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Giant Ring of the Archsaur, The

A very large ringworld orbiting a bright, partially disassembled star

Giant Ring plate
Image from Steve Bowers
To date, only small sections of the Giant Ring have been fully completed, This section is 2.5 million kilometres wide, and fifteen million kilometers long.
SystemGiant Ring of the ArchSaur (formerly known as M39-2-52)

Distance from Sol: 1010ly

Region: Middle regions, Archaipelago Cluster (M39)

Stars: the former binary system consisting of a B7V type subgiant with 4.3 solar masses and an A0V type subgiant with 2.4 solar masses has been completely re-arranged. Total mass of the system is about 6.8 solar masses
Important local artificial intelligencesAI overseer: ArchSaur (S5)
AI ethos: expansionist, interventionist, protective of its citizens
Polity name: Archosaurian Empire
Economics and Local InfrastructureMajor Industries: currently mainly godtech products, ISO parts and megascale engineering

Stargates: Five 1 kilometer gauge stargates, and an extensive commgauge wormhole network inter- and intra-system.

History

This system, on the outer edge of the Archaipelago Cluster was originally a binary star system consisting of a B7V type subgiant with 4.3 solar masses and an A0V type subgiant with 2.4 solar masses encircling a common barycenter with a mean separation of 18.6 AU. The larger B type star was encircled by a single superjovian planet with 3.7 Jupiter masses in a distance of 3.7 AU while the smaller one had no planet-sized orbiting bodies. The entire system was surrounded by a large Oort cloud with a multitude of bodies up to dwarf-planet size. First probes arrived around 5400AT and a group of first toposophic AIs with solipsist tendencies claimed the system, established a presence around the superjovian planet and slowly began transforming some of its moons to computronium structures.

By the early 6000s the AIs, by now known as the Deep Dreamers, had ascended to second toposophic level and transferred the largest 6 moons of the gas giant into moon-brain nodes. They declared the system off-limits for other entities and removed several small hider colonies from the Oort cloud by non-lethal means. The status-quo remained more or less unchanged for almost 2000 years with the Deep Dreamers exploring abstract spaces in their vast cybercosms and with little interaction with neighboring systems.

Things changed abruptly after the Archaipelago attacks of 8400AT. After the ArchSaur archailect subsumed UrchinStar, she sent out a task force that apparently was able to memetically subvert or subsume the Dreamers without firing a single shot. In the aftermath of these events, the ArchSaur consolidated control over the system and began installing starlifting equipment around the two stars and started disassembling the superjovian planet for building more starlifting systems and computronium structures. Following the ascension of the ArchSaur to fifth toposopic level, this process began to accelerate considerably, with the nascent matrioshka brain rapidly being turned into a magplasma processor based, omega class matrioshka hypernode. Also by that time the first magmatter filaments for the construction of the Giant Ring were created from the matter extracted from the smaller star and accelerated up to speed apparently using a variant of the halo drive. In 10223AT the plans for the Giant Ring of the ArchSaur were announced to the wider galaxy.


Giant Ring of the Archsaur
Image from Steve Bowers
At the centre of the Giant Ring is the partially-disassembled star, in the process of becoming a Matrioshka Hypernode

The system today

By today the approximately 4-solar-mass matrioshka hypernode seems to be almost finished, with a vast plasma processor core and increasingly cooler matrioshka shells extending outwards almost 12 AU. The 6 original Dreamer moon brains remain in the hypernode swarm but have been utterly transformed to plasma processor moon nodes orbiting the center of the hypernode swarm at their original distance of 3.7 AU arranged as a Klemperer Rosette. Based upon observed weylforge activity during construction, the hypernode seems to be heavily interlinked with comm gauge wormholes.

It is believed that this node is a part of theArchSaurs growing wormhole-linked ISO system with the ultimate goal of turning the Archaipelago into a cluster brain and ascending to sixth toposophic level in the future. While the ArchSaur (or other archailects for that matter) is not commenting on these issues, this hypothesis is supported by the fact that currently 31 systems in the Archaipelago have been transformed to various computronium megastructures or are in the process of being turned into ones.

The outer system and the region around the outer, smaller star, is bristling with activity, with the outer star being an almost disassembled, hot glowing remnant and vast construction swarms, computronium structures, magmatter factories and q-mirror arrays hundreds of kilometers in diameter being scattered around it. From this stellar scale construction site, streams of mass and energy are pumped into the creation of the Giant Ring. The magmatter support skeleton of this vast future ringworld is already clearly visible, with a ring radius of 22AU and a width of 2.500.000km. The first two complete segments of the ring, measuring 2.5 million by 2.5 million km have already been finished and welcomed their first several million residents over the last three years. Residents have described the living conditions as "paradisiac" and registration numbers for future migration to the ring have recently surged to more than 100 billion registrations. The observed tangential velocity of 5600km/sec already is consistent with the announced surface gravity of approximately 0.96g and the influx of matter over the last several decades seems to be consistent with the announced plan to finish construction in about 500 years.

Further out, at distances up to 1000 AU, various habitats ranging in size up to McKendree Cylinders and computronium structures up to small moon brains are scattered throughout the outer system. Also five 1km wormholes are located in the outer system, one leading to the Toh Chi Lok-Nar Habitat Cluster (the Archosaurian Empire capital system), one to Heaven Watch (Urchinstars sytem), and indirect link to to Abydos (Solar Dominion), another to Kepleria (MPA) and one to Cygnus OB2-12 (Solipsist Panvirtuality).


Archsaurs Meeting
Image from Steve Bowers
A meeting between archosaurians on the Giant Ring. Distant segments of the ring under construction can be seen in the sky

Plans for the future

The Archosaurian Empire has detailed the plans for the so-called Giant Ring of the ArchSaur to the wider galaxy, apparently in a kind of openness and soft-power offensive and to attract diverse groups of sophonts to the Archaipelago. Some observers interpret this as a strategy to kind of close the gap to the Sephirotic powers and to create the diverse foundation for a possible future sixth toposophic empire.

According to the plan, the Giant Ring will have a mass of approximately 4x10^29 kg (or about 20% of a solar mass) and offer a habitable land area of approximately 101 million gaian type planets. Lighting will be provided by about 8300 luminaires, each providing illumination for a square 2.5 million x 2.5 million km. The luminaires are located about 15 million km inwards of the ring and have a power output of 2.13x10^21w when providing earth-like average illumination, corresponding to the mass-energy of about 24.000kg of matter per second. Each one incorporates a dedicated S1 level environmental control hyperturing AI, connected to the Ring with a dedicated wormhole link, and allowing very fine-grained environmental and weather control in close, real-time coordination with the ring's angelnets. The entire structure is designed with extreme longevity in mind and the luminaires will initially be powered by Hawking's Knots, with a mass/energy budget of 1.8x10^47J. As an earth-like planet receives 1.74x10^17w the Ring needs 1,75x10^25w for earth-like irradiance (4.57% of solar output) so the reserves are enough to provide earth-like irradiance for the entire structure for at least 3.1 quadrillion years; 211.000 times the current age of the universe.

According to new observations this intricate system will only be the backup for an extensive phased-array system installed at the outer edge of the hypernode to better utilize the waste energy of that immense structure. Energy output and demand of hypernodes and other computational megastructures can vary immensely based upon the current need of the high toposophic entities involved, so a backup system independent of the hypernode is widely considered a wise choice. Dynamic stabilization of the structure will be facilitated by a variant of a thin-spread halo drive, surrounding the Ring as well as through electromagnetic interaction with the outer ring. Angelnetting will be ubiquitous, thus making the Ring an exceedingly safe and secure environment for all its future inhabitants. Additionally to the vast living space of the Ring, future residents will also enjoy exceedingly expansive cybercosms and data nets. A large percentage of the magcarbon support structure and diamondoid and graphene structures that form the foundation of the entire landscape are also high-singularity computronium. The possible number of virtual entities the Ring could harbor, are almost beyond comprehension and the cybercosms and data nets will serve the needs of even the most demanding future inhabitants of the ring, up to and including transsapients of second singularity rating (information directed at interested transsapients was sent out, much being incomprehensible to baselines and apparently dealing more with the cybercosms than with the physical ring). The communication system of the entire Ring is designed as a real-time environment, with public picometer gauge wormhole links every 1000km for a total of 52billion wormholes with a mass of 3.5x10^27kg (1.85 Jupiter masses). The total energy demand of the wormhole bus network is 5.2x10^22W when working at a moderate input level of 10^12W per link, resulting in an aggregated bandwidth of 2x10^35bit/s for long-haul communication. This allows for high-bandwidth communication between any two points of the Ring with a latency of 5 milliseconds max.

Outwards of the rotating inner ring, a non-rotating outer ring of equal dimensions is positioned, with just a few meters of separation. This massive stationary structure serves three purposes: firstly it protects the fast-rotating inner ring from micro meteors and other hazards, as even small objects can cause damage when hitting a surface moving at almost 2 percent of light speed. Secondly it stabilizes the rotating ring via magnetic interaction between the two magmatter structures. Thirdly and most importantly, it houses the fourth toposophic archailect the the ArchSaur will task with being the guardian of the ring. This outer ring will mass roughly 0.8 solar masses and consists mainly of micron-thick magcarbon computronium sheets and thin bands of plasma processors stretching across the outer shell like an intricate artwork of glowing veins that radiate their waste-heat away from the ring. The wormhole network will be far more encompassing than the one of the inner ring, with an estimated 0.1 solar masses of commgauge wormholes distributed throughout the ringbrain archailect. According to the (unverifiable) advertising, this future archailect will be an S3 throneship AI of the ArchSaur fleet who will ascend to S4 level under direct control and supervision of the ArchSaur herself.

Topography and special places

The vast landscape of the Giant Ring will stretch 20.73 billion kilometers in circumference and 2.5 million kilometers in width and offer almost every possible topography and climate that is possible within a gaian ecology and about 1g of surface gravity. The rimwalls will be formed by the so-called northern and southern giga-ridges, chains of increasingly taller mountain ranges totally about 25.000km wide with the outermost ridge about 1.000km high. They will be the largest contiguous mountain ranges in the terragen sphere even though they just occupy a combined 2 percent of the area of the ringworld. Already many members of the Panthera Ultiuncia clade, a clade of provolved superbright and transsapient snow leopards, expressed their interest to migrate to the ring and roam those vast mountain ranges.

Totally, the area of the ringworld will be 57% water and 43% land. Most of the land area will consist of smaller continents and islands maximized for long shorelines and a landscape rich in variety. Nevertheless, there will be exceptions to this general rule, with some continents offering deserts, rain forests, prairies or tundras the size of entire gaian planets or even larger. For example the continent Carboferrya will house a rain forest resembling the "coal forests" of old earths' carboniferous period on an area approximately 581 times the total area of earth. Other notable exceptions in size are the four capital "teracities", exceedingly vast cities littered with sky- and starscrapers, each with an area of about 1 trillion square kilometers. These cities are located mid-way of the ring's width at the 90-, 180-, 270- and 360 degree position of the ring and have the capacity to house quadrillions of people once finished. Special destinations are also the replicas of earth during each geologic period starting with the cryogenian period as well as replicas of every garden world in the terragen sphere. Also, the entire ring can be circumvented by sea. Most seas and oceans are shallow, to allow for the most diverse ecosystems, but some areas and trenches can be more than 10km deep. A voyage around the ring with a cruise ship traveling at 30km/h would take almost 79.000 years without ever stopping. A lot of adventurers are attracted by the outlook to a life of constant travel. On the ring someone could travel for billions of years, just to stay for one year on every continent. In addition to the mostly Gaian ecology of the ring, there will be several planet-sized zones separated with angelnets and other godtech smart barriers that contain non-gaian ecologies of all kinds to offer a place for even the most extreme clades or alien species like the Muuh.
 
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Appears in Topics
Archosaurian Empire Megascale EngineeringMiddle Regions/Hinter-regions
Systems & Worlds A - B
 
Development Notes
Text by Marcel Lossi
Initially published on 01 August 2020.

 
 
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