Singularity

The Singularity is a very nebulous term for both black holes and a hypothetical condition of life beyond technology, civilization, and "life" itself as confusing as that may sound. Some call it the Afterlife, Heaven, or Hell, while others call it the Post-Technological Period (PTP).

• It is an Anomaly in the technological sense and an astrographic phenomenon in the astronomic sense.

Overview

1. A Technological Singularity = Major paradigmatic revolution of technological advancement AKA "Paradigm Change"
2. The Technological Singularity = PTP
3. A Gravitational Singularity = Black Hole, a point in space-time at which the space-time curvature becomes infinite.
4. The Cosmological Singularity = Big Bang
5. Past TL-33 by IISS Technology Categorizational Standards

Description (Specifications)

The Singularity is a hypothetical point in the future at which all science, philosophy, and all conventional knowledge has lost normative meaning. It is functionally a post-technological existence where anything is possible. Some races think of it as the afterlife, while others consider it something entirely different. Whatever it is, the philosophical, teleological, or spiritual version exists outside of the comprehension of TL–15 science as a much-disputed theory.

Gravitational Singularities

Please see the article Black Hole for more information.

Technological Singularities

Technological Singularities are points in time when great, society-changing technology is discovered, disseminated, and becomes disruptive of the extant culture and status quo.

IISS Chronological Periodization

• Technological Age (1 TL) → Technological Epoch (3 TLs) → Technological Period (9 TLs) → Technological Era (30 TLs) → Technological Eon (33+ TLs) → Singularity (Post-Technological Period)

History & Background (Dossier)

Most sophont societies first develop the concept of a singularity as a cosmological idea, a theoretical solution to the enigma of black holes. And later to the quandary of the creation of the universe, the so called Big Bang.

Most often, often during the digital epoch, many sophont societies extend the concept to technological singularities eventually theorizing the idea of the Singularity as the Post-Technological Period. Some additionally think of it in organic-inorganic terms, as in the point where inorganic machine intelligences both match and exceed their organic counterparts.

Standard Polity Growth Sequence

MACRO LEVEL:

• Proto-Society → Society → Civilization → Singularity (Post-civilizational)

MICRO LEVEL:

• Proto-Society → Band Society → Tribal Society or Chiefdom → City-State → Nation-State → World-State → Pocket Empire → Interstellar State → Intergalactic State → Final State → Singularity

Great Merge (Synthesis of Organic & Inorganic Life?)

Some Imperial scientists conjecture that the Singularity is a future stage of life when organic sophont life and machine life (inorganic life) merge into a kind of cyborg lifeform. There is scant evidence for it, but many thinkers hypothesize that it will one day occur. Some conjecture that the Ancients had already achieved the Great Merge before their mysterious disappearance from the interstellar stage.

Teleology of Charted Space

A number of scientific theories have had profound effects on the teleology of Charted Space.

Charted Space Teleology

Teleology	Synopsis	Remarks
Alpha Point	Emergence of Sophonce	At what point does life emerge? Is it at the point when RNA synthesizes itself from the primordial ooze and becomes the first simple organic lifeform? Perhaps when the first, most basic yet fundamental technology is developed by a proto-sophont? Whatever it is or may be, the philosophical term for this point of biological life emergence is the Alpha Point.
Aristotlian Theory	Terran Reason & Logic	Aristotelianism is a tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. This school of thought, in the modern sense of philosophy, covers existence, ethics, mind and related subjects. In Aristotle's time, philosophy included natural philosophy, which preceded the advent of modern science during the Terran Scientific Revolution. Moses Maimonides adopted Aristotelianism from the Islamic scholars and based his famous Guide for the Perplexed on it and that became the basis of Jewish scholastic philosophy. This allowed traditions of religious revelation, reason, and logic to be balanced within Terran-descended belief systems.
Darwinian Theory	Natural Selection & Competitive Evolution	Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the Terran naturalist Charles Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. It is also called Darwinian theory, it originally included the broad concepts of transmutation of species or of evolution which later gained general scientific acceptance.

Omega Point

At what point does life end? Not just biological life, which ends in physiological death, but the life of a sophont species, a culture, a civilization, an interstellar society, say that of Charted Space? What does one call that point? Many Terran thinkers have called it the Omega Point. It is the proposed stage of life after technology. It is the Post-Technological Period. The IISS nominally defines it as post-TL-33 existence.

Omega Point Thoery

Teleology	Synopsis	Remarks
Tiplerian Omega Point	TBD	No information yet available.
Kurzweilian Omega Point	TBD	No information yet available.
Smelchakian Omega Point	TBD	No information yet available.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. TBD.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Aristotelianism. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Darwinism. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science