The Truth Shall Set You Free
Overview
Work with the Elder Race and artifacts from the future gave scientists crucial guidance toward formulating a more accurate
depiction of the universe. The most crucial of discoveries was that the fundamental laws of the Universe were much more diverse than previously realized.
The fabric of the universe is divided into 'structural reference frames', or domains. Each domain has a number of forces and particles that have limited interactions with the forces and particles of other domains. There are, however, very important relationships between domains that could be exploited.
Though understanding of most domains remained very limited throughout the Endtimes, the knowledge of one of the domains formed the foundation of Hypertechnology. Hypertechnology became the genesis of many vital technologies in the Endtimes.
Hypertechnology
The most common use of hypertech is to project equipment into another domain. A ship would often have storage tanks, engines, and other
equipment 'off-domain'. The weight and force of the projected equipment is
still transmitted, but it does provide a good deal of protection and stealth.
Hypertech ships may have landing gear (struts
that can extend tips back into normal domain and thus hold a ship up
invisibly) and vector thrust in higher domains (the thrust eventually falls
to normal space, but greatly dispersed), as well as projecting a variety of
weapons. Counter measures and counter-counter measures were applied to domain-shifting Hypertech.
Humans with links and equipment in other domains became increasingly common. As early as 2033, forty percent of people in industrialized areas have some sort of link. By 2039, almost ninety percent had some sort of link, and the number was close to twenty to thirty percent worldwide.
One disadvantage with hypertech, particularly
with ships, was that occasionally the Hounds of Tindalos would be attracted and
attack. By 2049, measures were taken that prevented most of such incidents.
Another big limitation was that other aspects of
Elder technology, such as shields and weapons, were
incompatible with domain shifting. Weapons designed on Elder technology cannot
be blended with hypertechnology. Ships with Elder shields or weapons experience
interference with hypertech functions. The USO designed most ships with hypertech
systems that could be deactivated when Elder tech was required.
Domain physics
Practical application of Hypertechnology overshadowed other aspects of Domain science. Often mischaracterized as 'dimensions', Domains were very loosely interacting subsets of the universe. Matter composed of 'nonterrestrial' matter could pass through the earth and terrestrial matter with no obvious effect, like neutrinos. Many of the other-domain particles were affected by gravity, explaining a number of odd cosmological mysteries.
Still, many questions remained. Psychology, thought, and spiritual beliefs seemed to have an effect on other-domain phenomena. It was a common belief that, in another domain, thought and symbols had physical reality, and physical reality was ephemeral. This remained highly speculative, and most traditional theorists considered it a misuse of domain physics.
Another big issue was cross-domain effects. It became increasingly obvious that domains, rather than being essentially unimportant to each other, were intricately interwoven at a fundamental level. Traditionalists, called Dualists by their opponents, maintained that Domain interaction was an exception, that it was only important in particularly large scale cosmological evolution or under artificial/purposeful application. Other theorists maintained that all matter, in all domains, relies on subtle relationships. The wide evidence of life forms which had evolved to exploit inter-domain forces lent support to this point of view. The simplest of these life forms could exploit basic thermal variations between domains, coupling them through inter-domain forces and utilizing the effect as 'food'. The more advanced life forms could exploit variations in space-time or forces, transforming matter from one domain to another, then back again to gain some structure or energy.
A very distressing issue was the tie of magic to life and thought. It was clear that anybody could, with proper training, create cross-domain effects. There remained a bitterly contested question about what, precisely, causes this effect. Some maintained that terrestrial matter could naturally generate effects in other domains, which would then resurface in our domain. Others maintained that learning magic was actually an infection by microbes of other domains, that acted as parasites or symbiotes. These microbes could then generate cross-domain effects, as part of their biology. This issue was never resolved before the fall of human civilization.
Analyzing domain phenomena was very difficult. Given that most of the laws of other domains were unknown, it was frequently impossible to determine whether a behavior was due to the laws of one domain, the interaction of two or more domains, or affected by undetected lifeforms in one or more domains. This stalled most advanced domain research.
Another big obstacle was that the Elder Race, source of most initial material about domain physics, did not themselves have a full grasp of the physics involved. Soon it became obvious that the Elder Race had never achieved a full understanding, and that translation errors were not at fault. In addition, the ability of human scientists to understand the most advanced Elder Race conceptualizations was limited.
There were several practical aspects of Domain theory. The first was Hypertechnology, outlined above. Another important gain was a greater understanding of the evils that Mankind faced, how many were constructed, and how they could be hurt. Inter-domain forces could be manipulated, to generate energy and other important effects. Though Pow remained vital for Gates and similar devices, the basic concepts around them were now outlined. One of the most important results of Domain theory for conventional technology was the development of Quantum-Manifold theory (usually called M theory, to distinguish from conventional Quantum Mechanics).
M Theory explained many of the characteristics of our universe as a local condition of a much broader reality. It managed to encapsulate general truths about the total universe, leading to a more complete mathematical model of local reality. It explained, to a large degree, the unity of forces, space-time, and the nature of terrestrial particles. Many dreamt that fundamental control of force and matter was within reach. A quiet minority saw, however, that total understanding of local phenomena would never be complete unless knowledge of the whole was gained.
The Domain Science Letters, started in 2006, was an early and intriguing revelation of early Domain theory. It formed one of the foundations of Domain science.
Domain Science Letters