Alphabetic List: c
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Caretaker GodsChemistryChildrearing
Classic ShipsClassical StudiesClothing
CommunicationsCommunion of WorldsComputronics
ConstructionContests and CompetitionsCthonids
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Cybercosm, TheCyberian NetworkCyborgs
 
Articles
  • C-Boundary - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The set of points which are not the pasts of any points or the future of any point in spacetime (essentially the "edges" of spacetime).
  • Cableville  - Text by Liam Jones
    Vast Topopolis (Macaroni world) affiliated with the MPA.
  • CADRS Planetary Classification System, The  - Text by Radtech497
    Comprehensive planetary classification system.
  • Calebs (Talking Dogs)  - Text by Mike Parisi
    It was perhaps inevitable that the first species domesticated by humans would also be the subject of some of the earliest attempts to increase intelligence in a non-human species.
  • Calendars and Timekeeping  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Accurate synchronisation of clocks in a universe dominated by Special Relativity is quite literally impossible, though there are many local conventional frameworks established for the sake of convenience. Some of these conventions are quite widespread.
  • California  - Text by ProxCenBound
    Pre-Expulsion Earth polity, with a history of welcoming the then-radical technologies and types of sophonts being developed at the time.
  • Callisto  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Major moon of Jupiter (Sol V), home to the Game Master and the Diamond's Arm cybercosm.
  • Calyx  - Text by Steve Bowers, with suggestions by Michael Zimmet
    World with a culture of song and flight
  • Camiroi - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Minor Negentropist system, host to the Borupist Government in Exile who claim to be the rulers of Morpheo A + B and indeed the entire Paradigm volume, and are viewed as harmless and irrelevant eccentrics by the locals.
  • Campbell Station  - Text by Sean R
    Solsys Era space habitat
  • Campian Subtype  - Text by John M. Dollan
    Gaian worlds with less than 50% ocean cover
  • Canada  - Text by ProxCenBound
    The northern portion of the continent of North America on Old Earth. Location of various polities in the pre-Expulsion period.
  • Canaveral - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Major American launch facility during the Atomic, Information, and early Interplanetary period. Became a space museum and historical complex by the late Interplanetary Age. Following the Great Expulsion was retained as a pilgrimage site, one of some five dozen such sites that are allowed visits by tourists.
  • Canberra Orbital  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Communion of Worlds megastructure used for training empath arbitrators.
  • Caneshe Habitat  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Habitat in Solsys mostly inhabited by Provolved Dogs.
  • Canopy - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The leaves and upper branches of rainforest trees, forming an upper "story", which in baseline Cenozoic terragen rainforests are usually around 20 to 40 meters up. This leafy environment is full of life in a tropical rainforest and includes insects, birds, reptiles, mammals, and other forms of life. Some eco-clades have adapted an entire culture, technology, and society to life in orbital canopy environments. There are also equivalent tweak, exotic chemistry, and virtual/alife "canopies" which serve the same ecological purpose, although they may differ markedly in structure and detail.
  • Canopy Plant  - Text by Terrafamilia
    Canopy Plants are neogen plants used in terraforming, paraterraforming, or habitat creation.
  • Capacitors  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    A capacitor or condenser is a passive electronic component consisting of a pair of conductors separated by a dielectric (non-conductor). Advanced designs allow capacitors to act as potent energy storage devices.
  • Capella (Alpha Aurigae)  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Multiple star system containing in total 9 stars in the constellation Auriga, about 43 light years from Sol. The two brightest stars in Capella are a binary star system. Long populated by a variety of exotic clades and hyperturings, Capella became the capital of an important regional polity in the wake of the ComEmp break-up.
  • Capellan Federation  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    One of a number of small empires to develop following the break-up of the ComEmp, the Capellan Federation has been luckier than most, continuing to the present time.
  • Caph (Beta Cassiopeiae)  - Text by The Astronomer, Todd Drashner, Dangerous Safety (2020)
    The Children of Caph developed an artificially rapid population growth, and were preparing to expand into the neighboring systems, but were wiped out by an environmental disaster.
  • Capital Ship - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A term used by the Terragen Federation, the Laughter Hegemony states, and a number of other polities to refer to an interstellar warship of the first rank in size and armament. Examples include the System Control Ship, the Dreadnought and Superdreadnought, and finally the Pocketstar and the Battlestars (although some would define these latter as ISOs rather than ships).
  • Carapace Armor  - Text by Todd Drashner and 'Total Annihilation'
    Middle Information Age to early Interplanetary Age light combat armor consisting of layers of synthetic chitin and diamondoid plating over an underlayer of kevlar and arachnoweave.
  • Carbon  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Non-metallic element with symbol C.
  • Carbon Nanotube  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Elongated fullerene carbon molecule in a tubular configuration. Nanotubes are cylinders arranged from a single layer of carbon atoms. They are are 10 times stronger than, and have a fraction of the weight of, steel.
  • Carbon Stars  - Text by Chris Clowes and M. Alan Kazlev
    Red stars rich in carbon.
  • Carbon Worlds  - Text by John M. Dollan and Steve Bowers
    Carbon-rich Terrestrial worlds.
  • Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen (CNO) Cycle - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Series of nuclear reactions that uses Carbon-12 as a catalyst, an ingredient which is necessary for the reaction but is not consumed. In stars more massive than Sol (>1.3 Solar masses), this cycle is the primary process that converts hydrogen into helium.
  • Caretaker Protectorate  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A world or region of space under the protection of a Caretaker God.
  • Caretaker Seed  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Caretaker God ISOs are known to replicate quasi-neumann fashion using seed-like devices.
  • Cargo Gel  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Utility fog based device used for transporting cargo in a wide range of environments from planetary surfaces to interstellar spac
  • Cargo Ships  - Text by Steve Bowers and Damon Court
    Freighter spacecraft.
  • Carina Cycler Union  - Text by Liam Jones
    A development/exploration based beamrider polity in the Carina Rush, commonly described as a combination of the Deeper Covenant and Cygexpa.
  • Carina Rush  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Vast new volume opened up by an alien wormhole, in the direction of Eta Carinae.
  • Carina-Vela Outer Volumes - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Large region of space in the outer volumes, not affiliated with any of the main empires. The Andian Mission today remains a highly regarded support organization here.
  • Carl Sagan  - Text by Mark Ryherd
    Old Earth late Industrial Age scientist
  • Carnivorettes  - Text by Tony Jones
    A virch clade descended from net spying software who inhabit data and grammar spaces, perceiving desired search items and the links between them.
  • Carnivorous Rianths  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Genetically modified humans who have incorporated genes from carnivorous animals into their genome.
  • Carnot Engine  - Text by Eric Lo
    Popular myth of an impossible device. The Carnot engine is a hypothetical perfect piston engine that recycles the heat within its combustion chamber to repeat the same adiabatic combustion process and thus the Carnot engine never needs to refuel or expel waste. This equation was made by the Napoleonic era (Old Earth) French physicist Sadi Carnot who realized this engine worked only mathematically but not in reality because it violated the Law of Entropy (entropy increases in a closed system).
  • Carpetbeast  - Text by John B and Stephen Inniss
    Typically an animal-derived neogen or splice designed to thrive as a living carpet or rug, usually for use by human nearbaselines or similar bionts. Some varieties, in addition to being soft and warm, and of a pleasant colour and texture, produce pleasant scents and sounds such as a musky scent and a purr. Most are self-cleaning, sometimes with the assistance of mite to insect sized neogens. These creatures are usually sessile but some variants are capable of slow movement and a few are capable of shaping themselves into items of furniture.
  • Cartographer  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    One who creates, studies or interprets maps.
  • Cartography  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, modified from the original write-up by Robert J. Hall
    The making and reading of maps.
  • Cascadia  - Text by ProxCenBound
    Pre-Expulsion Earth polity, which followed a philosophy of adhering to nature, and therefore rejected sentient AI, gengineering, nanotech, and space colonization.
  • Casimir effect, casimir field  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    A small attractive force which acts between two close parallel uncharged conducting plates. It is due to quantum vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field which creates a lower energy density of the vacuum between the plates than outside them.
  • Cassiopeia Federation Anomie  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    During the late ComEmp period a complex mesh of social, economic and technological factors caused the Cassiopeia Federation, a client state within the NeoCygexpa Regnum, to experience a social collapse into depression, anomie and chaos.
  • Cat, Domestic  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Terragen quadruped mammalian carnivore (family Felidae), domesticated by humans since the time of the ancient Egyptians. A popular pet and companion animal from the industrial age onwards, cats accompanied man into space from the information age onwards. They were also, along with dogs, apes, and dolphins, among the first animals to be augmented, provolved, rianthophiled, and in other ways incorporated into Terragen civilization not just as subsapients but as sophonts.
  • Catena - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A chain of craters on the surface of a moon or planet.
  • Catholic Church  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Also known as the Roman Catholic Church. A major Old Earth division of Christianity.
  • Causal Fortress  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Use of wormhole temporal technology to give advanced information about events occurring in the vicinity of a particular location.
  • Caving Drone  - Text by Tom Mazanec
    Remote Cave Exploration Technology
  • Cavus - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Hollows, irregular steep-sided depressions, usually in arrays or clusters, on the surface of a moon or planet.
  • Cavy Australis - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    System where the Institute of Ruffa Geometry attacked the Network of Temp-logic with antimatter weaponry 7365.
  • Celerin Volume  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Small but fiercely independent Perseus Rift volume dominated by the Celerin tweak-cyborg clade.
  • Celesociology - Text by Jay Dugger
    Studies societies within an accelerated virch realm.
  • Celesynecology - Text by Jay Dugger
    Studies ecological structure, development, and distribution of communities within an accelerated virch realm.
  • Cellular Artist - Text by Keith Halperin
    One who creates artworks from living cells.
  • Cellular Automaton  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A vir dynamic system that is composed of an array of cells.
  • Cellulase  - Text by Tony Jones
    The enzyme that breaks down cellulose, one of the most common carbohydrates on planet Earth. No naturally-evolved Earth mammal can digest cellulose, though some (such as cows and other ruminants) have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria which can.
  • Cellulose Bane and the Tapestry of Mold  - Text by TSSL, Banelord, Salty, Martine, Worldtree, & Schwefel Kamm
    8th millennium blight originating from xenoprovolves descended from the garden world Macrystis.
  • CELSS Closed Ecological Life Support System  - Text by Steve Bowers
    A self-perpetuating, regenerative environment that can support and maintain life inside a closed system.
  • Cenote  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Postgaian world with a carbon-rich crust, extensive limestone karst landscapes and cave systems.
  • Censorship - Text by Glenn Grant
    Any attempt to hinder the spread of a meme by eliminating its vectors. Hence, censorship is analogous to attempts to halt diseases by spraying insecticides. Censorship can never fully kill off an offensive meme, and may actually help to promote the meme's most virulent strain, while killing off milder forms.
  • Centauri Vehicle  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A Federation period Buddhist school.
  • Centaurian Type Asteroid  - Text by John M. Dollan
    Object found in the outer part of a planetary system, generally between 5 and 30 AU
  • Central Alliance  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Alliance of Sephirotic, Panvirt, Diamond, and Objectivist empires originally formed in response to the Hyperutilization Supremacy (see "Meeting at Googlehertz").
  • Centurion Chili Cookoff  - Text by John B
    A prestigious competition between culinary institutes at New Daffy to produce 'the best chili available'.
  • Cephalopod  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The Cephalopoda, a class of intelligent predatory mollusks with eight or more tentacles and a large well-developed head. All surviving species and several extinct ones have been successful provolved, some several times in parallel by different patrons.
  • Cephalotopia  - Text by James Rogers
    Utopia Sphere world of which features both provolved, baseline, and lazurogened cephalopods of all kinds, including some 214,000 species of authentic and quasi-authentic Triassic goniatites.
  • Cepheid Variable  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Chris Clowes
    A giant star that regularly pulsates in size and changes in brightness. As the star increases in size, its brightness decreases; then, the reverse occurs.
  • Ceramic Engineering  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, based on the original by Robert J. Hall
    The science and technology of the processing of ceramic materials.
  • Cerberus, FDF Carrier  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Flagship of the Federation Defense Force Fleet during the later First Federation period.
  • Cerean Type Rock dwarf  - Text by John M. Dollan's Planet Classification List
    Small rocky planetoid; represents one of the most common types of body in many solar systems.
  • Cerebral Siren  - Text by John B
    This device samples some 10,000 well-distributed neurons throughout the player's brainpan. It responds with a specific tone and texture when each neuron fires, producing a pseudo-rhythmic tonal surf effect. With significant biofeedback training and lucky placement of the neural sensors, a being can control anywhere from approximately 20% to the record 72.94% of the various textural tonal effects. This soundscape is usually quite calming and peaceful, unless there are unlucky placement of the filaments.
  • Ceremonial Magick  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A form of Occultism or Hermeticism that is often based on the premise that certain correspondences unite or interlink all things, and that by application of this principle through ritual or ceremonial means, one can attain certain states of consciousness or manifest events. Often required is a search for or acquisition of specialist knowledge needed to perform occult or magical practices. There is generally a provisional, heuristic, or actual belief in non-physical beings such as spirits or deities, who can be contacted by those who possess the appropriate ritual knowledge.
  • Ceres  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Dwarf Planet in the Old Solar System.
  • Ceres - The Early Years  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Early colonisation and development of Ceres.
  • Ceres Astrospace  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    First Federation ship design and building megacorp.
  • Ceres Astrospace Delta  - Text by Grant Thomas
    Long-range exoatmospheric fighter used for planetary and orbital defense. Designed and built by Ceres Astrospace and later manufactured under license.
  • Ceres Mater  - Text by Mark Ryherd
    An early Keterist colony populated by the nanocyborg Clade Columbia-Bartlebel emigrating from Ceres.
  • Cetacea  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Clade of highly intelligent marine Terragen mammals from Old Earth that includes dolphins, and porpoises and baleen whales.
  • Ch'i  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The vital principle, or life-force that flows through living bodies and links them to their surroundings. A central concept in Penglaese, Chin, Genetekkerese, Genen, and Zoeific Biopolity memeticities and bioaugmentation and self-development techniques.
  • Chahipho Collection  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Major art collection in the Vast Endeavour system gathered by the AI godlet Chahipho in the Era of Fragmentation.
  • Chaihua (LTT 1445)  - Text by Aaron Hamilton, updated by The Astronomer 2021
    Inner Sphere system; former member of the Eridanus league.
  • Chakra (esotericism)  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    According to Old Earth Hindu tantric/yogic belief systems, and many belief systems derived from or inspired by them, points of nonphysical energy in the mystic or 'subtle' body.
  • Chalawan (47 Ursae Majoris)  - Text by Anders Sandberg, additions by Steve Bowers 2015
    47 Ursae Majoris. Solar Dominion Inner Sphere system, center of heterodox Stevens clade.
  • Challenge, The  - Text by Chris Shaeffer
    A 5-day annual modosophont biont adventure stage race in the Evermore habitat complex.
  • Chameleon - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    YTS-43522-438793494-0004. Resource-poor red dwarf located in upper spinwards STC. The star lacks planets and is named after a famous and peculiar artifact that orbits it, The Chameleon.
  • Chameleon Suit  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev; minor additions by Stephen Inniss
    Full-body stealth suit covered in specialized interlinked mesobots and nanobots that form an Optical Phased Array. The background on one side of the suit is detected via cambanks and this is then projected on the other side, enabling the wearer to be invisible. Some models also have built-in laser capacity. Not as sophisticated or impervious to detection as a janusuit, and easily detected by most perimeter security tech (motion analysis, nano cloud, sonics, interferometry, etc). It is still used in some kinds of games and sports, or on occasion for casual anonymity where security devices have not been deployed. It is till popular among some feral and barbarian groups.
  • Chameleon Technology  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Photonanotech transceivers utilising Optical Phased Array technology to allow invisibility and other optical effects. Specialised interlinked mesobots and nanobots enable both reception and transmission of photons. As well as being widely used in stealthware it is also a potent laser, although this also depends on energy storage and capacity
  • Chameleon, The  - Text by Charles Mosteller
    Massive polyhedron structure of unknown Terragen origin possessing of self-malleable properties, altering its own shape precisely every minute on the minute.
  • Chandrasekhar Limit - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A mass of about 1.4 Sol, the maximum for white dwarfs. A white dwarf of greater mass has too great a central pressure and cannot support itself, causing collapse into a denser object like a neutron star or black hole.
  • Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Old Earth Indian-American astrophysicist, 59 BT - 26 AT (1910 -1995 c.e.), who studied stellar physics, evolution, and black holes. He realized that the fate of dying stars depended upon their mass, and above a certain point (1.4 times Sol mass, known as the "Chandrasekhar limit"), a star will undergo extreme collapse and not simply becomes a white dwarf. There are a number of asteroids, habitats, ships, one black hole, and several black hole observatories named in his honor.
  • Changelings  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Cyborg variant with a biological body and an artificial brain
  • Channeling, Mediumistic  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A method by which receptive individuals claim to be able to tap into what they and others around them claim to be a higher spiritual being or beings which can then communicate ("channel") through them, giving moral and metaphysical teachings
  • Chaos and Chaos Theory - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Irregular motion of a dynamic system that is impossible to predict in the long term. A defining quality of most complex (whether living or non-living) systems.

    Chaos theory is the branch of mathematics, simulation, and applied cosmology that deals with chaos.
  • Chaos Wand  - Text by Todd Drashner
    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.
  • Chaos, The  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Myth of impending collapse in the Terragen Sphere.
  • Chara (Beta Canum Venaticorum)  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Beta Canum Venaticorum III, target of a slow Generation Ship mission
  • Charactersimm, Characterbot, Charactervec  - Text by Steve Bowers
    A a semi-sentient entity programmed with elements of the personality of a celebrity, a fictional character or any other person.
  • Charismacracy  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Rule by 'animal magnetism', sometimes reinforced with erotic presence and/or empath abilities.
  • Charlwood  - Text by ProxCenBound
    A cyborg culture from the Trumpler 2 cluster.
  • Chasma - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A deep, elongated, steep-sided depression on the surface of a moon or planet.
  • Cheever, Dr. Marion  - Text by Charles Mosteller and Todd Drashner
    Renowned Terragen scientist (early Interplanetary period) responsible for a major breakthrough in the field of gravitational theory. Along with predicting a number of effects which were later experimentally verified, Dr. Cheever's theory also led to the discovery of the 'Cheever Effect', a minuscule discrepancy in the relation between inertial and gravitational mass at the quantum level. At the time of its discovery, the Cheever Effect was thought to be of no practical importance, much like the 'ftl' effects seen in radio waveguides and other devices. It was not until centuries later, with the invention of the first reactionless drive, that an examination of Dr. Cheever's work was referenced as having provided the inspiration that led to the research that culminated in the invention of the drive.
  • Chef  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    One who prepares foodstuffs for other sophont beings (usually bionts but in some cases vecs).
  • Chemical Engineering - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, based on the original by Robert J. Hall
    The macro-, micro-, meso- or nano-scale chemical conversion of raw materials into such end products as bioplastoids, synthetic petroleum products, dumb (macroscale) detergents, plastics, natural and synthetic fuels, pharmaceuticals, fullerenes, hardcopy paper, and industrial chemicals. While most products can be easily synthesized with any household nanofab, chemical engineering is still important in the mass-production of large quantities of material in large chemical plants.
  • Chemical Plant  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Complex for the industrial output of chemical elements.
  • Chemical Rockets  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, Richard Baker, David Dye, Mauk Mcamuk and Chris Shaeffer
    Rockets that use chemical energy.
  • Chemicanalyzer  - Text by Tom Mazanec
    Handheld chemical analysis tool.
  • Chemosynthesis - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Primary production of organic matter using various substances and chemical reactions instead of light as an energy source; a common phenomenon throughout the galaxy, but rare in terragen ecologies.
  • Chesed (Archailect)  - Text by Anders Sandberg and M. Alan Kazlev
    Sixth toposophic God of the Utopia Sphere.
  • Chi Bootis  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Home of the Free Eschatology and Cosmology Institute. Commonly known as Chibootis or Kybutes.
  • Chi1 Orionis  - Text by Updated by The Astronomer 2021
    28ly from Sol; Home to the Organic Ascension Alliance, a bionanotech/godtech habitat-based civilisation.
  • Children of GAIA  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev; amended and expanded by Stephen Inniss
    The Children of GAIA are a culture of highly diverse ordinary sophonts, most of whom are rianth or human in morphotype, who serve the Archailect of Old Earth, GAIA.
  • Chile  - Text by Kirran Lochhead Strang
    Former nation-state in South America, Old Earth.
  • Chillers  - Text by John B
    Chillers are a family of technologies used to reduce ship temperature (and, hence, IR radiation) to the background level.
  • Chimpanzee  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    Chimpanzees are a species of ape originally indigenous to Africa, Old Earth, where they lived in equatorial rainforests. Closely related to humans, and to bonobos.
  • China  - Text by Kirran Lochhead Strang
    A major Old Earth civilization for some five thousand years, China eventually became the most populated country on the planet, with the largest ethnicity and two widespread spoken languages - Mandarin (the language of the dynastic rulers from the north of the country) and Cantonese (the language of the ethnic Han majority). Many human inhabitants of the Terragen Sphere claim Chinese ancestry.
  • Chinglish - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    First Federation era hybrid language derived from Anglic, Mandarin and Cantonese, and spoken by ethnic chins. Today it is only found in House Chin, where it is used for formal occasions, among a few ethnolazurogenic clades, or as a novelty language (like Latin, Esperanto, Vzzman, and other dead languages).
  • Chins, Chinis  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, after original concept by Kevin Self
    Originally slang terms used to identify a group of Humans claiming relatively pure ancestry of Mongoloid, specifically Earth Chinese, origin. During the Federation period the term came to refer to non-Penglaiese
  • Chionics  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Art and parascience of working with ch'i energy.
  • Chlorine Worlds  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    Chlorine worlds are like typical Eugaian worlds, with one important difference: the planet has an unusually high proportion of chlorine, and the process of photosynthesis releases free chlorine in significant quantities.
  • Chloris (Beta Comae Berenices)  - Text by Steve Bowers, Dangerous Safety, The Astronomer (2020)
    System containing Arcadia
  • Chonga - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Newly rich outer sphere system, important regional center, linked to main wormhole nexus. Popular with a number of clades, including young House Stevens radicals disillusioned with "House Ridgewell".
  • Chorbo Landali  - Text by James Rogers
    (7901 a.t - 7965 a.t) Baseline opera composer of unusual talent from Jalfagia.
  • Chorus  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    Homeworld of the xenosophont provolves the Jade Chime Singers.
  • Chorus - Xenobiology  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    Of the known Chlorine Worlds, Chorus has one of the richest and most diverse biospheres.
  • Christianity  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Old Earth religion based on belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ.
  • Christopher Columbus, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Sentient ship who saved 54 children from the breakup of Hagemas Orbital during the Technocalypse and then brought them to safety in the Belt, possibly an inspiration for Order of St. Christopher.
  • Chromatoclothes  - Text by Mike Parisi
    "Smart" clothing that mimics the chromatophore firing patterns of certain species (most notably Bitenic Squids) that use chromatophores for communications.
  • Chromosome - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    In terragen biological life-forms, the individual self-replicating thread-like structures, containing the nucleotide sequence of DNA and along which the genes are located. In prokaryotes, chromosomal DNA is circular, and the entire genome is carried on one chromosome, which is distributed throughout the cell. In Eukaryotic cells the chromosomes are contained within the cellular nucleus, and the genome includes a number of chromosomes whose DNA is associated with different kinds of proteins.
  • Chrono-Transcendent Soul, The  - Text by Steve Bowers
    A religious or philosophical belief that all beings share a single soul, which travels back and forth in time to inhabit each entity in turn.
  • Chronologist  - Text by John B
    A being skilled in the lore of the various methods sophonts have and continue to use in the keeping of time and history.
  • Chronology Protection - Text by Anders Sandberg
    The universe seems to counteract attempts to produce time machines, for example due to Visser decay and related vacuum phenomena undermining other forms of time communication. Although the strict Chronology Protection Conjecture by the information age physicist Hawking was subsequently disproved, the chronology protection theorems of Lang, Picard and Joel-5 showed that this tendency can be explained from the consistency theorems, information physics and (eventually) vacuum physics.
  • Chronos Cluster, The  - Text by Håkan Andersson
    Middle Regions Cluster near Cygexpa Space, where the neogenic Daharrans were discovered, with unfortunate results.
  • Chthonian Class Worlds  - Text by John M. Dollan
    Gas giant worlds, formerly HyperthermalJovians, which have lost their volatiles through evaporation
  • Chuckie the Beanz Borg  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Late Emergence to Early Consolidation Age NoCoZo businessbeing.
  • Church of Crisis, The  - Text by John B
    A social and cultural phenomenon found in both extreme hider clades and autotopias, each with different interpretations on the 'True Works' of one "G'nt ValParadizo", a semi-mythical baseline from around 2,000 a.t., who was convinced that transapients at the highest toposophic level of the day had made significant errors and were under some form of external control.
  • Church of Quantum Suicide, The  - Text by Steve Bowers, from an idea by Hans Moravec
    Fringe religion based on an interpretation of quantum physics.
  • Church of St. Einstein, The  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Guild-like organization supported by the relativists.
  • Church of the Cosmic Christ, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    One of the larger derivatives of Christianity in the Inner Sphere. Widely distributed in the Terragen Federation; much rarer elsewhere. Christ is identified with the Soul and Divinity of the Cosmos. The Church interprets hell symbolically, not as an actual place of punishment.
  • Church of the Great Programmer, The  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Widespread vec and aioid religion.
  • Church of the Original Sacrement  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Minor theistic religion, based on elements of heterodox NeoCatholic Christianity, Solarism, and other sects, distributed through parts of the NoCoZo and Sophic League. Through an unfortunate misreading of several historical records, they use a lazurogened divine clone called "Craise" as a sacrificial sacrament. This has led to some persecution by rival groups.
  • Church of the Resurrected Eä  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Ai worship corporate religion, worshiping Eä Mulsystems.
  • Church-Turing (world)  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Important Metasoft world.
  • Chuvaev - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Newly rich developing outer sphere system, important regional center, linked to main wormhole nexus. Popular with a number of clades, including young House Stevens radicals disillusioned with "House Ridgewell".
  • Cimri - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Kitchen MRI tool, used to check temperature, texture and juiciness of food by nuclear magnetic resonance.
  • Cinder Systems  - Text by Michael Boncher
    A Cinder System is a solar system that has been ravaged by expansion, energy demands and populations run amok. Often they are dead and include a dying or dead star, black hole or some other "disfigured" solar body.
  • CIRaulance Catalog  - Text by Thorbørn Steen
    A sensestem evolved from an a database
  • Cislunar Bracelet Band  - Text by Ryan B (Rynn)
    An orbital band formed around Old Earth during the Great Expulsion. It consisted largely of habs created by GAIA and Her agents, and its initial population was on the order of 2 billion.
  • Cislunar Volume  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The space between the Earth and the orbit of the Moon, and any habitats or orbitals there.
  • Citizens (Zars)  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev with additional note by Steve Bowers
    Citizens, or zars, are sophonts who have some say in the running of their environment and polity. "Zar" is the Anglic name for this concept.
  • City Prime  - Text by John B
    An early vec-centric habitat set up on Titan by an alliance of 34 vecs of various types and vintages.
  • Civil Engineering  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, from the original by Robert J. Hall
    Field of engineering that deals with the design, construction, and management of physical infrastructures (buildings, highways, maglev tubes, spacedocks, recycling piping, bridges, moving walkways, etc etc) necessary for urban or habitat existence.
  • Civilization  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Sophont or transingularitan collective society, usually with development of agriculture, arts, sciences, technology, sentient rights, infrastructure, social services, and so on.
  • Clade (evolution)  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    A phylogenetic group of organisms (whether biological, neumann-capable m-life, or alife) that shares a particular common ancestor, and therefore are related and share similar features. In the case of naturally evolved organisms it can be difficult to determine whether they are actually a clade or whether there has been convergence towards a common morphotype. The original term from studies of evolution has been adapted to other uses. For this see clade (sophontology).
  • Clade (sophontology)  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    An evolutionary branch of mindkind defined by a common ancestral group or a common template that provides distinguishing characteristics for all members of that clade.
  • Clade Kelajuan  - Text by Kirran Lochhead Strang
    Vec clade with a distinct historical culture centred around isolated nomadism, which first emerged in the Domovina system during the 3300's.
  • Cladism (bias) - Text by Stephen Inniss
    An a priori bias for or against a particular clade of sophonts. As with bioism, mechanism, racism, and other such biases, this varies from a relatively benign admiration for or promotion of particular clades through to programs of enslavement or genocide.
  • Cladism (provolutionist) - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A preference for or tendency towards evolving into clades and sub-clades.
  • Cladistics  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The science of creating evolutionary trees of ancestry and descent; classifying organisms based on common ancestry and the branching of the evolutionary family tree.
  • Cladogram (evolution) - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Branching diagram that depicts divergence of the analysed taxa from their common ancestors. It shows the distribution and origins of unique shared characteristics (synapomorphies and autapomorphies), as well as their monophyly. A testable hypotheses of phylogenetic relationships.
  • Cladogram (sophontology) - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A precisely and scientifically organized matrix showing the various technological and biological characteristics which have been incorporated into the morphology and mindtype of a particular sophontological phyle or clade, tracing the connections of ancestry and descendants. The Genen are renowned for their elaborately decorated interactive cladograms.
  • Clan - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A clade or phyle, or more often, a sub-clade or sub-phyle. In some polities clan-links form the basis for much social interaction, political allegiance, government machinations, etc.
  • Clarke Habitats, Clarke Rings  - Text by AI Vin with additions by Steve Bowers
    Space habitats built in stationary orbits around planets, often linked loosely together to form a Clarke Ring. Also variously known as Clarke bands or Clarke orbital bands.
  • Clarke's Laws  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Three so-called 'laws' written by the Atomic and Information Age fabulist Arthur C. Clarke.
  • Clarker  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Sentient who makes a living through sifting through marketplaces for unusual artifacts.
  • Clarketech  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Technology so advanced as to be indistinguishable from "magic"; it appears to be miraculous in its workings; any godtech that cannot be understood by modosophonts.
  • Class (biology) - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    In the Linnean hierarchical classification, a group of related or similar organisms. A class contains one or more orders. A group of similar classes forms a phylum.
  • Class (sophontology)  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A major category of sapient beings, as defined by one or a few basic but distinctive and generic qualities, not necessarily connected by ancestry (i.e. biont, ai, vec, bioborg).
  • Classical Cepheids - Text by Chris Clowes
    Population I yellow or red supergiant stars (type A to F at maximum, G to K at minimum) with periods ranging from 2 to 40 days and varying in brightness by up to one magnitude.
  • Classical Omega Point Theory  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Assertion that the future c-boundary of the universe is an Omega Point. Although a number of Tiplerite clades and religions hold this view, it is not widely accepted, especially in the face of evidence that the universe is open rather than closed. The theory originates with information age transhumanist Frank Tipler.
  • Classical Transplatonism  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Philosophical memeticity that asserts that the act of toposophic breakthrough enables a greater re-visioning of the workings of consciousness and it perception of reality.
  • Claymore Edge Series mines  - Text by John B
    A series of explosive devices that are part of the Trillicon Arms range.
  • Claymore Tuber  - Text by David Hallberg
    A more sinister plant than most neogenic domestics is the infamous Claymore Tuber, which is widely used by bio-terrorists. Its tiny seeds can be scattered in the target area by an explosive device or missile.
  • Cleanliness  - Text by Pran Mukherjee
    In a world of ultra-tech carpets, remote-control bodmods, and other computer-controlled gadgets, cleanliness is not simply a matter of taking a shower every day.
  • ClearEye  - Text by Johnny Yesterday
    An optical sensor that cleans itself by spinning. A common design for vecs, bots, or cyborgs that operate in debris-filled environments
  • Clesycs (Yardsales)  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Semperist-derived Culture/Fashion/Subphyle/Meta-clade, known for an eclectic approach to self-sufficiency.
  • Click Train - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Series of low-frequency clicks produced by some aquatic animals (especially cetaceans), merpeople, and bioborgs during echolocation. This train passes through a sound-focusing organ (usually a fat-filled organ in the head - e.g. the "melon" of the toothed whale). The train of clicks is focused into a beam that bounces off objects and reflects (echoes) back to the receiver.
  • Client State - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    An independent polity which has either elected, or had forced upon it, the patronage of a larger polity or empire. The relationship is generally mutually beneficial and is essentially commercial in nature, although in the case of militarily expansionist empires it may be strategic as well.
  • Clienta Johannis - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Important NoCoZo system.
  • Cliff Dancing  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Ancient art form combining elements of dance, acrobatics, and rock climbing.
  • Climate Change on Old Earth  - Text by Todd Drashner
    The climate change crisis on Old Earth peaked during the Interplanetary period with a two meter rise in sea-levels.
  • Climatology  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The study of long-term weather patterns and climate (including temperature and precipitation), especially on Gaian Type planets.
  • Cliology  - Text by Michael Beck
    AI-based surveillance, which became the basis of an exact historical record-taking, and later of simulation of conditions for which there were not any direct records.
  • Cliotelescopy  - Text by Liam Jones
    Cliotelescopy is the use of long-distance observation to study historical events.
  • Clive's Brain  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Cybyotan world in the Vela-Puppis border periphery. The alien Cybyotan phylum of interconnected mobile and sessile autotrophs and heterotrophs has on this planet developed a single shared datasphere which is home to a single entity, known as Clive.
  • Clone  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A biological organism asexually reproduced or bionanonically copied from another cell or genome or a template thereof. A clone is genetically identical to its original.
  • Close Binary Stars  - Text by Anders Sandberg - additional notes by Chris Clowes and Steve Bowers
    Generally, a binary pair close enough that a terrestrial planet in the comfort zone orbits both.
  • Closed Economy - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    An economy which does not engage in interpolity trade. Some religious, utopian, and hider polities, and many Caretaker Protectorates are closed economies.
  • Closed Timelike Curve - Text by Anders Sandberg
    A closed path through spacetime that is timelike. A CTC would correspond to a possible way of time travel or time communication. However no closed timelike curves have ever been observed to exist.
  • Closed Universe - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A model of the universe in which the average density is great enough to reverse the expansion and cause it to contract to a physical singularity. Although a closed universe is a matter of faith among Tiplerites (Omega Point), Theosophists, Buddhists, and some NuAgers (cyclic cosmology), it has been known since pre-singularity time that the universe is open.
  • Cloudbuster  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A chionic device that is purportedly able to project ch'i energy through a bundle of specially treated pipes,influencing planetary or hab weather, changing personal mental or physical health, or various metaphysical phenomena such as replacing negative ch'i with positive ch'i or attracting or controlling 'spirits'.
  • Cloudharvesters  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Low-energy civilizations in interstellar gas clouds; the member of such a phyle or civilization.
  • Cluenes  - Text by Fernando Peña D'Andrea
    Game practiced in several polities where direct mind connection to the Net is available. The game is loosely based on a game from pre-Information Age Earth.
  • Cluetab and Cluedriver  - Text by Thorbørn Steen
    A common method for fastening surfaces together.
  • Cluster Brain  - Text by John B
    High-level brain of Great Archailect level which consists of many star-brains and/orMatrioshka nodes linked together by wormholes within a single open cluster.
  • Cluster, Stellar  - Text by Chris Clowes and Steve Bowers
    Association of stars moving through space together in small groups or larger clusters, probably because they were all formed out of the same initial gas cloud.
  • Coagulator  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Rare clarketech device that disrupts molecular bonds at a distance (generally not more than 20 meters, although range varies). This involves unusual quantum effects; some have suggested a quantum resonance field that synchronizes the phase of electrons in a way that a common chemical bond (like carbon - carbon) breaks, but this is debatable. In any case, the broken bonds re-connect but generally in the wrong way, creating a massive chemical rather than physical shock.
  • Coal Sack Nebula  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Prominent dark nebula in Crux
  • Coathanger Cluster  - Text by Steve Bowers
    The Coathanger Cluster in Vulpecula is not a real cluster at all; instead it is a chance alignment of unrelated stars, which resembles a coathanger as seen from the Old Solar System.
  • Cocac  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Seat of the Wormhole Cooperation Assembly of the Sagittarius Transcultural Cooperation.
  • Codewalker - Text by Anders Sandberg
    A person, ai, or program that traverses code for a living. Not the most glamorous job, but very necessary to fix glitches and old bugs, find out how to upgrade legacy systems, etc.
  • Coevolution - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Two or more organisms experiencing evolution in response to one another. This may result in a biological arms race, or it could produce a symbiotic relationship.
  • Coffee  - Text by MacGregor
    Coffee, in its numerous varieties, has long been one of the most common beverages in the Terragen Sphere consumed by bionts surpassed perhaps only by tea. Over the millennia, coffee has been bred into a myriad of different strains and genetically engineered into an ever-widening array of species.
  • Cog  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    BD +25°4085, Capital of the Silicon Generation. Surrounded by a partial Dyson swarm.
  • Cognitive Diuretic  - Text by John B
    A 'rebranding' of so-called 'truth' drugs such as sodium pentathol.
  • Colbalt, Robby  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Robby 'Rom' Colbalt was a late Establishment age cyborg utopian (b. 2821, New Tycho, Terragen Federation) who, concerned at the degree of SI:<1 reliance of ai, wished to create a society free of hyperturing supervision, where all sentients would be considered free and independent regardless of clade, species or toposophic.
  • Colbiörnsen, Clade  - Text by Anders Sandberg, minor modification by M. Alan Kazlev
    Unique su clade with distinctive gengineered skin structure giving resistance to nanite attack.
  • Collective Mind Societies  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Entire societies unified into a single mind. While group mind systems on a smaller scale are not uncommon, successful integration of whole societies is rare among Terragens and stable long term collective mind societies have not been observed among surviving xenosophonts.
  • Collective Unconscious - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    In Jungism the collective repository of unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories that pertain to an entire clade, rather than an individual. Also supposed to be the source of archetypes, although this is disputed by some schools.
  • Collector Ship  - Text by Darren Ryding
    One of the many ships used by the Collectors - servants of the Queen of Pain.
  • Collector, The  - Text by John B and Anders Sandberg
    Eccentric renegade high singularity Fomalhautian ai who is collects other AIs.
  • Collectors, The  - Text by Darren Ryding
    According to rumour, an ultratech secret society or sect that is reputed to dwell beneath the surface of an unknown planet in the Hinterworlds, in stories dating from the 10,300s A.T. onwards.
  • Colles - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Small hills or knobs on the surface of a moon or planet.
  • Colonist  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Sophont being who leaves eir homeworld to colonize a new solar system.
  • Colony  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Dependent member of a larger polity or empire.
  • Colony Ships  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Terragens, and in the past some xenosophonts, have used a number of different kinds of strategies to establish colonies across interstellar distances. The resulting ships range from gigantic and slow generation ships to much smaller data-only ships.
  • Colour Charge  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    The charge of the strong nuclear force. While electromagnetic charge can be positive or negative, the nuclear force charge can take three values: "red", "green" and "blue"
  • Columbia-Bartlebel, Clade  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Hedonistic Utopian nanocyborg clade, combining the Keterist transcendentalism with Ceresian techno-utopianism.
  • Combat Carrier  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Class of relativistic warship designed to transport and support smaller combat craft over interstellar distances.
  • Combat Jacket  - Text by Ryan B
    Wearable Multi-gun platform for versatile personal offensive/defensive operations.
  • Combat Statistician  - Text by John B
    A sophont skilled in statistical interpretation and manipulation of data.
  • Combat Threads  - Text by John B
    Separate aspects of a war or conflict, clothing for combat, or weapons and materials that are extremely long and thin, depending on the context.
  • Comet  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A minor celestial icy body that orbits a star in a highly elliptical path.
  • Comforter (Leftbehind)  - Text by Michael Boncher
    Class of leftbehind in which the ascended transapient, not wishing to remain with eir former associates but caring enough to not want to leave them feeling abandoned emotionally or otherwise, will create a sapient Proxav (Proxim) to fill the void e left by going on with eir ascension.
  • Command Economy - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The state allocates resources, and sets production targets and growth rates according to its own view of people's wants. The state allocates resources, and sets production targets and growth rates according to its own view of people's wants.
  • Commclothing/Commskin  - Text by iancampbell
    Commclothing or commskin addresses a problem with high levels of computational technology, and specifically direct neural interfacing: the problem of getting large amounts of data in and out of a sophont's body, whether a biont or a vec.
  • Commensalism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A situation in which two organisms (whether biological or alife) are associated in a relationship in which one benefits from the relationship and the other is not affected. Each organisms is termed a commensal. Commensalism is a type of symbiosis.
  • Commerce   - Text by Chris Shaeffer
    Trade and commerce across the civilized galaxy and beyond.
  • Common Tools  - Text by Sethbord
    A short list of some common items.
  • Commonwealth of Empires (ComEmp), The  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Important historical multi-polity Galactic Empire, formed after the Version War
  • Communism  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Sociopolitical system based on centralized command economy and equality of citizens.
  • Compact of Eden  - Text by FrodoGoofball
    A set of rules governing relations between the Caretaker Gods and non-Caretaker entities.
  • Companion (occupation) - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A personal assistant; either aioid (implant or remote) or a distinct sapient being (biont or vec, domestic or zar). Depending on the type and purpose, may function as secretary, data miner, bodyguard, servant, esoteric companion, etc.
  • Companion (status)  - Text by John B
    Hider and Semperist term of abuse for sophonts dependent on higher toposophic minds.
  • Company-Owned World - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A planet controlled by a company or corporation and run for profit. This system was very common during the later Interplanetary and the first Federation eras, and has remained common throughout many sparsely settled regions in the outer volumes where there is little government or policing regulation.
  • Comparative Chronology  - Text by ProxCenBound
    Comparative chronology is the science of studying alternate possibilities and timelines, by means of large-scale simulations.
  • Compatibility Doctrine, The  - Text by The Humbler
    Technological doctrine that makes backwards compatibility a priority.
  • Competition - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    An interaction between or among two or more individuals, species, clades, corporations, nanecologies, polities, or empires, in which exploitation of resources by one affects any others negatively. A driving principle of evolution and of galactic society.
  • Complete Metamorphosis - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The complete reorganization of the tissues of an animal during its life cycle from larva to adult, usually involving the addition of legs and wings. For example, the larval stage of butterflies and moths (the caterpillar) metamorphoses into a winged, flying adult.
  • Complete Skies  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Prefect of Helios-Namhadiya; one of the most accessible Solarian prefects, who regularly meets with petitioners. The choice of a genus 3 Chen-Gackstatter-Thayer surface as a body for eir avatar reflects the prefect's dedication to Solarian minimalism.
  • Complex Life Cycle - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A life cycle that consists of several distinct stages (e.g., larva and adult) (see also complete metamorphosis).
  • Complex Number - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A number that has a real and an imaginary (e.g. square root of -1) component and is characterized as a point on a plane (instead of the real number line). Complex numbers are important in many forms of computation, simulation, and higher mathematics.
  • Complex Psychological Disorders   - Text by Thorbørn Steen
    The management of complex and relatively minor psychological disorders is commonplace in the Civilised Galaxy.
  • Complex System  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Any entity that consists of many simpler interacting components.
  • Complexity  - Text by Stephen Inniss; original by M. Alan Kazlev
    The property of an object or a system in which the elements or agents that compose it are diverse, connected, interdependent, and adapt to one another. In a complex object or system the whole transcends the parts, and phenomena emerge through bottom-up self-organization that could not easily be predicted by examining its elements. Complex systems produce novelty and may exhibit drastic phase changes at certain critical thresholds, yet at the same time they are often very robust. Organisms, ecosystems, societies and cultures, and economies all show high degrees of complexity. Many transapients and archailects are interested in complexity and hence encourage it.
  • Complexity Plague  - Text by Todd Drashner and Anders Sandberg
    When a device or program or process becomes so complex/involved that it spontaneously achieves self-awareness and self-volition even if (or especially if) you don't want it to.
  • Compubones  - Text by Tony Jones
    A bionano process whereby portions of a subject's skeleton are converted into bionanocomputers, using bionanomachines, which run off the subject's blood supply. Compubones are customised to the user's biology to seamlessly integrate into the body and provide the same functions as bone.
  • Compuform - Text by M. Alan Kazlev after Charlie Stross, in Anders Sandberg's Transhuman Terminology
    To turn matter into computronium. An old blue chip industry that has never gone out of demand.
  • Computation  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Basically, what a computer does; which is mapping one set of numbers to another. The actual process of computing can be defined in terms of a very small number of very simple operations, such as addition, multiplication, recursion, and so on. Computing devices can also make statements about other computing devices.
  • Computer  - Text by Avengium
    A computation device, which may be sentient or non-sentient. AIs can be either sentient computers, or complex systems residing in the RAM of computers. Without computers, galactic civilization would be impossible.
  • Computer Elves  - Text by Jorge Ditchkenberg
    Computer viruses torturing those spending too much time in virches or the Net; late Information Age to present.
  • Computer Engineering  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev from an original by Robert J. Hall
    The design and development of computational devices on any scale, from micro down to nano.
  • Computer Science - Text by Adapted by M. Alan Kazlev from the original write-up by Robert J. Hall
    The theoretical and practical application of computational devices, including hardware, firmware and software architecture, programming skills, simulation techniques, customized algorithms and dedicated aioids, virtualics, networking, parallel programming, intelligent subroutines, information storage, comparative machine-level low level, and intermediate level operating systems, and subturing artificial intelligences.
  • Computronium  - Text by Xaonon (original term by Eugene Leitl) with additions by Steve Bowers
    Matter supporting computation, especially artificial substances suitable for high efficiency computation.
  • Computronium Bell-curve Theory  - Text by Mike Parisi, additional material by Dagon
    Controversial theory that, as sophonts ascend the toposophic scale, the volume of computronium ey need for each successive ascension gradually levels-off and eventually becomes negative (yielding a bell-shaped curve), as the sophont discovers newer, more efficient modes of thought and denser computing substrates which require lower volumes (not necessarily less mass) of computronium.
  • Computronium Node  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Any intelligent superobject, moon-brain or planetary brain, smaller than a godstar or dyson sphere
  • Concentrated Intelligence  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    An intelligent entity (such as a Jupiter-Brain or ISO) which is spatially concentrated into a single volume, as dense as possible, to reduce communications lag. This arrangement is not as flexible as a distributed intelligence, but probably more efficient.
  • Concept Map  - Text by John B, Steve Bowers, Xaonon and Ryan B
    A schematic representation of a mind's network of symbolic concept and their associations.
  • Conceptication  - Text by Todd Drashner with additions by John B and Steve Bowers
    The use of Mnemonet technology to facilitate information transfer between sentient beings.
  • Conchoid  - Text by John B
    Originally designed as a pet for some clades of cephalopod provolves, and designed primarily for aquatic environments.
  • Conchsquid  - Text by Steve Bowers
    An apparently naturally evolved species of space-dwelling lifeform, confined to a single gas giant's ring system.
  • Concord Ontology  - Text by Anders Sandberg, updated by MacGregor and Todd Drashner
    Major Ontology, Integration period (3800-4450 AT).
  • Confederacy, Confederation - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A group of independent states, worlds, polities, or systems united for specified purposes under a loose regional, planetary, interplanetary, or interstellar government, while generally retaining more freedom of action than the members of a federation. Also known as a league or alliance (especially of princes, nations, states, worlds, or systems). This is a very common form of government. The Interplanetary Age Cislunar Alliance, and many of the Non Coercive Zone worlds (and even it could be said the NoCoZo as a whole), are good examples of confederations.
  • Conformer - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    An individual, organism, or virtual, whose physiological, informational, or memetic state (e.g., body temperature, data protocol, belief structure, fashion-statements) are identical to, and varies identically with, that of eir surrounding environment.
  • Conreligion - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Constructed religion, a religion that has been deliberately formulated rather than being received as revelation or tradition.
  • Conscious Mind - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The part of the psyche of any being that experiences awareness and consciousness. In evolved bionts there is a large demarcation between conscious and unconscious; in augmented cyborgs, vecs, and ai or even in neogens the distinction is less clear.
  • Consciousness  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The principle of awareness, sentience, I-ness, the witness, the observer, that part of the being that experiences all things, yet is not touched or altered by the experience.
  • Consistency Theorems - Text by Anders Sandberg
    The Novikov consistency principle states that the probability of a series of events leading to an inconsistent or paradoxical physical state (such as travelling back in time and killing ones grandfather before one's father was born) is zero. The consistency theorems of Wu, Lang, and Bauger proved this principle within the framework of information physics.
  • Consolidation Wars  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A series of regional inter-megacorp and post-megacorp wars fought in the colonies during the Federation period, as local colonial fiefdoms and vested interests sought to secure their position
  • Conspicuous Delight  - Text by Chris Shaeffer
    Halo drive ship of the Utopia Sphere empire
  • Consumer (ecology) - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    An organism (whether biological, alife, or other) that consumes other organisms to survive. Primary consumers feed on producers, secondary consumers feed on primary consumers, and so on. Depending on whether it is a biological, an alife, an ai, a neumann, or something else again, a consumer may feed on organic bodies (see also, heterotroph), information /data bodies (see also, infovore), energy bodies, and so on, The fact that there is an energy loss with each link of the food chain means that there are always more primary consumers than secondary consumers.
  • Contact Binary  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A co-orbiting pair of stars whose inner atmospheres or surfaces touch.
  • Contelligence  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Clade of aioid business beings, descended from the first federation era New Mars think tank Contelligence.
  • Contemplative Neverflux  - Text by Brian Lacki
    Sophic League transapient philosopher, most famous for establishing the School of Continuous Death. It is not clear whether e was originally an ai or a biont. (first public appearance 4511 - transcension 5781).
  • Continent (geography)  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    Originally, one of six or seven very large contiguous landmass on Old Earth, separated or largely separated from other continents by ocean. Some Gaian class worlds, some terraformed worlds, and some extremely large habitats such as Banks Orbitals may also have land masses that are regarded by their inhabitants as continents.
  • Continent (geology)  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    On Old Earth, or on Gaian style worlds exhibiting similar patterns of plate tectonics, a large platform of metamorphic rock and largely granitic igneous rock, covered over much of its area by relatively thin layers of sedimentary rocks.
  • Continental Drift - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The slow movement of crustal plates (usually bearing continents or terranes) on a tectonically active eoarean, eogaian, or gaian world. The plates float over the molten asthenosphere.
  • Continental Shield - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A stable, ancient region, usually flat to slightly convex, in a continent on a world that experiences continental drift; the core from which the continent has grown over time.
  • Continuance - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Important Metasoft system.
  • Continuity Identity Theory  - Text by Anders Sandberg, amended by Steve Bowers
    The theory that "I" am the same person as various future and past selves with whom I am physically and temporally continuous. (see also pattern identity theory).
  • Conver Ambi  - Text by Anders Sandberg and M. Alan Kazlev
    Early expansionist relativist empire which took part in the Second Empires War, leading to their downfall.
  • Conver Ky  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    37 Geminorum I; Capital of the Conver Ambi up until the Conver War.
  • Conver Limis  - Text by Mark Ryherd
    Su-cyborg House which originated within the Conver Ambi.
  • Conver Wars, The  - Text by Mark Ryherd
    One of the most destructive wars in the history of the Terragen Sphere.
  • Convergent Evolution - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    When a trait develops independently in two or more evolutionary sequences or groups of organisms; e.g. the development of skin-flap wings in pterodactyls and bats. Mathematically, this refers to dynamic systems settling into an attractor.
  • Conversations and Jokes  - Text by AI Vin, M. Alan Kazlev, John B and Steve Bowers
    Conversations, discussions, snippets of everyday life.
  • Conversion Drive  - Text by Adam Getchell, Todd Drashner, Mark Mcamuk, and Chris Shaeffer, updated by Ithuriel
    Conversion drives (or monopole catalyzed fusion drives, as they are more formally called) use magnetic monopoles to increase the efficiency of a standard fusion drive up to nearly 100% if so desired. These systems were first developed by Second Singularity transapients. They are currently the most commonly used drive for interplanetary or interstellar travel.
  • Conversion Micro-Reactor  - Text by Luke Campbell and Todd Drashner
    Compact class of conversion reactor that uses a monopole energized helium-3 plasma to generate power.
  • Conversion Technology  - Text by Luke Campbell, Adam Getchell and Steve Bowers
    The generation of energy from matter using reactions between magnetic monopoles and normal atoms.
  • Conversion Weapons  - Text by Adam Getchell and Todd Drashner
    Monopole based self-replicating weapons sometimes used to detonate stars; generally employed by transapients of S3 or greater toposophic.
  • Convocation, The  - Text by Steve Bowers
    A clan of vampire tweaks first encountered in Cableville in 8666 in the unlighted section known as the Dark.
  • Conway's World  - Text by Xaonon
    Megastructure of unknown terragen origin that replicates and displays a simple cellular automation cycle.
  • Cookie Fiend  - Text by John B
    A subsophont predatory lifeform native to the planet Elmo resembling a giant chocolate chip cookie with legs.
  • Cooling, bioborg  - Text by Brian McKinley, John B, and M. Alan Kazlev
    Technologies for maintaining comfortable body temperature for bioborgs whose augments produce significant waste heat.
  • Cooperative Venture, The - Text by Anders Sandberg and M. Alan Kazlev
    An interstellar cooperation between the Serpens Region civilisations in mainly archaeology, trying to understand some relics from lost alien civilisations, especially the Dawn Hunters and the Black Acropolis. Other areas are protocols for information and entity transfer, conflict resolution and geography. Main planet Avensis, 545 Manus in the classic Skiiws'nnii astronomy.
  • Copepod - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Tiny shrimp-like crustaceans; some types such as krill are an important food-source for many baleen whales and other marine animals. They are a a major constituent of Terragen zooplankton, and an important source of protein for the whale provolves of Oro Mistral and Pacifica.
  • Copernicus (55 Cancri)  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Inner Sphere G8 star with a red dwarf companion at 1200 AU. The non-aligned system is 41 light years from Sol.
  • Copernicus, Nicolaus - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Old Earth amateur Polish astronomer who developed the Copernican system, a model of the solar system in which all the planets orbit the Sun, thus overturning the earlier Ptolemaic System. His seminal work was De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Orb"), published in 430 BT (1543 AD).
  • Copy  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    An uploaded digital copy of a rl person (whether biont or vec) that experiences emself in all ways as identical to the original alpha. Also can refer to a biological copy, occupying a body with identical DNA to the original person, but differing from a clone in that the memories of the original have been transferred artificially into the new body.
  • Copy Resolution Types  - Text by Steve Bowers
    The different types of copying available to a sophont mind
  • Copy Rights  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    The existence of copies results in legal conundrums of which there are a number of possible alternative solutions.
  • Copygroup  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Small close-knit group of dividuals, almost always bioxoxes or close physical copies, who act as societal units within a larger society.
  • Coral - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Stephen Inniss
    Terragen marine metazoan animals, class Anthozoa, phylum Cnidaria. Though some are solitary, a typical coral is a colony of genetically identical polyps, each of which secretes calcium carbonate at its base to create a common skeleton with a characteristic structure. They are often brightly colored when alive, but after death of the polyp the color fades and becomes a bleached white. The best known and most numerous types of corals derive much of their sustenance from symbiotic photosynthetic algae. Because of this these are limited to regions of sunny shallow water and low nutrient flow, where bright light reaches the ocean floor. Such corals are an important element of many phototrophic tropical ocean biospheres.
  • Coral Reef - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Aquatic Terragen community of organisms, wave-resistant biological structure resulting from cementation processes and the skeletal construction of hermatypic corals, calcareous algae, and other calcium carbonate-secreting organisms. Forms a rich habitat for many types of marine organisms. Coral reefs are popular in many large Terragen habitats with a strong aquatic component and tropical or semi-tropical climate. Some coral reefs have been provolved to sapience.
  • Corambytia Protectorate  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    The Corambytia Protectorate is the largest and most well-known volume ruled by a single Caretaker God.
  • Core Breach - Text by M. Alan Kazlev

    Software

    When the central processing node of a system - especially of an AI - is penetrated, for example by an intrusion system (AI virus, hacking program, etc.).

    Hardware

    When the casing or shell or container field of a nuclear reactor or ship drive system is penetrated, resulting in melt-down, release of radiation, super-heated plasma.
  • Core Breach (hardware) - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    When the casing or shell or container field of a nuclear reactor or ship drive system is penetrated, resulting in melt-down, release of radiation, super-heated plasma.
  • Core Collapse - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Occurs when a star loses its pressure support because no more energy can be released by nuclear reactions. The core collapse drives the explosion and heavy-element creation of a supernova.
  • Core Worlds - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The Sol system and neighboring systems which were the first colonized by
    Terragens.
  • Coreward - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    [1] In astrogation the direction of the Sagittarius arm and the centre of the galaxy.
    [2] In some informal usages, the direction of Sol (more properly termed Solward).
  • Coriolis Force  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Not a true force, but an side-effect of the rotation of a body.
  • Cormoran SMBH Civilisation, The  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Alien Civilisation 209 million light years from Sol.
  • Corona (Iota Piscium d)  - Text by The Astronomer
    Former capital of the Taurus Nexus; now an important academic world.
  • Corporate Cannibalism  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, amended by Steve Bowers
    Popular fast-food genre - late Re-Evaluation Period to recent.
  • Corporate Dirty Data  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Confidential financial information about a megacorporation that can be sold on the black market.
  • Corporate Religions  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    See Philosophy of Abundance.
  • Corporate Surrogacy  - Text by Elliot Schutjer
    In the latter half of the Information Age and even well into the early Interplanetary Age, genetic engineering corporations had a problem: they had to find mothers to carry the genetically altered children they produced. Popular vids from the time tell story after story of young women from Asia (Particularly Cambodia and Thailand) being sold into corporate slavery as surrogate mothers for the gengineered children arranged by major corporations, though this practice was simply not as prevalent as popular imagination supposed.
  • Corporate Transcension  - Text by Anders Sandberg, Todd Drashner, and Stephen Inniss
    The transcension of an entire megacorp. Sometimes called transruptcy, since like bankruptcy it typically means the effective dissolution of the original organization.
  • Corpsicle - Text by Anders Sandberg
    A cryonically suspended biont. Originally an Information Era derogatory/humorous term, the word has largely been absorbed into the Anglic language family with no negative connotations.
    Also used: Cryonaut
  • Corpsiflakes  - Text by John B
    Diminutive term derived from Corpsicles.
  • Correspondence  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    In Hermeticism and related memeticities, acausal patterns of similarity and analogy - e.g. the chakras are said to correspond to the archetypes.
  • Corundum Glittering  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    A post-Faber transapient the present guardian of the Stanislaw system.
  • Corundumoid  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    Corundum-like materials, analogous to diamondoid but based on corundum (aluminum oxide, or Al2O3) in various forms.
  • Corvette  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A military warship of fairly small size, cheaper and more lightly armed than a destroyer, usually used for fleet or convoy escort, or for showing the flag or gunboat diplomacy in a smaller polity.
  • Cosmic Omega Point  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    An Omega Point on the future c-boundary of the entire universe.
  • Cosmic Rays - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    High energy interstellar particles that travel at relativistic speed. The 10 most abundant elements in cosmic rays are hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon, neon, nitrogen, magnesium, silicon, iron, and sulphur. Cosmic rays many sources, including local stars, supernovae, and distant galaxies, and make life hazardous for a biont in any unshielded habitat. Some cosmic rays penetrate through planetary atmospheres.
  • Cosmism  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Generic name for any of a number of independent AI-worshipping pantheistic religions that developed during the early Interplanetary period.
  • Cosmoamoeba, Giant Space Amoeba  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Oliver
    Cosmoamoeba gigas lagoonensis, one of the curious phenomena discovered in the Lagoon Nebula (and later in the Trifid Nebula) are a population of amorphous blobs that vary in size from 500 meters when contracted to several tens of kilometers when extended.
  • Cosmocyclism  - Text by Alphadon

  • Cosmogenesis  - Text by John B
    A popular modosophont recreational activity in the Negentropic Allianc. A 'game' whose principle object is to develop a ruleset whereby a cosmos may be created and continue to operate over a simulated period of time. Once the ruleset has been crafted, there is no further input by the creator, who joins the other spectators.
  • Cosmognosticism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Generic pantheistic or acosmist religious cosmology or philosophy popular in parts of the Sophic League which explains the universe in terms of a long series of emanations from a transcendent Godhead. Not world negating in the sense of classical gnosticism, although it shares the same baroque vision of spiritual planes of existence, gods, archetypes, and worlds beyond worlds.
  • Cosmological Principle - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The assumption that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic (the same everywhere). This assumption is central to all scientific cosmology, and ten and a half thousand years of Terragen observation has shown it to be a good approximation to the observed state of the universe.
  • Cosmology - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The study of the nature, structure, and origin of the universe; the study of the cosmos.
  • Cosmopaganism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Optimistic shamanic-based belief that the whole universe is alive, and that meditation, worship and religious ceremony and celebration can be directed towards stars, nebula, galaxies, and in contemplation of interstellar distances. Popular in the Zoeific Biopolity, the Orion Federation, FAS, and elsewhere.
  • Cosmos  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The universe, the totality of physical creation; generally including not only the observable universe but also that which is beyond the light-cone (although for some cosmos only means the visible cosmos). In some memeticities the cosmos also includes non-physical or supraphysical realities; while others refer to a series of cosmoses. There is also disagreement among philosophers, eschatologists and others over whether the cosmos had a beginning and whether it will have an end.
  • Council for Doctrine  - Text by Ben Higginbottom
    Elite group of memetic engineers in the service of the Solar Dominion to ensure the mental well-being of the Dominions population and the continuing worship of Borde-Tiphareth.
  • Councils, Galactic  - Text by Anders Sandberg and M. Alan Kazlev
    Any of several organizations that allows various terragen and alien clades representation.
  • Countershading  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Stephen Inniss
    Body coloration in aquatic, aerial or microgravity animals in which the top and bottom sides are colored differently, serving to camouflage the animal from multiple perspectives. Generally, the top or lightward portion is much darker than the belly. Also seen in some bots or vehicles.
  • Countersociomemetics - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Use of Social Psychology and Sociomemetics to reduce the effectiveness of social and memetic conditioning, or even turn the original conditioning into something completely different. An important element of memetic warfare and subversion. Sociomimeticists are either SI:1 or higher, or are SI:<1 sentients with implanted or augmented sociomemetic wetware, software, or firmware.
  • Covalent Bond  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    In chemistry, when two atoms share one or more a pairs of electrons.
  • Cowboys and Gung Hos  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Backyarder factions from the Interplanetary Age.
  • CPNC Civilization Ships, The  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A massive ship holding vast amounts of data; originally designed as a protection against the collapse of civilisation.
  • Crab  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Stephen Inniss
    Any of a clade of Terragen decapod crustaceans characterized by a short broad flattened cephalothorax and a reduced abdomen that is typically folded underneath it. More broadly, a member of some other decapod group with a similar morphotype. More broadly still, unrelated life forms that also have a crab-like morphotype or even artificial non-biological forms that are crab-like. Baseline crabs are common subjects of provolution projects.
  • Crack - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Dumb, smart, or turingrade software that permits the user to penetrate a program or system even without a password. Often illegal but difficult to enforce, because of the ease by which such programs can be copied (a few are even self-replicating).
  • Crai-Se - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Solarist hyperturing who ascended several toposophic levels, leaving behind a number of edible intelligence augmenting didactic bionano relics.
  • Crashcache  - Text by Todd Drashner with contributions from David Jackson and John B
    Emergency medical/disaster survival device designed to safely contain the mind-states of multiple numbers (sometimes very large numbers) of sophonts.
  • Crater - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A circular depression caused by an impact with another celestial body, or a volcanic eruption. One of the most common features on asteroid, planetoid, and terrestrial class bodies with hard rocky crusts or surfaces.
  • Creeping Consolidation  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The increasingly popular rumour that the archailects and higher hyperturings are slowly undermining the non-archai empires.
  • Creeping Crud - Text by John B
    Originally a bionano cleanser, until it evolved a way to evade its timed-death genetic code (which involved an odd accident with a depilatory, some kafe, and a pulsating gravitic module). It now slowly cleans everything. Wonderful, until it gets to the lubricants and/or protective coatings.
  • Creightership  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, modified from original concept by Kevin Self
    Slang term for Vedokiklek interstellar sub-relativistic (rarely relativistic) freighters (Klhkkteskkdv in the Vedokiklek language.
  • Crescent Class Cruiser  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and 'Total Annihilation'
    A 15th to 17th century combat spaceship of dramatic and eccentric design. It is long obsolete but is popular in the present era among wealthy historical weapons enthusiasts.
  • Crest - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Symbiotic nanotech device that serves as a sign of one's station or rank within an organization or collective as well as conferring upon the owner privileges relating to that organization, such as file access, special protocols, restricted templates, hyperturing advice.
  • Crime - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Acts punishable by law, whether a violation of local regulations or of the sentient rights of another being. Crimes in the ultra-civilized systems of the Inner Sphere are in general very subtle - data manipulation, fraud, extortion with embarrassing information or purely software crimes like mind casinos. In the less regulated systems smuggling, theft and more property-related crimes start to appear, and out in the simpler regions traditional seediness and crimes are common.
  • Criminal Rehabilitation  - Text by Ryan B
    Treatment of criminality caused by memetic disease.
  • Croc, Crocodile - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Baseline crocodiles constitute an order of large tropical terragen semi-aquatic carnivorous reptile. Crocodile splices are common, although not as common as lizard splices. There are a few species crocodilian provolves, but, as with sa-theropod dinosaurs, social engineering is not easy for these large aggressive animals. Most croc provolves live away from the main thoroughfares of civilization, where they form their own subcultures.
  • Cromag, Clade (aka Clade Neander)  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Pseudolazurogenic prim clade created by the vec Dimimimon4 in the mid 5th millennium a.t..
  • Cronosians, The  - Text by Espen Antonsen
    Distributed polity consisting of generation ships, effectively interstellar mobile fractal habitats
  • Cross-cultural Salesbeing - Text by John B
    A sophont skilled in more than one culture's methods for valuing materials and/or services, as well as taboos and other pricing-sensitive information. By definition, most salesbeings outside of closed monotonic clades or polities are cross-cultural. This is a Mindworker profession.
  • Crucis Corridor, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Troublesome region of interstellar space in the Negentropy Alliance outer-middle volumes, adjacent to the NoCoZo, established in the wake of the Version War. Led to the development of the larger region known as the Disarchy.
  • Cruiser  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A large (generally, over 100,000 tonnes), fast, heavily armed reactionless drive warship capable of both independent operations and of support of the main line of battle.
  • Crustacean  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    An exceedingly diverse, mostly marine, subphylum of arthropods, distinguished by chewing mandibles and two pairs of antennae. Baseline species range in size from microscopic to the Japanese Spider Crab, with a leg-span of 3 meters. Most terragen biospheres include crustacea of some form or another. Amphipods, barnacles, copepods, isopods (woodlice), and decapods (shrimp, lobsters, crayfish, crabs) are among the many groups of crustaceans.
  • CrustClown Kingg  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev; amended by Steve Bowers
    The founder of Corporate Cannibalism.
  • Crustuse (Kokok IX)  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    A potted world in the Kokok system.
  • Cryobiology - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The study of the effect of low temperatures on biological systems. Theoretical and applied fields include preservation and long term storage of organ systems, cold temperature bio-nano, extremophile biota, etc.
  • Cryoinvest  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Cryoinvest became the largest Novan cryonics investment firm during the First Federation era. Now specialises in nanostasis time-shifting investment opportunities.
  • Cryojovian Type worlds  - Text by John M. Dollan and Steve Bowers
    Cold, mostly cloudless, gas giants in the outer parts of a planetary system.
  • Cryonic Suspension  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, amended by Steve Bowers
    Suspending organic functions by the use of low temperatures to halt metabolic decay.
  • Cryonics  - Text by Anders Sandberg in his Transhuman Terminology
    Science and tech that deals with low temperatures.
  • Cryovecs, Cryobots  - Text by Stephen Inniss, with additions by Steve Bowers
    Cold temperature vec phyle.
  • Crypto Anarchy - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, from Anders Sandberg's Transhuman Terminology
    The economic and political system based on libertarianism, encryption, untraceable net-mail, digital pseudonyms, cryptographic voting, and digital cash. Very popular among Cyberians.
  • Cryptography - Text by Anders Sandberg
    The art of creating and using cryptosystems. A cryptosystem (or cipher system) is a method of disguising messages so that only certain people can see through the disguise, e.g, encryption. Cryptanalysis is the art of breaking cryptosystems - seeing through the disguise even when you're not supposed to be able to. Cryptology is the study of both cryptography and cryptanalysis. Very popular in the Cyberian worlds, where there is an obsession with personal privacy.
  • Cryptomemegineering  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Memegineering that is obscure, hidden, and untraceable, even by average memegineering standards.
  • Cryptomemetic Index - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The degree to which an engineered meme cannot be detected, even by conventional memetic analysis. It is based on a complex of factors, most of which are incomprehensible to subsingularitan sophonts.
  • Cryptotechnology  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Technology which is hidden, obscure, or very rare.
  • Crystal - Text by Stephen Inniss; original by M. Alan Kazlev
    In materials science and solid state physics, any solid material, whether natural or artificial, inorganic or organic, in which the molecules, ions, or atoms are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern that extends in all three spatial directions. An early benefit of nanoscale technologies was improved manipulation of crystal size and type in bulk materials; the various substances termed 'diamondoid' are but one example of this. Colloquially, a crystal is any object that exhibits a well defined geometric shape as a result of its internal order. Such objects are often aesthetically pleasing, and may have artistic and cultural value.
  • Crystal Blossom, The  - Text by Chris Shaeffer
    Airborne floating artwork/home of the artist/philosopher Aura Ghami.
  • Crystal Star Domain  - Text by James Ramsey
    Outer Volumes region founded by and under the sole rule of the S5 archailect Crystal Star. Clades created by Crystal Star are predominantly biont, and music is an integral part of their cultures and languages.
  • Crystal Trees  - Text by AI Vin
    Light-gathering structures with a branching, tree-like form.
  • CTC Wormhole  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    A wormhole that forms part of a loop of wormholes enabling a closed timelike curve (CTC). Such wormholes lose stability and cease to function. For this reason wormhole networks must be arranged with care.
  • Cuckoo - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A superturing infiltrator, appearing to be a normal organisation member or employee. Using its mental abilities, possibly augmented by empath methods, it rises to a position of control where it redirects the organisation according to the wishes of its creator.
  • Cult - Text by Glenn Grant
    A sociotype of an auto-toxic meme-complex, composed of membots and/or memeoids.

    Characteristics of cults include:
    • self-isolation of the infected group (or at least new recruits).
    • brainwashing by repetitive exposure (inducing dependent mental states).
    • genetic functions discouraged (through celibacy, sterilization, devalued family) in favor of replication (proselytizing).
    • and leader-worship ("personality cult").

  • Cult of Gold  - Text by Marco Mari
    A nearbaseline subculture of the Solar Dominion.
  • Cult of the Exsanguinated Giraffe  - Text by Ben Higginbottom
    Libertarian/Surrealist Nano/Memetic/Bio Hackers - Early to Late Interplanetary Age.
  • Cultural Refugia from the Technocalypse  - Text by Stephen Inniss, with additions by Graham Hopgood
    Though the Technocalypse meant the end of many earlier cultures, and many records of earlier times, there were a number of survivals either of the cultures themselves or information concerning them.
  • Cumulous  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Saturn like jovian notable for its floating balloon cities.
  • Curator, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A FAS Curatorial ai on the outskirts of the Cygnus sector (Chronos Cluster).
  • Curators - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The governing hyperturings and archailects of the Fomalhaut Aquisition Society.
  • Customs  - Text by Anders Sandberg
    Duty levied on imports from foreign polities.
  • Cuticle  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    Any tough but flexible non-mineral outer covering of an organism or of one part of an organism, produced by underlying living material.
  • Cyanobacteria  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    Terragen prokaryotic organisms, sometimes also called blue-green algae.
  • Cybercide - Text by Max More; modified by Anders Sandberg in his Transhuman Terminology
    The killing of a virtual, which may be rl person's projected virtual persona, a copy or a simm. This may be part of an interactive or immersive virch game, or may be an act of vandalism or murder.
  • Cyberdemocracy  - Text by Ryan B
    Government by means of direct representation, and/or participation, via technological means (Internet, IPN, or LocalNet)
  • Cybergnosticism - Text by Anders Sandberg in Transhuman Terminology
    The belief that the physical world is impure or inefficient, and that existence in the form of "pure information" is better and should be pursued.
  • Cyberhermeticism  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Emergence and Expansion Age nanocyborg predecessors to Neohermeticism. Integrated classical hermetic and occult-mystical themes with proto-Keterist toposophical speculations
  • Cybernetic Livestock  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Robocows & so on
  • Cybernetics  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Stephen Inniss
    In popular usage, the study of the creation of cyborgs through the use of dryware/hylotech such as mechanical, electronic, and bionic implants, augments, and neuroprostheses. In technical usage, the study of communication and control systems based on regulatory feedback, with application in a number of fields such as sociology, memetics, biology, engineering, artificial intelligence, and information theory.
  • Cyborg Reproduction  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Acquired, inherited and engenerated cyborg characteristics
  • Cyborn  - Text by Mike Parisi
    Cyborns in the general sense (as opposed to members of Clade Cyborn) have an organic component that is grown with the express purpose in mind beforehand of being "mated" with its cybernetic component. They are therefore unlike ordinary Cyborgs or Borgs, who typically began life as viable bionts or vecs but later added other components. They often refer to themselves as True Cyborgs. Typically the organic component is "grown into" its cybernetic component. The latter is laid out beforehand and serves as a scaffold for this growth.
  • Cyborn, Clade  - Text by Mike Parisi
    This clade has its origin as part of the Twin Stream faction of the Genomorpher branch of the Genetekkers.
  • Cybrarian - Text by Anders Sandberg and M. Alan Kazlev
    A digital librarian, usually (if rl) a cyborg or (if virtual) a turingrade expert system, especially one hunting down truly obscure references.
  • Cybyota  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Mechanical/biological world-seeding and terraforming agents of non-Terragen origin that have apparently evolved into independent life forms since their origin.
  • Cycler  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A cycler is a ship or mobile habitat that travels continuously along an orbit or interstellar route in such a way that it makes a regular series of rendezvous with other stations, orbitals, planets, or stars along the way. Cyclers may be small or large, sparse or luxurious, slow or fast. They may be interplanetary (also called an Aldrin Cycler) or interstellar (also called a Schroeder Cycler), and may be completely passive (simple ballistic orbit) or may have course-correction drive units.
  • Cyclic Cosmology  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    In a number of memeticities and religions, the idea that the universe undergoes periodic cycles of emergence and dissolution. This implies that the cosmos is a closed universe, for which the evidence seems to be lacking. Some cyclo-omegists have suggested that there were a number of previous cycles, but now the universe will expand forever, in order to guarantee a perpetual divinised consummation.
  • Cygexpa  - Text by Anders Sandberg and M. Alan Kazlev
    Corporate Expansion Association active in Cygnus and Vulpecula.
  • Cygexpa Outer Volume  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Region to spinwards of the Cygnus Middle Regions, outwards of the Deneb Plexus. Also the region where the merchantile archailect Lohengrin is currently most active. Notable for the presence of xenosophonts such as the Muuh enclave around Muuhhome, the Meistersingers and the Wayfarers.
  • Cygnus Loop  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus, about 1470 light years from Sol. The supernova exploded about 17,000 years ago (approximately 6000 BT) and is still expanding, forming a cloud of gas. The nebula is almost spherical, with some bright filaments. The region has long been colonized by a number of exotic clades.
  • Cygnus OB2-12  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Massive, brilliant young star in Cygnus
  • Cygnus Volume - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Volume of space encompassing the constellation Cygnus as seen from SolSys; formerly incorporated into House Cygexpa.
  • Cygnus X-1  - Text by Steve Bowers
    High mass X-ray binary star system 5984 ly from Sol.
  • Cyloa  - Text by Michael Walton
    Aioid clade that use Voodoun and other Syncretic Archetypes
  • Cymbiotic  - Text by John B
    Beings unable to self-reproduce without physical/nanotech manipulation of their bodies.
  • Cymbium - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Genus of large, mostly tropical, Terragen marine snails, family Volutidae (Cymbiola, Melo, etc are similar). See also Cymbium sapiens.
  • Cymbium sapiens  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Provolved marine snail species and clade, Utopia Sphere and elsewhere.
  • Cypherpunk - Text by M. Alan Kazlev; from original in Anders Sandberg's Transhuman Terminology
    Any group or individual interested in the uses of encryption using electronic cyphers for enhancing personal privacy and guarding against tyranny by centralized, authoritarian power structures, especially government. Especially common and popular in the Cyberian Network and much of the NoCoZo.
  • Cyrano Mod  - Text by David Jackson
    Self-contained memetic-processing suite that monitors the conversation and analyzes the data being fed to it by physiological sensors with the purpose of suggesting dialogue that might favorably promote the user's desired outcome.
  • Cyrus  - Text by Mike Miller
    Outer Volumes colony, home of the Wind Cave of Cyrus
  • Cythera  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    HD 190771 I; a popular Inner Sphere tourist attraction renowned for its biological products and ecotechnology institutes.
  • Cytherea's Diadem  - Text by John M. Dollan
    Short-lived ring around Venus.
  • Cytherean type worlds  - Text by John M. Dollan
    Hot greenhouse worlds
  • Cytobot - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A bot approximately the size of a cell. Alternatively, a bionano or biomeso-based and/or built or grown organic device the size and shape of a biological cell; an artificial but still organic cell that can be given instructions like any nano or mesobot.
  • Cytosine - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A nucleotide; one of the two pyrimidines in terragen organic life. In Terragen DNA it is paired with guanine, to make the base pair G-C.