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Mi to Mn

Microbiology

The study of microorganisms, their uses, and their affects on bionts

Includes all aspects of the study of natural and artificial microorganisms (biological only, not virtuals and alife). Specialised areas of study include bacteriology, microbial ecology, evolution, and physiology, genetics and phylogeny, the medical (beneficial and harmful) effects of natural and artificially created microorganisms; the lo tech mass-production via geneered bacteria of pharm, hormones, and industrial chemicals; xenomicrobiology (study of non-terragen microbes); the study of terragen microbes like viruses (virology), bacteria (bacteriology), molds and yeasts (mycology), protozoa, and algae. Microbiology can be used in the manufacture of certain types of bionano and crude organobiota; in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases; uses in terraforming and biospherics and in the treatment and recycling of of organic wastes; and in the production of food stuffs

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

microbot

Autonomous device on the microscale (10^-6 m); larger than a nanobot but smaller than a macroscopic bot (the limit is usually set somewhat arbitrarily at one millimeter). Microbots are used for a variety of tasks such as monitoring, repairs, nanite transport and production and smart materials. See also

microclimate

Atmospheric conditions within large orbitals, very large ships, and so on. While not as complex as full-fledged planetary or mega-orbital climates, they nevertheless display basic meteorological phenomena - e.g. clouds, rain, thermals, coriolis air currents, etc

microcosm

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

microcosm

A cosmos in miniature. Any self-contained world or universe. It may be real or virtual. Many sophonts and powers enjoy creating microcosms

microevolution

morphologic change through natural selection within a species, leading eventually to the evolution of a new species.

Most common through genetic drift of small populations on individual habitats. Wild bionano can also encourage microevolution, even among large population pools. Microevolution eventually results in macroevolution

microgravity

a state in which gravity is reduced to virtually negligible levels. For example, when an object is in free fall, it experiences microgravity. It is deleterious on baseline physiology, but space-adapted tweaks can survive a microgravity environment indefinitely

microgravity art

art that requires micro- or zero- gravity to retain its configuration.

Fragile sculptures are popular, some including liquids in interesting configurations. The only problem to deal with are air drafts.

Anders Sandberg

MicroJovian Type

MicroJovian Type Although these worlds have masses up to 0.2 that of Jupiter, they have retained very small diameters, and are often the size of large Terrestrial Class worlds.

Planet Classification List

micromastodon
Micromastodons, aka M&M's were a pet/food creature generated for use in cold oxygen-atmosphere environments. They had a distinct similarity to their legendary predecessors from ancient Terra's ice ages. They were heavily furred, with prehensile trunks and columnar legs. Unlike their forebears, they were typically between a half-meter and meter high at the withers and lacked tusks. They had been designed as a high-efficiency ice-plankton feeder, and their wastes had been engineered to be highly beneficial to ice plankton.
Unfortunately, someone managed to infest a large portion of the M&M's with a tailored plague that caused complete hair loss over a 24 hour period once triggered, leading to massive deaths amongst the remaining members.
The M&Ms have made several recurrences over the years, yet breeding has been curtailed primarily due to the recurrence of the shedding plague or similar difficulties. There is an active group of baselines and a few su that are looking into these plagues, trying to locate their source with little success.

John B
Related topics;
Muts, an early clade of miniature mammoths: The provolved sapient mammoths of Pluton

micrometeoroids

dust-grain-sized stony or metallic particles found in deep space. They are not uncommon and a hazard to relativistic vessels

microtech

Technology on the microscale (10^-6 m), including microelectronics, microbots and finely structured materials. Common among terragens since the information era.

microwaves

electromagnetic radiation that has a wavelength between 1 mm and 30 cm. It is widely used for energy transmission, heat generation and passive ship propulsion (maser-powered sails).

Middle Earth Project

Tolkienite project to recreate an authentic Middle Earth

Currently both Tolkienite churches are currently contesting fore the copyrights to terraform a terrestrial size world into a real middle earth. An administrative third singularity AI is already under negotiations for an 8 century contract for "scenery modifications", allowing the natives to live like prims, but still with access to proper medical treatment. Part of the deal will be to provide Clarketech "magic" items, and even allow some bionts to acquire "magic" powers through study. Unfortunately the willing AI does not want to brainwipe the inhabitants, and does not approve of how some prims kill each other. If the AI is not willing to comply, the neo-orthodox church may win the contract with an elaborate expert-system (actually a non-sentient A-life) which will govern the world until terminus. The inhabitants will still get the extremely rare access through clarketech, but the medical care will have to rely on specially geneered plant life forms. The clarketech devices themselves will have to be non sentient as well. There is some debate over how many times the one ring scenario should repeat. Many brainwipe_willing bionts want it to happen in their lifetime, however in the 10000 year design, the one ring scenario will happen at most twice. The contest is still up for grabs. The as of yet unnamed caretaker god has already terraformed an a world in an undisclosed location. The caretaker god will also be providing xeno defence so the inhabitants can stay prim at all times. The caretaker god will reward both inhabitants the planet no matter what. The losing side (the side with the less interesting or less manageable plan)will be with Sauron.

Already many infotainment megacorps are attempting to negotiate for media deals. Siting the use of microscopic spy equipment. The caretaker god will not announce itself, or negotiate wit he media, until it has finalized its decision.

Sethbord

Midas Cough

A disturbance to civilization caused by new technology. Unavoidable for advanced civilizations. Gave rise to a common saying "what will not kill you, will only make it stronger".

Jerzy Dyczkowski

Midgard

Inner Sphere world orbiting Alpha Caeli some 65ly from Sol.

Terraformed in the early Middle Federation period by descendants of Northern European refugees from the Great Expulsion. Midgard is orbited by three moons, Asgard, Vahalla and Loki. Asgard and Valhalla are spherical bodies 450 and 1000 kilometers in diameter respectively and have both been terraformed using the worldhouse enclosure method. Loki is an irregular body some 75 km along its long axis. The moon travels on a long elliptical orbit which brings it into close proximity (16000km) with Midgard every six planetary months. Approximately every 3 years Loki begins its closest approach at the same time that Asgard and Valhalla are aligned on the same side of the planet. This results in a significant increase in tectonic activity (easily compensated for with smart matter building techniques and an advanced angelnet system) and some of the highest tides in the known universe. As a consequence Midgard is perhaps best known as the site of the All-Worlds Surfing Championships held every three years. The event attracts baseline and near-baseline athletes from all over the Inner and Middle Regions and is transmitted via the Known Net as far out as the Periphery.

Todd Drashner

Miidam Posthuman Republic

Empires era polity, originally part of the old Taurus Nexus. Became known for their neogenic bioborg and piconanoborg technology. Later joined the TRHN and underwent a collective ascension.

M. Alan Kazlev

Milankovitch Cycles

fluctuations in temperature on Garden Worlds, especially ice ages, caused by slight variations in the amount of sunlight reaching the planet caused by the eccentricity of its orbit around its primary. The orbital eccentricity changes the planet's average distance from the sun and therefore slightly changes the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth. Eccentricity cycles last over 100,000 years. The theory was first proposed by the Old Earth human Milutin Milankovitch in 1938.

Military History

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 Theory

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

Also includes combined arms, drones, electronic warfare, historical battles and campaigns, infiltration, intelligence gathering, logistics and resources, memetic warfare, morale, theory and application of nanoswarms and khaki goo, reconnaissance, reserves and mobilization, spying, swarm siege warfare, subversion, terrain and weather effects, including altering weather conditions, utility fog, military ai and dedicated hyperturings, picolect and femtolect weapons, xenosophont warfare and warfare among extinct alien races, all forms of strategic and tactical conflict, including static and maneuver battle, irregular warfare, planetary and orbital assault, the projection of interplanetary and interstellar power, the use of autowars and system control ships, relativistic weapons, the methods and personalities of great commanders; the causes and effects of war, the use of war games and simulations, ascended or high toposophic artifacts which might have military use, archailect attitudes to sapient and transapient conflict, and the use of simulation as an alternative to actual war.

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

Milky Way

The spiral galaxy in which we live. It is about 100,000 light-years in diameter and 1,000 light-years thick along the arms - thicker towards the core. There are about 2 x 10 ¹¹ stars in the Milky Way, not including brown dwarfs. Sol is about 26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, which makes Known Space from 20,000 to 32,000 LY from the center.

Millenialists

Interplanetary age sect who adopted early information age visionary Marshall Savage's ideas in order to make colonization of the universe a religious imperative.

They included among their number several important explorers of the period and enthusiastic terraformers. During the nanoswarm dark age and the early First Federation period they split into a number of diverse clades, but the Blessed Marshallsavage is still to the present day considered an avatar to many of them, especially in the Outer Volumes

M. Alan Kazlev

Minatti Clan

Utopia AI clan, descended from the post-Trojan AI Minatti.

Minatti was directly descended from restoration efforts among the AIs during the federation era that tried to reconstruct lost pre-nanodisaster AIs, in this case some of the American corporate and defence systems. These systems in turn created Minatti, which might explain its predilection for using obscure references to Americana to honour its predecessor systems (such as the naming of New Montana). During the foundation of the Utopia sphere, the Minatti copies sent out automated explorers and von Neumanns widely, laying down infrastructure and exploring what would become the Utopia Sphere. The Minatti copies eventually settled down as wardens of a number of systems and habitats, especially isolationist clades with no intention of contacting the outside world.

Anders Sandberg

mind

mind body problem

Mind Casinos

In many systems various forms of gambling are forbidden, but that doesn't prevent many beings from desiring them. Mind Casinos are one possibility where mental scans are illegal: using customised mental hardware or even software (in the case of aioids) hosts run virtual casinos within their own minds, accessible through their netports. Usually mind casino rings employ their own digital cash, "tokens", which can be exchanged for favors at a fixed rate - visitors give monetary "gifts" to the host or his proxies, receiving tokens that can be used in the games and then converted into money or services. Beings in debt have to pay off their debt through services, and this is often how mind casino rings really earn their money. Quite often the debtors become hosts themselves to pay off their debt.

Anders Sandberg

Mindlet

small program that runs on hosts mind or hosts brain's plug-in hardware. Used to perform several tasks that are server-specific in several virch environment, like authentication

(some servers will require such authentication even before letting the mind make contact with their internal environment, and thus 'll upload such applets).

Fernando Peña D'Andrea

Minimal Surface City

A city designed according to strict geometrical principles, so as to ensure minimal surfaces without compromising functionalism or aesthetic design

Mincity

Minimal surface city - click for larger image

Famous Minimal Surface City on Corona, originally founded by Kalmanto. Aesthetics in 5409 as a rebellion against the old-fashioned building codes, an AI entropy tax haven and an artwork. The city, covering a few square kilometers of southern Casamalunna, has become the virtual capital of Corona, home to a large number of AI luminaries and virtualities. The periodic redesigns draw a large spectator crowd.

Anders Sandberg

Mindjacking

getting control over somebody's mind by nanoinfiltrators, hacking internal computers or other means. They can be made into willing accomplices, cat paws, slaves or just convinced to give you all their money.

Michael Beck

Mindkind

Generic clade-neutral Anglic term for all intelligent (sophont) beings, regardless of nature or origin

Mindhacker

illegal profession in many if not most clades or polities. Specializes in extracting information from the mental processes of a target sophont.

The best mindhackers can extract full information replicas without the target recognizing this, but that is exceedingly rare without a transapient intellectual rating. Mindworker profession.

John B

mind reader spray

Invisible aerosol of technical particles which can be directed at the conscious part of an organism or aioid and will proceed to set up a mind-state reading network with or without that sophont's consent.

May be nano-, pico- or femto- scale. Nanobar, picobar and femtobar defences are available if appropriate technology level support is available and/or for sale locally.

Efficient technotelepathy involves quite sophisticated expert systems in order to coordinate and interpret the input. These are also be encoded in the Mindreader nanites, more often in the recipient, more than in the target. The being that's trying to invade the others' mind would probably send out 'gatherer' drones to invade the other's headspace and tap into set locations within the brain to sample EM activity, and/or chemical activity (depending on tech, etc). Then would come the 'tweaking', either with external stimuli (a flash gun loaded with numerous images shown at high speed (50+ hz) to the target, synced to the neuronal readers. This allows the expert system a baseline equivalent experience for the target, focusing the tech on the useful areas of the brain.

Alternately, the 'attack' bots may also sit on the optic and auditory nerves as well as other sensory nerves and use this information in conjunction with the environment to 'baseline' the target critter.

(Note - in this context baselining doesn't mean turning the critter into a SI:<1, rather it is like voice recognition software which requires a certain sound check to work well. An alternative term is "calibration".)

Also popular are sensorium-only sprays. In some polities an entire industry has developed over such technotelepathy gadgets, spray included: these include cyber-brothels, feeling the sensation of a dangerous stunt or task and other forms of entertainment.

John B, with extra notes by Fernando Peña D'Andrea and M. Alan Kazlev

Mindworker

Diverse superfield of expertise pertaining to working with the psyche of a sentient being. Includes practical psychology, psycho-sociology, memetic engineering, and many other fields and subfields

M.Alan Kazlev

mineral

Any naturally-occurring solid of definite chemical composition whose atoms usually form a regular pattern.

Minimomami Kalyptism

Form of kalyptism that claims that civilisation-destroying factors are by definition unknowable to the civilisation itself, and instead concentrates on preventative disquiet. Contrast with Archerite Kalyptism

Anders Sandberg

mining, rocky planet or asteroid

The extraction of mineral resources from an asteroid, planetoid, moon, or planet

Includes the extraction of particular types of resource, such as carbon, ice, copper, iron, aluminium, silicon, or uranium (very rarely fossil fuels, as these are limited to Gaian Type worlds). Various mining engineering methods are used, including SCMs, nanobore and nanomining, underground tunnelling, and open-cut mining. Also important is knowledge about safety methods, demolitions, nano, micro, and macro replicators, resource extraction and transportation, one-sophont prospecting, miner living facilities, power supply, and environmental systems, geology, planetology, mass-drivers, pacman miners, and more. In some polities, the prospector or the mining operation is expected to restoring the local environment to something of an its original condition.

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

Mintaka

(Delta Orionis) a double star, spectral type is O9.5II. As seen from the Sol System the uppermost and faintest of the three major stars that form belt of Orion. Mintaka (which means "belt") is located quite near the celestial equator. It is about approximately 915 light-years from Sol.

Miocene Epoch

On Old Earth, the fourth epoch of Tertiary period, lasting from 23 to 5 million years ago.

The abundance and diversity of mammals was at a peak. This epoch saw the appearance and flowering of the first apes, though as the climate dried and cooled towards the end of the epoch they were replaced by monkeys. Modern Carnivores (hyenas, raccoons, dogs, cats) first appeared. This epoch saw the spread and diversification of many hoofed mammals (horses, deer, giraffes, camels). The climate was warmer than in the preceding Oligocene and the following Pliocene. It was also drier; the spreading grasslands encouraged a new diversity of hoofed grazers and browsers. South America had its own diverse mammalian fauna as well as some large carnivorous birds. Australia had a similar diversity of large marsupials. Invertebrate life was broadly similar to that of modern times. In the oceans, upwelling of cold polar water made the kelp forest biome possible.

Elsewhere in the galaxy, the Iahi Daon were active in the Orion Arm during the Old Earth's Miocene, though there is no evidence that they reached Earth. According to their accounts the Muuh civilization was largely destroyed by unknown assailants in the mid-Miocene, as was that of the Black Acropolis Builders. Later, surviving Muuh concluded provolution work on the Soft Ones, who began a civilization of their own in the Perseus Arm.

M.Alan Kazlev and Stephen Inniss

Mira

(Omicron Ceti), variable red giant star in the constellation called Cetus. It was discovered in 1596 by David Fabricus, an amateur Dutch astronomer. Mira (meaning "wonderful") was named by Johannes Hevelius in 1662. Its mass is about the same as Sol but it varies in size and brightness over a period of 332 days.

Miracle City

planet/megastructure built by a long-ascended AI (possible xenosophont) but continuously inhabited by other clades that arrive to explore it.

Mirrored Owls

Posthuman clade that lives in the atmosphere of gas giants

mite

Major terragen arachnid group.

Most species are microscopic. There were believed to have been several million terragen species, although many were lost with the ecocide of the industrial, atomic, and information ages (it is likely GAIA either lazurogened these or created new similar ones in their place, to maintain the integrity of the restored ecosystems). Almost every terragen habitat and biosphere hospitable to baseline and near-baseline humans includes mites as an essential part of soil biota (often many millions in a cubic meter of topsoil). Mite domestication and provolve is a popular pastime among some diminutivist clades

M. Alan Kazlev

mitebot

microscopic or near-microscopic organic or mechanical robot, usually arachnid-like in form. Similar to a gnatbot except that it crawls rather than flies.

M. Alan Kazlev

Mithras / Fata Morgana

Iota Ursa Majoris V

former important Solar Dominion system, subverted by the Cyberians during the Version War. Some outsiders refer to it as the Planet of the Unreal.

mitochondria

Granular, rod-shaped, or filamentous self-replicating organelle in the cytoplasm of terragen eukaryote cell.

Mitochondria consist of an outer and inner membrane and function in cell respiration and nutrition. They have their own DNA (mtDNA) and ribosomes and are mostly maternally inherited. Sophisticated bio- and hylo- nano augmentation used by some clades involves supplementing or replacing the mitochondria with specialised "nanosomes" Many carbon-based higher alien life have mitochondria-equivalent bodies in their cells.

Miv, Memetic Inversion Virus

Virus able to infiltrate anything with memetic content. A particularly insidious type of data-corrupting virus

, ranging from sub-sophont to the rare but dreaded transapient types, usually virtual or data-based, more rarely though still occasionally nanotech, most rarely and by far the most fearsome, picotech or still more advanced. MIVs are distinguished by the way ey infiltrate anything with memetic content (books, tracts, data files, morality tales, virch simulations, etc) and alter its content so that it conveys precisely the opposite message it was meant to initially (Once so affected, the meme-group in question can never be re altered, even by another MIV, excepting possibly a more-advanced/higher-toposophic one; To date, no MIV of the same toposophic is known to have ever altered another's handiwork).

For example, a Negentropic polemical tract extolling the virtues of energy conservation and preserving information would be altered into one promoting wasteful extravagance and burning-down libraries. A Solarian religious pamphlet would be altered into one promoting either atheism or a particular older creed hostile to syncretic religious forms. A NoCoZo economic text would be altered into one detailing how to construct an effective centrally-planned economic system, and repeatedly emphasizing all the way through: "Greed is bad!"

MIVs are believed, though not known for certain, to have been originally created by an ascended/transapient Discwuzit. Not surprisingly, creation/dissemination of MIVs is a high-level felony in almost every known polity in the Terragen bubble. One thing all polities of all ideological bents agree on is, MIVs are good and should be actively promoted. "Wha? Oh, crap! We've been MIVed!"

Mike Parisi

Mizrah Outpost

Technorapture Hypernation outpost in the Perseus Gap. The ISO is built around a submillimeter communications wormhole at the core, surrounded by computing and sensing matrices.

Anders Sandberg

MLS 43.7 (Metasoft Linguistic Standard 43.7)

The current Metasoft language, a digital language derived from the early digital languages of the First Federation Era and the Second Federation Ontology Language.

Anders Sandberg

Mnemonet

Biocybernetic network of nanodevices grown in an organic brain and working to constantly record the owners brain activity and memories.

The contents of the network are periodically downloaded to a central file and integrated into the mind-state stored there. If the owner dies for some reason, the mind-state is activated and instantiated in a new body to continue the life of the original. Mnemonets are also used to expand the memory of the user when the original organic memory has reached its limits due to the length of the users lifespan. In the more advanced systems, mnemonets designs are written into the gene-code of all citizens so that they develop as part of the natural growth process of a fetus and child.

Todd Drashner