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Ph

Pharmacology

The study of the physiological and pathological effects of drugs, as well as synthesis of new drugs by various means. Also may includes specialized fields such as pharmacracy, nanopharming, herbalism, the biochemistry of drugs, psychotropics, nanotweaked drugs, and natural drugs and drug analogues

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

pharmacracy

Rule by chemicals.

While coercive governments have always used whatever means available to enforce their will on the population, in some cases psychochemistry has become so intertwined with the political system that a chemical form of government develops. Mental influence and modification can of course be achieved through a variety of means beside psychochemistry: memetic engineering, psychosurgery, nanotechnology, neural implants etc. However, chemistry was the earliest and in many ways easiest way of achieving mental modifications on a mass level, and hence the pharmacracy label is often used to denote other mental modification societies.

The simplest forms of coercive use of psychochemicals consists of addicting the population to some chemicals, either in order to decrease their will to get rid of the current rulers (this approach usually fails because the necessary initiative for maintaining society is also drained) or as a means of control if the rulers are the only ones able to manufacture the drug. The perhaps most famous example was the Lucullus Oligarchy, which during the late 5000's controlled over 40 star systems with a caste system based on the taking of certain drugs. The Engineer caste, for example, was addicted to a certain form of time dilative nootropics, while the Player caste was addicted to various mood brighteners. The Oligarchy persisted for over 400 years until the drug monopoly was broken by invading NoCoZo traders, and the power structure imploded.

A more subtle form of pharmacracy, which is further from the traditional centralist-coercive form of government, is the use of altruzines. Altruism-enhancing drugs (or other devices) can make enough people into voluntary altruists to make many traditionally impossible social forms at least marginally stable. There are many examples of altruism enhanced anarchies in the Utopia Sphere, where the combination of massive altruism induction and automated production makes them possible. Unlike simple chemical coercion altruzine-based societies have an interest in doping all citizens with the drugs; defectors may of course want to avoid it.

The truly advanced pharmacracies use a wide variety of not just mood- but also reality-, cognition-, personality- and memory-altering drugs. Often they develop as an adaptation to harsh circumstances such as overcrowding, stress and conflicts, but develop into true pharmacracy as the chemical market expands into all parts of life. Reality becomes chemically enhanced, personality alteration an everyday procedure and emotions and values a matter of choice. If the society avoids the obvious instabilities and risks (such as actualys or widespread addiction-locking) it will tend to develop into a true pharmacracy, where individuality and views change flexibly depending on demands, fashions and the current situation. At present the best example of such a mature pharmacracy is the Sampo Association of the corewards MPA.

Anders Sandberg

phases of matter

Matter normally exists in four phases (solid, liquid, gas, and plasma) and a few other extreme phases, like critical fluids and degenerate gases, which are often used by AIs and powers for various ultratech applications.

phase transition

In physics, a change from one state of matter to another. In dynamical systems theory, a change from one mode of behaviour to another. In distributed meso- or nano-swarms, a change in the coordination and activity of the swarm. In toposophy, a change from one singularity level to another.

phenotype

The appearance of an organism with respect to a particular group of physical, biochemical, and physiologic characteristics, as a result of the interaction of its genotype and its environment.

phenotypic augmentation

Biological or genetic modification or augmentation that effects the phenotype only.

It alters the characteristics of the user, and sometimes also that of clones from the user's somatic cells, but it does not modify the user's offspring. Contrast with genotypic augmentation.

M.Alan Kazlev

philai

An type of Sophic League ai, usually but not necessarily transingularitan, that lives it's life according to principles of compassion and wisdom.

M.Alan Kazlev

philosophical crisis

the result of a sentient, especially a sophont, stumbling across some fact that breaks em loose of eir programming or memetic conditioning - i.e., the programmers or memegineers have a deeply buried unconscious prejudice that makes them untrustworthy, or the sophont stumbles across a deliberate lie or inconsistency which makes em doubt the validity of what e had been led to believe.

modified from Creating Friendly AI

Philosomorpher

A transapient occupation/hobby/lifestyle, poorly understood by subsingularity beings, in which a high level sophont augments eir psychophysical template in order to maximizes the intuitive grokking of reality as a whole, or some specific aspect or application of it.

M.Alan Kazlev

philosophy

The study of fundamental belief systems, including the disciplines of science, mathematics, noetics, eschatology, logic, religion, ethics, aesthetics, and ideology. Specialised areas include epistemology, metaphysics, ontology, axiology, theosophy, dialectics, reductionism, dualism, monism, and holism.

photoelectrochemical cell

Generic term for a wide range of cheap and easily fabricated, flexible photovoltaic device based on nanocrystalline materials and conducting polymer films, that provide a very high efficiency ratio of conversion of sunlight to electrical power. Widely used in many space habitats and for ground-based planetary power production for remote habitats and instruments.

photon

The quantum unit of electromagnetic radiation, having some properties of a wave. For each wavelength, the photon has a different energy.

photon drive/photonic propulsion

Propulsion system using the recoil of a light beam.

The first photon drive system ever implemented was used to propel the Jupiter Republic probe to Lalande 21185 in 2341. It rode on a beam of gamma photons released by matter-antimatter annihilation. That has stayed the number one source of energy for photon drives until now. Even today certain fighters like the NoCoZo Lightning class or the Negentropy Alliance Leik Myrabo class of light destroyers use antimatter fuelled photon engines, although mainly because the deadly gamma exhaust is used as their primary weapon. It allows them to attack and retreat at the same time.

Martin Andreas Cieslik

photon virus

supposed viral device hitching a ride or being built into a photon like a germ riding on a speck of dust.

The danger of photon viruses are a popular and recurring meme among paranoids, despite there never being a scrutinized confirmed case observed throughout civilized space. According to folklore it is a clarketech device that requires advanced hypofemtotech or plancktech and is created by high toposophic archailects. It is claimed that a photon virus may involve a plancktechnic membrane woven into the quantum foam of the space time around a star. As photons pass thru the membrane, the virus is constructed out of or embedded into the quantum mechanical structure of the photon. When the photon strikes some matter the virus copies itself into the quantum structure of the matter and subverts it. If the matter in question does something the sender doesn't like, ey send and activation signal and boom the virus converts some of the ship/bomb whatever into amat or energy. Either way the remains end up leaving the system at high speed in no shape to bother you any more. In some versions of the rumour, there is also either some kind of self destruct mechanism or short half life into the device (tuned to the depth of the gravitational field or other options) to prevent the virus leaving the system and infecting other stars. As a security or defence system it would be almost unbeatable. Entering a solar system and causing mischief while never letting the sunlight hit you would be quite tricky. Fortunately most reputable clarketechologists agree that this is a technology that exists only in the minds of paranoids as "rumourware"

Todd Drashner, updated by M.Alan Kazlev

photonanotech

Advanced nanotech with no moving parts.

Works solely with light beams or electromagnetic radiation in general. Whilst optical nano dates back as far as the middle interplanetary period, it was not widely used until the first federation, when a number of technical problems were overcome. This enabled technology that gave more efficient starship drive and heat exchange systems, and more powerful AIs even than those based on standard bio- and hylo-nanotech. However, with the development of advanced picotech and the picolect singularity during the late first Federation period, photonanotech was soon superseded, although it retains many important uses today

M.Alan Kazlev

Photonics

The study of the control of photons, especially for the transmission of information.

Includes technology such as lasers, laser amplifiers, fibre optic cables, light-conducting buckytubes, light emitters, sensors and imaging systems of all sorts, charge-coupled devices, optical communication systems, holography, phased array optics, optical computers, photonanotech, photon-based picotech, and all-types of optical data storage systems.

modified from original list by Robert J. Hall

photosphere

The light-emitting surface layer of a star.

photosynthesis

Organic conversion of sunlight into stored chemical energy, essential for the proliferation of advanced forms of life.

This is a process that has developed many times by carbon-based life-forms on different planets, essential for complex foodchains and the proliferation of advanced forms of carbon-oxygen life.

phyle

A major category of sentient beings, as defined by one or a few basic but distinctive qualities, not necessarily connected by ancestry - e.g. biont, relativist, cycler, vec, bioborg, etc

M. Alan Kazlev

phyles and clades

Generic expression referring to diversity of terragen sentient beings.

M. Alan Kazlev

phylogeny

The science and art of tracing family trees of ancestry and descent, whether regarding the evolution of species over millions of years, or of terragen clades or genetic houses over thousands of years.

phylotoposophy

Study of the relations between and evolutionary development of the various types of singularity ascensions of mindkind. A branch of dendrotoposophy.

Phylotoposophy deals with the shape of the evolutionary trees of ascension, in terms of branching toposophic phylogenies, and their many stages and intermediates. It is known that instead of a single SI:1 there is a whole branching tree of toposophics, some mutually opposing, others complementary (dendrotoposophy). Some favour silicon intelligence, others carbon intelligence, some are subjectivist, others objectivist, others have no correlates in S<1 understanding. With some the branches then link up and merge, with others they diverge even further.

M.Alan Kazlev

phylum

In the Linnean taxonomic classification, this is the second highest grading, and designates a phylum is a major group of organisms sharing a similar bodyplans. A phylum contains one or more classes. A group of similar phyla forms a Kingdom.

Physeteridae (sperm whales)

Terragen family of large-headed toothed whales (Suborder Odontoceti), including both baseline and modified species.

There is only a single baseline species Physeter macrocephalus and subspecies, although two provolved subspecies left Earth during the Federation period, and they have established a notable presence in the galactic community. Like other neo-cetacea, they make capable ship pilots, interstellar artisans and traders. The huge size of their ships mean that the spacers are relativists. Apart from the spacers, most members can be found on Oro Mistral (Ahag-III) and Pacifica (the two populations seem to be racially distinct). Relations on Pacifica between the Physeterids and the Mysticeti tends to be heated at times, as the two groups do not always get along. No such problems have ever been reported on Oro Mistral. It is believed some relativistic and outer volumes colonies have geneered themselves into distinct subspecies, species and genera.

Physeter macrocephalus macrocephalus - the baseline sperm whale of Old Earth, is the largest toothed whale (Suborder Odontoceti), and had the largest brain for any baseline terragen animal. They averaged about 16-18 meters in length, with weights of around 15-20 tons. They fed on deep-water squid, fish, octopus, eels, etc, and could dive to depths of more than 1,000 metres. Like all cetacea they lived in complex social and family groups called pods. The sperm whale was one of the few species of great whales not to be hunted to extinction during the atomic and information age, although it's genome was drastically impoverished and had to be artificially restored during the interplanetary period. Human attempts to provolve the Sperm Whale were not successful. It is not known what the current status of P. m. macrocephalus is, as GAIA and her Children do not encourage contact.

Physeter macrocephalus sapiens - the typical Sperm Whale Provolve, appears to differ from the baseline form primarily in its superbright sapient-augmented brain and large number of symbiotic bionanite implants. Among the most famous members of the species is Primus Sii'yiut'ee of Oro Mistral, ecclesiastic head of the Splice and Provolve Universalist Church.

Physeter macrocephalus superior - the second provolved Physeterid species, differs from P. m. sapiens in its type and degree of augmentation. This subspecies has the largest brain of any provolve, and has produced a number of notable philosophers. While they maintain large populations on Oro Mistral and Pacifica, the majority of members are spacers, and they have built up a diverse number of relativistic interstellar microcultures.

M.Alan Kazlev

physical eschatology

branch of science studying how intelligent life could affect and survive in the remote future

physical existence

Existence in r/l as opposed to virch; slow-time.

physical existence