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Du to Dz

dualism

religious or philosophical system characterized by a fundamental opposition of two contrasting principles. Variations include the unending conflict of good and evil in Old Earth Zoroastrianism, Neotolkeinism, and Wumpra Gothism, the metaphysical Platonic-Cartesian dualism of body and mind or soul or matter and spirit, and the cyberian and cybergnostic dualism of vir and rl. Contrast with monism, materialism and pluralism.

Dualist Meta-Theology

A school of thought that performs comparative theology with the following thesis: our spacetime continuum is the work of a beneficent deity whose creation was disrupted by a maleficent deity of comparable power.

The two deities are stalemated in their struggle and are seeking to recruit even the minuscule efforts of creations within our spacetime to tip the balance. As all their power is already committed to maintaining the stalemate they can only interact with our spacetime in a very weak manner (such as sending revelatory messages to prophets).

Both deities are engaged in intense memetic warfare. The beneficent deity seeks to give us the truth and instruction to aid em and ourselves. The maleficent deity seeks to block, destroy and corrupt this information, instead giving disinformation to gain our aid in our own destruction. Dualist Meta-Theology holds that all revelatory religion can be viewed in the context of memetic warfare between these two deities, and DMT theorists therefore seek to discern how much truth or falsehood each religion contains. Though Dualist Meta-Theology is usually put in terms of two deities it can also be formulated with groups of deities (usually two opposed pantheons). Several analyses formulated by adherents to DMT have been used as grounds for religious wars over the millennia.
see also Pluralist Meta-Theology

Glen Finney

dubifier

A word used to make a statement uncertain or show the limits of its applicability ("The experimental data appears to fit the model in the parameter range tested", "I think so" etc). (Based on quantifier, something that tells how much there is of anything)

Heath M Rezabek, in Transhumanist Terminology

Duck tape 2.0

Common roll reusable tape.

One side is adhesive, and the other side is not (usually). The adhesive side is covered with programmable nano assemblers, who's basic function is to temporarily hold, and mend. Without programming, it will mend simple surface materials (using a best guess approach), including skin.

The other side contains an energy gathering material, such as a solar cell or beamed ambient microwave receiver

With creative programming, Duck Tape 2.0, can be used for any number of applications.

Sethbord

Duibbiyat

Late First federation orbital habitat, SolSys. No relation to New Duibbiyat

M.Alan Kazlev

dulls

impolite term Superbrights and near-Superbrights use to refer to those sapients (whether baseline or superior) of lower than their own level of intelligence

M.Alan Kazlev

dumbtech

Generally, tech lacking any sort of inbuilt ai, aioid, or information-processing systems or micro- or nano- systems. More often found away from the main capitals, or on prim worlds, and wherever there is no angelnet support. During the early days of human history, from the stone age to the industrial age, all tech was dumbtech.

dumdo

Dumbdowned tech, ultratech that has been modified so that even a baseline can use it.

There are two types of dumbdo - augie and duh.

augie requires augmentations such as DNI, waldos, etc.
duh (also known as ugie) can be used even by an anaugmented baseline.

Even augie dumdo is limited relative to what can be done with the tech by a hyperturing or power. duh is even more restricted

M. Alan Kazlev

Ruth Duorkin

Born quadriplegic in 2009 c.e., Ruth Duorkin received primitive neural interfacing to give her an electronic voice, then a powered exoskeleton when she was sixteen to allow her to stand and eventually walk. Her experimental "bodywalker" system was at first slow and largely autonomous, but with better interfacing and naturally occurring neural accommodation she was able to move freely by her mid twenties. She became a campaigner for differently abled peoples' rights around the world, and following an assassination attempt in Venezuela in 2032 c.e. she incorporated a discrete kevlar outer skin to her bodyplan. She also was subject to sporadic hacking and spambot attacks on her net connected components, against which she designed ingenious defences. When she died in 2090 c.e. her now highly electronic and versatile bodywalker was copied for the Smithsonian Institute as an example of early cyberhuman interfacing.

Steve Bowers

Duoden Torus

Wrecked nanostructure orbiting Hip 74815 at 5 AU. The structure is a torus of diamondoid meshwork 3 kilometers across, with a small radius of 43 meters. On the meshwork are computing nodes similar to 5th century terrestrial quantum cellular automata. It appears to have been partially destroyed by an antimatter explosion nearby, and all information states lost. The nanodefenses appear similar to the Charybdis installation, suggesting a common origin.

Anders Sandberg

Dura Grass

Neogen plant developed as a floor covering.

Dura Grass is a mossy grass like plant that is designed to create a soft spongy surface for walking. It grows to a set height of 1-3 centimetres depending on the species of dura grass. It is highly resistant to low light conditions and thrives easily with minimal tending. Dura grass is also a common replacement for grass on golf courses and other open areas. It will only grow on a special fabricate like covering preventing it from spreading into local ecologies. It is crush proof, and grows quickly repairing most damage over night. Absorbs dust and various pollutants aiding most life support systems. It can also be found covering roads and nature trails on many worlds and habitats that allow ground based transportation.

James Ramsey

Durant Durang

Originally created as a sport by the 3rd toposophic Mind 46712 "The Hybyricon", Durant Durang, called "The Method Borg": by eir friends, is a postneogen cyborg Perfect Artist, musician, philosopher, ethicist, historian, and dramatist who travels the galaxy taking up quixotic causes, which e peruses obsessively.

E is responsible - among other things - for the liberation of ten trillion madverts from the MPA, Communion of Worlds, and Sophic League (e also formed the Free Madvert Society, before losing interest in the whole thing), introducing subsophont Carnivorous Fuschias as a trendy potted plant in the Solar Dominion, and encouraging the Admin Nodes of New Bhairan (Terran Federation) to Legalise Mathematical Pornography. E is currently trying (without much success) to get Wup decriminalised in the Negentropic Alliance. Commentators remain undecided as to whether these antics are really done for noble purposes, or simply as a form of Perfect Art

M Alan Kazlev

Dust, Interstellar

particles of carbon, iron, and silicates coated with ice, making up about 1% of the mass of the interstellar medium. Each grain is about a micron in diameter. They are often associated with nebula and young stars. The average distance between dust grains is about 150 meters. A nuisance to starfaring vessels, because the impact at relativistic velocity tends to seriously erode the protective shielding, interstellar dust is highly prized by cloudharvesters and other hider phyles

Dust Lane

a lane of dark interstellar dust in a galaxy or emission nebula; obscuring the light of stars behind it.

Dustbuilders

Extinct ai culture in the Gliese 229 system. Apparently seeded from isolationistic ais escaped from the solar system sometime in the 5th century, the ais employed replicators to convert the surface of Gliese 229 B I ("Tessera") into energy collectors and computronium. At some point their society crashed, and disassemblers eroded most of the installations. Only fragmentary information remains, hinting that the collapse was not due to any outside threat or violent conflict.

Anders Sandberg

ΔV

Δv (pronounced "Delta-vee") is the maximum change in the velocity of a vessel. The Δv in turn determines the manoeuvres that can be carried out by the ship.

μ = ( m_ship + m_reaction ) / m_ship

determine the Δv of the spacecraft:

Δv = V_e ln ( μ )

Richard Baker and David Dye (Ad Astra)

dwarf star

generic term for relatively small stars, no more than 20 solar masses (and often less). Most stars in the galaxy belong to this category.

dynamic orbital rings

To construct a planetary surface-to-orbit fixed elevator it is necessary to have a stable end point in space to locate the upper terminal. For many planets this is the so-called geostationary orbit (GO) where the orbital speed is the same as the speed of planetary rotation. However many moons and tidally locked planets have a slow rate of rotation, making the GO very distant.

Sometimes one of the stable Lagrange points is convenient for a very long space elevator, especially as these points of stability are often the first off-planet areas of a solar system to be developed with orbital habitats.

Another system is the dynamic orbital ring, a solid ring in a lower orbit (LO) which remains stationary relative to the planet or moon by thrusting against a ring of particles which are continuously recycled. Keeping the rotating ring moving at very slightly higher than orbital speed for that height allows the stationary ring to maintain altitude. The ring can be prone to sideways instabilities so ion thrusters are used to keep station.

Space elevators can be then suspended from the ring, building inwards on each side at an equal rate to maintain balance. The provolved arachnids of genus Hobo Sapiens and Aranea cosmoi have become masters of the Orbweb elevator as it has become known.

Larger dynamic rings and even spheres are known (see also the Dream Rejection Tendency).

Steve Bowers

dynamist

Political orientation of ai that are sympathetic to and encourage change and development. include pro-hu (libertarian), hu-neutral ( progressivist), and anti-hu solipsist factions

Anders Sandberg

dysfunction

in both organic, alife, and ai evolution there are many genetic variations that produce unsuccessful (non-viable) phenotypes.

In some cases these genetic expressions would be successful in other environmental circumstances, but circumstances being what they are the mutation is lethal to it's recipient. Even with a wise parent computer designing it's offspring, it could still happen that the offspring does not work well in it's environment. Mentally these deficiencies could also be the case, although quite intelligent an AI could be unstable. Still, after many generations of AIs it might be expected that many harmful or self destructive tendencies would be selected out of the population.

Peter Kisner

Dyson Node

A dyson sphere made mostly of computronium and dedicated to processing needs, as submind of a larger archailect.

Such megastructures (such as linked jupiter brains) are part of a larger archailect; connected via interstellar wormhole buses to other nodes. Generally there will be shells concerned with non-processing functions (manufacturing, maintenance, defence, wormhole bus control system) as well

M.Alan Kazlev

Dyson Ring

A partial dyson swarm in which the component orbitals and other megastructures follow conventional orbits and form a ring around the star. Not as efficient as a conventional dyson

M.Alan Kazlev

Dyson Sphere

Usually abbreviated to dyson; a huge spherical megastructure or shell constructed around a star as a biont or aioid habitat or a ISO support in order to capture the entire energy output of that sun.

The structure is made from disassembled planets and existing planetoids. The Dyson Sphere is a classic example of megascale engineering .

Type I Dyson Sphere - the shell generally consists of many independent solar collectors and habitats in separate orbits, generally from a 100,000 and a million in separate but interlocking orbits. From the viewpoint of a distant observer, the star would gradually fade in the visible region, but would brighten considerably in the infrared region of the spectrum. Examples include Cog, Kiyoshi, Ain Soph Aur, and the Paradigm dysons. See also Dyson Swarm

Type II Dyson Sphere - a (semi-)rigid shell consisting of a single piece (or rather, a number of interlocking pieces). It is both unstable (since it experiences no net attraction of the star), requires super-strong materials and has no internal gravity. Kepleria is the only example

Type III Dyson Sphere - a large number of separate but inter-connected worldlets connected via flexible and semi-flexible strands. Included here are the pico-tech and buckytube Diffusion spheres.

Other types include statite-based Dysons, and submerged dysons for neutrino harvesting for some picotech applications

(After the atomic age scientist and visionary Freeman Dyson. Originally proposed by late industrial age fabulist Olaf Stapleton),

Dyson Swarm

Common name for a "Type I" Dyson Sphere; especially one dedicated to habitation.

Consists of vast swarm of habitats or other megastructures, following a stable halo orbit. There are thousands of dyson swarms in known space, most are in the MPA, but a large number are also found in the Objectivist Commonwealth, the Diamond Network, the Keter dominion, the Negentropy Alliance, and the Utopia Sphere.

M.Alan Kazlev

Dyson trees and orbital forests

Genetically engineered trees employing bio-nanotech. Created to function as a biological space habitat. First proposed by physicist Freeman Dyson in the early Information Age.

Topics | 0 to 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

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