Image from Bernd Helfert and Steve Bowers

Categories

• AI Asperger's Syndrome  - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Autistic tendency that often characterized early (pre-Federation) AIs. Although brilliant, they simply didn't "get" human behavior. Hence they spent a lot of time carefully collecting data to see what worked and what didn't, preferring to affect humans through formal channels rather than overt manipulation. The memetic engineering in the "singularity conspiracy" took a lot of time to achieve.
  
• Barbie - Barbarian  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Generic term for technologically inferior races, polities, or phyles away from the main Nexus.
  
• Baseline Ascent, Problems of Failed  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  A widespread social problem in the civilized worlds - especially those regions outside the angelnetted capitals, is the problem of baseline intelligent sophonts - especially near-baseline humans and equivalents of other races, attempting to their way to the higher toposophic levels without suitable preparation.
  
• Best Friend Sophtware  - Text by Steve Bowers
  A psychological simulation is made of a targeted individual, allowing the user to gain near perfect insight into the target's preferences.
  
• Calcutta Syndrome - Text by David Krieger, in Anders Sandberg'sTranshuman Terminology
  The condition in which the ratio of available mass to population falls below the minimum level necessary to support a given quality of life (M/P < mC).
  
• Chaos, The  - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Myth of impending collapse in the Terragen Sphere.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• Cladism (adaptationist) - Text by Anders Sandberg
  The view that people should not adopt planets to suit themselves, but instead adapt to the planet. Cladists generally have a distaste for terraforming projects, or opt for only minimal terraforming.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• Codominionism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Blanket term for any socio-ideological or memetic movement that advocates equal sharing of power between two disparate clades or categories of sophonts - e.g. between hu and ai (see also Fedhead).
  
• Colonist  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Sophont being who leaves eir homeworld to colonize a new solar system.
  
• Companion (status)  - Text by John B
  Hider and Semperist term of abuse for sophonts dependent on higher toposophic minds.
  
• 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").
  
• Deathism  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Set of beliefs and attitudes which glorify or accept death and reject immortality. Deathism became a particular moral issue from the late interplanetary period onwards, when advanced medical nanotech allowed an individual to prolong eir existence indefinitely. The widespread availability of reliable "copy" or mind upload technology in the First Federation period removed even the danger of accidental death, except for those who did not consider uploads to be part of their personal identity.
  
• Dedicated Hyperturing  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev; amended by Steve Bowers
  An ai of hyperturing problem solving capacity (hypersapience) but not hyperturing auto-sentience. This allows beings of a lower toposophic level access to advanced technology which can only be controlled by a higher transapient.
  
• Dirtsider  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  'Dirtsider', like the alternative epithets 'mudballer', 'toker', and 'hokie' is a pre-Technocalypse term for (usually unskilled and poorly equipped) immigrants and refugees from Earth.
  
• Djangalla Reformism  - Text by Anders Sandberg
  A simplicity-and-independence movement that arose in the 2900-3300 period in counteraction to the Empires. Djangallists claimed the growth of the empires and transformation of megacorps into hereditary houses was leading to stagnation and repression.
  
• Entrepreneur - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  A sentient being that undertakes the risks of production in order to make a profit.
  
• Experiants  - Text by Anders Sandberg
  Beings who enjoy or thrive on the experiences of other beings.
  
• Factotums  - Text by Dagon
  Generic term for degenerate discarded, obsolete or homeless vecs or bots.
  
• Frankenstein Syndrome  - Text by Stephen Inniss
  Many of the uninformed believe the story of Frankenstein to be historical. Scholars have in fact identified it as a cautionary tale from the late Industrial Age on Old Earth: created sophonts, particularly those who are unhappy, may come to despise their creators and even seek to destroy them.
  
• Gardeners  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Hyperturing through to lesser archailect political orientation, refers to those ai that will directly encourage and cultivate lower toposophics in their polity or territory, but only along their preferred morphotypal, memetic, and/or political lines. Any sophonts that don't fit in are quickly weeded out. Gardeners are found in all ai metaempires, but are most common in the Sephirotics and Diamond Network regions.
  
• God  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  [1] Colloquially, one of the most powerful Archailects. Each Archailect embodies a particular noetic archetype, reflected in the large region of interstellar space under its influence.
  [2] In religion, a being with supernatural attributes and powers, often the recipient of worship and sometimes seen as creator of all or part of the universe.
  [3] The personal hypostasis of the Godhead or the Inner Light.
  [4] In metaphysics or philosophy, the first cause or first principle, which precedes the cosmos logically (but, unlike religion, not necessarily sequentially)
  
• God Dwellers  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Sentient to transapient entities who live inside the structures of archailects.
  
• Hider Symbiotes  - Text by Tony Jones
  A technique by certain Hider clades to allow them to remain on life-bearing worlds, sometimes even in the very heart of their sophont community, and yet also to remain undetected.
  
• Historico-Sociomorphotypal Criticism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Social Science that deals with the understanding and analysis of the morphotypic, social, and cultural characteristics and evolution of a clade, culture, memeplex, or polity; used to distinguish the real meaning from the apparent and usually popular literal or superficial interpretation. An important element in historical and cliological reconstructions.
  
• Hokie - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  See dirtsider.
  
• Hulkriders  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Hulkriders are believed to be Hulkchasers that settled permanently in a space hulk, either through choice or through being subverted by the defense systems or the relics left behind by a transcend.
  
• Ideology - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  The body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, clade, or culture.
  
• Inactivate - Text by After Max More in Anders Sandberg's Transhuman Terminology
  A person who is non-living but is not dead in the permanent sense. The person might be in biostasis, or shut-down mode or subsisting in data storage, awaiting downloading, and is not in any way active. This term may apply to any sort of being of any from (biont, vec, cyborg, aioid, etc.)
  
• Lifegiver - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  [1] Term for a Zoeific Biopolity Power or Archai (equivalent to "My Lord", "Blessed One" etc.)
  [2] Polite/respectful term for a Zoeific hyperturing
  [3] Formal respectful Zoeific term for a superior - equivalent to "Zar" ("Sir"), "Highness" etc.
  
• Meatling - Text by John B
  Derogatory term used by some members of vec or alife clades for bionts or for partially biont beings such as cyborgs. Has been known to start many a bar brawl or equivalent socially acceptable hostile reaction, from lawsuit to return insult to social stigma to loss of trading privileges.
  
• Morphological Freedom  - Text by Max More, in Anders Sandberg's Transhuman Terminology
  The option and decision to alter one's bodily form at will through technologies such as augmentation, genetic engineering, nanotechnology and uploading.
  
• Mudballer - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  See dirtsider.
  
• Neophyte (Neo or Newb)  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  A newcomer to Sephirotic society, coming from a newly contacted colony or independent world.
  
• Non-fungible Goods and Services in Post-scarcity Societies  - Text by Ryan B
  No post-scarcity economy has truly eliminated scarcity; there will always be certain commodities that are scarce, even if copies can be mass produced.
  
• Optimal Persona - Text by Modified from Max More in Anders Sandberg's Transhuman terminology
  In high choice societies and individuals, an imagined model of the ideal person or entity one wishes to become. The Optimal Persona is the ideal self, the higher (and continually developing) individual, which can be attained through augmentation, yogic development, and other techniques.
  
• Plebhu  - Text by Stephen Inniss, from the original by M. Alan Kazlev
  An ordinary, undistinguished human, usually a nearbaseline. Depending on the speaker and context this may be simply a description, but in some usages the term implies mediocrity, or may be intended as an insult.
  
• Plebvec  - Text by Tony Jones and Stephen Inniss
  A typical or ordinary vec.
  
• Plebware - Text by Tony Jones
  A name given to the vast mass of 'baseline' virch, AI and alife entities to be found in software systems of various kinds all across Terragens space, usually by those who are ignorant of the truly vast diversity of the entities inhabiting these systems and who, seeing only their similarities when viewed from 'outside', are happy to lump them all together.
  
• Pod - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  A social group of baseline whales. Among cetacean provolves (enhanced dolphins, gaian whales, etc.), pod has various meanings, ranging from a small family or social group to a community, a ship's crew, a polity, or (rarely and usually poetically) an entire clade.
  
• Polyphyle - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  A phyle, clade, or any other group, the members of which are similar in appearance or nature or culture, but do not share a common ancestry. Also known as multiphyle. Contrast with monophyle. See also morphotype.
  
• Polysomatic Intellects  - Text by John B
  Intellects that utilize more than one discrete physical node for their processing. This includes many wide varieties of sophonts, from the anttechians to the multi-Mbrain Sephirotic 'Gods'.
  
• Post-scarcity  - Text by Stephen Inniss
  Societies and economies in which materials, energy, information, and labour are superabundant and all of the material needs and most of the ordinary material desires of ordinary sapient beings in them are readily available.
  
• Post-scarcity Economies: Characteristics and Considerations  - Text by Ryan B
  Post-scarcity economies are common in the Terragen Sphere, especially in the Sephirotic empires. In these societies abundant material resources, energy, information, and automation are available for use by consumers with few restrictions.
  
• Recursive Arcology  - Text by John B
  Virch-based existence in which there is significant conflict between sophonts within a virch, each virch has significant conflicts for computronium, each computronium substrate has significant conflicts for power, and each power producer has significant conflicts for limited supplies of matter.
  
• Scale Anxiety - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  The fear that a sophont or polity or clade of a lower or slower technological grade or density feels when confronted with a sentient or polity or phyle of a higher grade of tech or density. e.g. SI:<1 sophonts may feel anxious or intimidated by transapient powers, especially if the latter behave in an unpredictable or seemingly irrational way.
  
• Sleepwalkers  - Text by Tony Jones
  Modification and widespread genemod - allowing baseline human-equivalent functioning and interactions on a minimal level of consciousness. Used as a means of social control in some unethical polities.
  
• Social Preserves  - Text by Tony Jones
  Social Preserves are worlds or habitats where the local society has been carefully frozen at a particular stage or form, and where those who are most comfortable with that society and who do not wish to change go and live while the rest of Terragens society moves on around them. Many of the inhabitants of these worlds are effectively the reverse of the Willowsoph, refusing to adapt to changing times.
  
• Societeum  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  A self-contained physical and social environment isolated from the rest of civilisation and maintained in a particular state (almost always by transapients). In effect a living museum, displaying an interesting form of society.
  
• Sooboo  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  One who fails to achieve superior or transapient status but fails and acquires disabilities due to misapplied or defective augmentation programs.
  
• Sovereign, Toposophic  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  A being who is the ruler of a polity, city, habitat, nation, world or empire as a result of their toposophic superiority over other sophonts in eir sphere of influence.
  
• Stratificationism  - Text by Mark Ryherd
  A broad ideological movement that strives for separation of individuals and societies based on toposophic level.
  
• Symbiotics  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Sentient beings that help maintain a larger structure such as a large hab, ship, or ISO. These may be simple bots or animals, but may also be entire tribes or nations of modosophonts.
  
• Systems of Resource Allocation  - Text by Ryan B
  A by no means exhaustive list of just some of the varied approaches post-scarcity economies take resource allocation.
  
• Terrachauvinism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Belief that Terragen life and intelligence is superior to other lifeforms and intelligent beings in the galaxy, and that this is the reason why the Terragen Bubble is the largest civilization at present. A sort of variant Anthropism that includes all Terragen mindkind. Terrachauvinism completely ignores extinct alien civilizations of greater than Terragen extent, as well as evidence of large empires detected by the Argus Array.
  
• Toon - Text by Anders Sandberg
  1. A simplified representations of reality representing general classes.
  2. A simulacrum, either non-sentient or aioid, representing an archetype or story character in virtual entertainment, advertising, interactive books or other media.
  
• Trophic Levels in Society  - Text by Anders Sandberg
  As societies and civilisations become more complex, they develop trophic levels, defined by their distance from primary production.
  
• Wealth and Status in the Terragen Sphere  - Text by Stephen Inniss
  In so-called post-scarcity societies there are a number of other measures of wealth an status beyond basic material goods.
  
• Wildhu  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
  Human bionts (may be baseline, nearbaseline, or even moderate tweaks, rianths, cyborgs, superiors, or other clades or subclades that might identify as 'human') living without the supervision of higher toposophic intellects. They have their own governments, industry, and so on just as in Solsys and on Old Earth as they were prior to the rise of transapients.
  
• Zar - Text by Stephen Inniss (term by M. Alan Kazlev)
  In many parts of the Civilized Galaxy, especially the Sephirotics, an Anglic honorific meaning "citizen".