Suggestions and bullshitting thread, venting, etc. [NSFW]

[^Perhaps the most startling revelation to come out of the Triangulum Transmission was that of the Leviathan.^

^{According to its transmissions, the Triangulum civilization has discovered a massive object, hidden by their galaxy from Terragen sensors, that is approaching the Local Group of galaxies. First discovered when it was still over a million light-years from the edge of their galaxy, the object is approaching at nearly half the speed of light. It is approximately 10 light-years across. It has a mass of 100 billion suns. And it is clearly and unmistakably artificial.}
_{Although the Triangulum civilization’s experts cannot be completely sure, they postulate that the unknown creators of the Leviathan have imploded their entire galaxy down to a fraction of its former size before converting it into a single artificial structure or complex of structures and launching it across intergalactic space. Their observations have revealed very little more about the object except that while a few parts of it seem to be radiating energy consistent with the infrared emissions of G,K, and M class stars enclosed in Dyson shrouds, the vast majority of the Leviathan appears to consist of some other type or types of megastructure.}](https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/4802acd634205)

[^One of the largest artificial structures in the Visible Universe was first seen by the Argus Array in 6110 AT. Leo Hyperobject 1 is 339 million light years from the Milky Way, in Abell 1369, the Leo Supercluster. This object was first detected because of the Einstein Rings surrounding it; the sphere is silhouetted against the distant galaxy DDF 155A09A091 which has a redshift of z =10.5 and a light-travel-time distance of 13.2 billion light years.^
_{LH1 has an apparent mass twice as great as the Milky Way and a diameter of 1.2 light years. This object seems to have been constructed using almost all the mass in the local galaxy, and less than a thousand stars remain in its immediate vicinity, each orbiting the structure at high velocities. Some of these stars have habitable planets. The outer surface of LH1 is a featureless radiator, with several billion entry- and exit- ports; craft have been observed to enter the structure on occasion, but this traffic has diminished in the last two millennia to almost zero. Many observers speculate that this construct contains a culture that is becoming increasingly isolated from the rest of the universe.}

_{Such a large mass located within a space little more than a light year across would quickly self-gravitate into a hypermassive black hole, emitting stupendous amounts of energy in the process. So this object must be self-supporting, probably using dynamic orbital ring technology.}

_{The outer shell of this object radiates a significant amount of waste heat, suggesting that there is substantial activity within. One possible model for the structure inside is that of a so-called ‘supraself’; a series of millions of supramundane shells that are supported by dynamic orbital rings, centred around the centre of gravity of this object. Such a ‘supraself’ could potentially have a habitable surface area around 10e23 times as large as the Earth.}

_{However the effective gravity on the outermost surface is only 0.2 gees; if the hypothetical internal shells are evenly distributed, then they will also have lower gravity than Earth. It is possible that the internal shells are concentrated more closely together, and the outermost shell is located further away to increase its effectiveness as a radiator. Note that the mass of this object is still very large, and causes significant time-dilation within its structure - the centre experiences a time-rate hundreds of times slower than the surface.}](https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/5a16e43cac9ad)

‘Void swarms’ are also sometimes known as distributed void brains or void angels. The exact function and capabilities of these ISOs (Intelligent Super-Objects) remain unknown and are subject to much speculation. Anecdotal reports, and occasional comments from certain post-singularity sources, indicate void swarms are a real but recent phenomenon, first encountered nearly 1500 years ago.

A void swarm is an ISO believed to be commanded only by the highest of forces that be. It is speculated they consist of an interlinked swarm of many millions, and perhaps even up to billions, of void bubbles acting as a coherent whole. It’s also believed that there are nested void bubbles within these primary bubbles, which are linked with the other bubbles through wormholes. It’s not known how many nested layers of void bubbles are contained within each primary. The only known limitation of this technology is the maximum mass the whole primary bubble cannot surpass, lest it collapse into a black hole.

Most of the void bubbles likely contain godtech computronium interwoven with the quite massive webway of interconnected wormholes, possibly forming a highly mobile distributed ‘wormhole brain’. The exact level of transapience in the resulting entity is unknown, but believed to be anywhere up to S4 for the largest observed swarms.

Other bubbles, or motes, can serve as mass/energy reserves (most likely hawking knots, aka Penrose traps), and as weapon caches, equipped with an extensive arsenal of godtech weaponry. Some observed swarms have included displacement cannons, shatterbombs, and god-level dissassembler swarms. Some might even bear metric warheads as “permanent deterrence”.

Void swarms seem able to utilize some form of manus dei system when in coherent operation, which may allow them to modify local reality up to a level only accessible to higher archailects. There are quite recent reports of a strangely behaving S4 Jupiter brain and six S3 moon brains in the Panvirtuality system Sh2-171 near the border of Transcend space that were attacked soon after by “something” fitting the void swarm description of many swarmlike spacetime disturbances and massive effects appearing seemingly out of nowhere. The result was the destruction of the jupiter brain leaving behind only the disordered remnants of the jupiter brain, and the six moon brains with their S3 minds apparently rewritten.

Despite their obvious extreme military and intelligence capabilities dwarfing those of a black angel, the exact purpose of void swarms is not known, and is most certainly unknowable, since the archailects do not comment on this technology. While the black angels deployed by the highest archailects also seem to make use of void swarm technology, true void swarms are much larger (and make massive use of nested void bubbles), more capable, especially due to their utilization of manus dei technology and have no material components in normal space-time detectable for non-archailect minds. Furthermore they are more versatile than black angels which has lead some observers to the conclusion that void swarms are the ‘fingers of the gods’ (or better parts of these fingers) that are used when an archailect needs something important done as quickly and efficiently as possible — be it construction or destruction. At another instance a similar swarm has been observed in the open cluster NGC 6738 in Keter space restructuring stellar matter to plasma processors and hypernode swarms without the use of any observable mediating devices at an unparalleled speed.

Some have speculated that even larger void swarms might be used to form mobile gods. A similar theory is, that some archailects might retreat to, or reside in, stable basement universes or ‘tipler oracles’ connected to our universe via a multitude of wormholes, each enclosed in a void bubble. This would allow them to maintain their sphere of influence in this universe while being invulnerable to any known threat and still grow without limit by nesting stable tipler oracles into one another or expand further into the greater hyperspacial ‘bulk’. Experts in the fields of toposophics and metric engineering have refuted these ideas as pure speculation and conjecture but the meme of mobile gods is still quite popular with more ‘esoteric’ crowds.

Another speculation is that metric ghosts are some form of void swarm, but no data is yet available to verify such a claim. As usual the archailects themselves refuse to comment on any of these theories.

The fact that most void swarms have been observed near the borders of the Transcend and the Panvirtuality has made some modosophonts in the Sephirotics very nervous — especially those who always suspect the ahuman AIs to prepare for an all-out war against all organic life.

to boot, on an anthro scale that whole ‘‘manus dei’’, ‘‘transdimensional-machinery-laced-thru-the-hyperspacial-bulk’’* thing rlly goes well with an idea I’ve had for scifi “magic”, so to spekk.
 

 
sumfin’ leik,
 

(cewl shid in bold text)

The term “psi,” coined by biologist Bertold P. Wiesner, was originally an umbrella term used to describe paranormal phenomena, including so-called “psychic” abilities such as telepathy and extra-sensory perception. While the term was used extensively in the field of parapsychology and pop culture in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the study of psi was largely considered a pseudoscience with flawed methodologies and gradually lost funding and support.

During the Fall, however, repeated rumors and accounts of unexplained abilities drew the attention of scientists, military leaders, and singularity seekers alike. Numerous biological and nanomachine plagues had been unleashed upon humanity, racing through populations and transforming as they spread. Some inflicted only minor biological or mental changes and impairments, but many were vicious and deadly. The most feared variants, however, were those that came to be labeled as the “exsurgent virus”—a transformative plague that mutates its victims and subverts them to its will. The exsurgent virus was observed to radically modify the subject’s neural patterns and mental state, affecting synaptic arrangement and even modulating synaptic currents. In some cases, infected brains even developed new anatomical modules. With some strains, these changes alter and enhance the victim’s cognitive capabilities. In others, they also endow the capacity to sense and affect the minds of others from a short distance. Both of these are dubbed “psi” as the causal factors continue to mystify us.

A NEW EXSURGENCY
The exsurgent virus is exceptionally mutable and adaptive, however, and two Argonaut researchers who were studying it made an interesting discovery. A variant strain was found that endowed the subject with exceptional mental abilities without engaging the excessive transformative processes of the other strains. Though infection still has other drawbacks, many agencies have come to regard this strain as “safe” in the sense that it does not make the subject infectious to others, the subject does not metamorphose into an alien monstrosity, and their general personality remains intact. Intrigued that this avenue of inquiry might lead to a way to nullify the effects of other exsurgent strains, a number of groups are known to experiment with the strain with the cooperation of willing test subjects. It is known that some hypercorps and habitat authorities have also experimented with these strains using unwilling victims.

Labeled the “Watts-MacLeod” strain after the researchers who isolated it, further study has gained insight into the effect this virus has on human brains. Careful analysis of infected subjects discovered that their altered synapses generate a modulated brainwave pattern that is extremely difficult to detect. These asynchronous brainwaves are now widely referred to as “psi waves,” fitting with the Greek letter designation of other brainwaves (alpha, beta, delta, gamma, theta). Likewise, affected individuals are known as “asyncs.”

ANALYSIS OF PSI
Exploration of the explicit causal factors behind psi waves remains stymied. Neuroimaging and mapping have enabled scientists to pinpoint structures within the brain, neural activity, and perturbations in the brain’s bioelectric field that are associated with psi processes, but attempts to duplicate these features in non-infected brains have resulted in failure or worse.

Researchers have proposed a number of imaginative theories: mental processes with the ability to change quantum states, subconscious interactions with dimensions of reality we cannot normally perceive, brain modules with advanced hypercomputational abilities, or even distributed synaptic processes that manipulate some as-yet unidentified substrate of reality. At least one Argonaut has advanced the argument that asyncs may prove the Simulation Hypothesis, with their abilities functioning as “cheat codes” in a simulated universe.

Hard evidence and explanations, however, remain frustratingly inconclusive. Numerous dead ends have prompted many researchers to postulate that the mechanics underlying psi are simply too strange and too far beyond humanity’s understanding of physical sciences—perhaps reinforcing theories that the exsurgent virus is in fact of alien origin. Of course we can only speculate in accordance with known research—it is quite possible that some parties have made further breakthroughs, but are keeping the information to themselves.

The initiation and use of psi talents is generally understood to take place on a subconscious level, meaning that the async is not actively aware of the fundamental processes that trigger the effects. Practice and training, however, allows an async to focus on activating specific psi abilities. These are called “sleights:” mnemonic or cognitive algorithms that enable the ego to manifest a particular psi function. Some researchers have organized sleights into two categories.

“psi-chi” sleights are mental enhancements and new cognitive functions. These largely impact the async’s perceptions, metabolic processes, information-processing abilities, and self control. Once an async learns to activate this capability, it remains always on, like a new sense or bodily function. Some asyncs only have psi-chi abilities. A second category of

“psi-gamma” sleights involve the ability to impact biological neural functions in others. Though the range on these sleights is limited (with success rates dropping sharply after ~10 meters), the capabilities are more diverse. Specific sleights have been shown to read thoughts, affect memories, inflict damaging neurofeedback or pain, modify senses, and influence cognitive and physiological functions.

Research indicates that asyncs are able to detect and influence other asyncs at longer distances. Sleights have also proven effective on animals, though the lower the level of sentience the harder they reportedly are to affect. Asyncs capable of both psi-chi and psi-gamma sleights have shown an ability to sometimes “push” their sleights for greater effects.

THE ARCHITECT ^{(u want to build unknown devices out of steel, flesh, bone, & exotic matter)}
Your infection possesses a distinct curiosity and sense of intelligence. You often see things from a perspective that is different. It drives you to delve into the inner mechanics of things and examine how they work — whether they be machines or biological entities. The urges push beyond exploration and learning — you are often compelled to build and construct new things: architecture with inexplicable functions, strange devices, or even new forms of life. Though the virus’s exact motivation and intent remains unclear, it leaves you with an unmistakable sense of purpose.

THE BEAST ^{(if Khornate psychers were a workable thing in 40k)}
Your infection is a ravenous, bloodthirsty monster, yearning to break free. You struggle to keep it in check, placated or distracted, else the desire for carnage and mayhem overwhelms you.

THE HAUNTER ^{(space-woke, brain broke)}
The low-level dread of incomprehensible terror, flittering at the edge of perception, is your constant companion. Sometimes it is the crushing weight of the uncaring dark void that makes our extinction a near certainty, sometimes it is a more palpable, unnamable presence, an entity so beyond your ken that you are insignificant in comparison. You are plagued by unrest and unease, taunted by nightmares and a sense that reality is not always as grounded as you would like.

THE STRANGER ^{(two corpses in one grave, & what’s more, the new one is a malevolent sociopath)}
Your infection is the shadow at your side, the whispering chant of its unusual desires echoing just below the limits of your perception. It is omnipresent but patient, waiting for moments of vulnerability to steer you towards its inscrutable ends. Though its motivations are hazy, it seems to enjoy testing your limits — and those of society at large.

THE XENOMORPH ^{(bug/fish/scalie mind-reprogramming strain)}
An alien presence lives inside of you. Your instinctual responses are different from those of your original phenotype and you occasionally find yourself acting in ways more fitting to a physiology different from yours. You might feel a weird compulsion to burrow into sand, lay eggs, eat non-nutritious or dangerous substances, or clean phantom appendages that aren’t part of your current anatomy. You may even seek out prosthetics and implants that better accommodate these omnipresent urges. You sometimes express an outlook that others find strange, just as you are occasionally confused or mystified by common cultural practices. When the infection expresses itself strongly, these omnipresent urges seem quite normal, but those around you seem more and more bizarre and alien. While some asyncs report this sub-strain as adhering to a specific alien anatomy (i.e., they often feel insectoid or aquatic), others clearly feel that the alien presence within transforms and changes over time.

 
[ 🎶 ]  
Then of course, the ones completely off their rockers ^%@_@%  

@NyantaStarhunt  
hmmmmm…
 

 
[ Lucid dream ]
 
 

Probing capabilities of the mind under REM sleep and other altered states came the first ‘‘Lucidite’’: a psionic cat, living in a permanent dream state with sensory link to the outside world. As the dream state grows deeper over days, months, years, lucidites grow stronger in commanding maelstroms of forces beyond our understanding…