Writer's Guide to the Sphere

This article is an out of character view of various aspects of the Sphere setting, answering questions that may be slightly immersion-breaking to explain in character. Other sections provide potted histories of items of technology, social institutions, philosophies and historical events, again from a more OOC perspective.

Technology

Infotech

As expected from a world that gave rise to superintelligent, uploaded posthumans, infotechnology is a mature and sophisticated field. Most people are surrounded by a data trail dating from their date of birth, invisible records of their movements, their purchases, their life. For most worlds the only way to escape this is to ‘hit the rim’ and head to one of the many small colonies dotting the sphere. Even that can be no guarantee of future anonymity.

In addition to the information of each person, the inhabitants of most worlds are bathed in a constant cloud of information. News, references and information and of course marketing, all custom-tailored by the vast, unthinking behavioral matching programs that inhabit the infospheres of populous worlds.

Electronics

More than two and a half centuries of improvement have rendered the concept of electronics as discrete things almost quaint. Few manufactured objects exist anymore that are genuinely 'dumb'. The frame of an aircraft will track in real-time the stresses it is undergoing and its onboard machinery will announce when they need maintenance. Smartfabric clothes will update themselves with the latest fashions, ready for a mid-day morph. Roads and buildings will track when and where people and vehicles move.

This is one of the largest and yet least-regarded distinctions between the galactic first world and the galactic third world. The states of the Sea of Solomon can compete with the core worlds in such things as engine output and shipbuilding tonnage. But because they have spent most of the last century isolated months or years from regular contact with the immense civilian research base of Earth and the Expanse, they lag immensely in less-appreciated fields. An EU Drake of half a century ago would have damage notifications pop up the moment its armor was penetrated, providing exact coordinates for the area and even a suggestion of size and severity. A modern Minkowski Firmament would require an EVA team to make that same damage assessment by hand.

The big exception to all this is equipment intended for posthuman-level electronic attack environments. In these situations, 'stupidity' in the sense of lack of exploitable electronics is a net positive, despite the lose of utility.

Neural Lace

Neural lace is implanted cognitive nanotechnology that constructs a hugely complex filament network in a subject's brain, allowing for machine-reading and machine-writing - a man-machine interface. The most sophisticated versions even support Moravecian uploading as opposed to the older, destructive scanning methods. Neural lace is the latest in various generations of MMI technology and is common in affluent core worlds, often implanted at the onset of puberty and maturing with the host's brain. Elsewhere it is generally more task-focussed, with many vocations (generally demanding ones) offering it as part of a subsidized upgrade program.

One place where neural lace receives mixed interest is in the military. While the ability to assimilate large quantifies of information is often desirable, neural lace can also open up weaknesses in the host's brain to EM radiation and the like. Oftentimes, militaries will prefer to use externally-worn neural transducers for security and safety. This goes doubly so for individuals willingly engaging posthumans.

AI

Genuine Autonomous Intelligence is often something of a curiosity in known space. Defined as intelligent self-aware software entities, most AIs tend to be (or end up) indistinguishable from posthumans. The intrinsic complexity and time of 'growing' an AI from scratch and the commonly-held viewpoint that creating a sentient being for a specific purpose is immoral means that most AIs that do exist and do not vanish into a spiral of self-contemplation are those attached to a mobile physical form - androids.

Most of the roles that were once envisioned as being filled by AIs are instead filled by expert systems, nonsensient programs designed to do a specific task. Few aspects of daily life are not touched by expert programs in one way or another, from self-driving cars to optimized power regulation to financial management programs. Posthumans often include expert systems as subcomponents of their cognitive complexes.

Of specific note are AIDs, or 'Artificially Intelligent Devices'. These are pocket secretaries, baby monitors, teachers and companions all rolled in to one. While originating as expert systems, oftentimes the need to grow alongside a growing human makes them evolve in strange ways. This random, undirected autoevolution often puts old AIDs into legal limbo, having gone from here expert system to genuine intellect - or something sufficiently close that it is impossible to distinguish. These also tend to have 'flaky' but humanlike personalities, the result of their unmanaged growth.

Weapons

Railguns

Railguns use magnets to launch chunks of metal at high velocity. A popular weapon they have been superceded in part by directed energy weapons, however using kinetic energy to poke (large) holes in ships remains an effective way to disable or destroy them and in general almost infantry weapons are railguns of some form. They also have superior performance in atmosphere relative to energy weapons, as they do not suffer beam degradation. Railguns generally use two or less rarely four (quadrupole) acceleration rails, and when fired have a brief, sharp 'electrical' muzzle flash.

Particle Cannons

Particle cannons are the dominant energy weapon in use in the Sphere, and have proliferated greatly in the past half-century. Compared to railguns they are less powerful but can be (much) more accurate; furthermore they can make better use of alpha capacitors. PACT and ZOCU ships tend to use them in roles broadly equivalent to SAMs. Particle cannons can fire in one of two modes and more sophisticated warship-sized ones can switch between as required. In general, particle cannons have a golden or blueish-white color (especially in atmosphere).

Pulse Cannons fire multiple 'bolts' in quick succession. Babylon 5 pulse cannons are the visual archetype. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MipPH24q4yk

Beam Cannons fire extended narrow raking beams that last for 1-2 seconds. The visual archetype would be Federation phasers from Star Trek. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGNUF5HxU20

Lasers

Primarily used in defensive applications such as point defense against missiles and projectiles, lasers are not as amenable to dust-derived augmentation as particle weapons, though the League and Magnates have came up with some heavy versions designed for shipboard use. Velan drones also use lasers. Visually, lasers fire monochromatic beams, typically red or green, though ones outside of visual range (such as UV, X-Ray or IR) also exist.

Plasma Weapons

Originally found on Velan drones, plasma weapons are essentially directed fusion bombs wrapped in a short-lived magnetic bottle. They have short range and slow refire rates and unlike other energy weapons, have not-inconsiderable 'kick'. Their blasts are shots of brilliant white, like looking into a flashbulb that sustains itself for several seconds.

Mega Particle Guns

ZOCU's deadly exotic particle guns, MPGs are fairly slow-firing but extremely effective against armor, less so against shields. They are normally of an actinic pinkish or violet color and will leave a trail of 'glitter' behind them. Like particle cannons, MPGs can be fitted with effective alpha capacitors, giving them a deadly alpha strike or heavy burst option in the anti-air role.

Posthuman Weapons

Posthuman battledrones exhibit various weapons, mostly looking not particularly dissimilar to MPGs (from the same general tech base, after all) in effects, though they tend to be more accurate and capable of faster refire. Beam versions also exist (eg, vector beams). Visually their color is shifted more towards deep violet.