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Um to Un

Umma of the Shell

Language group widely spoken in the Stellar Umma shell.

unconscious, the

That part of the psyche that is not conscious; the subliminal.

undae

On a terrestrial class planet, wind-blown dust, sand or pebble dunes

abbreviation: UN

Undyoism

Undyoism was a religion not about worship of other creatures but about reconnecting the Human mind and soul with the underlying unity of All. All is created by the ultimate cause, the infinite and undefinable Undyo. The Undyo is the source of every universe, every God, every soul and every being.

Among older religions, it was comparable to Taoism, but lacks the dualistic Yin/Yang ideas or the idea that the Tao divides into various metaforces (Hence Unity+Dao=Undyo). Unlike Taoists, Undyo believers do not accept the worship of any anthropomorphic gods or prophets, as they believe the idea of one creature bowing down to another - even one with supreme power - is morally wrong.

Also, Undyoists are not as concerned with applying their knowledge to Human health and longevity as the ancient Taoists were (likely due to contemporary technological advances). A fundamental belief is that Humans (and other sentient beings) can connect their minds with those of any other species, anywhere in the universe that has discovered the Truth of Undyo. Whether this actually occurs is an issue of great debate, for Undyoists manage to reveal new secrets or alter the history of the Human Rim just often enough to earn respect and fear from others (see Tahmetian crusades).

Undyoism was one of numerous new religions and cults that arose during the Later Federation period after the first evidence of extinct alien civilizations was discovered. The earliest Undyo believers congregated on the world of the Meditating Idols to join the supposed 'aliens' in their eternal meditation. Undyoism quickly gained a good reputation and attracted many influential converts. Outlasting most of the other religions, Undyoists recruited on different colonies, selecting sincere, calm members who would dedicate their lives to spiritual thought. Because of high moral standards, the Undyo faith never had more than a few million followers, even when it was not being violently persecuted (see militant Humanism; Tahmetianity). Over the centuries the faith never deviated from dignified pacifism; however Undyoists found other ways to protect themselves. The Tahmetian Crusades were undermined in part by Undyo secret societies, who revealed the interstellar conspiracy that created the Tahmetian "prophets".

Aaron Hamilton

Ungulate

General term for terragen hoofed, herbivorous, placental mammals. The hoof is made of the protein keratin. Representative baseline ungulates include horses, sheep, pigs, deer, camels, bovids, and many other species. Many ungulate species have been provolved, others have been raised to presophonce, or geneered or adapted in various ways.

Unic

Universal Language System, developed by the Objectivist Commonwealth

Among the most popular and widely spoken of the AI languages, Unic was developed by Objectivist ai some time during the first federation period, and still lingua franca throughout much of the Commonwealth. The language, which in its pure form is almost unintelligible to SI:<1 bionts, and even to many ai and vec clades, uses a grammar and syntax precise mathematico-logical axioms. In the thousands of years since its development it has spread widely through many of the metaempires, especially the Diamond Nexus, parts of the Panvirtuality, and some of the Sephirotic AIs, evolving and mutating into an entire language family that rival Anglish in diversity

among the various languages in the Unic family:

Old Unic : original language, still spoken in a few solipsist ai polities, and by "Old Style" traditionalists in the ObjComm (Objectivist Commonwealth) New Unic, or just "Unic" - current version of Unic that is the official language of the Objectivist Commonwealth High Unic : a very subtle and elaborate ai tongue that can only be understood by Minds of 2>SI:>4 Low Unic: a dumbed down version popular with many ordinary sapient (SI:<1) ai, vecs, and cyborgs Flowery Unic : developed by the trickster solipsists of Lokai-45 - replaces the precise Objectivist axioms with verbose and even comical expressions, while still remaining a valid language Anglounic : hybrid/pidgin tongue that can be easily used by many bionts Sovic : Low Unic-Anglounic-based and modified language that is widely spoken by all clades in Megasov Dyson NoCoUnic : economic businessbeing language, widely spoken by transapient corporate ai in the NoCoZo and elsewhere

Union

large habitat in Welsh Geostationary orbit, is home to the Heliostevens clade, are the result of a successful hybridization between three Stevensian Yvonnes and four Welshian SunMiners, who claim they have "United the two mighty Houses in a higher synthesis that retains the Purity of Each".

Union of Virtual Aipolities

Panvirt member metapolity, consisting of a close association of a number of middle and high toposophic member polities, which exchange data, alifes, civilizations, and cybercosm templates

M. Alan Kazlev

Unity

Unity began on the Tau Ceti colony of Nova Terra under Atell during the Sol System dark ages. Originally a militant sect, it grew into a whole way of life, an indigenous transhuman development. The basic tenet of Unity was the need for community: all humans belong together, and should learn to overcome the barriers that separate. Lies, neurotic hang-ups on status and ego, fear of closeness and the straight jacket of social taboos hinder humans from becoming close, and hence hinder their growth. Through a supporting environment and the mind interfacing technology Unity used it is possible to overcome or circumvent these problems, giving the individual a chance to truly becoming one with others. By culturing mental discipline humans could not just become closer, but also become something greater. The ultimate goal of Unity was to spread community across humanity, setting up local unities that merge together to form greater unities until eventually, in some indeterminate future, the whole of mindkind becomes an "Omega Society".

At the same time, Unity was pragmatic and also developed other sides of human activity. Until the arrival of the Federation, Unity engineering led the colony in advanced mental interfacing and orbital habitat construction, and the movement took a great interest in economics and politics. The leaders understood that other humans - especially baselines, might fear it, and hence carefully presented a friendly low-key profile. Unity members often left pointers behind to various net-presentations of what Unity is, what it believes in and how it works. Especially popular was the Grand Collaboration, a kind of collective philosophical quote collection expressing the views of all the unities and how they work together.

The arrival of Federation culture, and the more sophisticated hyperturing-based transhumanist and omegist memeticities and technologies it brought with it, was fatal for Unity. Unable to compete, the locals held on only in a few habitats as part of a Novan patriotic milieu. Others joined hyperturing or omegist colonies, and a few migrated outwards. Only their software, the so-called Unityware, proved quite appealing to Federation baseline humans. By the late emergence period, Unity existed only in history interactives.

modified from Anders Sandberg's BIGV

Unityware

Software to enable the formation of group intellects. Named for the Nova Terra clade Unity, the first marketers of unityware.

Anders Sandberg

Universal Computer

An idealized hypothetical computer that is capable of universal computation, which means that it is capable of computing anything that can in principle be computed. Given a description of any other computer or program and some data, it can perfectly emulate this second computer or program.

Universal constructor

A (hypothetical) machine (such as an ideal nanofab or SCM) capable of constructing anything that can be constructed. The physical analog of a universal computer

Â© Transhuman Terminology

Universal Freedom Gnostics (UFGs)

A break away cult descended from classical Gnosticism. They believe the material universe is flawed and evil, the creation of a petty or evil god. Conscious beings are trapped souls from the spiritual realm, mired in this physical form. There is also a belief in reincarnation. These beliefs are fairly common in the myriad forms of conventional Gnosticism. However, the dramatic deviation of Universal Freedom Gnosticism is in the method of escaping from the material universe. Whereas most Gnostics believe that spiritual enlightenment can lead to freedom, the UFGs believe that as long as the material universe is capable of producing conscious entities, the cycle of rebirth cannot be broken. Therefore, they seek nothing less than the permanent eradication of all sentience from the universe for all time.

There are apparently several schools of thought within UFG as to how to accomplish this goal. Some seek the destruction of all civilizations. Others seek to maximize the entropy of the universe to usher in heat death. Some even seek the utter destruction of all mass/energy, though this last would seem to violate the physical laws of the universe as currently understood.

Some UFGs claim that their faith has been revealed before, and that some or all of the phenomena attributed to the Dawn Hunters are actually the work of ancient xenosophont practitioners of UFG.

What makes UFGs hard to spot is the simple fact that they do not appear to be monsters, but rather well intentioned sophonts whose beliefs have led to monstrous acts. In their personal lives, they appear kind and considerate, and are ideal neighbours. However, the biont members of the group eschew all sexual relations, and all members avoid any form of reproduction or creation of sentient life. They are rather blasé about backups. They do not practice suicide, except to avoid interrogation, since this is no escape to them, but they often do create backups as a blind so no one will suspect them of UFG affiliation. The cult maintains itself by kidnapping new sophonts of all kinds (from bionts to vecs to AIs) and raising them as their own and indoctrinating them into the cult. The parents or equivalent progenitors of these young sophonts are sometimes "euthanized" in the process to hide the abduction. Though they are willing to kill countless sophonts in the pursuit of their objectives, UFGs are not malicious by their own standards, and they tend towards methods of destruction that minimize pain and suffering.

There have been several disasters in Terragen history that are thought by some to be the result of UFG activities, but few where actual proof exists. One currently popular conspiracy theory is that Verifex was actually UFG, and the Verifex explosion is part of the UFG master plan for the destruction of all life. Some say darkly that the appellation "Lucifer is" well deserved. Interestingly, some schools of Gnostic thought do honour Lucifer as the light-bringer, who revealed to sophonts their true nature and that the "God" of Eden had trapped them. Adding some credence to this rumour are a few failures of Emple-Dokcetic shields that have been tentatively linked by credible investigators to UFG sabotage.

This is one of the few groups outlawed by every civilization known to Terragen society. The Stellar Umma has decreed a fatwah of death for all UFGs, and the Negentropy Alliance has a standing shoot to kill order. The reception a revealed UFG can expect to receive in the other Terragen civilizations is little better. Even the Diamond Network recognizes this cult as an abomination, though it is rumoured that some elements among the "ahuman" and "antihuman" AIs have in the past have given aid to UFGs operating in civilized space.

Glen Finney

Universal Immortalism

The belief that death can be overcome completely, even for people already dead (including bringing back those "dead" who were not placed into biostasis) through a rational, scientific approach.

Although popular with some religions and eschatologists, and even a few cliologists, it is not a widely held memeticity.

modified from R. Michael Perry in Transhuman Terminology

Universal Mind

The meme of an underlying Consciousness inherent in all things and distributed throughout the Universe, a central assumption of many religions and philosophies.

In the Church of Saint Teilhard the Within of things, as opposed to matter and energy which is the Without. In Cosmopaganism the Mind or Soul of the Universe. In Sophism the underlying Reality of all things and beings. In the Jungian family of religions, the Collective Unconscious of all sentient beings.

Unlike the theistic or monotheistic meme of God, the Universal Mind is not considered a personality or a being that a sentient being can relate to; rather it is the foundation of consciousness that defines that sentient's awareness. Metaphors like the drop and the ocean, or the atom and the interstellar medium, are sometimes used to describe the relation between individual being and Universal Mind, the nature of the metaphor differing from clade to clade

The Universal Mind is also often said - especially by Jungian, neohermetic, and cybertantric, memeticities, to consist of, or contain, structures, usually termed archetypes. These structures serve as attractors and embody themselves in various situations and phenomena across space and time. The Archailects are said to be the expression or manifestation of these archetypes in terragen space

In the popular evolutionary interpretation (which is only one among many interpretations), consciousness emerges out of the ocean of universal mind with the evolution of complex structures like alifes and biological organisms; as these increase in complexity and development so does their share of The Universal Mind is said to express itself, through the level of sophoncy as beyond. Finally their results the vast embodiment of consciousness that are the archailects, each a distinct archetype, as well as transcendence, more transcendence, and ultimately return to that same Mind, but in a more Conscious way. Obviously there are problems with this explanation, not least of which being how can the returning consciousness be more conscious, and if not what is the point of the whole thing anyway? Another popular explanation, central to many Omegist faiths and also not without problems, has consciousness not returning to non-manifestation, but actualizing the Universal Mind in the unity in multiplicity that is the Omega Point.

M. Alan Kazlev

Universal Religion

Memeticity that asserts that since all is God, and there is only one God/Godhead/Reality, all religions and all spiritual teachings are simply different paths to that one supreme reality, none being more or less valid than any other.

Universal Rescue

Originally formed as a disaster response team formed within the Utopia Sphere, over the last 3500 years UR has become the most widely supported charitable organization within Terragens space. With a staff ranging from rianths and nearbaseline humans and believed to be headed by an S3 Posthuman, UR have recruited crisis management and disaster relief teams from every empire and polity without prejudice, provided that they have a desire to help their fellow sapients.

UR's reputation for competence and neutrality means that they have been welcomed with open arms just about everywhere helping sapients recover from disasters such as war, perversion and angelnet collapse. Their humanity coupled with extensive marketing from the Utopia Sphere has ensured that UR are perceived as heroes, and millions volunteer for a twenty year tour in every recruitment drive.

Ben Higginbottom

Universal Church, Universalism

Major religion, late information age to recent.

A development of ecumenical Catholicism, the Universal Church caused a dramatic schism in that faith, as well as acquiring converts from other religions. According to the catechism of the Inner Bull, its essentials can be reduced to three commandments:

Each person must find the God within emself, but this cannot be done in modern society. Therefore each person must for a period of time withdraw himself to find his God.
As God is not apart from man but within him, a confession before God is useless unless it is to other men. Therefore if one commits a sin one must confess it not in private but in public.
God is within man, not without. To try and make moral, scientific and political judgements based on the will of God is dangerous and impious. Therefore, one must refrain from it at all times.

Because of the strong theistic element missing in many of the other archailectogenic religions, the Universal Church and the Universal Faith proved enormously popular, especially among baselines and nearbaselines, splices, and some provolves. However it also faced a number of crises including schisms, being undermined buy other religions (Solarism being the most insidious, since like Universalism it is based on tolerant and non-dualistic theistic principles), competition from other sects, and cliological and historical proof that the religion is based on false principles (this same crisis was later to befall the other great religions of Old Earth and later times when hyperturing and cliological simulations proved to a level of 99.6 to 99.998% accuracy that the lives, actions, and teachings of the founders were not identical to the deeds and teachings as recorded in their scriptures). Even so, the Universal Church has managed to survive and flourish up to the present day, thanks in part to the skillful actions of its guardian hyperturing, Gabriel, and in part to its scrupulous reputation for honesty and integrity

Michael Beck and M. Alan Kazlev

Universalist, Universalism, Perennialist, Perennialism

clade or phyle of sapients that assert that there is a universal truth, a Perennial or Universal Philosophy, that lies as a common thread through all mystical teachings, regardless of origin or toposophy. While Perennialism dates back to Old Earth Sufism, in its current form it derives from the school of Kagyal of Porphyry (Sophic League). No relation to the Universalist Church

M. Alan Kazlev

Universe, Universes

A self-contained cosmos or a part of a cosmos.

During the expansion age, hyperturing experiments in transdimensional wormholes and basement universes conclusively proved the existence of other space-time universes, each with their own laws and boundaries. Most were short-lived (yochtoseconds or less), or restricted in size or dimensions. Very few were habitable by terragen ai, even fewer by carbon-based life forms. Nevertheless, manufacture of universes is a popular pastime among some powers and archailects. There are believed to be countless universes equal or greater than our own in size or complexity, but these are very hard to contact. A lot of rumour and conspiracy theory revolves around memes that the archai have already established contact with these universes and are keeping it to themselves, are going to exile all SI:<1 there, are going to invite the inhabitants of that universe into ours, our endangering all the universes with their experiments (although ai space-time engineering has already safely been going on for millennia, and basement universes form an essential and standard part of every archai's operating system), and so on and so on

M. Alan Kazlev

University City

Unscanned Market

a semi-mythological portion of the NoCoZo economy dealing with unregistered ("unscanned") products. These products are either incredibly cheap, or not normally available due to sophont rights or other moral or societal restrictions. The best confirmed independent estimates of the Unscanned Market indicate that it is at best a small fraction of a percent of the GCP of the NoCoZo, even if various demagogues inflate the estimate by some factor.

John B

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