So, an update and some questions for the group.
I've pretty much finished adding the Glossary to all of the Topic pages in the EG. There may still be a few Topics I haven't come across yet, but figure I can do those as I come across em. I've also bounced the Common Terms section of the Primer up against the Glossary and made some adjustments there, mostly copying terms from the Common Terms section and replacing what is in the Glossary. I've also started capitalizing the terms in the Glossary and will probably make a few more minor tweaks over time.
Regarding my questions for the group: My next step in this process is to spend the rest of this month going through the EG and looking at the various minor Articles with an eye toward running them past the Forum and asking the following questions:
1) Keep as is (Note that this doesn't preclude folding the entry into a larger article or the like later, but one thing at a time).
2) Move to the Glossary.
3) Delete from the EG entirely.
To get the ball rolling, here is the first batch of terms:
1513: Independent minded cyborg-dominated prefecture near NGC 1513; in the Perseus Rift. Formally part of the Dominion, but in practice independent.
2d: Flat screen, non-holographic visual display.
3d: Three dimensional, holographic or phased optic array visual display.
5Ccos2: Perhaps the most pornographic of the aesthetic, mathematical, quantum-diffraction-pattern, crypto-alife commentary-icons created by "Little San".
Ablation; Ablative: Lo tech to hi tech cooling process in which heat is carried away from an object as the flow of a fluid (e.g. air) blows away the hot, melted or vapourized outer layers of the object.
Absolute Magnitude: The apparent magnitude that a star would have if it were located at a distance of 10 parsecs from the observer. The absolute magnitude, M, is related to the apparent magnitude, m, and true distance to the star, d.
Absolute, The: A term for the impersonal Supreme Reality, the Godhead, Brahman, Tao, etcetera. Also variously called The Grand Unity, Ultimate Singularity, Omega, Monomega, God, Godhead, Shunya, etc. Obviously, not all these terms overlap, or are even equivalent.
Absolutism: An absolute doctrine, principle, or opinion; the view that certain actions are absolutely right or wrong regardless of social customs or personal opinions. The opposite of relativism. Many religions and secular ideologies are absolutist in one or several matters. The interplay between absolutist and relativist positions is an important factor in inter-clade relations.
Acceleration: The rate of change of velocity. An object moving at a constant velocity in a coordinate system (reference frame) has zero acceleration. An object whose velocity is increasing has a positive acceleration; an object whose velocity is decreasing has a negative acceleration. Acceleration relative to a freely falling reference frame is experienced as gravity.
Acheulian Technology:
[1] Of, pertaining to, or typical of a Lower Paleolithic culture of the middle Pleistocene Epoch, characterized by large hand axes and cleavers made by the soft hammer technique.
[2] Stone tools made by Homo erectus. Among a few eccentric extreme neo-prim baseline groups, as well as among collectors and neopaleolithic craftsmen, reconstructing these is of some interest.
Acidophile: An organism with a pH optimum for growth at, or below, pH 3. A type of extremophile.
Active Galaxy: Galaxy whose center emits an unusually high amount of energy, possibly as the result of a super-massive black hole. Typical signatures of active galaxies are variable brightness, broad emission lines, and strong radio emission.
Adaptation: Any alteration in the structure or function of an organism by natural selection, that helps it survive in its environment. In the most general sense, adaptation is a feedback process in which external changes in an environment are mirrored by compensatory internal changes in an adaptive system. The actions of the adaptive unit can affect the environment, which, in turn, feeds information back to the adaptive system. Examples include Darwinian biological and alife selection and genetic algorithms, social systems, organic and nanogenic immune systems, natural and artificial neural networks, AIs, neumanns, and more.
Adaptive Radiation: The diversification of a morphotype or species as it adapts to different ecological niches. A single ancestral type in this way can evolve into a vast range of different descendants, each specialized for the new environment, and constituting a new phyle. May refer to both biological and alife replicators.
Adenine: A nucleotide; one of the two purine bases in terragen organic life. In DNA it is paired with thymine, to make the base pair A-T; in RNA paired with uracil to make the pair A-U. It also has several key roles in cellular respiration, as a component of such important molecules as ATP.
Adorate: Sophic enclave in the Perseus Arm, fallen to the Amalgamation in 8761.
Aeonomics: The study of the economics and economic problems of immortal existence, or pertaining to beings of indefinitely long lifespan. The term is derived from the words aeon and economics.
Aerobic: Living or occurring only in the presence of free oxygen. An aerobe is an organism that requires free oxygen. On Old Earth, eukaryotes and many prokaryotes are aerobic.
Agoric System: Open, free market systems in which voluntary transactions are central. A primary principle on many NoCoZo worlds.
Agricultural Revolution: The first stage of the Kardashev Type 0 Civilization, in which people move away from living as bands of gatherers and hunters, and begin to cluster into villages and develop culture. Cultivation of crops and tending of livestock enables a much higher population density than is possible with nomadic tribalism, and also allows specialization of labor, the development of skills and urbanization, writing, priesthood, slaveholding, taxes, a standing army, and other aspects of civilized culture.
Ahimsa: Harmlessness; non-violence; one of the cardinal virtues of many religions and ideologies. Originally a Sanskrit word. The sanctity of life is embodied in the teachings of the Buddhists and Jains, as well as of many Hindu schools and in many religious sects and phyles throughout the Zoeific Biopolity and the Utopia Sphere. Asoka, the first Buddhist emperor (Old Earth Classical Age), particularly espoused ahimsa as part of the practice of dharma. Zoe of Hibbert herself - the forerunner of the Green and Blue Goddess - has said "all life is sacred".
Airlock: An enclosed chamber with a heavy airtight door on either side. One door leads to space or some other environment (poisonous or dense atmosphere, underwater, etc.), the other to the inside of a ship, vehicle, or habitat. An airlock allows people or objects to leave or enter the vessel without decompressing or flooding it. Airlocks have safety features that prevent both doors being opened at once. In some instances airlocks are replaced by airwalls.
Airship: Another term for dirigible.
Akasa, Akasha: In Hindu and Tantric thought, cosmic space; the fifth cosmic element; the vehicle of mantra. In Theosophy and neotheosophy, the shining; ether, subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence which pervades all space, cosmic spirit-substance, the reservoir of being and of beings. In Nuage and neo-nuage thought, the substance on which the cosmic memory is imprinted; by reading this a clairvoyant is supposedly able to tap into past events - hence "akashic record".
Akasha: Important system in the Pleiades volume, founded by Nuage tweaks.
Akiyoshidai, The: Major arterial wormhole connecting Nova Terra and Djed.
Alaya-vijnana: In some schools of Buddhism, the "eighth consciousness" or cosmic mind, which serves as the repository of experiences from past life-times. The concept - originally developed by Old Earth Yogachara/Vijnanavada schools - was influential in Ch'an/Zen, and has been various interpreted and modified by a number of Sophic sects that have been in contact with the Centauri Vehicle of Buddhism.
Alchemy, Internal: An ancient Taoist tradition, adopted and further developed by Neo-taoist and Penglaist traditions, in which the practitioner seeks to conserve, cultivate, and transmute eir own ch'i energy, thus achieving bodily immortality without use of ultratech.
Alchemy, Psychological: An Atomic Age and to a lesser degree Information Age adaptation which rejected or simply psychologized the chemistry/pseudochemistry aspect of Hermetic Alchemy. Psychological alchemy concentrates on the psychological process of Individuation; it involves dream interpretation and personal mythopoeosis. Psychological Alchemy is very popular among followers of the School of Jung even today.
Aleph: A point or state where an infinite amount of information is stored and processed.
Algae: In the strictest sense, any of several otherwise unrelated Terragen organisms that are capable of photosynthesis but have a simpler organization than plants. Unlike plants they do not develop from embryos and do not produce complex organs. They may be single-celled or multicellular, and they are typically aquatic to semi-aquatic although a few live in moist terrestrial environments. Similar xenobiological organisms may also be called algae, and so may simple solar-powered and neumann-capable nanotech bots.
Algal Mat: Generic term for growth of simple Terragen or xenobiotic unicellular plants that form a thick scum on the surface of moist rocks, sand, tidal pools, and other such environments. On many Garden Worlds with simple ecosystems algal mats are the highest form of plant life.
Algieba School: Adaran philosophico-memetic phyle that asserts that retreating into personal pleasure was not totally in accordance with evolutionary hedonism.
Algorithm: A detailed and unambiguous sequence of instructions that describes how a computation is to proceed and can be implemented as a program.
Alkaliphile: An organism with optimal growth at pH values above 10. A type of extremophile.
Alpha (social class): In the Sophic League, the minority of hardworking bright and superbright tenders of hightech and ultratech who maintain the League's infrastructure.
Ambient Music: Popular among many contemplative polities and clades for thousands of years, this is a gentle, melodic, inspirational musical form involving the biont voice, Tibetan bells, harp, flute, tweaked protein phones, etc. It is also often used as an aid in meditation, healing, and general relaxation.
Amortalist: A person who opposes death, and who lives their life in such a way to continue their physical (or virtual) existence indefinitely. Many of the early cyborgs and transhumanists were amortalists.
Amphibian (biology): Terragen vertebrate animals that spend the early part of their life cycle in water breathing through gills, but usually live on land as air-breathing adults. They include frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, caecilians, labyrinthodonts, and a number of other forms. The term may also be used to refer to equivalent xenobionts.
Amphibian (gengineering): Human or other species that, although originally only adapted to live in a single environment, has been gen- and/or biomodded to exist in another environment as well; e.g. merpeople.
Amphibian (vehicle): A vehicle that can function equally well on or under the water and on land. See also Triphibious. Such vehicles are very popular on Pacifica, Oro Mistral, and other water worlds.
Anaerobic: Living in the absence of free oxygen; pertaining to or caused by the absence of oxygen. Eogaian planets are characterized by anaerobic conditions. An anaerobe is an organism, such as a bacterium, that does not require free oxygen to live (opposed to aerobe).
Anagnitics: The science of missing knowledge. This high-Sophont-level science/artform, as best can be described to the SI:<1 intellect, involves canvassing the entire body of knowledge available at a given place/time and 'mapping' that information on an 'information map' (both quoted terms are extreme simplifications according to the translating sophonts). This 'information map' can then be perused and, theoretically, voids of knowledge may be discovered - areas where there are physical restrictions/laws. (Agnitio - from latin "recognition, knowledge", and "an-" prefix for "not").
Anahats: Nearbaseline monastic phyle, Dewheat (Sophic League).
Anakalyptics: The science of discovering things in large amounts of information.
Ananda: In Hindu and Buddhist-based thought, transcendental bliss. According to Hindu Vedanta one of the three qualities of Brahman, the Absolute (the other two being Sat and Cit).
Anandayanna Nirvana: One of millions of popular devotionalist Sophic godbooks; based on a heavily didacto-fabulist interpretation of the life of the Seven Anandayannas. It is considered literal truth by the Balany Valus and other recent sects. Includes the Transcension of Andapuyaran, which is more often distributed as a separate work.
Anarchy (chaos): No organized government at all. Some SI:<1 feral/pirate/barbarian regions in the outer volumes have with this type (or lack) of government. This sort of arrangement always is replaced by another more organised but still short-lived form of government - e.g. Dictatorship, or more often through conquest by a neighboring state, government, or military power.
Anarchy (self-rule): Rule by individual responsibility, creativity, and input. A sort of meta-socialism/meta-democracy. This type of government requires advanced emotional and spiritual development, usually a society of superiors. Such government types can be very long-lived.
Anatman, Anatta: Non-self, non-spirit, non-egoity; one of the central tenets of Buddhist doctrine; the absence of an unchanging, permanent self or soul.
Anatomy: The study of the physical structure of biological creatures, both terragen and alien, sub-sophont and sophont, natural and applied (e.g. bionano, bioborg). An important sub-field of medical science.
Thanks!
Todd
I've pretty much finished adding the Glossary to all of the Topic pages in the EG. There may still be a few Topics I haven't come across yet, but figure I can do those as I come across em. I've also bounced the Common Terms section of the Primer up against the Glossary and made some adjustments there, mostly copying terms from the Common Terms section and replacing what is in the Glossary. I've also started capitalizing the terms in the Glossary and will probably make a few more minor tweaks over time.
Regarding my questions for the group: My next step in this process is to spend the rest of this month going through the EG and looking at the various minor Articles with an eye toward running them past the Forum and asking the following questions:
1) Keep as is (Note that this doesn't preclude folding the entry into a larger article or the like later, but one thing at a time).
2) Move to the Glossary.
3) Delete from the EG entirely.
To get the ball rolling, here is the first batch of terms:
1513: Independent minded cyborg-dominated prefecture near NGC 1513; in the Perseus Rift. Formally part of the Dominion, but in practice independent.
2d: Flat screen, non-holographic visual display.
3d: Three dimensional, holographic or phased optic array visual display.
5Ccos2: Perhaps the most pornographic of the aesthetic, mathematical, quantum-diffraction-pattern, crypto-alife commentary-icons created by "Little San".
Ablation; Ablative: Lo tech to hi tech cooling process in which heat is carried away from an object as the flow of a fluid (e.g. air) blows away the hot, melted or vapourized outer layers of the object.
Absolute Magnitude: The apparent magnitude that a star would have if it were located at a distance of 10 parsecs from the observer. The absolute magnitude, M, is related to the apparent magnitude, m, and true distance to the star, d.
Absolute, The: A term for the impersonal Supreme Reality, the Godhead, Brahman, Tao, etcetera. Also variously called The Grand Unity, Ultimate Singularity, Omega, Monomega, God, Godhead, Shunya, etc. Obviously, not all these terms overlap, or are even equivalent.
Absolutism: An absolute doctrine, principle, or opinion; the view that certain actions are absolutely right or wrong regardless of social customs or personal opinions. The opposite of relativism. Many religions and secular ideologies are absolutist in one or several matters. The interplay between absolutist and relativist positions is an important factor in inter-clade relations.
Acceleration: The rate of change of velocity. An object moving at a constant velocity in a coordinate system (reference frame) has zero acceleration. An object whose velocity is increasing has a positive acceleration; an object whose velocity is decreasing has a negative acceleration. Acceleration relative to a freely falling reference frame is experienced as gravity.
Acheulian Technology:
[1] Of, pertaining to, or typical of a Lower Paleolithic culture of the middle Pleistocene Epoch, characterized by large hand axes and cleavers made by the soft hammer technique.
[2] Stone tools made by Homo erectus. Among a few eccentric extreme neo-prim baseline groups, as well as among collectors and neopaleolithic craftsmen, reconstructing these is of some interest.
Acidophile: An organism with a pH optimum for growth at, or below, pH 3. A type of extremophile.
Active Galaxy: Galaxy whose center emits an unusually high amount of energy, possibly as the result of a super-massive black hole. Typical signatures of active galaxies are variable brightness, broad emission lines, and strong radio emission.
Adaptation: Any alteration in the structure or function of an organism by natural selection, that helps it survive in its environment. In the most general sense, adaptation is a feedback process in which external changes in an environment are mirrored by compensatory internal changes in an adaptive system. The actions of the adaptive unit can affect the environment, which, in turn, feeds information back to the adaptive system. Examples include Darwinian biological and alife selection and genetic algorithms, social systems, organic and nanogenic immune systems, natural and artificial neural networks, AIs, neumanns, and more.
Adaptive Radiation: The diversification of a morphotype or species as it adapts to different ecological niches. A single ancestral type in this way can evolve into a vast range of different descendants, each specialized for the new environment, and constituting a new phyle. May refer to both biological and alife replicators.
Adenine: A nucleotide; one of the two purine bases in terragen organic life. In DNA it is paired with thymine, to make the base pair A-T; in RNA paired with uracil to make the pair A-U. It also has several key roles in cellular respiration, as a component of such important molecules as ATP.
Adorate: Sophic enclave in the Perseus Arm, fallen to the Amalgamation in 8761.
Aeonomics: The study of the economics and economic problems of immortal existence, or pertaining to beings of indefinitely long lifespan. The term is derived from the words aeon and economics.
Aerobic: Living or occurring only in the presence of free oxygen. An aerobe is an organism that requires free oxygen. On Old Earth, eukaryotes and many prokaryotes are aerobic.
Agoric System: Open, free market systems in which voluntary transactions are central. A primary principle on many NoCoZo worlds.
Agricultural Revolution: The first stage of the Kardashev Type 0 Civilization, in which people move away from living as bands of gatherers and hunters, and begin to cluster into villages and develop culture. Cultivation of crops and tending of livestock enables a much higher population density than is possible with nomadic tribalism, and also allows specialization of labor, the development of skills and urbanization, writing, priesthood, slaveholding, taxes, a standing army, and other aspects of civilized culture.
Ahimsa: Harmlessness; non-violence; one of the cardinal virtues of many religions and ideologies. Originally a Sanskrit word. The sanctity of life is embodied in the teachings of the Buddhists and Jains, as well as of many Hindu schools and in many religious sects and phyles throughout the Zoeific Biopolity and the Utopia Sphere. Asoka, the first Buddhist emperor (Old Earth Classical Age), particularly espoused ahimsa as part of the practice of dharma. Zoe of Hibbert herself - the forerunner of the Green and Blue Goddess - has said "all life is sacred".
Airlock: An enclosed chamber with a heavy airtight door on either side. One door leads to space or some other environment (poisonous or dense atmosphere, underwater, etc.), the other to the inside of a ship, vehicle, or habitat. An airlock allows people or objects to leave or enter the vessel without decompressing or flooding it. Airlocks have safety features that prevent both doors being opened at once. In some instances airlocks are replaced by airwalls.
Airship: Another term for dirigible.
Akasa, Akasha: In Hindu and Tantric thought, cosmic space; the fifth cosmic element; the vehicle of mantra. In Theosophy and neotheosophy, the shining; ether, subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence which pervades all space, cosmic spirit-substance, the reservoir of being and of beings. In Nuage and neo-nuage thought, the substance on which the cosmic memory is imprinted; by reading this a clairvoyant is supposedly able to tap into past events - hence "akashic record".
Akasha: Important system in the Pleiades volume, founded by Nuage tweaks.
Akiyoshidai, The: Major arterial wormhole connecting Nova Terra and Djed.
Alaya-vijnana: In some schools of Buddhism, the "eighth consciousness" or cosmic mind, which serves as the repository of experiences from past life-times. The concept - originally developed by Old Earth Yogachara/Vijnanavada schools - was influential in Ch'an/Zen, and has been various interpreted and modified by a number of Sophic sects that have been in contact with the Centauri Vehicle of Buddhism.
Alchemy, Internal: An ancient Taoist tradition, adopted and further developed by Neo-taoist and Penglaist traditions, in which the practitioner seeks to conserve, cultivate, and transmute eir own ch'i energy, thus achieving bodily immortality without use of ultratech.
Alchemy, Psychological: An Atomic Age and to a lesser degree Information Age adaptation which rejected or simply psychologized the chemistry/pseudochemistry aspect of Hermetic Alchemy. Psychological alchemy concentrates on the psychological process of Individuation; it involves dream interpretation and personal mythopoeosis. Psychological Alchemy is very popular among followers of the School of Jung even today.
Aleph: A point or state where an infinite amount of information is stored and processed.
Algae: In the strictest sense, any of several otherwise unrelated Terragen organisms that are capable of photosynthesis but have a simpler organization than plants. Unlike plants they do not develop from embryos and do not produce complex organs. They may be single-celled or multicellular, and they are typically aquatic to semi-aquatic although a few live in moist terrestrial environments. Similar xenobiological organisms may also be called algae, and so may simple solar-powered and neumann-capable nanotech bots.
Algal Mat: Generic term for growth of simple Terragen or xenobiotic unicellular plants that form a thick scum on the surface of moist rocks, sand, tidal pools, and other such environments. On many Garden Worlds with simple ecosystems algal mats are the highest form of plant life.
Algieba School: Adaran philosophico-memetic phyle that asserts that retreating into personal pleasure was not totally in accordance with evolutionary hedonism.
Algorithm: A detailed and unambiguous sequence of instructions that describes how a computation is to proceed and can be implemented as a program.
Alkaliphile: An organism with optimal growth at pH values above 10. A type of extremophile.
Alpha (social class): In the Sophic League, the minority of hardworking bright and superbright tenders of hightech and ultratech who maintain the League's infrastructure.
Ambient Music: Popular among many contemplative polities and clades for thousands of years, this is a gentle, melodic, inspirational musical form involving the biont voice, Tibetan bells, harp, flute, tweaked protein phones, etc. It is also often used as an aid in meditation, healing, and general relaxation.
Amortalist: A person who opposes death, and who lives their life in such a way to continue their physical (or virtual) existence indefinitely. Many of the early cyborgs and transhumanists were amortalists.
Amphibian (biology): Terragen vertebrate animals that spend the early part of their life cycle in water breathing through gills, but usually live on land as air-breathing adults. They include frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, caecilians, labyrinthodonts, and a number of other forms. The term may also be used to refer to equivalent xenobionts.
Amphibian (gengineering): Human or other species that, although originally only adapted to live in a single environment, has been gen- and/or biomodded to exist in another environment as well; e.g. merpeople.
Amphibian (vehicle): A vehicle that can function equally well on or under the water and on land. See also Triphibious. Such vehicles are very popular on Pacifica, Oro Mistral, and other water worlds.
Anaerobic: Living in the absence of free oxygen; pertaining to or caused by the absence of oxygen. Eogaian planets are characterized by anaerobic conditions. An anaerobe is an organism, such as a bacterium, that does not require free oxygen to live (opposed to aerobe).
Anagnitics: The science of missing knowledge. This high-Sophont-level science/artform, as best can be described to the SI:<1 intellect, involves canvassing the entire body of knowledge available at a given place/time and 'mapping' that information on an 'information map' (both quoted terms are extreme simplifications according to the translating sophonts). This 'information map' can then be perused and, theoretically, voids of knowledge may be discovered - areas where there are physical restrictions/laws. (Agnitio - from latin "recognition, knowledge", and "an-" prefix for "not").
Anahats: Nearbaseline monastic phyle, Dewheat (Sophic League).
Anakalyptics: The science of discovering things in large amounts of information.
Ananda: In Hindu and Buddhist-based thought, transcendental bliss. According to Hindu Vedanta one of the three qualities of Brahman, the Absolute (the other two being Sat and Cit).
Anandayanna Nirvana: One of millions of popular devotionalist Sophic godbooks; based on a heavily didacto-fabulist interpretation of the life of the Seven Anandayannas. It is considered literal truth by the Balany Valus and other recent sects. Includes the Transcension of Andapuyaran, which is more often distributed as a separate work.
Anarchy (chaos): No organized government at all. Some SI:<1 feral/pirate/barbarian regions in the outer volumes have with this type (or lack) of government. This sort of arrangement always is replaced by another more organised but still short-lived form of government - e.g. Dictatorship, or more often through conquest by a neighboring state, government, or military power.
Anarchy (self-rule): Rule by individual responsibility, creativity, and input. A sort of meta-socialism/meta-democracy. This type of government requires advanced emotional and spiritual development, usually a society of superiors. Such government types can be very long-lived.
Anatman, Anatta: Non-self, non-spirit, non-egoity; one of the central tenets of Buddhist doctrine; the absence of an unchanging, permanent self or soul.
Anatomy: The study of the physical structure of biological creatures, both terragen and alien, sub-sophont and sophont, natural and applied (e.g. bionano, bioborg). An important sub-field of medical science.
Thanks!
Todd