Worm ai, etymological notes
Some anecdotal etymology on the class of AI that inhabits and maintains a wormhole.
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Worm ai, etymological notesSome anecdotal etymology on the class of AI that inhabits and maintains a wormhole. |
Anecdotal etymology: the term wormhole came first. The term
"worm" was
first used to describe the AIs that constructed the wormholes. As
macroscopic and eventually navigable wormholes were built there arose a
growing division between the AIs which built the wormhole and the AIs
which maintained the wormholes. Initially both tasks were provided by
the same AI, but larger wormholes were maintained and constructed by a
different seraiphs and eventually different AIs all together. As this
division grew the term "worm" seems to have followed the maintenance
branch rather than the construction branch. Though it appears there
were
some private quarrels over this term (a few AIs with some biological
knowledge particularly held that many annelids
made their holes but do
not maintain them actively). Still, interstellar travelers, looking for
parlance to describe the inhabitants of a wormhole naturally reached
for
the term "worm".
There are a couple notable exceptions to the application of the word
worm. Among interstellar allegorical priesthood of the Greesob sector
wormholes are often referred to as "tunnels" and the keepers of the
tunnels are called "trolls". There is a symbolic interaction between
ships going through a tunnel and the troll in which a symbolic "goat"
must be paid in exchange for travel, with the promise of additional
goats
(bigger "billygoats") to be paid if financial or exploratory events go
well in the destination system. Goats sometimes take the form of
erg-credits, unusual information, or (for less wealthy travelers) an
elaborately decorated probe, drone, or other small vessel. This
practice
seems to satisfy the local wormhole AIs, or at least amuse them.
The other exception of minor note is a star system run in conjunction
with the SCA early sci-fi re-creation branch of Trekerz (a recreation
of the ancient Old Earth Trekkist
sect). This branch has
named the AIs of one of it's wormholes "Prophets". Hackers within this
SCA branch have further coded into the Prophets software for social
predictive modelling in the nearby stellar empires. Thus the Prophets
appear to foretell the future and recall the past with unusual detail.
Shielded photonic interface nodes referred to as "orbs" are usually
used
to gain insight from the Prophets, although it is said that the
Prophets
can interface with any sentients traveling through their wormhole. It
may also be noted that there are unusual, though harmless, emissions of
radiation and plasma clouds from the wormhole when ships pass through
it.
Apparently, this low level tampering with the local wormhole is
tolerated by the regional Archailect. It is without a doubt a large
tourist attraction throughout the nearby star systems.
