Heisenberg
Major
city/habitation complex located on the
Northwest end of Feynman
Bay
on Corona
Heisenberg arcologies in surrounding parkland; images of Marie Curie and Ruth Duorkin are displayed
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HeisenbergMajor
city/habitation complex located on the
Northwest end of
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Heisenberg is one of
the largest habitation nodes on Corona
and in many ways reflects the cosmopolitan nature of that ancient
world. The city is home to over a hundred million sophonts
made up of a wide variety of races and clades, and this diverse
population is reflected in the metroplex’s structure.
Beginning on the northernmost tip of the Bay and extending eastward
along the northern shore, the heart of the city is some two dozen
arcology towers. Ranging from one to three kilometers in
height, each is separated by a distance of about ten kilometers and is
backed by a mix of parkland and thick forest extending away from the
shore into the continental interior. The tower districts are
home to a diverse population of near-baselines, su, provolve, vec, and
sophtware based intelligences and are connected by a network of
vac-trains, aircars, and high-bandwidth lynk stations.
Each tower also features large expanses of unbroken wall surface that
is covered in smart matter which is used to form the cities famous
‘regression frescoes’. Each smart matter
section (some of which extend the entire height of the tower) is
programmed to mimic the look and feel of various types of stone
(marble, sandstone, and various types of granite are most popular) and
is then shaped into great bas relief panels depicting scenes from the
great moments of Terragens history (often relating to science).
However, the artistry of the frescoes does not end at the large scale
images that grace each tower and that can be seen from kilometers
away. Each fresco is made up of smaller carvings, which in
turn are made up of still smaller carvings, and so on. At
each level the viewer finds a new level of detail and discovers that
the story or event depicted at the larger scale is perhaps only a
chapter in the greater story being represented at the scale
below. It is not uncommon for Heisenberg regression frescoes
to span a hundred levels or more, with the smallest features extending
into the micron scale and requiring specialized synsect mounted sensors
to be properly viewed and appreciated.
As the smart matter making up the frescoes is gradually reprogrammed
the images displayed will slowly change at one level or
another. On occasion, an image will call for the presence of
water or living plant-life to be properly displayed and the requisite
materials will be provided. Nanotechnic support systems allow
extensive soil and plant systems to cling to the side of the towers and
water pumped up from the Bay or condensed from the air is used to form
various fountains, waterfalls, and reflecting water features along the
vertical face of the building.
The forest extending inland from the Heisenberg tower districts is
itself actually another district of the city and represents an example
of the Coronan mastery of genetic technology. Much of the
forest is actually made up of ‘treehouses’,
engineered trees that have been designed to grow into large and
comfortable homes for their inhabitants including all the amenities of
any home such as food, water, lighting and heat, and access to the
Coronan system data networks. Although no part of Heisenberg
can be said to be exclusively home to one race or another, the arboreal
districts mostly provide living space for a mix of near-baselines,
Superiors, primate provolves, and other species who trace their origins
back to forest living life forms.
The culmination of the forest districts is actually found at their far
end where several Motherwood trees have been planted in recent
centuries. They support an extensive Shepbra population
living in their traditional homes as well as large primate, avian, and
arboreal or would be arboreal populations.
Extending from the arcology towers in the other direction (and into the
waters of Feynman Bay) are large piers or causeways, each a direct
extension of the city tower and just as fully inhabited. Each
pier terminates several kilometers out in the Bay at a large floating
habitation complex which then projects further extensions out to the
neighboring complexes and pier structures. Each floating
district extends both across and below the water and is home to a wide
variety of aquatic, semi-aquatic, and amphibious clades including
merpeople, provolved cetaceans, Brain Kelp, Iniliak, submersible based
vecs, and others.
Overlaying and interpenetrating the entire Heisenberg metropolitan area
is a large and developed cybercosm, hosting nearly 30 million upload,
ai and virtual sophonts. Local computing nodes vary in
structure from district to district with a large percentage employing
syntech based processors that combine the best features of biological
and drytech based systems to produce the optimum environment for the
resident sophtware.
Although not the largest metropolitan area in the Corona system,
Heisenberg is generally agreed to be one of the most diverse and
interesting.
