Citizens connected to the Exomind were generally highly dependent on this connection for all their information requirements, as well as on a psychological level.

The experience of being connected to the exomind was so powerful and overwhelming that most citizens preferred to be fully connected only for a few minutes each day (the days on Mollweide are, of course, very short). Some citizens however were continuously connected, even when asleep.

The influence of these sleepers on the exomind's gestalt personality was quite strong, as their dreams became part of the waking culture of the world. Shadowy dreambeings often made their presence known among the population, some friendly, others disturbing or terrifying. To limit the disturbances caused by such unconsious imagery upon the waking population, the Exomind created a specialized class of software agents called Sandmen, who shepherded the dreams of the sleepers and reduced the potency of their nightmares.

The Worldhouse Membrane

In the eleventh millennium much of the planet's surface has been covered by a resilient worldhouse membrane, so that the old dome structures have been largely abandoned. The climate within this worldhouse is closely controlled so that the tempestuous winds no longer pose a problem. The enclosed culture of the polar domes has largely been replaced by a new diversity, with several new clades of provolves, lazurogens and neogens migrating from other worlds in the HPMN (and beyond) to live on this planet.

Perhaps as a result of this cultural shift the original Exomind underwent a second ascension, to the Second Toposophic level, in 10099, and withdrew from the Mollweide datasphere. Since that time there have been several attempts to forge a new collective superconsciousness to replace the old one, but instead a host of smaller competing group minds have formed, too diverse at this point in time to become unified into a single entity.

 
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Appears in Topics
Outer VolumesSystems & Worlds M - N
 
Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 21 July 2011.

 
 
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