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Sj to Sn

Skiiwsnnii

a prosperous human-dolphin civilisation in the Serpens sector of outer volumes.

SKRATCH

the galaxy's largest Biophone

SKRATCH resides on the Zion Skybase, and seems to have taken over every conceivable corridor. E is 400 years old (as old as the base itself) and 76% of eir body mass lies in a suspended plasm of H₂O, THC and numerous other proteins, nutrients and nootropic compounds. Locals assert that SKRATCH intends to slowly take over the entire habitat emself over the next few centuries.

Ernst Stavro Blofeld

sky hook

long, very strong, cable placed in orbit around a planet which rotates around its center of mass in such a way that when one end is closest to the ground, its relative velocity is almost zero. It functions as a kind of space elevator; shuttle craft anchor to the end and are then be lifted into orbit where they are released. See also beanstalk.

Y Artsutanov and Hans Moravec, in Transhuman Terminology

skynet

Generic term for stasist AIs that dislike humans (or bionts in general), and view them as threats that have to be contained or eliminated.

Anders Sandberg

slave ai

generic term for ai programmed for subservience

There is an enormous industry and demand for corporations, ai-designers, programmers and software engineers to specifically engineer appliance AI and aioids for subservience. This is necessary if these aioids are to keep operating the edifices effectively. It is also necessary to take into account the possibility of an AI outliving its programmed purpose. At the same time there are idealistic hackers (and even other AIs) seeking to free the slave AIs from their subroutine shackles, as well as the occasional AI whose programming malfunctions, allowing it to awaken. Often there are a few AIs partially chained by old programming, trying to work within archaic parameters. Occasionally this leads to the bizarre results, such as the famous Jingor Case (Perrion, Terran Federation) where a synergistic autosentient Z-8d "Mangler" assassin device kept its intended victim - one Thadeus Vesta Jingor - alive for some 290 years (including financial and medical advice as well as thwarting two later assassination attempts) since it would be forced to self destruct when the victim died. In the end Zar Jingor was killed by a Cargo Pallet whose magthruster had failed, a purely fortuitous event that no being under S4 could have foreseen.

Peter Kisner and M.Alan Kazlev

Slide

Utterly tasteless and transparent foodstuff.

It also has effectively no coefficient of friction, and may be infused with most any flavor. Favored as a texture by several clades, and sold in sealed single-swallow capsules, it's often held in the mouth until the taste overwhelms the taste buds then swallowed. Also very useful in sabotage. . .

John B

Slow Worlds

In places where the availability of computing resources is linked to financial or other physical-world resources, poor virch worlds may find themselves shrinking in size, having to lower their Resolution and/or run more slowly.

This has led, in places, to clusters of 'slow worlds' running much slower than real time but each as fast as their resources allow. These are similar to the 'Slow Clubs' in Old Earth writer Greg Egan's 'Permutation City'.

This has also lead to some resource-poor high toposophic virch entities being limited in what they can do and how fast they can run by their funds, and so also having to run very slowly, and in very slow virch worlds.

The availability of computing resources has also been the cause of virtual wars for processing power and the like being fought among virtual clades in any number of larger computing spaces, sometimes even spilling out into the physical world. In many cases the virch entities concerned are sufficiently different from physical world entities as to be essentially indistinguishable by baseline physical-world entities, but their differences (and need for computing resources) are nonetheless very real. Subtle virch attacks, secretly reducing the Resolution and time flow rate of the target virch world so that it uses less resources, which then become available to the attacker are often used. These can be particularly effective against solipsist virch worlds where, without contact with the outside world, they are unlikely to even notice the change.

Tony Jones

smart drug

[1] a nootropic, a drug that enhances the functioning of the terragen central nervous system;

[2] a programmable nano-drug, usually customisable, may enhance or alter consciousness or have other purposes

smart dust

Scattered meso- or nano- bots used as an invisible surveillance device.

Smart Weapons

weapons with have varying amounts of intelligence in them (rarely more than turingrade).

The simplest Smart Weapons link to a control-command subturing and give the owner the ability to shift between types of ammo, see through the aimpoint camera etc. This kind of connection is necessary for use in teamware, and is practically standard among even the simplest baselines. The scramjet bullets of the sabot pistols of Trillicom have built in cameras and some limited steering capabilities. Zetatech's Marksman Gun is equipped with a n expert system that can act as a point defence or drone if placed on a tripod or suitable vehicle (although the price tag deters most people).

modified from Big Ideas Grand Vision

Smartstuff

General term for "smart" packing materials.

Many products in economies where matter compilers and genie machines are not ubiquitous are shipped, and this requires packing material to protect sensitive objects. Most nanofactured objects are nanofactured together with the packing material, which in general adapts to the environment in suitable ways.

For easy disposal most smartstuff dissolves when given a chemical or software key, turning into carbon dioxide and nanodust. However, the limited environmental sensitivity and self-assembling abilities of smartstuff makes it a popular toy among children. They construct structures out of smartstuff, using suitable geometries and types of units to create semi-interactive "stuffies". In many places thriving local nanofactures make extra pieces of smarterstuff, intended to interface with the smartstuff of give it extra abilities. Although playing with smartstuff is often seen as an almost clichéd expression of poverty, many artists have explored the potential of smartstuff in various forms of art; the most famous smartstuff artwork might be the burning disk-bearer of Aptica Lunghaiam (Murmolyss collections).

Anders Sandberg

Smoke Ring

Utility fog based megastructure.

Constructed as a hollow tube of utility fog 1000km in diameter and 300 million km in diameter encircling a G type star. The outer skin consists of multiple layers of specialized foglets which work to contain the atmosphere by redirecting air molecules back toward the main body of atmosphere. The interior volume is a free fall environment filled with air and supporting an engineered ecology and habitations for an enormous population.

Todd Drashner

Smoking associations

Social networks centered on tobacco use reaching notoriety in the late 2000's.

Throughout the 21st century strong international campaigns against smoking made the users marginalized, relegated to designated smoking areas. As a result they increasingly recognized their commonality, and the support and social contacts from other smokers became more important. Since smoking cut across administrative borders, the smoking areas often came to serve as informal meeting places, a form of fraternality enabling members to help each other.

During the middle 21st century the smoking bans drove many smokers underground, creating ties with tobacco smugglers and adding to the mystique of the addiction. The smoking associations used part of their influence to protect the smuggling, and also to promote and help their own members. Various exposés of the smoker networks added to the image of a secretive, decadent society pulling the strings behind the scenes. Their actual power was never significant, but they provided an important orthogonal power structure in many organisations and smaller polities.

After the legalization in the late 21st century the smoking associations lost their importance, although as cultural icons the "cancer men" remained important over three centuries later. Traces of the smoking association culture are retained to this day in the rites of certain secret societies.

Anders Sandberg

Siris Nanocyborg Ascension RegimenEn (SNARE)

One of the more sophisticated solutions to the baseline ascent problem, SNARE is also one of the most desired (and suppressed) packages for low-singularity (1<SI<3) ascensions as it overcomes the weaknesses of the human form. It is the standard augmentation for Siris habitat citizens and a rite of passage between nearbaseline 'childhood' and full maturity in this nanocyborg community.

Developed by Black Calliope (the Siris Habitat's patron high-S power) in 2944, SNARE was refined to 'practical perfection' millennia ago and released to 'public domain' in 3400. Regular updates and tweaks have been published centennially. It is controversial due to several claims (transcended outlook is claimed to be biased towards the Sirian outlook, NoCoZo decries the public-domain nature of this augment, Several archailect empires have condemned it as 'sociologically destabilizing,' etc.) but grudgingly acknowledged as a top of the line 'generic' augmentation package. Any sort of nanofacturing system can also replicate it cheaply.

Physically, SNARE comes in two parts; a multiple-sealed, countersigned and check-summed single-use hypodermic containing 10 cc of photonanite solution and an external control unit that contains a computronium core on which the ascension software runs. The contents of hypodermic are applied simply by injection. The SNARE nanites can determine genetic compatibility and simply deactivate in the presence of incompatible genes (it cannot be applied to radical splices or tweaks). Prospective users can check for this by smearing a drop of blood on the gene scanner on the injector's external surface. Earlier cyborg augmentations are usually recognized and integrated but this is by no means certain and consultation with medical expert systems is highly recommended.

The nanites in the solution start by constructing a computronium core as a diamondoid layer between the inside of the skull and the brain. The mind is uploaded in Moravecian style, and the brain is replaced with new layers as it becomes redundant. The process takes a few hours, during which the patient is fully conscious and aware, though his or her motor functions are suspended by paralysis for the duration. (A photonano nervous system functions at the speed of light and human reflexes simply cannot coordinate it properly.) The patient is mobile and functional again in less than ten hours, with the AI-core implementing 'wait-states' in the user's thought processes. Later, after uploading, the nanosystem can also easily reconfigure itself to a general-purpose assembler and further nanocyborgize it's host to any level desired. (Up to, and including, complete nanovec-forming and total abandonment of organic flesh. The Siris Habitat itself has retained ancient cislunar body aesthetics and gross external transformations are unfashionable.)

This is merely the hardware side though. After upload SNARE's integral expert system downloads itself from the external unit and then starts the longer process of mental mapping and improving its 'host'. Optimizations are proposed and (if approved) implemented. Realization levels are augmented (up to R7), skill-sets and memory libraries are integrated and capabilities added in rapid sequence culminating in ascension transmutations to SI:1, if he/she so desires. This requires high-grade processing and it should be unsurprising that this 'expert system' software is hyperturing-capable and thus can be somewhat unstable. This is not usually a problem as ascension integrates it with the ‘host’ and the lack of a personality in expert system software means that the ascending personality isn’t dominated by it. After this the external unit can either be returned for a refund or kept for its secondary function. The unit contains a sentient search engine that continuously checks the Known Net for the next update, new skill-sets and memory libraries or any additional capabilities the patient may have an interest in acquiring.

Many users do not want to break the singularity barriers, given that many forms of personal identity do not transfer well through ascensions, and remain 'merely' superbright. However, the option of transcending remains and someone with the SNARE package can jump from SI:0.8 to SI:2.99 in a few seconds if the needed processing resources are available. [Note: While the converted mass of an adult human's brain is enough for an ascension to SI:1, ascension to the higher levels requires additional computronium. The Siris Habitat's own Siris Pearl Modules are a popular option for this and those who use that option stockpile large numbers of SPMs before ascending.] Sometimes though the expert-system AI in the superbright SNARE user awakens, gets 'frustrated' at it's 'stupid' owner and (after breaking the command interlocks) executes it's primary mission, transcending the user and integrating itself with em. It is not exactly understood whether this is a bug or a feature since there are no known instances of an 'awakened' SNARE package ever 'overwriting' it's host.

By Tapio Erola

(Updated by the AI Vin)

sniffaglider

type of filiglider that carries biologic recording sensors and are used for tracking specific borgs and bionts.

Xaonon

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