Wil McCarthy - The Collapsium

Collapson node(n) A neuble-mass black hole that is part of a collapson.

Componeer(n) Any person bearing royal certification in gravitic engineering. Descended from late U.S. Army Corps of Engineers training standards.

Converge(also Reconverge)(v) To combine two separate entities, or two copies of the same entity, using a fax machine. In practice, rarely applied except to humans.

Copy-hour(n) One hour’s labor from a single instantiation of an individual. A standard human resource measure during the Queendom era.

Corona(n) The deep, sparse, superhot “upper atmosphere” of a star, responsible for most X-ray emissions. Variable in size with the solar “seasons,” the corona of Sol extends 5 to 10 light-seconds above the chromopause, at near-vacuum densities.

Datavore(n) Any rogue autonomous software capable of inhabiting telecommunications networks. Several distinct phyla are known to have existed in the Iscog prior to its demise.

Declarant(n) The highest title accorded by the Queendom of Sol; descended from the Tongan award of Nopele, or knighthood. Only twenty-nine declarancies were ever issued.

Desaturation(n) In sailing, the firing of rocket thrusters to balance cumulative attitude errors absorbed by reaction momentum wheels.

Di-clad(adj) Sheathed in an outer layer of monocrystalline diamond.

Disassembler fog(n) A suspension of microscopic deconstruction mechanisms, sometimes employed in the recycling of objects too large to fax.

Downsystem(adv) Toward the sun.

Electrogravitic(adj) Synonym for electromagnetic.

Electromagnetic grappleSee Grapple, electromagnetic.

Ertlal(adj) Antonym of inertial, applied to inertially shielded devices. Attributed to Bruno de Towaji.

Fax(n) Abbreviated form of “facsimile.” A device for reproducing physical objects from stored or transmitted data patterns. By the time of the Restoration, faxing of human beings had become possible, and with the advent of collapsiter-based telecommunications soon afterward, the reliable transmission of human patterns quickly became routine.

Faxware(n) Anything produced by a fax machine. Colloquially, the control systems and filters employed by the Iscog.

Feigenbaum, Mitchell(prop, n) American physicist-laureate of the Late Modern era.

Feigenbaum’s number(n) Physical constant with the dimensionless value 4.6692016090, representing the rational spacing of frequency doublings along any relevant axis of a system in chaotic transition. See Appendix A: Feigenbaum’s number, pg. 367

Flbe-op(n, adj) Abbreviated form of “fiber optic.” Any thin, flexible conduit for the transmission of visible light.

Fibrediamond(n) Composite material of whiskered crystalline carbon in a resin matrix. Unless sheathed in a superreflective coating, fibrediamond is notably flammable.

Flatspace Society, the(prop, n) Queendom-era lobbying organization dedicated to the prohibition of collapsium.

Ghost(n) Any electromagnetic trace preserved in rock. Colloquially, a visual image of past events, especially involving deceased persons.

Ghosting(n) The process by which a ghost is formed.

Girona(prop, n) A minor city in the El Girones comarque of Catalonia, situated at the confluence of the Ter, Güell, Galligants, and Onyar rivers, some 80 kilometers from the nation’s former capital at Barcelona.

Grapple, electromagnetic(n) An industrial gravity projector specifically intended to anchor or manipulate massive objects.

Grappleship(n) A vehicle propelled by means of electromagnetic grapples. Use of grappleships was considered impractical in the Queendom until the advent of ertial shielding, though high-powered inertial devices were capable of attaining enormous accelerations.

Gravity laser(n) A gravity projector whose emissions are coherent, i.e., monochromatic and phase-locked. Attributed to Bruno de Towaji.

Gravity projector(n) A revpic-driven device for simulating the secondary fields emitted by charged particles under zitterbewegung vibration. Attributed to Boyle Schmenton.

Haisch, Bernhard(prop, n) American physicist-laureate of the Old Modern era.

Haisch effect(n) The increase in “mass” experienced by an object—usually a subatomic particle—under vibration at gravitic frequencies.

Hawking, Stephen(prop, n) British physicist-laureate of the Old Modern era.

Hawking radiation(n) Photon and particle emissions of a hypermassive object, resulting from Heisenberg tunneling across the event horizon.

Holie(n) Abbreviated form of “hologram.” Any three-dimensional image. Colloquially, a projected, dynamic three-dimensional image, or device for producing same.

Hypercollapsite(n) A quasicrystalline material composed of neuble-mass black holes. Usually organized as a vacuogel.

Hypercomputer(n) Any computing device capable of altering its internal layout. Colloquially, a computing device made of wellstone.

Hypercondensed(adj) Condensed to the point of gravitational collapse, i.e., until a black hole or “hypermass” is formed. Colloquially, condensed to any level the speaker finds impressive. Also “hypercompressed.”

Hypermass(n) A mass that has been hypercompressed; a black hole.

Immorbid(adj) Not subject to life-threatening disease or deterioration.

Impervium(n) Public-domain wellstone substance; the hardest superreflector known. Attributed to Marlon Sykes.

instantiate(v) To produce a single instance of a person or object; to fax from a stored or received pattern.

Iscog(n) An acronym for the Inner-System Collapsiter Grid. The first broadband interplanetary telecom network capable of transmitting live human patterns. Attributed to Bruno de Towaji.

Isotropic(adj) Exactly the same in all directions. A theoretical construct which may not occur in nature, although the zero-point field is often regarded as isotropic.

Katakl ha’u o‘ kal Traditional Tongan encouragement to begin a meal. Literally translated as, “Please come and eat.”

Kuiper Belt(n) A ring-shaped region in the ecliptic plane of any solar system, in which gravitational perturbations have amplified the concentration of large, icy bodies or “comets.” Sol’s Kuiper Belt extends from 40 AU at its lower boundary to 1,000 AU at its upper and has an overall density approximately one-fourth that of its much smaller Asteroid Belt.

Laminar(adj) Completely predictable by closed-form equations. A theoretical construct that does not occur in nature but is extremely useful as an approximation. Most dynamic systems are considered to have a laminar range. (Literally: “layered.”)

Laureate(n) An honor bestowed by the Queendom for extraordinary service. Descended from the Nobel citation of Swedish monarchy in the Old Modern era.

Lepton(n) A member of the class of low-rest-mass, spin lfi “elementary particles” or charge-zpf resonance states that include the neutrino, electron, muon, and tau. Leptons are not subject to the hypothetical “strong nuclear force” of quantum-age physics.