Colloquial term for a class of
First
Singularity and higher
devices designed to influence chaotic systems and in effect
“steer” them toward
a desired meta-stable state.
The origins of chaotic technology
itself date back to the
Information
Age, when researchers first developed the theory of chaotic
systems;
that is systems that while starting from deterministic initial
conditions are
so unstable as to be inherently unpredictable.
Shortly thereafter several researchers determined that
while a chaotic
system might be unpredictable it was not entirely uncontrollable. By introducing a sequence
of specific
impulses into a chaotic system, the system could be
‘steered’ toward some
desired state or set of states while retaining its overall chaotic
nature.
With
the advent of the first transingularity powers, chaos
steering devices suddenly changed from interesting laboratory
curiosities to a
mature technology of lasting importance to humanity. Transapient
devised software secretly manipulated
stock markets toward results that their builders desired (although too
many
such attempts by too many parties had the effect of cancelling out the
controlling influences of all concerned, returning the system to its
‘natural’
chaotic state), usually as part of some larger project of memetic
alteration. Later,
GAIA
constructed
chaotic devices were able to stabilize (although not directly
manipulate) the
climactic disruptions that human technology had wrought upon
Earth’s biosphere
before the Great Expulsion (it is believed that these devices are the
origin of
the term “chaos wand” since they were generally
wand-like in their overall
appearance, although several tens of meters tall, and were widely
deployed by
GAIA in the early stages of eir reconstruction of the pre-human
biosphere).
In
the modern era, chaotic technologies play a role in
terraforming and habitat climate control systems as well as being used
in
transapient fusion reactor, fluidics, and particle accelerator systems
(usually
with the effect of increasing efficiency or reducing operating
temperatures far
beyond what equivalent modosophont systems are capable of achieving). They are also rumored to
be in use in
software form in the various stock and commodities markets of the more
capitalistic polities (although officially such manipulation is highly
illegal,
with enforcement functions provided by local transapient law
enforcement
services). Finally,
on the largest
scale, chaotic technology plays a sometimes crucial role in stellar
modification and stabilization operations across the Civilized Galaxy.
Over
the millennia various modosophont researchers have
attempted to duplicate the “magical” abilities of
transapient chaotic
technology. The
results have
occasionally been promising but have more often ranged from minor to
catastrophic (often requiring the intervention of nearby transapients
to avoid total
disaster or to facilitate recovery) and in the current era many
polities have
actively banned all but the most mundane research in this area. Even those civilizations
which continue to
allow unfettered chaotic research require those involved to operate at
a great
remove (sometimes measured in light-years) from anything deemed
important or
even potentially at risk.
References:
Chaos Theory:
Chaos - Making a New Science, James Gleick, Viking, New York
(1987);
Steering Chaos:
"Controlling a Chaotic System", J. Singer, Y-Z Wang, and Haim
H.
Bau, Physical Review Letters 66, 1123 (1991);
"Taming Chaos with Weak Periodic Perturbations", Y. Braiman and I. Goldhirsch, Physical Review
Letters 66, 2545
(1991).
Harnessing the Butterfly –
The
Steering of Chaos: J. Cramer, The Alternate View #51, Analog
Science
Fiction/Science Fact (1991)
