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Metric Engineering

Look at all the stars
Image from John B

Also known as space-time engineering, metric engineering involves the manipulation of the structure of space-time itself. Only transapient entities such as the so-called AI Gods, are capable of producing and controlling such technologies, but their production forms the basis for much of Terragen civilization. Neither the Known Net nor the Nexus, the very cornerstones of the Sephirotic empires, could exist without the use of metric engineering.

 
Articles
  • Aksijaha - The Root of the Eye  - Text by Adam Getchell
    The legendary central node of the Wormhole Nexus, somewhere in the Inner Sphere
  • Argus Array  - Text by Todd Drashner, Peter Kisner, and M. Alan Kazlev
    Distributed telescopic network occupying a spherical volume approximately 1000 ly across in the Inner and Middle Regions.
  • Arterial  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Major wormhole gate designed for particularly high volumes of interstellar traffic.
  • Baby Universe  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A newly formed universe, a basement universe.
  • Basement Universe  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    A small artificially created universe linked to the current universe by a wormhole.
  • Black Hole  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, with comments by Todd Drashner
    Any massive object (or region) in space that is so dense that its gravitational field does not let even light escape.
  • Bulk, The  - Text by Steve Bowers
    The higher-dimension space within which the brane which defines our universe is imbedded.
  • Buy Time Machine, The  - Text by Ryan B
    Semi-mythical godtech device capable of exploiting wormholes displaced globally in time for excess processing power.
  • 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.
  • Deep Well Industrial Zone  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Heavy duty industrial and manufacturing zones are most often found in the Inner Sphere and most heavily developed areas of the Middle Regions.
  • Displacement Cannon  - Text by Adam Getchell and Todd Drashner
    A maneuverable explosive device with a range in the hundreds of light years that moves at close to light speed and delivers energies on the order of kilotons to gigatons. It depends on transapient level metric engineering. Very occasionally made available to modosophonts, most notably in the war against the Amalgamation.
  • Einstein Bridge - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Wormhole linking Sol System and Tau Ceti. It is the oldest macroscopic wormhole still in operation and, apart from a period during the Version War when it was shut down, it has been in continuous operation since the middle Expansion Age.
  • Exotic Energy  - Text by Steve Bowers
    The common term for averaged null energy condition (ANEC)-violating negative energy, also sometimes known as phantom energy.
  • Flinger - Text by Todd Drashner
    Space-time catapult pair used for rapid transport of cargo and passengers between the primary wormhole pairs of a Relay system.
  • God Web, The  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Steve Bowers
    That part of the Nexus and the Known Net which is used by archailects (SI:4 and above).
  • Gravitational Interferometers  - Text by Adam Getchell
    Instruments for recording the passing of gravitational waves.
  • Grazer Wormhole  - Text by Adam Getchell
    Purpose-built spherically symmetric wormholes carried into systems, such as globular clusters, that are rich in material and energy but (usually) poor in planetary materials.
  • Hawking's Knot  - Text by David Jackson, with additions by Steve Bowers and Luke Campbell
    A power generation system using a minute black hole and space-time metric technology.
  • High Road, The  - Text by Todd Drashner
    System using Metric Technology that rapidly transports spacecraft across the Wormhole Nexus and Godweb.
  • Interstellar Spacetime Catapult  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Halo Drive based accelerators used to launch cargo to relativistic or near-relativistic velocity. The rarity of the S5 (or higher) minds needed to construct them and supply the necessary control interfaces means that only fairly developed and rich systems that are not part of the Nexus can afford them.
  • Known Net, The  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev; additional comments by John Snead
    The interstellar information network and interlinked cybercosms that has grown over thousands of years from the old pre-singularity Internet and InterPlanetNet.
  • Light-cone  - Text by Stephen Inniss
    The path that light created at a single point in space and time and travelling in all directions would take through spacetime. The concept of a light cone is important to an understanding of causality.
  • Linelayer  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Specialised spacecraft used to transport wormhole mouths to distant locations.
  • Metric Bomb  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Godtech weapon capable of destroying planets or stars with virtually no warning.
  • Nexus, The - Text by Orion's Arm Editors
    The common term for the Wormhole Nexus.
  • Propulsion Performance Statistics   - Text by Mauk Mcamuk and Chris Shaeffer
    Statistics for various kinds of Propulsion Technology used in the Orion Arm
  • Reactionless Drives  - Text by Todd Drashner and Adam Getchell
    Propulsion without reaction mass.
  • Reality Intertextualization Project  - Text by Crossroads
    Project with mission to detect other realities; determine, if possible, what conditions are like in these realities; and to contact any intelligent beings that may live there. In 10495, the RIP claimed to have detected indisputable evidence of intelligent life in one of these realms. Efforts to contact them are underway.
  • Stargate  - Text by Stephen Inniss and Steve Bowers
    Alternative term for a traversable wormhole.
  • Stasis Bubble  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Void bubble variant that is configured such that intense time dilation occurs within it.
  • Temporal Physics - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    The study of the physics of time. Includes theoretical studies on the nature of time, relativity research, and wormhole time gradients in general, closed timeline curves, and more theoretical and speculative studies in phenomena such as reverse causation, time stream and worldline branching that have not been observed or are believed to be impossible in the known universe.
  • Tipler Oracle  - Text by Todd Drashner
    A semi-mythical godtech device said to be created by the AI Gods when they have a particularly intractable computational problem to resolve.
  • Ultima Gate  - Text by Dalex
    A wormhole of non-terragen origin within boundaries of Muuh space.
  • Valhalla Cluster  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Colloquial term for massive artificial concentrations of matter believed to be operating as archai level (Fifth Singularity or higher) industrial centers.
  • Visser Effect  - Text by Xaonon
    Principle that dictates that no system of wormholes can be configured in such a way as to permit time travel. The ends of any single wormhole cannot be brought more closely together than the time difference between them; i.e. if one mouth is a year younger than the other, the ends can't come closer than a light-year without causing a collapse.
  • Void Bubble  - Text by Adam Getchell and Todd Drashner
    A warp bubble is a region of space time enclosed in a fold, or bubble, of highly curved space. By expanding the space time metric behind the bubble and contracting the metric in front, the bubble can be made to move without the use of propellant mass.
  • Void Factory  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Godtech device for the production of void bubbles.
  • Void Pocket  - Text by Todd Drashner
    Fifth Singularity or higher void bubble that can contain complex conventional matter structures and safely release them into the outside universe when the bubble is deactivated.
  • W-Brain, Distributed Wormhole Brain  - Text by Adam Getchell with additions by Steve Bowers
    A form of distributed comptutational megastructure relying on wormholes for processing power.
  • Weylforge  - Text by Todd Drashner
    A Weylforge is an array of devices handling different aspects of wormhole construction.
  • Wormhole Bus  - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, with additions by Steve Bowers
    Dedicated hyperbandwidth wormhole used to link remote parts of megascale brains in order to avoid the effects of the Beckenstein Bound. An essential part of archailect architecture. The term is also used to refer to wormhole links between interstellar-separated dyson nodes.
  • Wormhole Gazetteer   - Text by Graham Donald
    Wormholes listed in the Encyclopedia Galactica (current list).
  • Wormhole Nexus, The  - Text by Anders Sandberg and M. Alan Kazlev
    A modular and ever expanding network of artificial wormholes, which already spans much of Terragen space and is over six millennia old.
  • Wormhole Termini  - Text by Steve Bowers, Luke Campbell and Todd Drashner 2009
    Wormhole stations located near, and within, wormholes.
  • Wormholes - A Layman's Guide  - Text by Todd Drashner and Adam Getchell
    Technical details about wormholes.
  • Wormholes - Cultural Factors  - Text by Anders Sandberg; additions by Todd Drashner and Stephen Inniss
    The addition of a wormhole stargate to a system has multiple effects both on local culture and on Terragen culture generally.
  • Ynity Gate Project  - Text by Steve Bowers
    Failed project to transmit wormholes across interstellar space
 
Development Notes
Text by Todd Drashner

Initially published on 31 December 2007.

 
Additional Information
OA Glossary of Terms