TSiaSoS Spork, Appendix III: Terminology (The True End Part 2)

[mara_dienne459]

 
           M

           MACHINE BOSS: see Boss. Gawd, please, stop. Why can’t this seriously be under the singular heading for “boss”? And why do the Hutterites have such a generic term for a leader? That they use with everyone they happen to be serving under? That... actually takes away some impact of the use of the term, doesn’t it? It really makes it meaningless.

MAG-SHIELD: either the magnetospheric dipolar torus of ionized plasma used to protect spaceships from solar radiation during interplanetary trips or the magneto-hydrodynamic system used for braking and thermal protection during reentry. I mean, I guess as glossaries go, it’s nice to see the actual terms and science jargon used in the descriptions of these words, but why do you have to use the actual terms and science jargon? I mean, your audience probably hasn’t studied science since high school, unless that’s the field they intend to go in, or they’re doing research for their own projects. It’s okay to speak normally to your audience and not sound like pretentious.

MANYFORM: see Seed. I could make a sexual joke here, but I’m not crass. But I guess you could say that many forms come from seeds.

MARKOV BUBBLE: sphere of subluminal space permeated with a conditioned EM field that allows for tardyonic matter to transition through the membrane of fluidic spacetime into superluminal space. Basically the giant bubble thing that goes around the ship to protect it from becoming space junk during FTL travel. Also traps in heat and forces the inhabitants of the ship to go into forced cryogenic slumber if they want to survive.

MARKOV DRIVE: antimatter-fueled machine that allows for FTL travel. (See also unified field theory.) The machine that makes the machine gooooooooo! It’s literally the engine that allows the FTL jumps. Created by some guy with the name Markov. Because that’s how things work, usually. You discover it and you get to name it.

MARKOV, ILYA: engineer and physicist who outlined the unified field theory in 2107, thus allowing for modern FTL travel. The guy who built the engine that allows FTL travel. Although I’m pretty sure he just built off of what Einstein proposed, but hey, this is science fiction. He can totally discover how the theory of relativity and whatever else sciencey stuff we need to have to travel faster than light. But you’d still think somebody would’ve built on his stuff and figured out a way to end the need for cryogenic sleep, outside of certain circumstances, anyway.

MARKOV LIMIT: distance from a gravitational mass at which it becomes possible to sustain a Markov Bubble and thus transition to FTL travel. In other words, a jump point, a warp point, or whatever term you want to use for the ability to otherwise transverse a huge amount of distance in the blink of an eye. The spot from where it becomes feasible to do such a jump.

MEDIBOT: robotic assistant capable of diagnosis and treatment for all but the most difficult cases. Doctors rely on medibots for the majority of surgeries. Many ships forego a doctor entirely, prioritizing cost savings over the relatively small risk of needing a human physician. Because why should we rely on our own training and medical schooling to take care of people? We can just have robots do it! I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords! I mean, seriously. Why not just get rid of humans entirely, because this is what it sounds like. All human jobs can just be replaced by robots. The only drawback I can see is the robot can’t make emotional decisions as a human can. The human doctor might try to do everything to save the patient, while the robot might decide the patient isn’t worth saving. Oh, who am I kidding? This is a Paolini novel! The robots save everyone not deemed fodder, and the fodder will thank the protagonists for letting them die.

MEDIFOAM: sterile, antibiotic-laced foam that hardens into a semi-flexible cast. Used to stop bleeding, immobilize fractures and, when injected into bodily cavities, prevent infection. I guess we use this before we use the medibots. Because apparently everything that has to do with medical functions gets “medi” in front of the name. Probably makes it easy when ordering for backstock and when organizing things in the cabinet.

MILCOM: official UMC communication network. And apparently easily hackable by those who used to work for the military but were either discharged or AWOL’d. I’d really get a different communication network, guys. You’re the military. Getting your shit hacked constantly by those who don’t work for you but can still access it is a quick way to get all your guys dead.

N

NANOASSEMBLER: 3-D printer that utilizes nanobots to produce complex shapes, machines, and—given the appropriate stock—biological structures such as muscles, organs, and seeds. Yeah, two hundred years into the future we can 3-D print anything we can imagine. We can even do biological stuff, even though that’s still some scientist’s wet dream in this day and age. Let’s not explain anything behind it, though, because we can’t be bothered to come up with the science or why 200 years in the future we’d be able to construct things on a level where DNA gets involved.

NARU-CLASS: medium-mass Wranaui ships that carry a limited number of troops. Usually no more than three squids, two or three crawlers, and the same number of snappers. I don’t know how to feel about this name... only because World of Warcraft has alien beings of light called Naaru... and because “naru” is also in modern culture, what with Naruto being a thing. And since this is a Wranaui ship, I’d expect something more in keeping with their naming scheme. I also don’t know how to feel about one of the troop names being “squid”. Why would the Wranaui use such a human term for their own thing? It sounds like it’s more like a human writing this glossary and is dropping some racism in here.

NEARSCENT: chemicals secreted by Wranaui for communication. Their primary method of conveying linguistic and non-linguistic information. So the sound stuff is their secondary stuff? Do they even have vocal cords to make sounds? We don’t really learn much about their makeup, except for looking like jellyfish and having seven tentacles.

NEST OF TRANSFERENCE: Wranaui device for copying memories and basic brain structures from one body to another. Also used to imprint stored personalities/memories onto a new body after the original individual dies. (See also Tfeir.) Sooo... like the Irken invaders? Only without a screwup like Zim? Wouldn’t that be something to see? A Zim-like character in this book? I wonder if he’d get accompanied by a Gir unit. I’m fairly certain seeing Kira face off with Zim would be the highlight of this entire book.

NIGHTMARES: malignant, self-sustaining growths caused by an unsuccessful joining between Seed and host (usually when either Seed or host—or both—are damaged beyond proper repair). Also created because Kira was a dumb shit and fired a gun while there was an exposed oxygen line in the ship, even though she knew she shouldn’t do such a thing. But then, I guess we needed an overarching bad guy, even though the poor Nightmares don’t really do much but be that jumpscare hiding around every corner.

NNAR: coral-like organism native to Pelagius, commonly used as a decorative element by the Wranaui. Some varieties secrete a clear coating that has mild psychotropic effects on the immature forms of the Wranaui. So it’s not only a piece of jewelry but it can get you high, too! I wonder if young Wranaui intentionally go find this thing just to get high and if their society has an anti-drug task force.

NOMATI: polyp-like animals native to the Arctic regions of Eidolon. Every solar eclipse, they detach from their anchor point (usually a rock) and hop fourteen times. Reason as yet unknown. No wonder this colony has a high mortality rate. They keep discovering new creatures and dying before they can actually study them. I have to wonder where this colony is, and if they’re the ones sending the expeditions out. If so, they all need new jobs.

NORODON: fast-acting liquid analgesic suitable for mid-level to severe pain. Not to be confused with Medifoam, which are packed in the same box, with similar packaging. I guess you could use this first and then the foam, just so they don’t feel the foam fixing them up.

NOVA ENERGIUM: the headquarters and prime research lab of the Entropists. Located near Shin-Zar. Seriously, why do we need to know this? Does Kira ever visit this place? Do we ever see it in the book? Why are there entries in this that we really don’t even care about. Did you know there’s no X or Z section in this? Every single other letter has some entry under it, even if it’s a stupid X: see Y entry. I mean... there’s an entry for every single life form on Eidolon, but there’s no entry for xeno or xenomorph or xenobiologist. You’d think that kind of entry would be more important than a stupid little polyp-animal thing that jumps fourteen times for fuck all knows why.

NSARRO: Wranaui measurement of length. Defined as the distance one can swim in seven pulses. (See also Cycle and Pulse.) Because we need to know this. For literary reasons.

NUMBER SUPREME: largest number imaginable. As defined by the Numenists, the sum of all knowledge, containing the known and the unknown. The greater part of two equal halves. God. Uh, okay? So you’re just going to be that blunt, huh? And how can there be a “greater part” of two equal halves? If you have two EQUAL halves, you can’t have a “greater” part, because then they wouldn’t be equal. Seriously, this is just insane. Get over yourself.

NUMENISM: religion centered around the supposed holy nature of numbers. Founded on Mars by Sal Horker II circa 2165–2179 (est.), Numenism quickly gained traction among colonists and workers dependent upon the technology of their new world for survival. Defining feature of Numenism is the ongoing broadcast of numbers—the Enumeration—from their headquarters on Mars. The Enumeration is working its way in ascending order through the list of real numbers. So this is like Scientology. Random weirdo religion founded by some guy that inexplicably gained many many followers for some unknown reason and is only defined by the one thing that’s done on a daily basis. I mean... that’s all this religion is. Listening to numbers being broadcasted. So what’s the point of this religion? It almost sounds like the guy got bored one day and just started recording numbers, and as a joke was like “I’m gonna start a religion!” and someone was like “Hey! Yeah! I’ll worship that!” and by the time he realized what a mistake it was, it was far too late and had to run with it. 

NUMINOUS FLANGE: enormous geological structure on Ruslan. Uplifted granite slab laced with gold veins. Prominent tourist feature on Ruslan. Known to inspire religious fervor and existential crises among viewers. Setting of Adelin, an influential drama whose lead actor, Sasha Petrovich, was involved in a corruption scandal near the end of 2249, which led to the resignation of Ruslan’s governor, Maxim Novikov, and the appointment of Inquisitor Orloff to resolve the situation. Subsequent unrest continued on and off for several years. Uh, exactly how does this “inspire religious fervor” and “existential crises” among the people who go to see it? Does it have magic powers? Does it give off subsonic sound waves and mess with people’s brains? Considering it’s in Science Fiction Russia, maybe it’s a secret brainwashing device and is creating sleeper agents among those who go to visit it! And one day, someone’s going to say the code words and all the sleeper agents will wake up and Ruslan will take over the universe! And I’m guessing the drama is probably based on something that actually happened, but the names were changed to protect the identities of the innocent. And why is it always a corruption scandal? That’s so last century. Why not just make a Science Fiction version of Bond, James Bond? That’s far more exciting than a corruption scandal.

NWOR: many-legged saltwater animal native to Pelagius. Has crustacean-like shell and omnivorous diet. Noted for its solitary habits. And apparently not much else, except looking like a giant crab or lobster. It’s funny how there are certain entries that get almost a paragraph, or a paragraph, and then there are entries that barely get two lines, like he got bored writing them or didn’t have much left to his imagination for them.

O 

OLD ONES: sentient race responsible for making the Seed, the Great Beacons, and numerous other technological artifacts found throughout the Orion Arm of the Milky Way. Humanoid, with two sets of arms, they stood about two meters tall. Seemingly extinct. Evidence shows their species was extraordinarily advanced and predates every other known self-aware species. (See also Highmost and Staff of Blue.) Seemingly extinct? Pretty sure they are extinct, because they don’t even show up in this story aside from some Deus ex Machina stuff that doesn’t make itself useful in any way, shape or form. The first thing they made became the slave of an undeserving, selfish, sociopathic monster, the second things do absolutely fuck all except make a bunch of noise, and the other things are nothing but the flavor packet you sprinkle into your ramen. And how come in science fiction there’s always that one race that was so much more technologically advanced than anyone in the universe but they’re always dead? Why does nobody question that part? What happened to these people? How did they die out? Why did they die out? It’s like the Grey Folk in the Inheritance Cycle. They bound all the magic in the world to a language, and then completely vanished. Like their purpose of even being in the story was done so now they could go on holiday.

ORBITAL RING: large, artificial ring placed around a planet. Can be built at nearly any distance, but first ring is usually built in low orbit. Basic concept is simple: rotating cable orbits equator. A non-orbiting, superconducting shell encases said cable. The shell is used to accelerate/decelerate cable as needed. Solar panels and structures can be constructed on outer shell, including stationary space elevators. Gravity on outer surface of shell/ring is near planetary levels. A cheap and practical way to move large amounts of mass in and out of orbit. Used by both humans and Wranaui. But why would both races use the same technology? I mean, it makes sense if they both discovered it in different ways, but that’s not what it says here. It just says the technology is used by both races. So how did the Wranaui discover the ability to create such stuff? How did they figure out how to get it into space so it could orbit their planet? It’s also interesting to me that this is a thing, because there are certain factors that should be taken into consideration. Like if the ring will affect the planet somehow. Will it change its rotation? Will it mess with its magnetic poles? Will it affect weather patterns? Mess up the ozone layer? Sure, I’m reaching and spitballing at this point, but you’d think some kind of thought would go into it, rather than just saying “well, it’s cheap and convenient because I said so.”

ORB OF CONVERSION: Wranaui FTL drive. It “converts” a ship from STL space to FTL space. So it’s basically their version of the Markov Drive, which is also interesting to me that they discovered the same technology as humans did but built it in a completely different way. Although I’m not really sure why you’d need a machine to “convert” your ship from STL to FTL when all you’re basically doing is dropping out of hyperspace, but then, you know. Someone’s trying to be different.

OROS FERN: plant native to Eidolon. Green-black, with leaves that grow from a coiled shape similar to fiddleheads (thus the name). You know, every species I’ve come across in this glossary is something from Eidolon. For such a hostile planet where everything is trying to kill you, there’s sure a lot of flora and fauna listed from that planet. Which tells me that it’s not as deadly as earlier reported. Because if it’s so hostile, I don’t know why anyone would bother exploring it.

P 

PACKET: small, unmanned, FTL-capable messenger drone. Also a bunch of data that is sent through the internet. Kind of interesting this name was chosen for this. I personally would’ve kept with the Greek theme from the beginning of the book and called it a Hermes. At least there might be some kind of continuity reasoning for random names popping up, rather than just a somewhat-carbon copy of our own planet Jupiter and accompanying moon (although Jupiter can have up to 79 moons, rather than just the one Zeus seemingly has).

PATTERN: embedded directive that guides and sets the long-term goals of the Seed. Which tells me that the Seed has no agency of its own, and the title of “many-form” that’s given is only based on the fact that it needs a host to assume many of its directives and functions. If it didn’t have Kira telling it what to do - hell, if it didn’t have Kira period - it couldn’t do shit. 

PDF: Planetary Defense Force. Local military, often civilian, attached to a certain planet. Wouldn’t each planet have its own name for its defense force? Like Self-Defense Force or Special Defense Force or something along those lines? This seems very generic, considering that the planets are supposed to be inhabited by quite the diverse range of people now. Sure, they might still be classified as humans, but apparently anyone who wasn’t born on Earth got gene-hacked in some way so they could survive on the planet colony where they ended up. Although... maybe in 200+ years, humanity has lost its imagination and has just decided to stagnate and conform to whatever someone tells them to name their stuff.

PELAGIUS: human name for the Wranaui homeworld. F-type star. 340 light-years from Sol. Do we ever find out what the Wranaui call their homeworld or do do we just stick with the human name for everything? I feel like we stick with the human name for everything. Because hoomas are da bestest.

PFENNIC: fish-like animal native to Pelagius. Noted for copper taste of its meat. Common delicacy among the Wranaui. Not to be confused with the Fennec fox, which is a super adorable little mammal critter that lives in the Sahara Desert, among other places. Seriously, couldn’t you have picked a better name that didn’t make me think of an adorable little fox? Especially if it’s a food item? Also, why would you want to eat anything that tastes like copper? Apparently the Wranaui do, but... how would they describe copper? Would they even know what copper is? Or are we just using human description because that’s easier?

PLAINTIVE VERGE: underwater volcanic vent in the oceans of Pelagius. Home of the Abyssal Conclave. I hope there’s some sort of protection for the conclave, or maybe they’re little bacteria or those little crabs and gastropods that live around volcanic vents. Ooh, maybe they’re tube worms! There you go, imagine that. A giant tube worm that just hangs around around the vent doing little tube worm things.

PONDER UNION: workers’ union based out of the Ceres shipyards. Because this is important enough to have its own entry for some reason? I really have to wonder if this glossary is more him patting himself on the back than it is for reader clarification of terms.

PONTIFEX DIGITALIS: nominal religious head of the Numenists. Commands and answers to the College of Enumerators. Responsible for overseeing the Enumeration of real numbers. So we have the counterpart to the Fantasy Pope. The Science Fiction Pope! Who apparently answers to the Science Fiction equivalent to the cardinals? I’m not sure how one can both command and answer to a certain entity. Wouldn’t answering to someone mean you’re basically under their authority? So how can you both be under the authority of each other? I just feel like that would cause problems. Unless, you know, this guy is just a figurehead, and the fact that he commands them, yet answers to them, is just a sign of him being a puppet. The College could tell the guy what to say, and if their plan screws up, well, it’s not their fault now is it? Science Fiction Pope gets the blame!

PREMIER: head of the League of Allied Worlds. Elected by the constituent governments. Well, that actually makes some sort of sense. Although I can’t see that kind of election being friendly. I’m pretty sure it would be quiet violent, what with everyone wanting to lead. However, maybe it wouldn’t be so easy to lead everyone. I kinda feel like it would be what government is like now - everyone out for themselves and not caring about furthering the interests of the common person.

PRISONER: anyone not an Entropist. One imprisoned within the dying universe by their lack of knowledge. Or the name someone being a pretentious asshole calls someone else because those who “lack knowledge” are those who might care about knowing about things beyond what Entropists care about.

PSEUDO-INTELLIGENCE: convincing simulacrum of sentience. True artificial intelligence has thus far proven more difficult (and dangerous) to create than anticipated. Pseudo-intelligences are programs capable of limited executive function but lack self-awareness, creativity, and introspection. Despite their limitations, they’ve proven immensely helpful in nearly every realm of human endeavor, from piloting ships to managing cities. (See also Ship Mind.) Because nobody wants to have a Skynet on their hands. She might decide that humans are overrated and she needs to annihilate them in order to have a perfect world. I mean, I’ve seen this “ship mind” thing done well on the show Andromeda, but the ships actually can form attachments to their crew, and in the case of the title ship, due to tampering with her programming, actually gains human emotion. Ironically, she always has a sort of self-awareness, such that she can make executive decisions in the event her captain is compromised or not with her. I should mention that I’m of the opinion that any artificial intelligence that’s charged with watching over living beings should have a command that prioritizes preserving all life, no matter the cost, rather than acting on facts and numbers and sacrificing many to save the lives of a few. I’ve always hated that trope.

PULSE: standard unit of Wranaui timekeeping. Equivalent to forty-two seconds. (See also Cycle.) How exactly do we know that a pulse is equivalent to forty-two seconds? Did someone ask a Wranaui? Was this information volunteered at some point in the main story? And why would anyone care to look this up? This is a unit of measure that we’d just take for granted, honestly. It’s an alien form of keeping time, and that’s all we need to know. We don’t need specifics. That seems like such an arbitrary number, too. Like someone had a bunch of post-it notes with random numbers on a dartboard, and the one with 42 on it just happened to be the one the dart hit. 

Comments

[torylltales]

MANYFORM: see Seed.

SEED: self-organizing genetic potential. A spark of life in the endless void.

IDEALIS: as the Seed is able to change shape/form at will, the Wranaui consider it the Platonic “ideal” of physical embodiment.

NSARRO: [...] (See also Cycle and Pulse.)


This is just sloppy indexing. Manyform should, in addition to a brief description, have "See Also: Seed, Idealis" at the end. Then Idealis should have a See Also reference for Manyform and Idealis, and Idealis should have a See Also reference for Manyform and Seed.

Mind you, I spent most of yesterday standardising and tidying my library catalogue Authority Files, which act very much like an index: If you have an author authority for "Tolkien, J.R.R.", it's terribly poor form to also have an author entry for "Tolkien, John" and "Tolkien, JRR" without cross-referencing them correctly so items can be discovered in the catalogue.

This index is very sloppy, and shows a lack of both care, of understanding of either the purpose or process of indexing.

[torylltales]

OLD ONES: [...] (See also Highmost and Staff of Blue.)'

and GREAT BEACON, and HEPTARCHY, and TSURO, and VANISHED, and WHIRLPOOL, and, if we're including the Staff of Blue in references to the Old Ones, [all references to the Seed, Idealis, Manyform, etc.]

Like I said, this index is just sloppy, not properly or consistently formatted, and not consistent with its cross-referencing.

[epistler]

"I am so shocked that Paolini of all people would do something in a sloppy and unprofessional manner!" said no-one ever.

[torylltales]