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).
Overview
- A Technological Singularity = Major paradigmatic revolution of technological advancement AKA "Paradigm Change"
- The Technological Singularity = PTP
- A Cosmological (Gravitational) Singularity = Black Hole, a point in space-time at which the space-time curvature becomes infinite.
- The Cosmological (Non-gravitational) Singularity = Big Bang
- 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.
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.
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. 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
No information yet available.
Charted Space Teleology Teleology Synopsis Remarks Alpha Point TBD 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 TBD No information yet available. Darwinian Theory TBD No information yet available.
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)
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- T5 Core Rules
- Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science