Bi

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Biological life (in contrast to A-Life)

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any organism or replicator that takes two local years to complete the full life cycle.

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A very advanced form of reactionless drive, which causes a vehicle to alters the properties of space itself, such as the gravitational constant, G, to create a local propulsive gradient. By modifying Newton's constant to have a localized asymmetric bias, a local gradient similar to the Pitch Drive mechanism results. An exceeding rapid acceleration is possible given a sufficient gradient. The gradient of this scalar potential produces a space-time singularity at the origin. The Bias Star Drive requires a high toposophic power and its subsystems and subservient aioids to operate it and keep the singularity stable. For this reason it is not as widely used as the Diametric or the Pitch Drive,
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The five main interstellar development megacorporations of the first Federation period - Truth-Santaya Networks, TakiCorb, Terranova Foundation, K4H, and SecureSpace. In the colonies they were very often a law unto themselves. They eventually merged to become the NoCoZo

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Prosperous Sophic League/Free Sophic/NoCoZo system, home of the BigTor Plexus

M Alan Kazlev

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Major wormhole plexus in the Big Tor system

M Alan Kazlev

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any organism or device having symmetry along only a single axis (left and right), in contrast to radial symmetry. Many terragen and exobiological animal phyla are bilaterally symmetrical

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Techno-religious style widespread in MPA 6900-7300, centred around extreme evolutionism and the vision of organic growth as the underlying dynamics of civilizations and gods.

Anders Sandberg

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Rana IV-V

Double planet, formerly Eridanus League, more recently home of the Vore Abergism trade empire. The Rana system remains inhabited by various small cultures in the ruins of the grandiose Abergist megastructures around Bill and Bull.

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Anders Sandberg

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The condition that results when the augmented or advanced part of a sentient rises to a higher toposophic level, while the original personality remains at or just above baseline, with its own brain thinking at SI:<1 level.

Bimodals can be considered a symbiotic pair. The S>=1 portion needing an interface to humans and the SI:<1 portion that eventually will realize it has a direct connection to a higher being.

Conflicts can arise when there is a difference of interests. SI:1 Bob may want to do some quixotic thing like travel to the Riemond 5 Nebula to study the local neo-von neumann deep-space life ecologies, while baseline Bob wants to say with his family in their comfortable orbital-based habitation module. In these cases the dividual would have to create a "remote" for the S>=1 portion and allow existential bifurcation for short periods of time. Travel via wormhole gate, do what needs to be done, and return home quickly. It would probably be uncomfortable for "both" parties since they're so used to living as one.

Pran Mukerjee

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"Understanding". Originally the third of the ten traditional sefirot of Kabbalah and Hermeticism. Later - especially among Cyberhermetics and Neohermetics came to designate the MPA

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Written in a form that uses only 0s and 1s. A string of bits.

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two stars rotating around a common centre of mass. About half of all stars are binaries. Three categories of binary stars, depending on whether neither, one, or both fill their Lagrangian lobes.

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A megascale electrical engineering device built around the interstellar plasma flow between unequal size stars in a binary system. The hollow tube like device uses charged plasma particles flowing through it to produce electricity

(Binary system plus generator)

Transhumanist Terminology

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Part artificial organism using only organic components (biomods, wetware, etc)

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bioengineered organisms, e.g. bacteria, neogens, etc, modified to act out specific orders.

Biobots of some form or another have been used since the middle information period for nanotech (bionano), production, monitoring, medicine and much more.

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The prejudice that biological systems have an intrinsic superiority that will always give them a monopoly on self-reproduction and intelligence over aioids and mechanoids. Many radical anthropist and bioprimist groups are biochauvinist to a greater or lesser extent

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Scientific profession - sophont who studies biochemistry, or applies that knowledge and techniques in a practical way.

Subfields include microbiology, organic chemistry, elements of physiology and xenobiology, applied (bionano) biochemistry, pharmacology, wetware engineering, psychotropics, neogenics, and biomachinics. Involves study of prebiotic environments and pre-, proto- and cellular biotic metabolism and chemical reactions, the molecular composition of terragen and alien life forms, synthesis and production of crude organobiota; meso- and nano-microscopic analysis and measurement also the effect of various nutrients, drugs, enzymes, hormones, nanites, toxins, and other chemicals on biologicals, the design and synthesis of long chain carbon molecules, and the effect of chemicals and the chemical environment on the growth and metabolism of terragen and xenobiont organisms. Most biochemists have extensive knowledge base and expert system augmentation

M.Alan Kazlev, based on original write-up by Robert J. Hall

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The chemistry of living things, including the structure and function of biological molecules and the mechanism and products of their reactions.

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A city or urban area employing extensive biotech (wet tech) rather than dry tech (concrete, steel, glass, etc)

M.Alan Kazlev

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a substance that can be broken down through the normal activity of microorganisms. Many Zoeific, Arcadian, and some Genen, polities have strict guidelines and regulations regarding this

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the abundance of different biological species and varieties found in any environment, such as a natural biosphere, a ship, or an orbital or deep-space habitat. In almost every case (there are exceptions - e.g. on special purpose ships, military, freighter, etc etc), a high biodiversity is preferable to a low biodiversity, for both ecological robustness, resource value, evolutionary potential, and aesthetic appreciation.

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Any planet or similar-sized, originally naturally-occurring body that has been converted and dedicated to processing tasks through Bio-Geo-Computing.

Most often a Gaian-class Terrestrial world, though any life-bearing world, or one capable of being life-bearing, will do. Toposophic range and limits are uncertain. However, SI:3 seems not unreasonable. Whatever eir capabilities (actual or potential), Bio-Geo Planetary Nodes/Brains (variously called BP Nodes, BG Nodes, BP Brains, or BG Brains) invariably operate far more slowly than processing megastructures not limited to biology (which is effectively nanotech), mainly due to the lack, in a pure Bio-Geo Planetary Node/Brain, of internal wormholes.

The AI god GAIA is widely regarded as the first, and most obvious, example of a Bio-Geo Planetary Node/Brain. This may be technically incorrect, however. It is not known if GAIA, the AI god which currently occupies Earth, actually utilizes Bio-Geo Computing.

Mike Parisi

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Generally, life-worship, affirmation of life and ecosystems as expressed in both natural and artificial biospheres.

Developed originally as the romantic/neopagan side of the environmentalist movement and the various complexity movements on the transhumanist side of the spectrum; became a central memetic for much of the Interplanetary through to late Federation period, before being supplanted by the archailect memetics. Even so, it continues to be an important part of the mindset of sentient beings, both biont and aiont, in the present day. Bioism is a value-system, not a religion. However it has given rise to many religions and more extreme memeticities, including Bioprimacy and Bioviratism, as well as to one huge empire, the Zoeific Biopolity
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Any baseline and.or luddist conservatism that resists asexual reproduction, genetic engineering, altering the human anatomy, overcoming death. Originally a resistance to the evolution from the human to the posthuman, it developed into a broad anti-tweak and anti-po movement.

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The study of terragen and alien life in all its aspects.

This vast field of science includes many specialized branches, including bacteriology, microbiology, botany, zoology, xenobiology, extremophile studies, virology, biochemistry, biophysics, bionanotech, cytology, metabolic studies, physiology, genetics, evolutionary theory, behavioural biology, ethnobiology, biopoesis, neogenics, taxonomy and systematics, ecology, biospherics, biocentric and ecocentric philosophies and spirituality, methods of collecting and preserving samples, scientific illustration, bionanoecology, and museum ship biocuratorship, among many other fields

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the production of light by both natural and artificial living organisms. Many deep-sea and murky atmosphere organisms are bioluminescent. Among many phyles and clades, bioluminescent bodymods are de rigeur, although, as with everything else, bioluminescence tends to go in and out of fashion with alarming rapidity

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Machine or device, usually only presentient, based on organic components rather than inorganic mechanisms. Essentially a custom-made neogen with a plant or lower animal consciousness.

M. Alan Kazlev

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the total amount of living material (whether natural or artificial) in a particular area, estimated by adding up the weights of all of the organisms. Note that- biomass is not the same as biodiversity (e.g. a monoculture has a high biomass but low biodiversity)

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Major sub-habitat type in any biosphere; a complex community of plants and animals of a particular habitat, garden-world or terraformed region.

Biomes are environments determined by the amount of temperature, moisture, light, and other factors. Each of these environments has distinct life forms living in it, forming complex communities of interdependent organisms. Most large orbital habitats have at least half a dozen, and ideally more, biomes or microbiomes

Some standard terragen biomes are:

Terrestrial (land and fresh-water):
Chaparral or scrub - coastal area with hot, dry summers and mild, cool, rainy winters; poor soil, shrub and some woodland, drought and fire-adapted animals
Desert - very dry, either hot or cold, soil poor and sparse; plants xerophylic, include succulents (cactus, etc), small scrub, etc; animals include insects, arachnids, reptiles and birds, these are often nocturnal to escape from the heat
Grassland - Windy, partly dry sea of grass with few trees, including tropical savanna, prairie, steppe, pampas, etc. fertile soil, few or no trees, many mammals (including large animals), birds, insects, arachnids, etc.
Tundra - cool, treeless, and dry; permafrost, lichens and mosses, usually migrating animals
Taiga or Coniferous Forest - cool and dry, with coniferous trees; poor, rocky soil, rather low diversity of animal and plant life
Temperate Deciduous Forest - cool and rainy, with deciduous trees; fertile soil, diversity mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, arachnids, etc
Temperate Rain Forest - cool and wet, large diversity or organisms
Tropical Rain Forest - warm and very wet, with a very high diversity or organisms, soil poor
Wetlands - many types of wetlands, including swamps, marshes, moors, bogs, fens, sloughs, etc.

Marine (ocean or sea):
benthic - sea bottom, many types of marine animals crawling and sedentary
, coral reef - warm shallow salt-water environments based on coral formation, huge abundance of animal life
pelagic open sea, near the surface, plankton, fish, squids, shrimp
littoral - intertidal zones, seaweed, many types of invertebrates shelter among the rocks
estuarine - where rivers meet oceans, generally organisms adapted to the particular saline conditions (not saline enough for marine, too saline for freshwater)

In addition there area a huge number of artificial biomes, xenobiological biomes, and so on

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Science that deals with the biont body as a mechanism to which the laws of physics are applied to study, treatment, and augment movement and athletic performance.

Includes kinesiology, sports science, kinetic and athletic bioware and cyberware, and other topics

M.Alan Kazlev, modified from the original write-up by Robert J. Hall

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The design and development of medical technology, especially medical nanotechnology

Includes design and development of customized medical nanobots, synthetic biomaterials, large, small, cellular, and subcellular-scale body imaging and sensors, bio- and cybernetic implants and augmentations

M.Alan Kazlev, based on original write-up by Robert J. Hall

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Biological mesotech; like bionano but on a meso- rather than a nano- scale

M. Alan Kazlev

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Originally, designs or technology that were inspired by or based on living organisms. With developing biotech and bionano during the information and early interplanetary age the line between the technical and the organic began to blur. Often now whether a nanite or microbot is considered hylonano or bionano is purely an arbitrary decision. Some vecs also are so organic in form, function, and structure as to appear indistinguishable from a living being.

M. Alan Kazlev

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a biotech or bioborg augment or mod, especially one that can be easily or relatively easily applied to any biont, bioborg, cyborg, biovec

M. Alan Kazlev

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a biomodified life form hybridised with a madvert.

This neogen will do anything to convince you to try its particular genmod, and sometimes will cunningly inject or infect an unsuspecting biont with its genmod. Most biomodverts are subsapient, but some are fully sapient, and a few of these are superbright. Their legal status differs from polity to polity - in some regions they have all sentient rights, in others they considered vermin, and in others again they are de-genmodised but otherwise allowed to exist as harmless nuisances

M. Alan Kazlev

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A nanecology built solely on organic nanites (bionano).

Strictly speaking, natural carbon-based ecosystems area a form of bionanecology. The term however is more generally used to refer to artificial bionano, as opposed to naturally evolved bionano. Most bionanecologies and hylonanecologies tend to merge, with each using components found in the other; the difference between them being one of degree rather than of kind. In some cases however, unregulated bionanecologies can infect natural biosystems and biospheres with which they come in contact, leading to an explosion of hybrid lifeforms

M. Alan Kazlev

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Bimolecular Nanotechnology (Bionanotech). Use of biomolecules as replicators, assemblers, or components for molecular nanotechnology; any molecular nanotechnology based on such biomolecules or biotech. Biomolecular Nanotechnology tends to be more reliable and also to have a higher adaptive/evolutionary capacity than inorganic nanotechnology (hylonanotech). It may be used as stand-alone nano or interfaced with living systems.

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M. Alan Kazlev

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An individual bionano unit - a biological / organic nanobot

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An organic entity; especially a sophont being (Although sometimes used to designate an organic life form in general.).

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The science and art of creating biont clades, usually from scratch. Such bionts do not necessarily have to look unusual, they may be typical nearbaseline in appearance for example

M Alan Kazlev

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Term given to sophonts - usually transapients but may be superbright/superturing - who create for business, pleasure, or other motives entire biont clades.

Biontogenists may be biological ((nano/synano-)bioborg), cyborg, ai, or even virtuals (assuming the latter have the appropriate physical interfaces)

M Alan Kazlev

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geneered organisms whose entire raison d'etre is to make music (like sentient muzak systems but the make very very good music).

Not just music that we can appreciate but a sort of broadband magic that sounds equally pleasant to all clades, sounding different to each type. for example a baseline won't hear much bar the bassline and fractal percussion (the most important part of a biophonic dub symphony). But a vec or a neodolphin etc, all hear something else.

Of course you can mod yourself specifically to cycle through a million different 'frequency response' templates. Not that you'd ever understand the complexities of each harmonic like a Biophone can.

NoCoZo possesses huge numbers of of them in their enormous mallbitals.

Ernst Stavro Blofeld

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The study of biological structures and processes using the analytical methods of physics.

Often involves hylonano, hylomeso, and other sensitive measuring equipment, to record both large and small scale molecular interactions, the effect of energy use and radiation on cellular function, the application of physical affect of nano and hylocybernetics on the body, theoretical applied nano-microbiology, and thermodynamic and electrical phenomenon within the body itself, and in association with nanoware and cyberware.

M.Alan Kazlev, modified from the original write-up by Robert J. Hall

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In some worlds a system of living solar collectors for powering underground biospheres is employed - e.g. the Zoeific Biopolity and the Arcadians would build when settling an otherwise inhospitable world. The bases are visible only as verdant green smears of shimmering electromoss, with the tunnels far below the surface.

Anders Sandberg

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Heavily bioborged/syborged neogenic vessel that employs organic technology for most of their systems.

Capable of operating in both the vacuum of space as well as in an atmosphere, bioships most often use a matter/antimatter reaction power source or drive sails (less often, GUT-drive, reactionless drive) along with an electrodynamic fluid circulatory system, and chemical or air breathing ramjet for atmospheric flight.

Biological autowars, such as have been used by the former Biovirate and other organicist culture, are automatic biological warships with a DNA hyperturing brain, blue goo nanite immune system, and extremely powerful rapid biological regeneration of damaged systems, making them nearly impervious to attack.

Steve Bowers

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any autonomous self-supporting, self-containing, homeostatic eco-system.

Natural Biospheres - planets such as Earth, Trees, and Eden, are very rare. Most biospheres are artificial, and may be hollowed out asteroids, planetary domes, ships, etc
term coined by Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky in 1929 (Old Earth).