Sansha collections

A strange thing happened today, while I was checking out Sansha data sites. 

There is an incursion in and around Thebeka, and mr. Ivan Firth suggested that we contribute by gathering intelligence. I think we share this trait, that we are averse to battle, and anyway the Indagatrix is not geared for it. There were plenty of data relays and even a backup server. But in all of them there were Talocan or Takmahl artefacts. Well, apart from the occasional chunk of carbon... 

The things we found are not that unusual in themselves, like Takmahl cohere cords or Talocan mechanical gears. But what is unusual is that the Sansha seem to be stocking up on them, at least in this incursion. Mr. Firth thinks it is just coincidence, but I suspect this has got to do with the recent events involving Drifter, Triglavians and the Deathless. 

Perhaps the Atavum devices set the trend, but ancient civilization artefacts are hot items nowadays... 

Firewall

In the margin of the ICC symposium, I have negotiated for interlibrary loan arrangements between Caille University and our library. I thought it would have been difficult, since we have censorship. We do not want our readers to have access to books on the Index. So any access to collections for our readers should be filtered beforehand.

I had expected fierce opposition to censorship, as something that limits freedom. Politically, at least, it is important for them the emphasize that censorship is bad, and people should be free to read whatever they want. 

So I had prepared my case, using the Sanist subculture in the Federation as an example. They have a Sani Sabik music genre - Midna Lyre is the primary exponent of it. It is banned in the Empire, and frankly, I think also most Gallente think their Sanists are weird if not outright harmful.

It turns out I was naive. There is censorship also in the Federation. Not for Sanist music, but for things their courts think is libel, or for propaganda from the State. Moreover, following the general theme of the conference, trade motivations trumped ideological motivations. They made no problem of installing the firewall. 

ICC Symposium

Today I attended a conference promoting Empire-Federation economical relations. It had been organized at the LUMEN embassy in the Aideron building in Luminaire, a very appropriate venue to bring us together.

The main part of the program were keynote speeches. It started with some short and to-the-point talks, by Luna and by James Syagrius. There was also a talk by Kriv Aldent, who offers to facilitate trade, I think a hauling service? I'm afraid I dozed off a bit during the talk, I had spent a long time traveling from Amarr to Luminaire, and did not get my coffee yet.

Lord Garion Avarr also took to the lectern to give a speech. It was quite rousing! He talked about Itzak Barah and his  magnum opus Cathedral of Oceans, and how its translation formed a bridge to the Federation. Books as diplomats. He also outed himself as someone advocating the end of slavery. The Gallente loved it, they had little stars twinkling in their eyes when they heard an Amarr noble talk about ending slavery. Yet, I do not think he did it to butter the Gallenteans up. He meant it. 

He did not say anything unbecoming, he did not advocate revolution. It was all in line with Imperial policies set out by Heideran the Good and continued by the Empress Jamyl and by our current Empress. Nevertheless, outing yourself as a abolitionist is still a courageous thing to do and not without its dangers. There may be a lot of resistance to his stance, and not only outside of LUMEN.

Finally, Isodorus Orissus talked. He was certainly the odd one out. Unsurprisingly, he gave a speech about his knife. All in all, it reinforced the image of favoring trade and money over tradition in order to overcome the hurdles between the Empire and the Federation - that is the "vibe" I got from this conference, overall. 

I do not agree. I mean, I understand that trade can be a good first step to normalize relations between empires. But as an ultimate motivator, profit is a false prophet. It has appeal for a while, but in the end all these possessions stacked around you cannot fulfill the existential need of giving meaning to your life. 

After the presentation, I had an interesting discussion with mr. Kalodote Lafisques in one of the meeting rooms. He is advocating cooperation between capsuleers, in a way that is disconnected from loyalty to our empires, and motivated -again- by profit of some kind. At least, that is how I understand him at this point - I think there was a bit of a cultural barrier and some things got lost in translation...

Entropy and life

Motivated by thoughts about the fate of the Jove, I seem to have dived deep into a rabbit hole. With the help of the Lamp’s library assistants, I have been digging up books about the physical constraints that would apply even to hyper-advanced civilizations. 

In that discussion, entropy plays an important role.

Entropy is a measure of missing information or chaos. That sounds like a vague concept, but physics manages to give it a mathematical definition that allows to put a number on it. The sort of chaos that can be captured by the physical concept of entropy is not about political chaos and not really about the mess of books and papers on my desk. Rather, it is chaos at a microscopic level, in the arrangement of atoms or other (sub)atomic building blocks of life.

Maximum entropy would occur when everything is completely mixed up, a uniformly mixed soup of all sorts of atoms. Low entropy, by contrast, occurs when these atoms are perfectly sorted, for example when they are arranged in a perfect, infinite crystal, frozen down to the lowest temperature.

Both extremes represent death. 

Life, with its complex arrangements of atoms, is neither maximum entropy nor extremely low entropy. It exists somewhere in between the two. It requires complexity and structure, which is neither maximal chaos nor maximal order at the microscopic level. 

The main and most intriguing property of entropy is that it always grows over time. That is known as the second law of thermodynamics. As you live your life and think your thoughts, the processes that occur while doing that will increase entropy. The atoms get knocked out of their original formation, and the chaos and loss of in-formation increases. If you get locked up in a closed box and one waits for a very long time, you will ultimately turn into a nasty, bloody, high-entropy structureless goo. 

This tendency of entropy to always grow certainly is depressing.

But there is also hope! The second interesting property is that entropy can be transported. To maintain your atoms in their formation, you must expel the entropy that is being generated by the processes in your body to somewhere else. Entropy is the ultimate waste that we will always need to get rid of, no matter how advanced we become.

As it turns out, we live on a big stream of entropy coming from our star and going off into space [*], and we can dump our little excess entropy waste into that big stream! As a civilization becomes more advanced, it can perhaps manage its energy consumption or harvesting in a more efficient way, but it will always have to get rid of its entropy. That is true even if we become virtual beings, as manipulating digital information also produces entropy. 

To clarify that, I’ll have to look at the entropy associated with manipulating data next.

[*] Technical details: The stream starts at Amarr's star, which sends us low-entropy radiation characteristic for 4436 K. The higher the temperature of a celestial body, the lower the entropy associated with some flux of energy coming from the celestial body (in fact the entropy is inversely proportional to this temperature). The light from our star powers life on Amarr, and gets re-radiated out back into space at the temperature of our planet, about 300 K. Incoming energy needs to balance outgoing energy to get a planet in thermal equilibrium, but that is not true for entropy. Our planet radiates out high-entropy, mostly infrared radiation. So, we have a low entropy stream coming in, and turning into a high-entropy stream as it moves out. Part of that higher entropy comes from us doing our thing on the planet, and maintaining our microscopic structure, by dumping waste entropy into that stream. 

Specifically, and perhaps just to prove that physics can put numbers on it: our star provides 450 Watt/m^2 of energy flux to Amarr prime, which must be radiated back out to space. This corresponds to about 1 J/K of entropy that is dumped into space per second, per square meter of planet surface.

Stellar spheres

It was nice to recall the story of Saint Khafkan foiling the Sealer's plot. I picked up a book about this bit of history, because I could not shake the idea that in Jove society, their version of the Sealers may have been more successful. Perhaps not with an attack, but by gaining political power.

What happens next? A very advanced civilization will ultimately control all matter in its (sealed-off) star system, and futurists have theorized that they would reorganize this matter into a giant spherical shell surrounding their home star, to capture all the star's energy and let none of it escape into the dark depths of space.

If we add up all the mass of the planets circling our star, from Mikew to Derdainys, and redistribute it evenly on a shell of 1 AU - twice the distance between Amarr Prime and our star, we have about 7 tonnes of material to work with per square kilometer of shell. Enough to build a shell sturdy and thick enough for people to live in.

However, such a sphere would be inherently in danger of colliding with its central star. If the star is not completely at rest with respect to the sphere, it would just keep on cruising towards the sphere's inner surface. Gravity's pull from the spherical shell cancels out inside the shell, so there is no restoring force. 

To create a potential well for the star, one would have to rapidly oscillate the center of mass of the shell around its geometrical center. This way, a (time averaged) potential well can be created to keep the star in place. This would require the sphere to be augmented with rings around its circumference, along which planet-sized masses are rotating at tremendous speed. Angular momentum ought to be conserved, so some counter-rotation by the sphere itself would be needed.

Yes, it would be a sight to behold.

Such a construction is claimed to optimize the amount of energy that can be used by an advanced civilization when restricted to a single star system. All of the fusion energy from the central star can be harvested.

However, it has been argued that ultimately, a civilization does not need energy. It needs to shed entropy. I need to look up another book about that...

ooc: the spherical shell idea was put forward by Freeman Dyson (Science 131, 1667 (1960)), and is called a Dyson sphere. 

The gatekeeper - part 3

Back in AD 21304 it took quite some time for a dinghy to cross the distance between the gate hangar and a freighter thirty-odd kilometers away. Khafkan, mightily angry that someone had gone over his head, was determined to use this time to apply the full might of his administrative prowess to unearth other possible objections against approving the jump.

He sifted through the web of holding companies to find that the owner - the one who must have contacted his superior - was the chapter master of the Order of The Promised Planet, currently under investigation by the Council of Apostles. They were against Amarr's expansion to the stars and advocated that everyone should stay on our home world, the promised planet where the prophet Gheinok led us to. While he found it very ironic that exactly these folk are now in a hurry to get to Hedion, this was not a cause to deny the jump authorization.

Another thing that caught his eye was the ship's manifest. It had not raised any concerns that they were transporting pluche toys, interior house decorations, cosmetics from a line of a famous singer, and class II industrial waste. The paperwork for that was perfectly in order. But they had claimed to be on an emergency. Khafkan failed to see how these items could constitute an emergency shipment. At the very least an inspection was in order.

That is why, after landing his dinghy in the freighter's docking bay, he did not follow the droid to the bridge to get the signature, but took a sudden turn and headed towards the cargo bay. 

What he saw there, was not in accordance with regulations.

The cargo bay was stocked from floor to ceiling with crates of explosives. 

Khafkan did not make it back to his dinghy. Before a blaster blew a fist-sized hole in his chest, he was able to message the gunner the correct codes of the various infractions committed by the terrorists. With his last breath, he added "Jump request still denied". 

When the freighter made a run for the gate, the gunner drew the correct conclusion, and opened fire. The exploding ship damaged the gate, but it did not achieve the ultimate goal of the conspirators: to destroy our first and back then only stable wormhole connection to another star system. They had hoped to permanently seal off Amarr from the rest of the universe. The order, henceforth known as the Sealers, was outlawed and purged.

As for Khafkan, to this very day he is venerated as patron saint of bureaucracy.

The gatekeeper - part 2

Khafkan did not like unusual events at all, they invariantly caused him emotional distress.

When distressed, he found relief by carefully scrutinizing paperwork. There was something about administrative details that put his mind in flux and his thoughts at rest. After two and a half hours, he had finished meticulously checking all the travel documents, and communicated his conclusions to the waiting freighter.

"Your JA-319 form is not in order. Jump request denied."

The ship messaged back "This is the Spirit of Good Fortune. It's a three-hundred page document. What's wrong with it?"

"That question should be addressed to the helpdesk, not to the chief jump officer. You can open a ticket via helpdesk@hediongate.info, or online via the HediHedi app. Thank you and good night." 

Khafkan felt a wave of satisfaction based on the knowledge that no-one is more professional than he. He had noticed that the signature on page 189 was not entirely inside the box that delimited the space provided for it on the document. 

The ship's reply came in an angry voice. "We're in a hurry, it's an emergency delivery, we can't wait for a helpdesk. Why can't you just tell us what's wrong with it?"

Gone was Khafkan's feeling of satisfaction. "Because that is not in the stated list of the duties of a chief jump officer, as per the officer's handbook version 37 point 3." He added pre-emptively "That is the latest version."

The discussion that ensued was recorded and logged by the gate's communication array. It was long and not pleasant - it varied between negotiation, attempts at bribery, and threats. None of that worked to change Khafkan's mind. 

The one thing that did work, was a direct order from Khafkan's superior officer, woken up in the middle of the night by a call from the owner of the shipping company. 

"For a f***ing signature that is partly outside the F***ING BOX?" he screamed after Khafkan explained him the reasons for denying the jump. "Are you mad, Khafkan? You ARE! Go bring them a new form to sign if you need it and THEN LET THE F****** SH*TSHIP through. That's an order!" After another string of expletives, interspersed with some thrashing, the line was suddenly cut.

It was rare for Khafkan to receive such an unambiguous order. He filled in a request for an unscheduled undock of a space dinghy, and then he formally approved his own request as he had the authority to do so. As per regulations, he alerted the gate gunner, who had to be woken up, so he could dutifully stand guard and track the dinghy. He then undocked, taking with him a new copy of the JA-319 form, with a blank unsigned page 189.

-to be continued-

The gatekeeper - part 1

Lord Khafkan Knivet, not yet a saint, was chief jump officer at Hedion gate during the night shift of November 5th, AD 21304. 

Hedion Gate was still brand new, it had been opened only fourteen years earlier, and the post of chief jump officer was a very prestigious one. House Knivet was no obvious choice - it certainly was not one of the grand Houses. The choice had been a compromise between rivaling grand Houses, at least one of which dearly hoped house Knivet would fail badly at the job.

Khafkan knew this, and was out to prove that he would not just do well, but excel at the job. He had always been intensely passionate about rules and regulations, and he knew the jump flight codices even better than scripture. He was determined to apply them to the letter.

That night of November, a large freighter arrived at Hedion gate, immediately requesting to initiate the jump procedure. That was unusual - interstellar jump travel was young and the traffic through the gate was not as intense as it is in our time. There were only a few freighters per day using the gate, and those jumps usually occurred during Dam-Torsad timezone office hours. At night, civilian ships would just be moored somewhere on the gate's grid, waiting for the next day to wake the crew and continue their way. 

Khafkan, gifted with good memory and attention to detail, knew the identification number and name of every single interstellar freighter that had crossed the gate before. 

This was a new one.

-to be continued-

Single-system civilization

Today I kept mulling over the disappearance of the Jove from their own sealed off region of space.  I have been thinking about the possibility that they retreated to just one world in their region. Even if they could, it would be a dangerous thing to do. Putting their entire population in one place is putting your survival at risk: a single cataclysm or invasion may mean extinction. 

It seems unimaginable now, but there was a time when we were restricted to just one planet, Athra, and this was more than enough for all Amarrians alive then. For millennia, living anywhere else than on that planet's surface was just not something that anyone gave any thought. Athra was the obvious home, a given, and only futurists and dreamers longed for the unreachable stars.

Of course, there were far fewer people back then, and just one planet could sustain this small population. To return to living in a single system is unthinkable today, with uncountable trillions of souls scattered over a vast interstellar empire. But there was a short window of time in our history when leaving Amarr or not was indeed a point of discussion. 

In the early years of our space age, there was a group called the Sealers. These heretics rejected what is now recorded in Book of Reclaiming,
"I give to you the destiny of Faith,
And you will bring its message to every planet of every star in the heavens:
Go forth, conquer in my Name, and reclaim that which I have given."

It is sometimes claimed that the words "to every planet of every star in the heavens" was not yet there during those early years, it would have been "to every land of every continent on Athra". The Tetrimon say that the wording was changed after the Empire was purged of the heresy of the Sealers, to clarify the correct interpretation. 

The Sealers argued that Prophet Gheinok led us to Amarr to live there, in our promised land, and nowhere else. This put them at odds with the Council of Apostles (which back then had theological authority just like the Theology Council now) and of course the Emperor, who argued for expansion into the heavens. 

The dispute was not settled without a fight...