Technology in Revelation Space
Encyclopedia
This article lists elements of technology in the fictional Revelation Space universe
created by Alastair Reynolds
.
Entoptics another feature of abstraction technology and consist of various sensory layers added to, or substituted for, normal, unfiltered perception. These effects can either be created by a single person (e.g., the projection of the appearance of clothing, glowing tattoos, etc.) or an authority (e.g., public visual displays "projected" into mid-air without the use of any actual display devices). The Conjoiners developed the first Entoptics early in their history, used in "Great Wall of Mars". By the time of The Prefect
, much of humanity used them in some form. Most of the characters in Reynolds' novels participate in this virtual environment through the use of neural implants, though some, especially after the advent of the Melding Plague, maintain access through goggles designed to tap into the local network. Though the term is usually limited to refer to visual effects, the abstraction layer can be used to create a wide range of sensory inputs, provided one has the appropriate implants.
but were built by the Conjoiners some time before the events in that novel begin. The weapons were built based on information believed to have been received from the future via the project Exordium. Concerns about the source of information and the power of the weapons lead the Conjoiners to destroy the knowledge necessary to build additional weapons shortly after construction was completed, and though carefully hidden, they were eventually recovered by a crew of Ultras some years before the events in Revelation Space. Only forty cache weapons were created, and though Clavain and Remontoire speculated on creating more by reverse-engineering the technology, this never occurs in the novels.
The weapons are possessed of intelligence at least the level of a gamma level simulation. Sizes vary, but all are approximately sixty to seventy meters long and bronze/green in appearance. The weapons are self contained (save for targeting data) and self propelled, with at least an interplanetary range. After being deployed outside the hull of their carrier vessel, their own engines move them to a safe distance while acquiring a target. In the novels it is not entirely clear the degree of independent thought that each weapon is capable of, nor is the degree of security in remote control entirely known. They seem, however, to be fundamentally able to make their own choices about whether or not to fire and whom to target, being able to override the pacification codes the Conjoiners programmed into them (Cache Weapon Seventeen, given its Gamma-level personality, was only ever convinced to fire, no other cache weapon was listed)
The power and nature of the weapons varies, and is not fully understood in all cases. The smallest of the weapons seem to have been considerably more powerful than conventional space-borne weapons, and at least one is deemed capable of destroying a planet-sized object from a distance exceeding 100 AU. It is suggested that some of the weapons can have negative effects upon stellar bodies. Their level of sophistication differs widely- the most basic cache weapons appear to be radical extensions of otherwise conventional principles, such as relativistic projectile weapons with antimatter
or neutronium
ammunition and gamma-ray lasers. Others, however, make use of gravity wave effects and other complex phenomena, with certain weapons even containing microscopic black holes. Once a weapon is programmed to fire, the process cannot be stopped by any method short of destroying it. Some of the weapons appear to be single use, including some deployed in the novel Absolution Gap
(in several cases this is because the weapon destroys itself when firing), while others are at least theoretically capable of being reloaded, though this is never attempted.
engines that use quantum mechanics
to propel starships up to relativistic speeds, giving such ships the name "lighthuggers". It is at one point said that Conjoiner drives contain a small wormhole linked to the very deep past, through which they draw their propulsion energies from the Quark-gluon plasma
created by the Big Bang
. In Redemption Ark
, their design is implicated as attracting the Inhibitors
, and subsequently modified after a 100-year suspension of their production (referred to in Revelation Space
). It should be noted that the Conjoiners did not actually invent the drive themselves, but received the instructions for it via the Exordium.
A small part of the workings of the drives is revealed in Galactic North. The drive has six manual control dials that allow the power of the drive to be varied. As the drive power is increased, so does the risk of an uncontrolled, ship destroying explosion. Lighthuggers mount a pair of Conjoiner drives, both of which are controlled by a disembodied Conjoiner brain that performs rapid calculations to control the internal drive reactions. If the turbulence within the drive exceeds the ability of the brain, the drive will explode. The drive is also designed to explode if non-Conjoiners attempt to open it for reverse engineering, or if the gap between two drives on the same ship grows too large. This occurs because the Conjoiner brain is housed within one of the engines and controls the other remotely; once the other drive passes out of the brain's control, the internal reactions quickly spiral out of control.
: the computer gets colder instead of hotter. Consequently, cryo-arithmetic engines have massive industrial (as opposed to computational) ramifications for Conjoiner manufacturing; such engines abound in Conjoiner asteroid factories, where their calculations can drain away the heat of starship construction.
Cryo-arithmetic engines are also used by the Conjoiner's modern 'stealthed' lighthuggers; they cool the exterior of the ship to the temperature of ambient space, making the starships difficult for the Inhibitors (or other foes) to detect.
Like many of the technologies in the Revelation Space universe, the cryo-arithmetic engines can have potentially catastrophic consequences in the event of an accident. In Absolution Gap, Skade's ship crashes in the ocean of the planet Ararat, and the cryo-arithmetic engines malfunction. Their control systems fail, and so they get colder. Getting colder enables them to calculate faster, prompting a positive feedback loop
. By the time the inhabitants of Ararat find the wreck, Skade's ship is encased in an ever-expanding iceberg.
There is currently some research that has begun to take the shape of creating cryo-arithmetic engines. Link to Reference The continious increase in the speed of processors has created a need for cryo-arithmetic engines in order to maintain Moore's law
past a certain theoretically information processing threshold. Such heat-dissipating engines may be in fact the only way to continue to increase the speed of processors past the next 20-30 years, as energy densities increase past any perceivable way to dissipate the heat generated in processors of that time classically.
of quantum mechanics is assumed, and allows participants to form neural links with their past, future, and alternate selves via the instigation of quantum superposition
states in their neural implants. Galiana and Skade use this system to obtain and modify inertial suppression technology and take various precautionary actions to eliminate the existential threat of the Inhibitors.
One limitation of the technology appears to be the total informational capacity of the superposition states—each instance of communication makes subsequent attempts more difficult in an effect described similarly to the build-up of static interference. It is unknown whether this limitation holds only for each individual repeat participant (which seems more likely) or for the entire process independent of the participants. Also never explicitly stated is the exact effect of the process' acausal nature, though it is implied that it cannot be used to directly violate causality
. Instead, each use of the Exordium creates a new timeline in which the message is received. The original timeline in which the message was sent continues as before.
A similar system to the Exordium is used in Chasm City
by the race known as "grubs" to achieve faster-than light communication. It does this by grouping all messages ever sent into a massive far-future archive (known as "Galactic Final Memory") and sending them back to their recipients. It uses the local gravitational background as a key, making it impossible for other recipients to read the messages and gives the device a "range" of a few thousand light years. This also means, however, that the technology cannot be used to send information to other times. It also appears affected by the interference effect which damages the Exordium.
disguised as neutron stars and (possibly) other astronomical objects.
Hypometric weaponry is said to be highly advanced, usually discovered only by races after one or two million years of spacefaring civilization.
The author does not explain exactly what the weapon looks like or how it works, although it is described as being seen as "a threshing machine", with tolerances measured on the atomic level. Due to the high velocity of its rotating physical parts a slight miscalculation in construction will almost certainly destroy whatever vessel it is contained in. It is described repeatedly as "wrong" by characters who have had close exposure to it. This is possibly due to the ambient spacetime irregularities generated by the weapon's operation. The weapon appears to simply eliminate areas of space from existence (or, as is implied, transport them to somewhere else), leaving gaping holes in whatever it is attacking. It is described as "weakly acausal" in its mechanism of operation.
Though the full extent of the weapon's power is not explored, its area of effect is large enough that it is useful in space warfare
and can also be contracted to an area small enough to take out a section of a man's stomach without causing collateral damage
. However, it is also implied that this degree of accuracy is not something often achieved, and that the weapon is usually difficult to use with any degree of precision, to the extent of being dangerous to the users themselves. Users of hypometric weapons find that it is difficult to gauge their effectiveness in terms of "range" or "accuracy", as these characteristics are subject to change. The weapon is apparently capable of affecting targets out of its line of sight, or even through solid walls, and has a volume of effect of up to several light-hours. The Inhibitors
can eventually adapt to its effect, although the novel suggests this is a local response and not a galactic response (Using the weapon in one solar system does not automatically generate the defenses in the next.)
, Skade and Clavain
independently encounter technology captured by the Mademoiselle, that permits the alteration of a ship's inertial mass in order to permit high-g acceleration for interstellar travel. It works by suppressing fluctuations and turmoil in quantum foam that supposedly causes momentum and inertia (similar to the concept of Higgs Boson
s). It is also mentioned in that the technology may have been linked to the alien tower (in Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
) Skade tries to modify the technology with the help of Exordium to allow faster than light travel, via a state transition from tardyonic to tachyon
ic: however, her efforts are spectacularly unsuccessful, and the technology itself has the side effect of removing individuals caught in the transition bubbles from all recent history, as well as crippling her ship. Only those very close to the area of effect remember a person who is erased or unravelled backwards in time and recorded history indicates a much earlier death of that person. Because the victims (the deleted and nearby observers) are the only thing that remain from the time line where the victims began, people suddenly panicking and searching for a 'colleague' who died years before (in the new timeframe) can be the only sign of an accident. This happens at least twice in the novels. The inhibitors make reference to a similar effect erasing entire species from history. As such, neither they nor any other species in the galaxy with the technology to build inertia suppressing drives ever use them to travel faster than light.
Generally 3–4 km
long, they use Conjoiner drives for propulsion, and are also coated with a thick caul of diamond that protects against minor impacts at relativistic velocities and acts as armour against the attacks of other ships. The great size of the lighthuggers enables them to carry vast numbers of passengers and huge amounts of cargo. At the end of Redemption Ark
this is demonstrated by Ana Khouri and Triumvir Ilia Volyova as they load approximately 160,000 of the almost 200,000 on the world Resurgam onto the Nostalgia for Infinity.
Lighthuggers are also described as having a limited repair and redesign capability in the novels. They are capable of moving rooms or machinery around within their hulls, or stripping material from one point to repair another. At least some are also equipped with "manufactories", which can build a considerable range of devices, given the relevant specifications (the full extent of their capabilities is unknown as they are only ever used in the novels to produce weapons). These ships were also quite powerful, by the standards of most science-fiction. Their small, point-defence
weapons (ostensibly defensive in nature) were capable of drilling a 200 kilometre crater in a planet and disrupting weather formations in a fashion similar to a large geological event, such as an asteroid impact or volcanic eruption.
Most lighthuggers are owned or ruled by their crew of Ultranauts, who, because of their long stretches in reefersleep and constant hopping from one star system to another are mostly divorced from baseline humanity. They are characterized by extreme modifications, often in the form of replacement or mechanical limbs or even holes right through them (as seen in Chasm City
).
By the end of the sequence, there exists a fleet of lighthuggers that have been upgraded or built from scratch by the Conjoined and other elements fighting the Inhibitors. These ships are far more advanced than the average lighthugger, and are equipped with stealthed drives that do not emit in any detectable spectrum, "cryo-arithmetic engines" which cool the hull to make it nearly indistinguishable — in thermal terms — from empty space, inertia suppression machinery that allows extremely fast acceleration and deceleration, and extremely heavy armaments, including hypometric weaponry.
that attacks anything that has nanotechnology present within it and does not discriminate between human and machine. It attempts to meld the nanomachines and implants that are commonly present in the bodies of humans, with the structure of their body on a cellular level. This results in horrific, uncontrollable modifications to the body of whoever is infected and almost inevitably leads to death.
The most extreme example of a Plague outbreak is encountered in Chasm City
, in which Chasm City, the capital of Yellowstone, has been infected by the Plague. Once the centre of Demarchist society, the buildings and even the inhabitants of the city were capable of modifying themselves. The coming of the Plague changed all this and reduced the city and its inhabitants to a level of technology that the Plague could not attack. By the time that the worst of the Plague had passed, the city was almost unrecognisable, its buildings were twisted and deformed and the population decimated by the Plague. The only survivors were those that had taken steps to remove their implants or who hadn't had them to begin with, although some extremely wealthy individuals could afford "palanquins"—hermetic devices secure against the plague. Others used "dream fuel"—an alien drug that counteracted the plague. Ilia Volyova develops a virus which can apparently combat it, but the plague she attempted to fight with it was immunised against it before she could use it to any effect.
By the time the events of Redemption Ark
took place, the Plague was seen as less of a threat, though it was still considered dangerous. The Conjoiners in particular, being one of the only factions to have been relatively unaffected by the Plague, were adept at dealing with its various strains. This is demonstrated in a scene in Redemption Ark
in which Galiana's lighthugger is brought into the Mother Nest. Conjoiner quarantine techniques include large amounts of ceramic
armour (amongst other things) which the plague apparently cannot penetrate. Also, Clavain is later shown to be unworried about infection, maintaining his implants even while aboard the plague-infested Nostalgia for Infinity. Other conjoiners hold similar sentiments, including Remontoire and his soldiers (who install advanced weaponry on the Nostalgia for Infinity). The Conjoiners and Ultranauts are the only factions who continue to use their implants during the time of the plague.
, it appears as a general purpose building material, as well as serving numerous other functions. As its name implies, it is capable of changing form. It was susceptible to the Melding Plague and was destroyed by it.
, and function as multi-purpose electronic whips. When activated they extend a long metal whip which can be made rigid in order to use as a sword. The whip has an active cutting edge which, when fully powered, can cut through most solid matter. It has numerous modes, acting as a whip, sword, grenade and "enhanced suspect compliance", a controversial mode acting as a form of torture and interrogation device. They are controlled by verbal commands from their users, although Conjoiners can override these using their implants. Whiphounds are notable in that they are the only weapons Prefects are permitted to carry unless an emergency vote by the entire Glitter Band permits them to carry heavier weaponry in times of crisis.
, fully capable of learning and developing inside its host computer system. Despite the process of creating an alpha-level simulation resulting in the complete destruction of the neural structure of the mind copied, eighty (referred to as The Eighty) of those hyper-wealthy enough to afford the hugely expensive computer systems required to host the alpha-level copy volunteered for the first round of transfers, considering it a minor price for effective immortality
inside the machines. Unfortunately, a problem with the transfers resulted in the minds being corrupted in a matter of weeks, perhaps due to the uncertainty principle
, becoming irreparably insane (although at least two survived). Later technology was far more effective, creating perfectly sane simulations without killing the scanned individual (although large amounts of medical equipment were still necessary to survive the scan). Rushed scans often failed and produced useless simulations.
. They are apparently non-sentient, only capable of offering the illusion of being otherwise (similar to the Chinese Room
notion), but not everybody in the novels agree with this, particularly in The Prefect
. Most beta-level simulations are used in an advisory capacity, but many are used in other ways, such as running automated ships where a certain level of judgment is involved (although this usually falls to gamma-level simulations).
used for handling computational work. It is mentioned in Galactic North that they have a tendency to go insane if left without work to do.
Revelation Space universe
The Revelation Space universe is a fictional universe which was created by Alastair Reynolds and used as the setting for a number of his novels and stories...
created by Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in dark hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland...
.
Abstractions and entoptics
Abstraction is the process by which humans with neural implants gain access to wireless data networks, the data rate of which is far beyond anything current technology can offer. The most essential feature of abstraction was political participation in the Demarchy's absolute democracy through near-constant polling. Regardless of a given habitat or citizen's views on implants or abstraction, participation in the polling process was nearly universal. Abstraction is also used to tap into media networks and the like.Entoptics another feature of abstraction technology and consist of various sensory layers added to, or substituted for, normal, unfiltered perception. These effects can either be created by a single person (e.g., the projection of the appearance of clothing, glowing tattoos, etc.) or an authority (e.g., public visual displays "projected" into mid-air without the use of any actual display devices). The Conjoiners developed the first Entoptics early in their history, used in "Great Wall of Mars". By the time of The Prefect
The Prefect
The Prefect is a 2007 science fiction novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds . It is the fifth novel set in the Revelation Space universe, and takes place prior to the four previously released Revelation Space novels, but after some of the short stories...
, much of humanity used them in some form. Most of the characters in Reynolds' novels participate in this virtual environment through the use of neural implants, though some, especially after the advent of the Melding Plague, maintain access through goggles designed to tap into the local network. Though the term is usually limited to refer to visual effects, the abstraction layer can be used to create a wide range of sensory inputs, provided one has the appropriate implants.
Cache Weapons
The Cache Weapons, also known as "Hell Class" weapons, first appeared in Revelation SpaceRevelation Space
Revelation Space is a 2000 science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It was the first novel set in the Revelation Space universe, although the then-unnamed universe had already been established by several published short stories....
but were built by the Conjoiners some time before the events in that novel begin. The weapons were built based on information believed to have been received from the future via the project Exordium. Concerns about the source of information and the power of the weapons lead the Conjoiners to destroy the knowledge necessary to build additional weapons shortly after construction was completed, and though carefully hidden, they were eventually recovered by a crew of Ultras some years before the events in Revelation Space. Only forty cache weapons were created, and though Clavain and Remontoire speculated on creating more by reverse-engineering the technology, this never occurs in the novels.
The weapons are possessed of intelligence at least the level of a gamma level simulation. Sizes vary, but all are approximately sixty to seventy meters long and bronze/green in appearance. The weapons are self contained (save for targeting data) and self propelled, with at least an interplanetary range. After being deployed outside the hull of their carrier vessel, their own engines move them to a safe distance while acquiring a target. In the novels it is not entirely clear the degree of independent thought that each weapon is capable of, nor is the degree of security in remote control entirely known. They seem, however, to be fundamentally able to make their own choices about whether or not to fire and whom to target, being able to override the pacification codes the Conjoiners programmed into them (Cache Weapon Seventeen, given its Gamma-level personality, was only ever convinced to fire, no other cache weapon was listed)
The power and nature of the weapons varies, and is not fully understood in all cases. The smallest of the weapons seem to have been considerably more powerful than conventional space-borne weapons, and at least one is deemed capable of destroying a planet-sized object from a distance exceeding 100 AU. It is suggested that some of the weapons can have negative effects upon stellar bodies. Their level of sophistication differs widely- the most basic cache weapons appear to be radical extensions of otherwise conventional principles, such as relativistic projectile weapons with antimatter
Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
or neutronium
Neutronium
Neutronium is a proposed name for a substance composed purely of neutrons. The word was coined by scientist Andreas von Antropoff in 1926 for the conjectured "element of atomic number zero" that he placed at the head of the periodic table...
ammunition and gamma-ray lasers. Others, however, make use of gravity wave effects and other complex phenomena, with certain weapons even containing microscopic black holes. Once a weapon is programmed to fire, the process cannot be stopped by any method short of destroying it. Some of the weapons appear to be single use, including some deployed in the novel Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap is a 2003 science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It takes place in the Revelation Space universe and is a direct sequel to Redemption Ark.-Plot summary:...
(in several cases this is because the weapon destroys itself when firing), while others are at least theoretically capable of being reloaded, though this is never attempted.
Conjoiner Drive
Conjoiner drives are starshipStarship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
engines that use quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
to propel starships up to relativistic speeds, giving such ships the name "lighthuggers". It is at one point said that Conjoiner drives contain a small wormhole linked to the very deep past, through which they draw their propulsion energies from the Quark-gluon plasma
Quark-gluon plasma
A quark–gluon plasma or quark soup is a phase of quantum chromodynamics which exists at extremely high temperature and/or density. This phase consists of asymptotically free quarks and gluons, which are several of the basic building blocks of matter...
created by the Big Bang
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
. In Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series , and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial"...
, their design is implicated as attracting the Inhibitors
Races in Revelation Space
This is a list of fictional alien and modified human races in the fictional Revelation Space universe created by Alastair Reynolds.-Denizens:Denizens are a heavily engineered sentient species created on Europa by the Europan Demarchy...
, and subsequently modified after a 100-year suspension of their production (referred to in Revelation Space
Revelation Space
Revelation Space is a 2000 science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It was the first novel set in the Revelation Space universe, although the then-unnamed universe had already been established by several published short stories....
). It should be noted that the Conjoiners did not actually invent the drive themselves, but received the instructions for it via the Exordium.
A small part of the workings of the drives is revealed in Galactic North. The drive has six manual control dials that allow the power of the drive to be varied. As the drive power is increased, so does the risk of an uncontrolled, ship destroying explosion. Lighthuggers mount a pair of Conjoiner drives, both of which are controlled by a disembodied Conjoiner brain that performs rapid calculations to control the internal drive reactions. If the turbulence within the drive exceeds the ability of the brain, the drive will explode. The drive is also designed to explode if non-Conjoiners attempt to open it for reverse engineering, or if the gap between two drives on the same ship grows too large. This occurs because the Conjoiner brain is housed within one of the engines and controls the other remotely; once the other drive passes out of the brain's control, the internal reactions quickly spiral out of control.
Cryo-arithmetic engines
Cryo-arithmetic engines are a specific class of quantum computer discovered by the Conjoiners. When certain algorithms are executed on processors of this architecture, it leads to a local violation of the Second law of thermodynamicsSecond law of thermodynamics
The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the tendency that over time, differences in temperature, pressure, and chemical potential equilibrate in an isolated physical system. From the state of thermodynamic equilibrium, the law deduced the principle of the increase of entropy and...
: the computer gets colder instead of hotter. Consequently, cryo-arithmetic engines have massive industrial (as opposed to computational) ramifications for Conjoiner manufacturing; such engines abound in Conjoiner asteroid factories, where their calculations can drain away the heat of starship construction.
Cryo-arithmetic engines are also used by the Conjoiner's modern 'stealthed' lighthuggers; they cool the exterior of the ship to the temperature of ambient space, making the starships difficult for the Inhibitors (or other foes) to detect.
Like many of the technologies in the Revelation Space universe, the cryo-arithmetic engines can have potentially catastrophic consequences in the event of an accident. In Absolution Gap, Skade's ship crashes in the ocean of the planet Ararat, and the cryo-arithmetic engines malfunction. Their control systems fail, and so they get colder. Getting colder enables them to calculate faster, prompting a positive feedback loop
Positive feedback
Positive feedback is a process in which the effects of a small disturbance on a system include an increase in the magnitude of the perturbation. That is, A produces more of B which in turn produces more of A. In contrast, a system that responds to a perturbation in a way that reduces its effect is...
. By the time the inhabitants of Ararat find the wreck, Skade's ship is encased in an ever-expanding iceberg.
There is currently some research that has begun to take the shape of creating cryo-arithmetic engines. Link to Reference The continious increase in the speed of processors has created a need for cryo-arithmetic engines in order to maintain Moore's law
Moore's Law
Moore's law describes a long-term trend in the history of computing hardware: the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years....
past a certain theoretically information processing threshold. Such heat-dissipating engines may be in fact the only way to continue to increase the speed of processors past the next 20-30 years, as energy densities increase past any perceivable way to dissipate the heat generated in processors of that time classically.
Exordium
Exordium is a method of communication, wherein its participants create a "tunnel" or link through spacetime to exchange knowledge across temporal loci. The Many-worlds interpretationMany-worlds interpretation
The many-worlds interpretation is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction, but denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an...
of quantum mechanics is assumed, and allows participants to form neural links with their past, future, and alternate selves via the instigation of quantum superposition
Quantum superposition
Quantum superposition is a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics. It holds that a physical system exists in all its particular, theoretically possible states simultaneously; but, when measured, it gives a result corresponding to only one of the possible configurations.Mathematically, it...
states in their neural implants. Galiana and Skade use this system to obtain and modify inertial suppression technology and take various precautionary actions to eliminate the existential threat of the Inhibitors.
One limitation of the technology appears to be the total informational capacity of the superposition states—each instance of communication makes subsequent attempts more difficult in an effect described similarly to the build-up of static interference. It is unknown whether this limitation holds only for each individual repeat participant (which seems more likely) or for the entire process independent of the participants. Also never explicitly stated is the exact effect of the process' acausal nature, though it is implied that it cannot be used to directly violate causality
Causality
Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....
. Instead, each use of the Exordium creates a new timeline in which the message is received. The original timeline in which the message was sent continues as before.
A similar system to the Exordium is used in Chasm City
Chasm City
Chasm City is a 2001 science fiction novel by author Alastair Reynolds, set in the Revelation Space universe. It deals with themes of identity, memory, and immortality, and many of its scenes are concerned primarily with describing the unusual societal and physical structure of the titular city, a...
by the race known as "grubs" to achieve faster-than light communication. It does this by grouping all messages ever sent into a massive far-future archive (known as "Galactic Final Memory") and sending them back to their recipients. It uses the local gravitational background as a key, making it impossible for other recipients to read the messages and gives the device a "range" of a few thousand light years. This also means, however, that the technology cannot be used to send information to other times. It also appears affected by the interference effect which damages the Exordium.
Hypometric weapon
The hypometric weapon is an alien weapon, manufactured using technology acquired from the huge reservoir of alien knowledge stored inside an enormous distributed computer systemDistributed computing
Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...
disguised as neutron stars and (possibly) other astronomical objects.
Hypometric weaponry is said to be highly advanced, usually discovered only by races after one or two million years of spacefaring civilization.
The author does not explain exactly what the weapon looks like or how it works, although it is described as being seen as "a threshing machine", with tolerances measured on the atomic level. Due to the high velocity of its rotating physical parts a slight miscalculation in construction will almost certainly destroy whatever vessel it is contained in. It is described repeatedly as "wrong" by characters who have had close exposure to it. This is possibly due to the ambient spacetime irregularities generated by the weapon's operation. The weapon appears to simply eliminate areas of space from existence (or, as is implied, transport them to somewhere else), leaving gaping holes in whatever it is attacking. It is described as "weakly acausal" in its mechanism of operation.
Though the full extent of the weapon's power is not explored, its area of effect is large enough that it is useful in space warfare
Space warfare
Space warfare is combat that takes place in outer space, i.e. outside the atmosphere. Space warfare therefore includes ground-to-space warfare, such as attacking satellites from the Earth, as well as space-to-space warfare, such as satellites attacking satellites.It does not include the use of...
and can also be contracted to an area small enough to take out a section of a man's stomach without causing collateral damage
Collateral damage
Collateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.-Etymology:...
. However, it is also implied that this degree of accuracy is not something often achieved, and that the weapon is usually difficult to use with any degree of precision, to the extent of being dangerous to the users themselves. Users of hypometric weapons find that it is difficult to gauge their effectiveness in terms of "range" or "accuracy", as these characteristics are subject to change. The weapon is apparently capable of affecting targets out of its line of sight, or even through solid walls, and has a volume of effect of up to several light-hours. The Inhibitors
Races in Revelation Space
This is a list of fictional alien and modified human races in the fictional Revelation Space universe created by Alastair Reynolds.-Denizens:Denizens are a heavily engineered sentient species created on Europa by the Europan Demarchy...
can eventually adapt to its effect, although the novel suggests this is a local response and not a galactic response (Using the weapon in one solar system does not automatically generate the defenses in the next.)
Inertia Suppression
In Redemption ArkRedemption Ark
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series , and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial"...
, Skade and Clavain
Characters in Revelation Space
These are major characters from the various novels and stories that make up Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space universe.- Ana Khouri :...
independently encounter technology captured by the Mademoiselle, that permits the alteration of a ship's inertial mass in order to permit high-g acceleration for interstellar travel. It works by suppressing fluctuations and turmoil in quantum foam that supposedly causes momentum and inertia (similar to the concept of Higgs Boson
Higgs boson
The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics. Its existence is postulated as a means of resolving inconsistencies in the Standard Model...
s). It is also mentioned in that the technology may have been linked to the alien tower (in Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days is a 2003 compilation of two science fiction novellas by writer Alastair Reynolds. Both are set in the Revelation Space universe, but are almost entirely unconnected with the plots of any of the novels in the same story arc....
) Skade tries to modify the technology with the help of Exordium to allow faster than light travel, via a state transition from tardyonic to tachyon
Tachyon
A tachyon is a hypothetical subatomic particle that always moves faster than light. In the language of special relativity, a tachyon would be a particle with space-like four-momentum and imaginary proper time. A tachyon would be constrained to the space-like portion of the energy-momentum graph...
ic: however, her efforts are spectacularly unsuccessful, and the technology itself has the side effect of removing individuals caught in the transition bubbles from all recent history, as well as crippling her ship. Only those very close to the area of effect remember a person who is erased or unravelled backwards in time and recorded history indicates a much earlier death of that person. Because the victims (the deleted and nearby observers) are the only thing that remain from the time line where the victims began, people suddenly panicking and searching for a 'colleague' who died years before (in the new timeframe) can be the only sign of an accident. This happens at least twice in the novels. The inhibitors make reference to a similar effect erasing entire species from history. As such, neither they nor any other species in the galaxy with the technology to build inertia suppressing drives ever use them to travel faster than light.
Lighthugger
Lighthuggers are spacecraft that travel at just below the speed of light, taking months or years to accelerate to their cruising speed. Although capable of extremely powerful bursts of acceleration, when in transit between stellar systems lighthuggers typically sustain an acceleration of 1 g which would enable them to reach 99% of the speed of light in about 1 earth year.Generally 3–4 km
KM
KM, Km, or km may stand for:*Kilometre *Kernel methods*Kettle Moraine High School*Khmer language *Kuomintang , a centre-right political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan...
long, they use Conjoiner drives for propulsion, and are also coated with a thick caul of diamond that protects against minor impacts at relativistic velocities and acts as armour against the attacks of other ships. The great size of the lighthuggers enables them to carry vast numbers of passengers and huge amounts of cargo. At the end of Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series , and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial"...
this is demonstrated by Ana Khouri and Triumvir Ilia Volyova as they load approximately 160,000 of the almost 200,000 on the world Resurgam onto the Nostalgia for Infinity.
Lighthuggers are also described as having a limited repair and redesign capability in the novels. They are capable of moving rooms or machinery around within their hulls, or stripping material from one point to repair another. At least some are also equipped with "manufactories", which can build a considerable range of devices, given the relevant specifications (the full extent of their capabilities is unknown as they are only ever used in the novels to produce weapons). These ships were also quite powerful, by the standards of most science-fiction. Their small, point-defence
Point-defence
Point-defence is the defence of a single object or a limited area, e.g. a ship, building or an airfield, now usually against air attacks and guided missiles...
weapons (ostensibly defensive in nature) were capable of drilling a 200 kilometre crater in a planet and disrupting weather formations in a fashion similar to a large geological event, such as an asteroid impact or volcanic eruption.
Most lighthuggers are owned or ruled by their crew of Ultranauts, who, because of their long stretches in reefersleep and constant hopping from one star system to another are mostly divorced from baseline humanity. They are characterized by extreme modifications, often in the form of replacement or mechanical limbs or even holes right through them (as seen in Chasm City
Chasm City
Chasm City is a 2001 science fiction novel by author Alastair Reynolds, set in the Revelation Space universe. It deals with themes of identity, memory, and immortality, and many of its scenes are concerned primarily with describing the unusual societal and physical structure of the titular city, a...
).
By the end of the sequence, there exists a fleet of lighthuggers that have been upgraded or built from scratch by the Conjoined and other elements fighting the Inhibitors. These ships are far more advanced than the average lighthugger, and are equipped with stealthed drives that do not emit in any detectable spectrum, "cryo-arithmetic engines" which cool the hull to make it nearly indistinguishable — in thermal terms — from empty space, inertia suppression machinery that allows extremely fast acceleration and deceleration, and extremely heavy armaments, including hypometric weaponry.
Melding Plague
The Melding Plague is a nanotech virusVirus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
that attacks anything that has nanotechnology present within it and does not discriminate between human and machine. It attempts to meld the nanomachines and implants that are commonly present in the bodies of humans, with the structure of their body on a cellular level. This results in horrific, uncontrollable modifications to the body of whoever is infected and almost inevitably leads to death.
The most extreme example of a Plague outbreak is encountered in Chasm City
Chasm City
Chasm City is a 2001 science fiction novel by author Alastair Reynolds, set in the Revelation Space universe. It deals with themes of identity, memory, and immortality, and many of its scenes are concerned primarily with describing the unusual societal and physical structure of the titular city, a...
, in which Chasm City, the capital of Yellowstone, has been infected by the Plague. Once the centre of Demarchist society, the buildings and even the inhabitants of the city were capable of modifying themselves. The coming of the Plague changed all this and reduced the city and its inhabitants to a level of technology that the Plague could not attack. By the time that the worst of the Plague had passed, the city was almost unrecognisable, its buildings were twisted and deformed and the population decimated by the Plague. The only survivors were those that had taken steps to remove their implants or who hadn't had them to begin with, although some extremely wealthy individuals could afford "palanquins"—hermetic devices secure against the plague. Others used "dream fuel"—an alien drug that counteracted the plague. Ilia Volyova develops a virus which can apparently combat it, but the plague she attempted to fight with it was immunised against it before she could use it to any effect.
By the time the events of Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series , and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial"...
took place, the Plague was seen as less of a threat, though it was still considered dangerous. The Conjoiners in particular, being one of the only factions to have been relatively unaffected by the Plague, were adept at dealing with its various strains. This is demonstrated in a scene in Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series , and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial"...
in which Galiana's lighthugger is brought into the Mother Nest. Conjoiner quarantine techniques include large amounts of ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
armour (amongst other things) which the plague apparently cannot penetrate. Also, Clavain is later shown to be unworried about infection, maintaining his implants even while aboard the plague-infested Nostalgia for Infinity. Other conjoiners hold similar sentiments, including Remontoire and his soldiers (who install advanced weaponry on the Nostalgia for Infinity). The Conjoiners and Ultranauts are the only factions who continue to use their implants during the time of the plague.
Quickmatter
A substance used by the Demarchists in The PrefectThe Prefect
The Prefect is a 2007 science fiction novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds . It is the fifth novel set in the Revelation Space universe, and takes place prior to the four previously released Revelation Space novels, but after some of the short stories...
, it appears as a general purpose building material, as well as serving numerous other functions. As its name implies, it is capable of changing form. It was susceptible to the Melding Plague and was destroyed by it.
Whiphounds
Whiphounds are weapons used by Prefects in The PrefectThe Prefect
The Prefect is a 2007 science fiction novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds . It is the fifth novel set in the Revelation Space universe, and takes place prior to the four previously released Revelation Space novels, but after some of the short stories...
, and function as multi-purpose electronic whips. When activated they extend a long metal whip which can be made rigid in order to use as a sword. The whip has an active cutting edge which, when fully powered, can cut through most solid matter. It has numerous modes, acting as a whip, sword, grenade and "enhanced suspect compliance", a controversial mode acting as a form of torture and interrogation device. They are controlled by verbal commands from their users, although Conjoiners can override these using their implants. Whiphounds are notable in that they are the only weapons Prefects are permitted to carry unless an emergency vote by the entire Glitter Band permits them to carry heavier weaponry in times of crisis.
Alpha-level
A complete, functioning copy of a mindMind
The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...
, fully capable of learning and developing inside its host computer system. Despite the process of creating an alpha-level simulation resulting in the complete destruction of the neural structure of the mind copied, eighty (referred to as The Eighty) of those hyper-wealthy enough to afford the hugely expensive computer systems required to host the alpha-level copy volunteered for the first round of transfers, considering it a minor price for effective immortality
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
inside the machines. Unfortunately, a problem with the transfers resulted in the minds being corrupted in a matter of weeks, perhaps due to the uncertainty principle
Uncertainty principle
In quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle states a fundamental limit on the accuracy with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle, such as position and momentum, can be simultaneously known...
, becoming irreparably insane (although at least two survived). Later technology was far more effective, creating perfectly sane simulations without killing the scanned individual (although large amounts of medical equipment were still necessary to survive the scan). Rushed scans often failed and produced useless simulations.
Beta-level
A poor cousin to an alpha-level simulation, a beta-level is based on modeling the behavioural patterns of the person copied, attempting to predict their reactions to a given stimulusStimulus (physiology)
In physiology, a stimulus is a detectable change in the internal or external environment. The ability of an organism or organ to respond to external stimuli is called sensitivity....
. They are apparently non-sentient, only capable of offering the illusion of being otherwise (similar to the Chinese Room
Chinese room
The Chinese room is a thought experiment by John Searle, which first appeared in his paper "Minds, Brains, and Programs", published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences in 1980...
notion), but not everybody in the novels agree with this, particularly in The Prefect
The Prefect
The Prefect is a 2007 science fiction novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds . It is the fifth novel set in the Revelation Space universe, and takes place prior to the four previously released Revelation Space novels, but after some of the short stories...
. Most beta-level simulations are used in an advisory capacity, but many are used in other ways, such as running automated ships where a certain level of judgment is involved (although this usually falls to gamma-level simulations).
Gamma-level
Standard AIAi
AI, A.I., Ai, or ai may refer to:- Computers :* Artificial intelligence, a branch of computer science* Ad impression, in online advertising* .ai, the ISO Internet 2-letter country code for Anguilla...
used for handling computational work. It is mentioned in Galactic North that they have a tendency to go insane if left without work to do.
See also
- Revelation Space universeRevelation Space universeThe Revelation Space universe is a fictional universe which was created by Alastair Reynolds and used as the setting for a number of his novels and stories...
- Characters in Revelation SpaceCharacters in Revelation SpaceThese are major characters from the various novels and stories that make up Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space universe.- Ana Khouri :...
- Factions in Revelation SpaceFactions in Revelation SpaceThis is a list of fictional factions in Revelation Space. The human factions are found in the Revelation Space universe, the setting for a series of stories and novels by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds.-Interstellar factions:...
- Races in Revelation SpaceRaces in Revelation SpaceThis is a list of fictional alien and modified human races in the fictional Revelation Space universe created by Alastair Reynolds.-Denizens:Denizens are a heavily engineered sentient species created on Europa by the Europan Demarchy...
- Locations in Revelation Space
- Weapons in science fictionWeapons in science fictionStrange and exotic weapons are a recurring theme in science fiction. In some cases, weapons first introduced in science fiction have now been made a reality...