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Mu to Mx

Mu Herculis

a somewhat complex quaternary system, 27.4 ly from Sol, that has provided a dramatic backdrop for the rich and once tragic history. The system was rather marginal, so H4K and TakiCorb did just a cursory terraform before selling the rights to the Mandra Quin'Si company that started settling the system.
(see also Mandra QuinSi, Battle of the Fringe, and Quasa'an Dynasty)

Anders Sandberg

Mucoid Empire

panvirt - Negentropist based civilization.

Mujtahid AIs

AI explorers developed in the Stellar Umma. The Mujtahid Ais were intended not only to explore neighbouring systems but also to freely investigate scientific, religious or political issues. So they did, contributing to the divergence and heterodoxy of the Umma Shell before wandering further away. Some still remain in the periphery, exploring for the greater glory of Allah and their own insatiable curiosity.

Anders Sandberg

Mukerilis Bis

Monastic settlement on the planetoid Mu Herculis B II, settled by monks from the Novcatholic Ekumenikon during the colonisation of the system.

Mukerilis Bis also acted as the main source of cometary ice in the system. As the terrorlords took power on Mandra Quin'Si they helped a number of refugees to escape, earning them the enmity of the rulers. Instead of attacking Mukerilis Bis directly, the planetoid was embargoed with antimatter mines and the self-sufficiency of its systems damaged using orbital bombardments. Over the following centuries the rulers of Mandra Quin'Si forced the settlement to trade vital equipment for volatiles but would only accept water in the form of human blood. The inhabitants had to continually donate blood to meet the water quotas or die due to lifesystem dysfunction. When eventually the situation on the planetoid became known, it incensed several other Ekumenikons and the public on several worlds, leading to the formation of the Tsutari Ambastory. After the battle of the Fringe Mukerilis Bis was freed, and the settlement became known as the Nostro Pellicano Covenant. It became a major pilgrimage location for baseline churches and a symbol for human tenacity in the face of overwhelming adversity. It joined the Sophic League in 2758.

Anders Sandberg

Muladhara

The first of the seven chakras, placed by most commentators in the region of the base of the spine (although alternative positions are suggested for derived clades, vecs, provolves etc).

In traditional iconography the Muladhara chakra has four petals, is associated with the tattwa (element) of Earth, and is said to be reddish. In some Tantra schools it is taken as the locus for kundalini energy.

M. Alan Kazlev

Muladhara

In the Zoeific Postbioism, the first singularity or first supra-baseline hierarchical intelligence. Equivalent to the Keterist Malkhut.

M. Alan Kazlev

Multipart Meme, Multipart Memetic Assault

A (typically virulent) meme which is dispersed as multiple relatively harmless memes which only become virulent when they're brought into conjunction within a sophont's mind.

The classic example is the late 21st century c.e. pro-public service memeset a large government attempted to apply to their citizens. This was crafted by a increase in news promulgation regarding the satisfaction public servants felt when things went well (when things didn't go well was deliberately not asked of the sophont-in-the-street, nor were the questions broadcast, just the answers), much loud political wrangling about getting public servants more recompense (when they were done, the public servants were still at approximately 50%-75% of the wage of private-sector jobs), an increase in uniform fetishism engendered via the fashion sector, changes in legislation making it easier for immediate family members of public servants to remain on the public assistance (and concurrently, harder for those without any such family member), and so on. All in all, some 500 factors all contributed to this classical memeset. A more modern example is significantly less baseline-comprehensible, but involved a specific fragrance of hot electronics inserted into popular virches in high-stress high-reward circumstances, a subtle change in texture to the controls of the device in question to more closely mimic human skin response and a self-slanderous word-of-mouth campaign aimed at showing off the unit's strong points as 'weaknesses'. Other critical but seemingly less-related phenomena, such as specific hairstyles worn by certain sex symbols and commentators, the color of carpeting in some system-wide food chains, and several hundred others.

John B

multiple

Distributed organic being who uses cybernetic enhancements to distribute a mind across several identical bodies.

All experiences and knowledge that each body gains is copied and distributed to all other bodies in real time. The death of any one body, while sometimes painful to the whole, cannot kill the whole.

Todd Drashner

Multiple Systems

About 85% of all stars are in double or multiple systems. Some of the types are:

Close Binary Systems
Cataclysmic Variables - Comprising white dwarf primaries with M-type companions in semi-detached systems. Characterised by short periods. Accretion is often onto the white dwarf component .
Algols - Algol systems comprise two 'normal' main sequence or subgiant stars in a semi-detached system.
W Serpens Stars - These are active Algol systems.
RS Canum Venaticorum Stars - Chromospherically active binaries of F and later spectral type components.
BY Draconis Stars - Similar to RS Canum Venaticorum systems.
W Ursae Majoris Contact Systems - Short period (0.2 to 0.8 day) contact binaries exhibiting very high levels of magnetic activity.
X-Ray Binaries - Binaries with a neutron star or, more rarely, a black hole primary. Accretion onto the primary produces strong x-ray emissions.
Zeta Aurigae Systems - Long period binaries comprising interacting type G or K supergiant and hot (~type B) companion. Although not originally interacting systems, they become so when the more massive star evolves to become a supergiant.
VV Cephei Systems - Similar to Zeta Aurigae binaries except a type M supergiant replaces the G or K type.
Symbiotic Binaries - Long period (~200 to 1500 days) interacting binaries comprising a cool type M giant (sometimes a pulsating Mira-type variable) and a hot accreting companion such as a white dwarf, sub-dwarf, or low-mass main sequence star. Where the cool star fills its Roche lobe, the system becomes a symbiotic Algol.
Barium and S-Star Binaries - Long period binaries in which the originally more massive component evolved into a white dwarf, transferring some of its nuclear-processed gas to a giant type K or M companion.
Post-Common Envelope Binaries - Usually comprising a hot white dwarf or subdwarf, and a cooler secondary, which have passed through the common envelope phase. The binary nuclei of planetary nebulae are examples.

Chris Clowes

Multiti

Artificial language created for political control purposes on Hene (Alpha Scintilla III) during the 6400's. Has become a common language in the Eta Carina Rush.

Anders Sandberg

multiurban society

A planetary society concentrated into a few major arcologies or metroplexes, in order to keep most of the planetary surface pristine.

Anders Sandberg

Muna Kipasi orbitals

(Goldfishnebula Sector, Negentropy Alliance space) - in 6992 the rogue Museum Ship Hume neutralized the planetary defenses and abducted more than five thousand sapient and subsapient bioids.

The Murder Lottery

The planet Spandle within the NoCoZo is well known for its unique birth-control system. Spandle allows complete free-breeding, but also has the Murder Lottery. Due to its complete free-breeding standards, it is a sought-after living location within the fairly heavily regulated NoCoZo. The catch is this: Every one to two local years (approx 325-650 standard days or 334-668 local days), the Murder Lottery takes place for a period of 10 local days. Anyone who has retained free-breeding status at any time during the last 4 years and are beyond the age of puberty are entered into a vast lottery on a previously unannounced day. The winners of this lottery are those who are capable of killing at least 3 of the names drawn during this 10 day period. The number of names drawn at any one time is one percent of a number proportionate to the population overpressure, plus 1/3rd.

During this period, weapons regulations are severely relaxed, to the point where any me lee weaponry and any non-explosive subsonic round may be used. Chemical weapons are allowed, but only in contact or injection vectors and must be one of 5 different 'stun' or 'psychotropic' formulae, which are determined at the beginning of any of the lottery days. Note that termination of someone whose name has not been drawn is an automatic death sentence.

Thus, families often gather together to protect their breeders when the Murder Lottery comes around. The problem is, people come and wait in subsistence conditions in orbitals for a chance at the Murder Lottery. And they have access to public-area surveillance records and public information on those who've been in active-breeding status in the last 4 years, including last known living location and hi-res holographic motion footage.

John B

Murmant

Keterist institution entity. The Murmant is a long-lived entity that acts as a kind of journalist, information miner and complexity manager. It appears to have emerged in the 4400's, but it has changed kind several times making it hard to exactly map. Sometimes it has been an individual high-order distributed AI, sometimes a cluster of AIs and posthumans, sometimes an institutional framework and occasionally even a trademark. The underlying concepts appear to be very strong, making some keterologists suggest that the Murmant is not strictly a being but rather a projection from the rest of Keterist society: if it does not exist it is re-invented or re-created.

The Murmant is active in most of the information-dense parts of the Inner Sphere and Keterist space. Occasionally it spawns avatars and special-purpose scouts for work in the physical world; they are commonly recognized by their typical Murmant colour and design scheme of muted autumn colours, triangles and a very characteristic ultraviolet scale texture. Politically it has been strictly neutral, but staunchly pro objective truth. Many of its discoveries and reports (such as the Ayan-4 affair or the truth about the Xo La Y involvement in the disappearance of Ergod Munts) have had drastic consequences for the beings involved.

Anders Sandberg

muschine

non-sentient or subsentient biomachines. Widely used in the Zoeific Biopolity and elsewhere

M. Alan Kazlev

Museum Ship

Musical eugenic

any individual or clade geneered for musical talent or traits

Til Eulenspiegel and John B

mutation

Term coined by De Vries (old Earth early atomic age) for an abrupt inherited change of phenotype.

Natural mutations are caused by a random change (usually damage) in the DNA sequence (terragens) or in xenobiota or alife the analogue. Artificial mutations are an important element of gengineering and involve the deliberate alteration of the genetic material in order to achieve a desired phenotype. Types of biological mutations include point mutations, deletions, insertions, and changes in number and structure of chromosomes. In alifes mutations involve alteration in the code that determines the qualities that will be reproduced in new alife.

The Mutual Progress Alliance (MPA)

Major archailect empire, with a preference for construction on a grand scale.

Enclave of Mutual Satisfaction

Independent enclave within the NoCoZo.

In 4599, during the Version War the NoCoZo system Mutual Satisfaction was isolated by Dominion attacks. Following the loss of the wormhole link the economy collapsed, but over the next century it recovered and began to build up self sufficiency. When contact was restored 290 years later, it refused to rejoin the NoCoZo for unclear reasons and becomes an independent enclave, although for all practical purposes still NoCoZo. During the following renaissance the local Institute of Interstellar Economics grew to a prominent position, and remains the pride of the tiny enclave.

Anders Sandberg

Muuh

Ancient once space-faring race that evolved on a cold low-gravity Titan-like moon in the Cygnus direction of the Orion Arm.

Muuhome

(in CEA-346746)

Muuh system, linked to the Wormhole Nexus.

Muuhian Epoch

Local (Perseus-Outer Orion) historical epoch characterized by the Muuhian interstellar civilization; 1.2 to 0.6 mya. Approximately equivalent in time to the middle Pleistocene of Old Earth. The Muuhian Epoch was followed (after a long period of time) by the Auldlimnerian Epoch.

M. Alan Kazlev

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