BY LETTER
Warfare
 Image from Copyright Kentsuku CG World used with permission |
[Industrial Age Strategist, Old Earth]
Every person, every empire has an agenda, and sometimes it cannot be achieved in business or trade or even blockades. In those cases the low risk option of the trade embargo fails. The result is war.
War is a factor of the modern galaxy in the same way that commerce or art or science are. War has always been around, and it appears that past alien races engaged in it although their motives are not always clear to Terragen researchers.
In the more developed parts of the galactic community, war is very rare. The time when human-led nation states would rattle sabres at each other, or the megacorp-backed military-entertainment complex would encourage bloody but safely distant proxy wars, are long since over. Apart from Free Zones, where anything goes, the governing hyperturings find memetic subversion a far more profitable way of capturing territory and converting populace than war ever was.
Away from the reach of the ruling AI Gods and their seraiph however, war continues as it always has. In the middle and outer regions, local clades, houses, or megacorps may fight a bloody battle for ownership of a strategic or resource rich solar system, or possession of rare and valuable clarketech or other relics left by transcends. Or local warlords can establish neofeudal fiefdoms. Some believe the transingularity powers allow this as a lesson to show how foolish it is to live in a society run by nearbaselines or mere superbrights.
Most of the real problems the galaxy faces result from perversions and blights — rogue AIs or clarketech. The sudden rise of aggressively hegemonizing empires like the Conver Ambi early on, and the Laughter Hegemony and the Amalgamation in the current era, can be explained in this way.
Articles
- Anandayanna-Uvartarasha War - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Central Alliance period war fought between two factions (one subverted by the Hyperutilization Supremacy) for the control of Kuranaba. - Arms Race - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Two or more species, polities, memeticities, or clades experiencing adaptation to one another in a coevolutionary manner. Biologically or ecologically, this often seen in predator-prey systems; politically this may appear as aggressor and victim, especially when one polity is stronger than the other. Memetically this is an ideological conflict, a "battle for hearts and minds". Military arms races are rare among the big empires (the lead-up to the Version War was one of the rare exceptions) but quite common in some small, non-aligned, and mostly SI:<1 (often nearbaseline) polities, especially those of a militaristic, patriotic, or totalitarian bent - Atlantis Freedom Fleet - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
NoCoZo mercenary fleet of the Version War period. - Authenticity Purges, Authenticity War - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Late Re-Evaluation period historical-archaeological purges resulting in brief Sol System-Formac war. - Autowar - Text by Bill White; modified by M. Alan Kazlev
A type of automated, self-replicating cybernetic warship. - Babel Plague - Text by Anders Sandberg
Human viral infection of artificial origin, likely developed as a bioweapon during the 300's. - Battle of Erson - Text by Anders Sandberg
Battle of Erson, Brin (42 Tauri IV). One of the most bitter battles of the Second Empires War. - Battle of Hejne, The - Text by Anders Sandberg
Battle between separatists in the Solar Dominion fringe world, where a transapient entity was defeated by the Jan-Hejne insurgent modosophonts. - Battle of the Fringe - Text by Charles Mosteller
The climactic battle between the military forces of the Quasa'an Dynasty and the Tsutari Ambastory, which resulted in the collapse of the Quasa'an Dynasty in the year 2446, and brought an end to centuries of cruel dictatorships on the planet Mandra QuinSi by a series of sadistic rulers known as the Terrorlords. - Berzerker - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Sentient being, whether biont, vec, or ai, psycho-engineered or otherwise psychologically modified for combat, so as to go into a wild fighting or killing rage when triggered by a particular stimulus. Usually the stimulus is a neural implant, although sometimes chemical or metabolic triggers are used. - Biowar - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
An organic warship, a sentient, self-contained, evolutionary, self-replicating superbright bio-autowar. Like autowars, biowars can form long-lived populations and make regions of space hazardous long after the original conflict is over. - Bolobo System Wars, The - Text by Steve Bowers
Wars in the Bolobo system - Central Alliance - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Alliance of Sephirotic, Panvirt, Diamond, and Objectivist empires originally formed in response to the Hyperutilization Supremacy (see "Meeting at Googlehertz"). - Cerberus, FDF Carrier - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Flagship of the Federation Defense Force Fleet during the later First Federation period. - Combat Jacket - Text by Ryan B
Wearable Multi-gun platform for versatile personal offensive/defensive operations. - Combat Threads - Text by John B
Separate aspects of a war or conflict, clothing for combat, or weapons and materials that are extremely long and thin, depending on the context. - Consolidation Wars - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A series of regional inter-megacorp and post-megacorp wars fought in the colonies during the Federation period, as local colonial fiefdoms and vested interests sought to secure their position - Conver Wars, The - Text by Mark Ryherd
One of the most destructive wars in the history of the Terragen Sphere. - Crescent Class Cruiser - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and 'Total Annihilation'
- Dominator Class Ship - Text by Darren Ryding
- Dreadnought (ship) - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A Capital Ship of the largest scale (term now rarely used). - Empires Wars - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Second Federation and later term for two major and several minor interstellar wars rimwards of Sol during the Age of Empires. They saw the S>2 and especially archailect empires gain ground over the earlier SI:1 and SI:2 governed empires. The two most important of these were the (earlier) Nexus War (involving the breakup of the Taurus Nexus) and the (later) Conver Wars (involving out-of-control elements in the Conver Ambi, presumably the result of subversion by a perverse or ahuman ai). - First Consolidation War, The - Text by Steve Bowers
- First Vec War, the - Text by Steve Bowers
The First Vec War broke out in the Rigel Vector in 4044 a.t. between Metasoft and the Silicon Generation clade Emotive Cognation, apparently due to a territorial dispute. The conflict seems to have been in reality due to deep philosophical differences, fuelled by malicious provocation from the local Rigel Backgrounder clade of cyborgs and humans. - Five Morph, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A martial arts warrior clade based on five morphotypes. - Fleet - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A group of (usually although not necessarily) armed ships moving together as a unit. The range, speed, and endurance of a fleet are the range, speed, and endurance of its most feeble vessel. - Genesis of the Second Vec War, The - Text by Steve Bowers
The build-up to the Metasoft Civil war. - Goo - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
General term for nanomachines or bionano swarms, especially dangerous replicators. Types include Grey Goo (mindless replicators converting matter into more goo), Red Goo (weapon or malicious goo), Khaki Goo (military goo), Golden Goo (dangerous accidental goo), Green Goo(out of control bionano) and Ultraviolet Goo (ai-equipped goo). The most common defence is Blue Goo (immune nanodevices). - Goo, Khaki - Text by Steve Bowers
Many novel and advanced species of military nano have appeared over the centuries, a constant test of blue goo defences. - Goo, Shadow - Text by Peter Kisner
Nanotech that's hard to trace or detect. - Good War/Bad War - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
The terms "good war" and "bad war" are expressions used by sapient-level martial forces to differentiate between transapient-regulated actions, usually not involving major forces, and conflicts in unregulated space. - History of Interplanetary and Interstellar War - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A brief history of war on the interplanetary and interstellar scale within the Terragen Sphere. - Honour Warrior - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Generic term among some clades for a sophont from a clade that emphasies honour, just retribution, and "righteous war" in its culture or meme-set. - House Holsta and The Copy War - Text by Anders Sandberg
A war among scions of the leader of House Holsta. - Hypercorruption Expanse, The - Text by Espen Antonsen
Local war between Metasoft and a Top-level blight - Internet War, The - Text by Anders Sandberg
Late Information Age (2089 c.e.) virtual world war. A war of sabotage, misinformation and denial of service centered on North American interests on the net, likely launched by unknown competitors or megacorps. - Last War, the - Text by Mark Ryherd
Following GAIA's ultimatum declaring the "Great Expulsion" in 621 A.T. a brutal seven year war between shifting coalitions of GAIA's supporters, Treaty Org loyalists, various regional blocs, transnational factions, and local populations broke out on Earth and in Earth's orbital habitats. - Light Speed Paranoia - Text by Steve Bowers
Every star is separated from every other star by a distance on the order of light years, and so all information any one star-system can have about its neighbours is years out of date. This makes each star system paranoid about what the others are thinking and planning, so they have to assume the worst. - Lurkship - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Generally, a heavily armed and armoured, short-range hyperturing military vessel, capable of stealth operations in a hydrospheric and atmospheric environment for greatly extended periods of time. Subcraft or subships are similar but smaller and less well armed and equipped. - Memetic War - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A war of ideology and persuasion rather than weaponry or military might. Most transapients and archai uses memetics when dealing with lower toposophics and subsingulitaritans, few resort to anything as crude as actual hardware or software weaponry. Examples of memetic warriors might be PR agents, priest, poets, empaths. - Military History - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
The study of great battles and campaigns in the history of mindkind, the development of weapons and tactics, the life of great commanders, the effect on contemporary politics and later events, and so on. - Military Strategy in the Posthuman Era - Text by Anders Sandberg
Introductory notes for Virch Course Environment EA3880: History of Interstellar Warfare and Strategy, University of Corona. - Military Theory - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, from by Robert J. Hall
The theoretical study of past, present and possible future military operations under a variety of political, geographical, environmental, planetological, and deep space conditions; with various combinations of levels of weapons, technology, toposophic, and so on. - Oracle War, The - Text by Steve Bowers, with comments by Todd Drashner and Terrafamilia
A conflict between the Oracle Machines, the MPA and the Communion of Worlds. - Platypus War, The - Text by Jorge Ditchkenberg
A widespread Terragen fable regarding memetic effects; it may or may not have a historical basis. - Polemovore - Text by Anders Sandberg
A creature that eats war, or more specifically the self-replicating weapons left behind advanced wars. They were postulated as an explanation of why the whole universe has not been overrun by autowars or turned into strange matter viruses by now. - Refutology War - Text by Anders Sandberg
A minor low-violence war between the Refutologists and Faillance 8496-8513, mainly fought among minor Inner Sphere worlds. The Faillance was a trade-prognosis cartel culture that had emerged during the fragmentation of the ComEmp. As a counter to its growing influence were the Refutologists, skeptics and analysts of competing trade cultures. Among a number of minor worlds their conflict escalated due to memetic manipulation into full-scale proxy war (on the major worlds local governments had no problems preventing such conflicts). The war led to the breakup of Faillance (and the few formal Refutologist cartels) due to economic sanctions; the resulting Faillantau either dissolved over time or became minor local government religions. - Ritual Duels - Text by Jorge Ditchkenberg
One-on-one combat between baseline-equivalent sapients under the supervision of higher level transapients. - Rojmaneo War - Text by Anders Sandberg
Conflict among the members of House Claida, 9322-9365. After the permanent suspension of the Rojmaneo in 9322, different factions began to struggle over succession, creating an internal war spread across the wormhole Nexus. Over a thousand members were killed or sabotaged before Canahare Hre-Claida ascended as the new Rojmaneo. - Sagittarius Periphery Wars - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A serious of skirmishes, blights, and territorial wars along the Sagittarius frontier during the middle Empires period. The potentially worst of these were defused by the Specialist in a series of oft-recounted real-life interventions. - Salt, Salting - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
In this context, when a biosphere (usually a large one, like a planet), is poisoned to make it uninhabitable (c.f. ecophagy). A subcategory of this is when a world or habitat is selectively poisoned in such a way that it becomes uninhabitable for the original natives/colonists, but is now inhabitable by the poisoners. This might be accomplished through climatic change, chemical processes, alteration of atmospheric albedo (or other radiation increasing or decreasing measures), or possibly other means. Halophiles find the human term for this perversity particularly ironic. - Scale War - Text by M. Alan Kazlev based on the original by Hugo de Garis
War occurring between protagonists of a different speeds and component densities, e.g. between (predominantly) baseline/macrotech and nanoscale/nanotech, or between nanoscale/nanotech and picoscale/magtech. Inevitably the denser, faster tech will always win, unless the disadvantaged side gets help from a friendly AI God. - Second Consolidation War - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
The bloody war fought between the Geminga-dominated Conver Ambi and the Dominion and Metasoft forces. Also known as the Second Empires war and the Conver Wars. - Second Empires War - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Series of sometimes purely abstract and sometimes very bloody late Empires age wars, centered around the Conver Ambi and involving a number of SI:1 and SI:2 intellects. (see The Conver Wars) - Second Vec War, The - Text by Steve Bowers
The Metasoft Civil War; an historical account. - Shadowhound - Text by Todd Drashner
Bionano based infiltration and combat device. Shadowhounds have no definite shape, but are able to alter their form (usually over a period of several minutes to hours) to suit whatever conditions or situations they encounter. Shadowhounds derive their name from both their matte black outer layer (used to absorb solar energy) and one of their most common appearance defaults as a roughly canine shaped quadrupedal form. - Smart Weapons - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, from Anders Sandberg's Big Ideas Grand Vision
Weapons with have varying amounts of intelligence in them (rarely more than turingrade). The simplest Smart Weapons link to a control-command subturing and give the owner the ability to shift between types of ammo, see through the aimpoint camera etc. This kind of connection is necessary for use in teamware, and is practically standard among even the simplest baselines. The scramjet bullets of the sabot pistols of Trillicon have built in cameras and some limited steering capabilities. Zetatech's Marksman Gun is equipped with a n expert system that can act as a point defence or drone if placed on a tripod or suitable vehicle (although the price tag deters most people). - Space Warfare, Early - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Deep space combat from the Interplanetary Age to the late Federation period. - Space Warfare, Modern - Text by Anders Sandberg
Unsystematic notes by Admiralett 4434 "Chariot" of Castaldo Violence Equities, NoCoZo. - Version War, The - Text by Anders Sandberg, M. Alan Kazlev, Peter Kisner, Aaron Hamilton
A major Inner Sphere war of the Fifth Millennium. - Warseed - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Interplanetary Age proto-warchive developed by the The Cult of the Exsanguinated Giraffe.
Related Topics
Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Image Copyright Kentsuku CG World used with permission
Initially published on 02 July 2000.
Image Copyright Kentsuku CG World used with permission
Initially published on 02 July 2000.
