| 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 |

Sh

Shacker

(noun): A criminal involved in shacking

Jorge Dichenberg

Shacking

Hacking the minds of virtuals, or embodied sophonts who are online through a direct neural interface, and using them as puppets for criminal activity.

If the traces of the shacking are cleverly erased, the hacked sophont may have trouble proving that e is not guilty. Usually a chain of beings is shacked to better hide the original offender.

Jorge Dichenberg

Shadow Federation

little-known confederation of any outsider and hider cultures.

shadow goo

nanotech that's hard to trace or detect.

Examples include:

Nano-machines that function in low (hard to detect) concentrations and accomplish work by assembling short lived (i.e. relatively volatile) auxiliary nano-apparatus.

Nano-machines that largely disassemble themselves after or as part of completing their function leaving little traceable residue.

Nano-machines which contribute their structure to the product they are assembling, making them virtually indistinguishable from minor flaws or inconsistencies in the finished product.

Peter Kisner

Shadowhound

Bionano based infiltration and combat device.

Shadowhounds have no definite shape, but are able to alter their form (usually over a period of several minutes to hours) to suit whatever conditions or situations they encounter. Shadowhounds derive their name from both their matte black outer layer (used to absorb solar energy) and one of their most common appearance defaults as a roughly canine shaped quadrupedal form.

Shadowhounds are extremely fast and strong and can produce a wide range of pointed and edged extrusions for use in melee combat. In addition they are able to alter the properties of their external layers, generating extremely effective camouflage effects bordering on invisibility.

Shadowhounds are generally used in a security or bodyguard role, but they have been occasionally used in guerrilla combat situations. They are able to derive energy from solar, biological and electrical sources and are able to 'live off the land (and the bodies of defeated enemies if necessary) virtually indefinitely. Although their design is widely banned (and only semi-legal even in the NoCoZo), templates of varying quality are widely available on the grey markets of most worlds and in the records of every warchive worthy of the name.

Todd Drashner

shamanism

Tribal religion common among caretakerists, based on the principle of the shaman or magician-healer as the mediator between the human and spirit worlds ("original shamanism"), or (where there is more mediation between the humans and the AIs) between the baselines and the seraiph of the caretaker gods ("seraiphic shamanism, "caretakerist shamanism"). Original shamanism is the oldest religious modality known to the terragens, dating back to the paleolithic age.

Shamash

Xi Bootis A III - a business paradise during the First Federation period, later became a major world of Solar Dominion.

Shell, The

The outer part of the Stellar Umma, also called the Umma Shell.

Shellworlds

Definition #1 A series of habitable shells constructed using the crust of a tectonically quiescent world, extending above and below the surface.; Shellworlds were first proposed by the futurist Hope Parker in the early twenty-second century, but did not become possible until the invention of advanced picotech. Shellworlds are a megastructure design that, while it provides far less surface area to live on than a ring world, is far simpler to build and maintain and use, and is sufficient for most purposes. A layer of earth below the planet's surface is excavated (Parker envisioned large equipment doing the job, but today it is done with nanotech) to in effect produce an inner sphere beneath the planet's surface. Then nanotechnology is used to fill the shell with air, water and fusion beams on the ceiling provide sunlight. This effectively doubles the surface area of a planet. However, the true stroke of genius is what is done with all the excavated stone. It is formed into new shells that rise above the planet's original surface, which themselves must be made habitable. With nanotech the rock can easily be made into materials that will support the weight of all above them with huge pillars, and by the time you are done excavating (often there will be several layers of dirt removed) the planet largely resembles a Babushka doll and has several hundred times as much surface area as before.

Naturally, finding a largish but non-tectonically active body (lacking conventional or large large amounts of radioactivity in the deep crust, mantle and core and small enough that the friction heat wouldn't be enough to melt rock and form tectonic plates) is not easy. Suitable candidates that have been used are a few unusually stable very old Mars-like planets, some rocky outer worlds in old white dwarf systems, and even "lost" or "rogue" planets. The minimal seismic activity that occurs even on these bodies is manageable using large scale allocation of basic nanotechnology. Since the shellworld does not need sunlight as it runs on fusion and amat, drifting planets in interstellar space make excellent candidates. More than a few clades, both mainstream and hider, have constructed shellworlds in this manner.; Michael Beck
: Definition #2 Another name for a supramundane world, suspended dynamically above the surface of a planet or other object
The shell is not rigid in the conventional sense. Imagine a stream of high speed particles being fired from a station above the planet to another station where they are redirected around to another station and so on. As each station bends the path of the particle stream reaction forces hold the station up against the pull of gravity. Eventually the stream returns to the original station and a 'continuous' loop is created. Each station uses magnetic accelerators to keep the particle stream going as needed. Run an entire array of these loops around the planet until they form a grid with the loops running North/South operating slightly above or below the loops running East/West. Possibly enclose each particle stream in a hollow tube to help accelerate/control it. Now attach surface plates on top of the grid, either magnetically levitating above the streams or attached to the redirecting/accelerator stations. Cover the plates w/ soil and an atmosphere and voilà! superplanet.; Todd Drashner

shepherd satellite

Satellite that moves near a planetary ring and, through its gravitational field, act to confine the ring particles onto certain orbits.

Shielding

Vidriole Shigemasy

Sophic revolutionary, statesbeing, pontiff and saint (7844-8021)

Ship

Generic term for a space-going vessel (interplanetary or interstellar), especially one of long endurance

In a few polities the term is also used to apply to surface-going vessels (although "boat" is more often used)

Ship Mind, Shipmind

The ai (or in some cases an uploaded biont or postbiont) that controls a ship

Shipminds require special training, programming, and customization. Often the Mind that runs the drive is the most expensive component in any ship. Then the drive and its components.

Ship Mind, Transplanting

Transferring a Mind from one ship to another.

Just as with advanced drives and other components, minds are fairly interchangeable, and may be moved from ship to ship, especially if e is agreeable and felt comfortable in the new vessel. Care must be taken however, because whilst the majority transplants (especially of more adaptable Minds) go well, there have been instances where a transplanted Mind has had a mental breakdown (anything from mild somatic disjunction to full-blown catatonia.

M.Alan Kazlev

Shivverskate

a relatively recent fad, the Shivverskate stores a moderately impressive amount of kinetic energy in molecular flywheels and releases it as a standing sonic wave beneath itself, allowing a relatively frictionless interface with ground in a standard-gravity environment.

In some less well defended regions, shivverskaters have taken to using their boards as both transport and weapons of choice, as the standing sonic wave can be adjusted with any of many relatively common nanotic toolsets to one of several protein-curdling frequencies. (This typically reduces the energy efficiency of the device by some moderately large percentage.)

John B

Shockroot

Ground hugging, ivy like plantimal that uses electric shock to defend against predators.

The Shockroot has a unique system for defending against leaf eating animals/insects. The plant has a core of bioelectric cells running through its roots, vines and leaves. These are similar in function to the cells of the terran electric eel. When a creature attempts to feed on the Shockroot, it receives a considerable shock.

Shockroots evolved on the recently discovered lacustrogaian world of Tathius-IV (later named Galton) (Eta Carina rush), an entire planet where bioelectric defense mechanisms take the place of the poisons and bad tastes that terragen plants and animals use. The world has an unusually high percentage of conductive metallic salts.

Todd Drashner

shopping festivals

A common type of corporate sponsored or encouraged festival in many regions. The NoCoZo celebrates the ancient rites of shopping festivals like xmas with gusto.

short period comet

A comet with a revolution period less than about 100 metric years.

Shower in a Bottle

Active nanite gel that is used to clean the body of bionts.

Uses body heat and organic dirt from cleaning for energy. The gel in the shape of a sphere is placed somewhere on the body. The gel then spreads out to cover the being's entire body. Once finished the gel reforms into a sphere which then can be placed in the carrying bottle.

James Ramsey

Shur'rooss'hur
A domesticated beast on To'ul'h Prime, about the size of a Shetland Pony

These tetrapod creatures have wide, low anterior scooping mouths, complete with tusks for rooting and scraping up detritus and saprotrophic organisms. The mouth is carried on a cantilevered appendage, balanced at the posterior end by a short thick caudal appendage which carries a few sense organs. The central spindle is a single hollow unarticulated backbone which contains the brain; from this spindle are articulated all four legs and the anterior and caudal appendages. The anterior appendage carries most of the sense organs (light spots and bristles) while a sonar-like echolocation sense organ is located in a swelling forward of the brain case.

The Shur'rooss'hur have long been domesticated by the To'ul'h; at first simply as a mobile perching platform controlled by pressure from the To'ul'hs sharp claws. Quite heavy objects could be dragged on simple sledges behind these small, but strong creatures.

When the wheel was invented several Shur'rooss'hur were yoked together to pull two-wheeled or four-wheeled vehicles of various sorts, often equipped with a long perch for the waggon-driver which projected far in front over the backs of the draft animals.

Steve Bowers

| 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 |

Unless otherwise specified,
this work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

feedback