DISCLAIMER: All population figures found herewithin should be considered provisional and contested. Ongoing controversies exist where the correct measurement of population figures is concerned, including: * Accounting of clone families; * Accounting of fork families, both synchronized (cikrieth) and desynchronized, and the measurement of repeated non-persistent forks; * Accounting of group intellects, including
No Such Thing As Space Jesus: Amazingly enough, the people who built their very own set of mechanical deities (see: Deus Est Machina) are remarkably skeptical about people who claim to be (and, of course, to have) supernatural gods. Especially since they can only very rarely whip up a miracle
DeepHab Eleven Eastern Abyssal Gulf of Antareä Eliéra The incoming voice rattled scratchily from the speaker. “Benthic Needle, we have you on our magnetograph now. Confirm your position.” “Inertial guidance shows us eight-eleven porisedt from sonar target, relative bearing zero-eight-five, station-keeping against current. Request calibration reading on relative depth, DeepHab.
No Such Thing As Alien Pop Culture: Averted, for the most part – even without the dodge, I suppose, of pointing out that the Imperials would consider our distinction between high culture and low culture the product of a certain type of class-based social structure that humans have, and sniff rather
“No. Reject the shipment.” “Reject the – It’s just a bunch of toys!” “Read me the exact description line.” “Coríël Fabrications on license to Mirajdíä Studios, videogame replicas.” “And the port of origin?” “Jandine Orbital, Empire of the Star. So?” “So they’re videogame replicas from the land of the
No Seat Belts: Averted, at least on craft which can jink enough – or crash gently enough not to be instantly lethal even with the seat belts – for inconvenient acceleration to be relevant. But yes, seat belts, shock frames, and more subtle arrangements involving miniaturized vector-control tractor-pressors abound.
CASE UNGUENT SANCTION MOST SECRET (ULTRAVIOLET) / EYES ONLY UNGUENT SANCTION NEED-TO-KNOW ABSOLUTE HARD COPY ONLY/NO TRANSMISSION ORIGINATOR-CONTROLLED DISSEMINATION TRACKED-COPY DOCUMENT NOCONTRACT NOFORN SPECIAL SECURITY PROCEDURE BASILISK FIDELIS Proceed (+/-)? + EXECUTION: STRATEGIC ACTION MESSAGE ONLY IMPERIAL SECURITY EXECUTIVE ONLY FIFTH DIRECTORATE VETO X-THREAT ONLY SUMMARY: [SSP image elided from file]
Nose Art: Being exactly as individuality-loving as everyone else, the Flight Ops section of the Imperial Navy (that most descended from the various constituent Air Forces) were very happy at the increasing irrelevance of visual stealth, as mentioned under Bling of War, so that they could go back to doing
Proper care and education for children begins before birth. (Before conception, even: a sound mind must have a sound brain to run in, and the genetic engineers have pursued with vigor the Eupraxic Collegium’s goals of improving everyone’s overall noetic architecture, hacking away at cognitive biases and unifying
“Despite multiple submissions of copious data on relevant empirical regularities, the Conference on Teleics today rejected the proposal to designate ‘Things don’t go smooth.’ as a law of the field for the fourth year running. Proponents of the law stated afterwards that this was, in itself, further evidence in
No Paper Future: Played mostly straight. And there aren’t many data rods around either, except in specialist applications; ubiquitous wireless networking, and the slate (i.e., future-iPad-analog) replace them more or less completely for routine applications. (And no, unlike Star Trek, no-one has a stack of slates on their
First among the mechal elementals emanating from Syjéral, the Wood Dragon, are the kami, the embodiments of natural objects, and their specialized subtypes, such as the dryads of the forests, the naiads of the waters, and the oreads of the mountains, the overseers of tectonic pressures. The kami are unique