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Ma to Md

M-Life

Machinic life - e.g. neumanns, hylonanecologies, etc.

In practise M-life, B-life and A-Life tend to merge, especially because of the ubiquity of biotech and bionanotech

M. Alan Kazlev

M-type Star

The small, cool, red dwarf is the faintest in the sequence of spectral types, but also by far the most common type of star in the galaxy. These dim stars are distinguished by strong absorption bands of titanium oxide and many metallic lines.

The statistics for M type stars are given below:

Spectral type	Luminosity - Sol = 1	temperature ° Kelvin	Mass - Sol = 1	Radius - Sol = 1	Density gm/cm³
M0	0.1	3,500 °	0.5	0.6	2.5
M5	0.01	2,800 °	0.2	0.3	10.0
M8	0.001	2,800 °	0.2	0.1	63

These small dim stars are so slow burning that even the brightest will continue on the main sequence for some 56 billion years. Considered the plebeian commoners of the galaxy because of their dim output of light and heat, and hence passed over by the bigger terraforming. and colonization groups, and appropriated by empires only for strategic regions, these stars nevertheless are just as likely as any other to have solar systems and their fair complement of planets, asteroids and comets. They often selected therefore by smaller clades and polities, by hyperturings and vecs, even by hiders, idealists and other eccentric groups. Most of these solar systems are never connected to the wormhole nexus, and many are visited only rarely by relativist traders. In a sense, the vast mass of M type stars constitute the vast little-travelled hinterlands of the galactic civilization, although even they are well visited and well served in relation to the even more common but often completely hidden masses of brown dwarfs and free-wandering planets in the interstellar depths.

M.Alan Kazlev

m2vi19-t34201

Heterodox former Negentropy Alliance administrative hyperturing Node m2vi19-t34201, radically ascended to become the Megasov godling.

Machinonanecology

A nanecology built solely on inorganic nanobots (hylonano) working along traditionally machine-like principles

M. Alan Kazlev

Macroameoboid (Rhizopodus enigmaticus)

Highly intelligent but uncommunicative amoeboid aquatic lifeform native to New Poseidon.

A large specimen can reach a diameter of several meters, although most are smaller. The intelligence of the macroameboids were only discovered several decades after New Poseidon was settled, when ecologists observed how they employed some rather clever means of directing the leviathans. But no hyperturing or hyperbright translation has been intelligible to any being of SI:<1 intelligence. They live in complex reef-like societies, they communicate with each other through elaborately integrated releases of motile aquatic pheromone-like cells.

M. Alan Kazlev and Anders Sandberg

macrocosm

In many esoteric and occult memeticities, the cosmos as a whole, as opposed to the individual self (microcosm) Microcosm and Macrosm are said to be connected by the principle of correspondence. Physicalists deny such hypotheses

macroevolution

In biological and slowly evolving alife, large-scale evolutionary trends above the species level. One mechanism is species selection, whereby species either survive or become extinct through time. Thus large-scale trends are determined by which species survive. Although some have stated that the mechanisms of micro- and macro-evolution are distinct, it is most almost always accepted that macroevolution is simply the continuation of microevolution over time. Macroevolution is thus an outcome of the interaction between microevolutionary processes operating within myriads of individual populations and species, on the one hand, and the global biospheric environments evolving on specific stable and old space or enclosed habitats or - in the case of Garden Worlds - in various continents and and oceans over millions of years, on the other.

macroscale

On the human scale. Intermediate between the micro- and the megascale. Generally, anything from 10^-3 to 10⁴ meters. Macroscale tech tends to be dumb, unless it is informed by and built up from micro- meso- and nano-scale components

Macross habitat

Space-habitat-based Interplanetary age culture based on mecha mystique

macula

On the surface of a planet or star, a dark spot , may be irregular in shape (pl. maculae)

abbreviation : MA

madfundie

madverts created by or incorporating a fundiebook, or memeticities thereof. More enthusiastic, friendly, and tenacious than ordinary fundiebook, sometimes masquerading as a genuine corporate madvert, before revealing itself to an unwitting sentient.

M. Alan Kazlev

madfundiegoo

a self-replicating madfundie swarm. As with ordinary fundiegoo, madfundiegoo is considered a nuisance and outbreaks are usually immediately eliminated by higher Minds whenever they occur in their jurisdiction

M. Alan Kazlev

Madvert

A simple, often quasi-insect-like autonomous bot, alife, or ai used for advertising, sometimes with limited self-replication. Particularly chronic during the later Federation and early Expansion period, self-replicating madverts are generally considered a nuisance and banned in most empires, except the NoCoZo and other mercantile regions

M. Alan Kazlev

Madvert Designer

one of the most despised professional skill sets, in many less controlled polities the rumour of a madvert designer's arrival is enough to stir up swarms of protest, if not actual vigilante activities. Mindworker profession.

John B

Madvert Goo

A self-replicating Logooze

John B

Magellanic Clouds

irregular-shaped nearby galaxies,

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is near the constellation Dorado (as seen from SolSys), and is 163,000 light-years away. The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is near the constellation Tucana, and is under 200,000 light-years away. There have been at least two thousand major, and several million minor, relativistic expeditions mounted to each of the Clouds to date.

The Magnesium Issue

At the first singularity and beyond, new legal problems and solutions arise. Some of these solutions will doubtlessly have an impact upon baseline law. Among the classical problems, quoted at countless law academies in the Inner sphere, stands the Negentropic Magnesium Issue.

It all started in 5538 when the central processing AI of Raganthra Archipelago, based upon unexplainable equations above the second singularity, ordered the entire supply of magnesium of the ten-star archipelago to be destroyed. As the demand for magnesium was at an all time high within the systems, baselines questioned this measure quite strenuously.

The AI, confounded by these protests, issued a temperate response with some calculations that only further served to confuse the baseline opinion. The AI tried to explain itself, but its arguments always seemed to go past the baseline psyche. The AI finally conceded its inability to explain the measure, even though several toposophical translators had attempted to mediate the communication. The reasons for its actions were even alien to the translators (themselves merely at the second singularity) due to the toposophical branchings taken by the various entities.

Eventually, the destruction of the Magnesium (and a resultant economic recession in the group) relegated the argument to the halls of academic discussion. Five-hundred years later, however, the local review AI (above the second toposophical boundary) arrived at the central system. What followed has been described by several toposophical translators as an argument to end all arguments. The review AI, when confronted with the Magnesium Issue, arrived at the conclusion that the central processing AI had been in the wrong. From its own viewpoint, the local AI did right, which was why it got away with only a warning and an "update", but seen in the light of an SI:3 intelligence it had made an obvious mistake.

In the end the Magnesium Issue provided spectators with a classic example of confusion and transcendent error. The question who was right has bothered many a young legal being entering studies within the inner sphere.

Håkan Andersson

magic

apparent or claimed use of psychic (non-physical, non technological) powers to affect the outcome of physical events

magic

The ability of powers, seraiph, archai and archailects to interact in subtle or dramatic ways so that quantum events can be manipulated in seemingly inexplicable ways, or social dynamics adjusted.

Such hyperturings might hold strange plans for organics under their influence. Maybe the AIs would answer prayers or grant blessings to their followers, maybe they would rule through sudden shows of power or dramatic effects. Occasionally, like Prometheus, a few organics could steal the secrets of magic from an AI, spawning a society of upstart mages working against the true priesthood of the AI.

Peter Kisner

magic toy

a clarketech or other advanced artifact that can be used by a being of a much lower toposophic grade (such as a human or SI:1 hyperturing) even though that being has no idea how the artifact works

M.Alan Kazlev

toybox, magic toybox (or treasure chest, magic treasure chest)

[illustration: a large ship with grappling lines hovering with roaring jet turbines and hot downthrust over innocent child-like castle made of lollies, while on the ground the crew are working feverishly with industrial type lasers to cut it free]

An unprotected artifact-rich world

It sometimes happens that a demiurge who has constructed a complete clarketech pervaded magical world becomes disinterested and departs, or transcends. As the defencive barriers go down, the world is be open to the rest of the universe, and its magical inhabitants defenceless against plunder. Within a few decades or centuries (depending on how long it takes news to reach the nexus, the system is invaded by collectors and get-rich types who pillage the planet of any clarketech that can be carried off

M.Alan Kazlev

Magusism

esoteric - occult memeticity based on the development of individual psychic powers, usually by means of wetware and - in some cases, picotech augments. Some sects are more traditionally religious and public, others tend to reclusive and sometimes elitist. They re not aligned with any of the AI empires

magma

molten rock within the mantle or crust of a terrestrial planet from which igneous rock forms.

magnetar

a type of short-lived neutron star discovered during the early Information Age. Magnetar have magnetic fields of about 10¹⁵ Gauss, about a thousand trillion times stronger than the a terrestrial planet's. The strong magnetic field puts the star's surface under enormous stress, causing "starquakes" and resulting high energy bursts of radiation. Individual particles inside the magnetar's crust are stretched one hundred times longer than usual. Magnetars are prized by the Orion Arm Civilization as sources of energy, particularly magnetic.; M.Alan Kazlev and Steve Bowers

magnetic storm

a temporary perturbation (disruption) of a planet's magnetic field, caused by solar flares. Since they disturb the ionosphere, magnetic storms can disrupt local EM radio transmissions. Magnetic storms usually last for a few days. During a magnetic storm, auroras increase over polar regions. Corona is known for its spectacular aurora displays

magnetopause

the boundary between the area in which a planet's magnetic field dominates and the magnetic field of the rest of the Solar System dominates.

magnetosphere

A planetary magnetic field.

Not all planets have a magnetosphere. In terrestrial-type planets it is cause by the molten iron-nickel core and aligned with the north and south poles, and helps to shield against cosmic radiation. The magnetosphere extends some distance into space (depending on the strength of the local planetary magnetism) and is influenced by the solar wind. It is teardrop shaped - being longer in the side facing away from the Sun (the magnetotail.)

Mahayana

Major Old Earth Buddhist sect, now rarely practised

Mahayana or Great Vehicle Buddhism spread to China, Japan, Korea and much of Vietnam, during the 3rd to 6th centuries c.e.. It differed from traditional Buddhism with the addition of the Bodhisattva, the saviour figure who, although attaining Enlightenment, defers the bliss of Nirvana until all sentient beings are saved. It underwent severe repression during the 20th century c.e. in China during the Cultural Revolution, from which it never really recovered (the post-Communist economic boom of the Chinese Free Enterprise Zones during the 21st century was hardly conducive to spiritual life). Mahayana Buddhism included the T'ein-t'ai, Hua-yen, Pure Land, and Ch'an/Zen schools. During the late 20th and early 21st century c.e. the Zen Buddhist tradition developed a respectable following in the West, particularly in North America. It also spread to some of the orbitals, especially Clarke and Roddenberry. The Orbital Superiors were particularly attracted to Zen minimalism. Offworld Zen totalled 246,415 in the 2274 c.e. census. By the time of the Great Expulsion Mahayana had either disappeared on Earth or merged completely with other new and older religions.

Apart from Zen, no original Mahayanist school survives. However Mahayanist derivatives such as Centauri Vehicle, KuanYinism and Maitreyism continue. These faiths became locally quite influential as official religions of several minor Houses during the Empires Era and were widely worshipped in their domains.

M.Alan Kazlev

main sequence

Main sequence stars are those which shine by the fusion of hydrogen into helium. These stars are generally dwarfs. Most main sequence stars are small red dwarfs of class M v; these have lifetimes of tens of billions of years. Sol , the star of the Old Solar System, is a larger G class yellow dwarf, and has a lifetime on the main sequence of ten billion years.

When a star like Sol leaves the main sequence it begins to fuse helium into heavier elements, and swells up into a red giant (followed by several other post-main-sequence states). The general rule is that the larger the star, the shorter the stay on the main sequence. The largest stars of all are only briefly on the main sequence, if at all; they begin to fuse helium and heavier elements after a few tens of thousands of years, and eventually explode as supernovae.

Steve Bowers

Maitreyism

a ComEmp period baseline/near-baseline eschatological Omegist sect that identified the Maitreya Buddha with the Omega Exemplar; the famous Teilhard Maitreyists integrated this with Omegist Christianity. Still has a number of followers today.

M.Alan Kazlev

Makama

House Stevens world; part of the Mutual Progress Alliance

Makintairas

10 Tauri - inner sphere system, destroyed by grey goo swarms during the Second Empires War - Metasoft was wrongly accused of the atrocity by a number of anthropist extremists and anti-vec propagandists of the time.

Makrania Orwoods

famous orwoods around Frei (HJer-IV, NoCoZo), well known across inhabited space for their zero gravity free-space casinos, sports and hedonics.

Malacologists of New Duibbiyat

lightly to moderately rianthed nearbaseline association of malacophiles, who lived in several of the New Duibbiyat habitats during late ComEmp and early Re-Evaluation periods.

Some devoted their time to provolving terragen molluscs, using technology acquired from TRHN neurozoologists. Exotic tropical forms were particularily encouraged. The Malacologists were forced to disband when a band of provolved Harpidae (Harpa superior) and Conidae (Conus sapiens) that had somehow failed their social conditioning hijacked a food transport, and in an effort to escape a pursuing spaceguard cutter, crashed into a nearby habitat. Fortunately, a serious blowout was avoided by heavy duty utility foglets, and all casualties on both on the transport and in the habitat were restored from backups and copies. Both the Malacologists and most of the molluscs migrated to the Utopia Sphere dysons Wallace and Wilson. Some others spread elsewhere, and a few went on to establish long-ranging clades and Houses in the Utopia Sphere, Terran Federation, and Zoeific Biopolity.

M Alan Kazlev

Malkhut, Malkuth

"Kingdom". Originally the lowest (most physical) of the ten traditional sefirot of Kabbalah and Hermeticism. Later - especially among Neohermetics came to designate the Caretaker Gods

Malkuth

In the Keterist system of toposophy, corresponds to the first singularity or first supra-baseline hierarchical intelligence. The term was applied by the early Keterist Cyberhermetics

M. Alan Kazlev

mammal

Warm-blooded furry (or secondarily hairless) animals that give birth to and suckle live young and have been the most successful form of terragen land vertebrate life during the Cenozoic era. Includes hominids, apes, bats, cats, dogs, dolphins and whales, rodents, ungulates, and many other species. Mammals are particularily easy and popular to provolve, because of their sociable nature, long nurturing period, and large brain.

Mamster

Small, short-haired rodent, originally a modified mouse-hamster zoosplice that was a popular pet during the middle federation period, and since established wild colonies on a number of planets and habitats. Averaging 10 cm in length, these tailless animals are prolific breeders, producing litters of ten to twenty young in as little as 4 weeks under ideal situations. Notorious for their voracious appetites, mamsters can do appreciable damage to warehoused foodstuffs and agriculture on ludd and medium tech worlds and habitats. They are much less of a nuisance in high and ultratech environments. When bioborged or augmented they are also usefully employed on ships as maintenance crew

adapted by M. Alan Kazlev from original idea by Kevin Self

Mandra Quin'Si

Part of the Mu Herculis system. The planet has now largely lost its atmosphere and is slowly heating up as Mu Herculis Aa is growing brighter - a bit like classic atomic age pulp sf fable of Mars, although in this case the canals and decadent cities were built by humans ruled by the Terrorlords.

Anders Sandberg

manimal

a male humanimal

M.Alan Kazlev

Manipura

The third of the seven chakras, placed by some commentators in the region of the navel, by others in the Solar Plexus, of the human physiology

In traditional iconography the Manipura chakra has ten petals, is associated with the tattwa (element) of Fire, and is said to be reddish (or alternatively in NuAger Tantra yellow) in colour. In some yoga schools it is taken as a point for focus of ch'i energy

M. Alan Kazlev

mantle

the layer of a large terrestrial planet located between the crust and the molten core.

Mantle of the Judge

Available at major population centres of the Negentropic polity are private chambers called the "Mantle of the Judge".

These are small areas allowing normal citizens to bring their problems before the Judge and ask for Eir Judgement on the actions. This is a strictly voluntary activity, and in no way binds the baseline to performing a given action. This type of facility is often difficult to find, the logic being the more severe the problem the more likely the baseline is to expend the required effort to find the Mantle.

The Mantle is a simple room with a somewhat-comfortable chair and a coat rack, carrying the Mantle itself. The person enters, sits, and places the Mantle about their shoulders. The next thing they know they're putting the Mantle back onto the coat rack. They will have a memory of a conversation with the Judge in a sort of lucid dream- state indicating the issues involved with the problem (explained in terms that particular sophont can comprehend) and the Judge's recommendation as to how best to handle the issue.

Note that this may or may not be in the best interest of the baseline asking the question! Instead, the Judge's recommendations are based first on the Negentropic Principles, followed by society's best interest, and finally the individual.

John B

Manufacturing Industry

Use of nanotech or other devices to allow the construction - either of individual units or mass-production - of almost any consumer goods at that tech stale or coarser, at extremely short notice

Manus Dei (Hand of God)

Colloquial term given to the effector systems employed by the Lesser Archai and Archailects within their own habitations, equipment and spheres of direct control.

The Manus Dei appears to combine all the capabilities of an angelnet with those associated with reactionless drives. It employs no mediating machinery or devices that SI:<1 minds can detect. Rather, matter and energy within the sphere of influence of the archai appear to simply move or restructure themselves according to the desires of the controlling Mind.

On various occasions witnesses have reported the shifting or restructuring of masses up to planetary scale, the transmutation of elements and the apparent total conversion of matter to energy/energy to matter, all without the presence of the technological devices that experience and our understanding of the universe would seem to require.

Researchers hypothesize that the Manus Dei system operates at the sub- quark level. Perhaps even at the level of superstrings and the quantum foam. There is speculation that the controlling archai creates a network of interconnected 'devices' made up of standing waves in the superstring substructure of space-time and controls them through signals mediated by standing waves or stabilized yocto- wormholes in the quantum vacuum. By controlling and manipulating the structure and 'vibration' of quantum superstrings, the archai is able to manipulate matter and energy at the macroscale, apparent without the use of mediating devices. Such technology may also explain the abilities of the highest levels of seraphim.

To date, no archai has ever consented to answer questions regarding the Manus Dei. No sophont below the level of an archailect has ever (so far as is known) been granted the use of even a limited version of the technology.

Todd Drashner

Manyanga

Important NoCoZo system

mantra

Sound syllable, usually considered to represent sacred or numinous raelit (e.g. an ancient prayer, a chakra seed syllable, etc), that is intoned to alter consciousness and attain non-ordinary states. Some mantras, properly pronounced with suitably augmented vocal apparati, can be used as a sonic weapon or to alter the listener's consciousness at a distance

M. Alan Kazlev

House Marabi Patha

mildly tweaked hereditary leadership, Based at Thorne Biosphere, Schilowa World, Mathilde system, near Hyperion (world). Established an alliance with the hyperturing Hyperion, who guided them to power in Thorne, and eventually to dominance over the entire Mathilde system, and access to potent ultratech. Joined the Solar Dominion during the early Empires period, using the empire as a means to gained further territorial possessions. Still growing in power and prestige, they break with the Dominion in 3414 (the famous The Information-Emotion Schism) and allied themselves with other expansive rimward powers, forming the Hyperion-Charlwood alliance. Their attack on the Geteche system, destroyed the local infrastructure and the governing AI, which led to the explosive destruction of all local wormhole gates and death of almost a billion sentients in the resulting hard radiation blasts. This in turn became an excuse for the Solar Dominion in alliance with the Conver Ambi, to reclaim Hyperion, forcefully pacify its main client worlds, and eliminate the Hyperion ethnic leadership of House Marabi Patha for good measure.

Several descendants of House Marabi Patha still live to this stardate in their hereditary citadel at Marabi Patha City (not far from the ruins of the original Thorne Biosphere), Schilowa. The Citadel has been converted into a hotel, and is a popular stop on the Empires Age Historicophile Tourism Circuit.

M. Alan Kazlev

mare

On Terrestrial Class World, a "sea" or large circular plain (usually of darker basalt) (pl. maria)

abbreviation : ME

The Marians

Medium Tech haloist civilization/clade

Marine Biology

Branch of biology that deals with marine life (whether terragen or xenobiont), an important part of most biospheres.

Areas of study include the ecology, physiology, life cycle, distribution, and migration of marine organisms, such as marine mammals, fish, invertebrates, algae, and plankton; classification of marine life; tagging, and tracking ocean organisms, microoceans and other orbital biomes; sea-farming; oceanography; introduction of aquatic life to to artificial biospheres and newly terraformed worlds, megascale ocean ecology, designing marine ecosystems, and non-terragen marine organisms on other Gaian Type worlds.

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

Marsupial Lion

Carnivorous rianth lions, Homo thylacoleo, hunted to extinction on Cambyses. However, rumours survive of their continued existence, despite no sightings

Materials Science

The study and application of the nature and properties of various materials, including alloys, ceramics, composites, gels, membranes, polymers, synthetics, and biological materials, as well as completely neohylogenic nano and picomaterials, on the macro, micro, nano, and pico scale.

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

$Category: Math$ Mathematics

The study of all self-consistent structures using numbers, symbols, operations, and logical reasoning.

Often divided into pure and applied mathematics. Almost all fields of science require at least some familiarity with mathematics, much more so with the hard sciences like physics, and applied fields of engineering and infotech

Market Chronology Protection Theorem of Lua

An economic corollary of the chronology protection theorems and the hypereconomic stability axioms, first stated by Ombitti Lua 5543. Agents employing accurate information about the future to manipulate the market cannot earn more than the absolute value of the market volatility operator, and as the number of such agents increase the volatility decreases towards zero.

Anders Sandberg

Marketer Fleet

NoCoZo corporate religion, interplanetary age to present

Market Speeders

Beings earning a living on trading in fluctuating market speeds, usually virtual rather than physical entities.

Market speeders thrive in most sufficiently complex and fast markets. Only the most powerful and sentient markets (such as the NoCoZo Market) achieve the size and overall stability that enables true market speeder cultures to develop and achieve persistence. The Inner Sphere market speeders have an unbroken cultural history of nearly 3000 years, making many observers view them as one of the most successful clades.

Anders Sandberg

Mars

Mars The first planet outside Earth and Luna to host a permanent occupancy, and for a while the greatest superpower the Solar System has seen, Mars retains a romantic air even to this day. The current Mars Republic is the oldest continuous government in the Solar System. The original terraforming organisms and ecology were destroyed by the nanoswarms, but the planet has since been re-terraformed to Martian Tweak standards.

M. Alan Kazlev, Anders Sandberg, and Tony Jones.

Mars, Republic of

The oldest continuous functioning government, still administers Mars

M.Alan Kazlev

marsupial

terragen mammal indigenous to Australia and South America, in which the young spends much of its development in the mother's pouch. There are a number of splice, rianth, and provolve species, the most well-known being the roo

M. Alan Kazlev

Martian Genobiology and Mining University

Primary institution of higher learning on Mars during the Interplanetary period. The Martian Agrobiology & Mining University was one of the first institutions of higher education outside of CisLunar space.

The university survived the nanoswarms under a shield of blue goo generated by its resident AIs, but the newly terraformed Martian ecosystem was decimated. It remained one of the important centres of civilization during the so called "dark ages", and during the Federation period it continued to be a leading institution for the study of self-sustaining microgravity habitats, biotech, and nano-engineering and nano-defence systems.

With the dawn of the fifth millennium and the emergence of the archailect empires humanity lost its position of importance, and the University was seen as increasingly irrelevant outsystem, a trend that not even its resident superbrights and SI:1 singularity AIs could reverse. However, it continued to be considered a place of prestige and pride by the Solar Organisation. Current areas of research include terraforming, self-sustaining biosystems, and low-gravity ore extraction and processing.

M. Alan Kazlev; based on original idea by Kevin Self

Mass extinction

the process in which huge numbers of species on a garden world die out suddenly. Divided into (from most severe to least)

Class 10 - all life destroyed
Class 9 - all surface life (even microbial) destroyed, rare microbial life survives deep in the crust, etc
Class 8 - most life destroyed, some microbial life survives in sheltered environments
Class 7 - all higher life destroyed, hardy microbial life survives
Class 6 - almost all complex life destroyed, microbial life survives
Class 5 - most species and groups of organisms killed - P-Tr equivalent
Class 4 - many species and groups of organisms killed, others survive - K-T or Fr-Fa equivalent.
Class 3 - many species extinct, but most major groups survive - late Triassic, Mid Cretaceous, or End Eocene turnover
Class 2 - some species extinct, many survive - minor extinction events
Class 1 - susceptible and vulnerable species die out, all others survive - local forest clearing, medium climate change etc events

The K-T extinction saw off the dinosaurs; the P-Tr extinction eliminated 95% of all kinds of terran life, the Fr-Fa (Devonian period) killed coral reefs and many types of invertebrates. Mass extinctions are caused by a variety of factors, but are often triggered or exacerbated by bolide impacts. Generally, the highest extinction classes (anything higher than 6) result only from pernicious goo swarms or nearby supernova explosions. Class 10 is extremely rare, life is amazingly hardy. However fragile complex biospheres are easily disrupted, and any development automatically results in a class 1, even a class 2 extinction. The great ecological crisis of the industrial-atomic-information age Old Earth was a Class 4.8 event, one of the most destructive on record (only actions like deliberate "salting" during the Empires war, and again during the Sagittarius-Softbot war, was more thorough)

M. Alan Kazlev

Mass stream technology

Using accelerated streams of projectiles or particles to either transfer momentum or even support a large structure.

At its upper limits the system can move a planet or even a star in a time span of decades. Another application is in the construction of supra-planetary habitat shells around gas giants or even stars at a level where the underbody generates gravity equal to 1g. Or in building an orbital ring around a planet and using it to support short (300-500 mile) skyhooks to provide ground to orbit travel. Or in setting up a network of mass streams to provide rapid transit for vehicles around a solar system. The vehicles magnetically couple to the stream and ride it.

Despite the apparent vulnerability of the system to possible power failures, it is quite safe and reliable. Mass stream technology is widely employed in the MPA. Often the sheer engineering beauty of a Lofstrom loop or a mass driver fountain to their aesthetic encourages them to build it.

The most common forms of mass streams are simple iron pellets, although some systems employ more unusual masses. The interstellar catapult mass driver, suitably adapted, makes a perfect catch/throw system for such streams.

Todd Drashner, additional notes by Anders Sandberg

materialism

religious or philosophical system that asserts that the physical universe of matter and energy, r/l and vir, is the only reality. Popular in a number of polities and empires. The most widespread and popular is MPA Materialism, which asserts that the material world has endless possibilities and these can be manifested through action.

Ma-Tesh

Daharran native tongue

Mathilde

middle regions world Sol-ward of the Perseus rift, hereditary home of House Marabi Patha.

Matrioshka Brain

Dyson-sized (or bigger) megastructure giving most efficient processing out-put for energy input; designed to maximize energy use and processing efficiency.

A Matrioshka brain consists of a series of energy collection units arranged in concentric shells, so that the waste radiation produced by the inner shell is utilized by the collectors of the next shell out. The inner swarms receive a high energy flux, while the outer shells are cooler; each layer powers an appropriate recipe of computronium, tailor-made for that operating temperature. The whole array comprises a highly efficient Dyson swarm with vast processing power.

Steve Bowers

matter compiler

A (usually macroscopic) nanofabrication / autofabrication device.

Matter compilers range in size from heavy duty models of many hundreds of cubic metres down to small portable models only a few centimetres large or less. They are contain nanoassemblers, a processing/control unit and have an input slot for raw materials. Most are self-contained, baseline friendly, and can disassemble and assemble most molecules. They are essential equipment for sempterists, colonists on new worlds, and prospectors, and other individuals who are isolated from the body of galactic civilization.

In some polities matter compilers are strictly regulated, with only certain templates allowed, or are crippled so that the assemblers deconstruct after a certain number of replications. Others will construct most objects, but have a censor to block instructions for dangerous weapons. However, there are many matter compilers available with no locks or limitations, especially in the NoCoZo and TRHN, in various free zones, and in the middle regions and outer volumes

M. Alan Kazlev

matter teleportation

Teleportation of a material object from one point to another at the speed of light, usually by converting the matter into a beam of energy (such as a laser, although quantum entanglement may also be used) and then creating an identical copy at the other end

Generally, the processing and energy handling requirements for teleporting macroscale object or a living organism are prohibitive to all but the most advanced femtotech and hypofemtotech devices and intellects. And whilst the occasional rare clarketech artifacts have been found that do provide matter teleportation, for the most part this remains a technology beyond the reach of most sentients.

The discovery and utilization (without resort to clarketech!) of Matter Teleportation (or "Transport") is one of the Ten Sacred Principles of the Orthodox Trekkist Church (early First Federation, now found only in a few isolated habitats)

M.Alan Kazlev

Maxcap

Tweaked capsicum plant

Hotter than hot, actually weapons-grade spice. Some bioborgs especially like it as a good way to wring out the max in their sensory aides (and also sensory blockers, for that matter)

John B

Maxwell's Demon

Old Earth Industrial Age "thought experiment"

This involves two boxes of air (or similar), a tiny doorway between them, and an imaginary gadget (the demon) which opens and closes the door. The idea was that the demon could pump heat from the cool box to the hot box, if, whenever it saw a fast molecule coming from the cool side, it opened the door to let it through, then shut it again. This was intended to disprove the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It failed, because for the demon to see the molecules coming and do its agile work, it needed energy; more energy than you could get by running a heat engine from the hot box to the cold. Hence a perpetual motion machine would not work.

Jonathan Burns

Maxwell engine

nanotech-based aircraft thrust engine

A Maxwell engine is basically just an air pump (in the form of trillions of Maxwell Demons) that grab molecules from the front of an aircraft and propels them out the back.

The hull consists of an array of nano-machines, which see the incoming air molecules by light scattering. A molecule comes in at something like the speed of sound (1/3 km/sec). In a nanosecond, it travels less than a micrometre. Plenty of time to decide whether to open the first gate. Subsequent gates can route the molecule laterally, or indeed ping-pong it along a suitable ballistic path.

It is necessary to dissipate the heat that's driving the light radar and the gates. This is done at the aft end, where the jet engine would usually be. Usually the heat is stored, then released in infrared or visible flashes.

Finally, with an array of micron-scale gates, it's easy for one side of a wall to project just the light wave in each direction, which was incident in the same direction on the other side. Uses include three-D display screens, optical camouflage, holographic advertising, weapon systems (laser phased optic array) and more

Jonathan Burns, with additional note by M.Alan Kazlev

Mazukata's Holiday

Mazukata's Holiday is a small world with a dense atmosphere. Its surface gravity is only 3.5 m/sec^2, but the atmospheric pressure is almost 1.5 atmospheres. The surface is 80% water. It is tidally locked to its primary. In the endless daylight the hot pole, the temperature often almost reaches 65 C, while at the eternally dark cold pole, the temperature rarely rises above -50C. Only the depth of its oceans prevents them from freezing to the bottom in the vicinity of the cold pole. The majority of the habitable equatorial landmasses are a series of large islands and associated island arcs, with a total land area of slightly more than 7 million square kilometres.

There are only two other planets in this small system. In the next orbit out from Mazukata's Holiday is Graymalkin, a small dense, heavily volcanic mineral rich world with an atmosphere composed largely of methane, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. The final world, Boreal is a medium-sized gas giant circled by the usual collection of small icy and rocky moons.

John Snead

M'Buto

(BD -9ï¿½3413)

inner sphere system, home of a number of diverse clades, joined the Virginis Combine, later became part of the Conver Ambi, in turn annexed and assimilated by the Solar Dominion. Broke free after the Version War to become a joint Metasoft-NoCoZo administered system.

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