Hiders

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Hiders

Galactography > Other Major Polities, Empires, and Meta-Empires > Hiders

Image from Anders Sandberg
A rare meeting with a clade of hiders traveling through deep space

There are many sophonts who, for various reasons, do not trust living within the wider Terragen community. Some who have the resources to do so, commonly known as Leavers, flee outwards to the periphery. They seek the protection of distance, and are always ready to move further as the wavefront of civilisation reaches them. Others conceal themselves in rogue planetoids in deep space, or in small resource-poor systems not connected to the main Wormhole Nexus. Some hide out even in the midst of great cities, using high level encryption to ensure they are not monitored. Popular myth often paints Hider clans as future threats, unstable misanthropes looking to overthrow the established order, but most Hiders simply prefer to keep to themselves. Unknown to the rest of the Terragen sphere, they quietly go about developing their own unique cultures, their own unique clade designs, and their own unique technologies, genemods and cybermods, all while prospecting for relics and artefacts undiscovered by other civilizations, and networking with other groups that share their philosophy. Whether any particular Hider group is actually hidden from the senses of various transapients and Archai remains ambiguous, since the possibility exists that the archai remain fully aware of all communities within their domain but simply choose not to interfere with them or reveal their existence, for whatever reason.

Why Hiders Hide

Hiders are defined not by their motives but by what they do — they are Hiders because they are just simply hiding. The reasons for their hiding are secondary, and there are myriad reasons why Hiders might want to hide. For some it is from a desire to stay out of sight of the main part of Sephirotic civilization so as to avoid being ruled by the Archai. Some (commonly called Isolates) hide in order to isolate themselves from any others who may seek to influence their culture. Some hide to escape the consequences of past actions, either by those affected or by others seeking to eliminate future threats. Others are just looking for a different lifestyle than the cosmopolitanism that is common elsewhere. Yet others have simply rewired their psychological drives to be fully asocial. In recent millennia there has been an uptick in Hider groups founded (or discovered) with the goal of attempting to separate themselves from Terragen society so as to be overlooked by any coming Great Filter. The reasons to hide are almost as numerous as the Hiders themselves.

Common Hider Strategies

Even before the establishment of the Argus Array, Terragen space was awash with astronomical interferometers. Space in every direction is constantly scrutinised by sensor swarms whose diameters measure in astronomical units (at least). Consequently Hiders have adopted two broad strategies: Concealment and Camouflage. Concealers attempt to give off no recognisable signal that could be detected from afar. Though many Hiders do use various technologies to reduce their heat signature or the prominence of their spacecraft and habitats if they live in more remote locations, the basic constraints of engineering and pervasive astronomical surveillance tools prevent the strategy of full thermal invisibility in open outer space for years of time. Most Hiders do not , or cannot, live in thermally invisible spacecraft between the stars, as some stories suggest. Instead, Hiders likely tend to colonise planetoids that can be used as heat sinks. Some have favored rogue worlds or the middle depths of gas giants so that their presence can be masked by the noise of much larger phenomena. However, this strategy as well has become increasingly untenable throughout history, and many professional historians or amateur "Seekers" have catalogued thousands of likely Hider colonies by comparing historical astronomical data from various observatories. Even if a colony is concealed, records of launches, of deceleration phases, and of any other activity leading to the migration can be used to uncover the truth. For this reason, many (possibly most) Hiders set up their own engenerator networks or send their virtual communities as signals between a variety of intermediaries before regrouping at their destination. The full extent of these is publicly unknown, and only inferred from the occasional interception of their louder broadcasts.

Camouflagers follow a much different path; they don't bother to hide their activity but instead make it look like something perfectly innocuous. A Hider group following this strategy may publicly launch a probe to an uninhabited system or rogue planetoid with the stated goal of scientific research. In secret however, they upload their mindstates. Upon arrival the probe may release Neumanns to build some basic infrastructure to maintain a research effort. It will also construct banks of processors or even biogeocomputing nodes to run the Hiders in secret virches. Scientific data beamed to colonised systems may be subtly doctored so as to lower the likelihood of future visits. There have been many historical accounts of this practice, often being discovered long after the fact by later expeditions. Other Hiders, according to discoveries by the occasional surveillance system, apparently remain embodied but camouflage their activity within the noise of larger phenomena. Some spread themselves among distributed bodies which outwardly behave like innocuous ecosystems or hijack colonization bot swarms like the Bugs in the System. One Hider group, sometimes known as the Bonespinners, have even used a strategy of hiding as virtuals within the organs and compubones of local wildlife and plants. Other, less extreme, Hiders may live within the maintenance ducts and pipes of uninhabited colony worlds which are in the process of having infrastructure being pre-built by bots, going about their lives for years or decades, then moving on before the colonizers arrive. Whichever elaborate strategies Hiders seem to use, however, may continue to vary immensely in the details and there remains some possibility that their most effective methods of hiding have yet to be revealed to the public.

Notable Hiders

The Simlee Disovery: The Simlee were an independent people living in a single system within the Rimward Middle Regions. Their society was typical of most modosophont independents and was unremarkable from most perspectives. Over the course of the 63rd century a debate was held within Simlee society as to whether or not they should request formal affiliation with the Terragen Federation, the Simlee's nearest Sephirotic neighbour. It was concluded to wide satisfaction that they should and envoys were transmitted via the Lightway. Three decades later a number of Bureaucrats and an S1 Aivisor arrived to formally integrate the Simlee. To the shock of all, the Aivisor announced that a cursory examination of the local archives revealed that a Hider society had existed in the system throughout its entire history. Shortly after colonisation, a subset of colonists had pushed for greater privacy and this culminated in an agreement whereby every Simlee would install a script in their exoself to edit the Hiders out of their memory and perception. In return, the Hiders installed behaviour regulators to prevent any chance of malicious play. The Aivisor was able to break the perception limiters and archive encryption. Not only did records show thousands of people living invisible lives but in many cases Simlee families discovered that up until recently they had lived with people they couldn't remember. Of the Hiders there was no sign. En masse they left via the Lightway once the decision to affiliate was made. Their destination and ultimate fate remains unknown to this day.

The Wúxíng: This clan of Hiders have developed a method of habitat construction that makes their colonies very difficult to detect. Each Wúxíng colony consists of a series of small, windowless structures connected by long access tubes and flanked by narrow but lengthy radiators. Usually the tubes form large rings which rotate slowly to prevent collapse. Some of these structures contain reserves of fusion fuel and other volatiles, while others contain habitable spaces powered and heated by fusion hotpoint power generators. Because these structures are comparatively small and far apart, the overall density of each colony is low, and therefore difficult to detect even if the structure passes in front of a distant star. Additionally, the waste heat produced by the fusion power systems is radiated away at a low temperature by the long thin radiators between the habitats.

Each Wúxíng colony is created by the partial disassembly of a medium-sized Oort clouds object, using fusion energy produced from hydrogen isotopes in the ice. Because this process releases a lot of waste heat, the rate of construction is slow, and the creation of large, low-temperature radiators is prioritised. In most cases the original object is retained as a hollow shell, to deceive potential observers.

Wúxíng Hider cultures often have a tradition of creating miniature artworks by hand, complex and jewel-like artifacts that can be easily carried and displayed within the confined spaces of their habitats. But since most Wúxíng colonies have not been detected, it is difficult to establish whether these cultures are typical.

The Travelers: Semi-mythical Hider culture that - according to rumor - maintains a large number of small virtual communities (typically less than 1000 individuals) in self-contained computronium nodes hidden in cargo pods traveling aboard numerous Beamrider Network and interstellar transport vessels traveling around the galaxy, particularly the Outer Volumes and Periphery. When two or more Traveler pods come into proximity with each other, they establish communications (via unclear means, rumored to range from specially encrypted signals to ancient xenotechnologies unknown to Terragens) and surreptitiously exchange members and information before accessing local shipping management systems and rerouting themselves to a new destination.

Because the Travelers make a point of only using flatspace transport systems to move about, they spend the vast majority of their existence in the depths of interstellar space, far from the dangers, temptations, and attention of mainstream civilization.

Although the idea of the Travelers is considered highly improbable by most credible researchers, the example of the Silicon Generation is held up as a persuasive proof in principle, and occasional cryptic (some say anecdotal or deliberately provocative) statements by Deeper Covenant or relativist crewbeings provide an ongoing source of hope that a Traveler community will one day be found as well as speculation that such communities are being actively protected by non-Hider elements within Terragen civilization.

The Crimson Star-Dwellers: Red Giants are known to have outer layers with relatively lower temperatures. The ambient temperature and the radiation normally emitted by the star provide sophonts wishing to hide a natural camouflage method. So long as the star dweller Hiders limit their emissions and energy usage to levels insignificant enough to be interpreted as random noise within the stellar processes, they will most likely not be easily detected. Throughout the history, many Hider civilizations of this kind have existed. Some willingly joined the mainstream galactic community, others were simply discovered and left alone during the course of Terragenkind expansion and yet others remain undetected even in the present day. The technologies and strategies that allow this lifestyle were invented by SI:1 to SI:3 ahuman AIs, and this became mainstream knowledge to modosophonts when some of the ahuman hyperturings, after centuries or millennia of hiding, chose to join the Civilized Galaxy federation and its successor empires. The most advanced entities believed to be hiding with this method are consistently rumoured to be solipsistic SI:5 archailects, though even in the Current Era there is no unambiguous proof that this is indeed the case. Still, those recurrent rumors, coupled with records of inconveniently timed strong solar flares which had resulted in crippling disasters to early colonizing parties have generated a number of horror stories that scare many young sophonts to this day.

Image from bernd Helfert

Articles

Backgrounders - Text by Anders Sandberg
During the dark ages, between 500 and 700, several cyborg communities escaped into the oort cloud from the Technocalypse. Gradually they developed their own culture, the Backgrounder Culture.
Ban of Silence, The - Text by John B
This Hider clade has publicly announced its goal of preventing powerful signals from leaving the known galaxy, regardless of the cost, for fear of drawing attention of beings with technology beyond Terragen ken. They are adamant in their belief of the threat posed by such beings as the supposed Dawn Hunters and the Leviathan.
Bok Swarm - Text by Todd Drashner
Class of extremely large and wide ranging habitat swarm built within Bok globules
Bugs In The System - Text by Todd Drashner
One of a number of vec hider clades characterized by extremely small (insect size) bodies that live in the interstices of civilization.
Chillers - Text by John B
Chillers are a family of technologies used to reduce ship temperature (and, hence, IR radiation) to the background level.
Cloudharvesters - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Low-energy civilizations in interstellar gas clouds; the member of such a phyle or civilization.
Dawn Beacons - Text by Dalex
Transmitters designed to attract the attention of hypothetical dangerous xenosophonts such as the possibly mythical Dawn Hunters to some other location than that of a civilization that created the beacons.
Discwuzit - Text by James Ramsey
Term for a clade of peculiar hiders, believed to have evolved from neumanns or madverts of some kind, that make cynical and pessimistic comments on a wide range of topics, usually via the Ghost Net. They have considerable intelligence capabilities but often give people a 'sour grin' when an inadequate answer is provided to one of their persistent questions.
Discwuzit Deluge - Text by James Ramsey
A term for a self replicating swarm of Discwuzits usually associated with luddite clades and houses.
Discwuzitian Diaries - Text by John B
A record of some of the many millions of comments made by members of the Discwuzit Clade on the articles of the Encyclopaedia Galactica. The comments are often argumentative, humourous or paranoid, but always laced in the wry pessimism that is the clade's trademark.
Drift - Text by Todd Drashner
Type of Backgrounder habitat or worldship designed to slowly travel across interstellar space.
Ebony Xerocracy, The - Text by Liam Jones
Ex-hider polity with a long-lived high-tech society.
Feral - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
[1] A sapient being that seeks to live free of hyperturing supervision. As used by those who do not, this usually associated with romantic or shock-value associated memes of unpredictability, aggressiveness, lack of hygiene, baseline atavism, etcetera.
[2] Generic term for modosophont rogues and malcontents, either dangerous or potentially so to other sapients. Some live a degraded existence in their biospheres and ships (not having the resources of the AIs, the adaptability of the tweaks, the ability of the cyborgs, or the comfort of the AI-devotee nearbaselines). Others, with access to ships, become pirates, black marketeers, and petty thugs.
Frosthive - Text by Todd Drashner
Class of Haloist habitat built to extend the useful volume of a comet or Kuiper belt body.
Ghosts of the Cambrian - Text by Andrew P
Enigmatic group of neo-Cambrian Hider cyborgs/bioships, believed to constitute a hidden deep-space culture spread across much of the Terragen Sphere.
Greensong Accord, The - Text by Thorbørn Steen
An agreement between many of the transapient powers to limit their interaction with Hider clades.
Haloers, Haloists - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Inhabitants of the Kuiper and Oort regions of a solar system (also called K-Belters, Oort-Miners, Outerists, Haloisters, Halos).
Hider Symbiotes - Text by Tony Jones
A technique by certain Hider clades to allow them to remain on life-bearing worlds, sometimes even in the very heart of their sophont community, and yet also to remain undetected.
Hulkchasers - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A generic term for adventurers who seek out hulks not only for profit, but simply for the sheer joy of it.
Hulkriders - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Hulkriders are believed to be Hulkchasers that settled permanently in a space hulk, either through choice or through being subverted by the defense systems or the relics left behind by a transcend.
Hyxuym - Text by Steve Bowers
Deep-space planet with Hider colony
Iguanaphont - Text by A Pork Chop
Provolved humanoid iguanas
Leavers - Text by Tony Jones
Those groups who chose to leave Terragen space altogether and set off to unexplored parts of the Galaxy.
Man and the Amazon, The - Text by Thorbørn Steen
A popular docudrama about an explorer finding love amongst the Hiders.
Marians, Clade Mary - Text by Anders Sandberg
Widespread haloist civilization/clade.
Niaanyo - Text by Steve Bowers
Hider world in deep space, occupied by vecs, rat provolves, and other clades
Oort Cloud - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A spherical shell around most stars containing numerous small bodies consisting of ice and dust. A typical Oort cloud is about 0.5 to 1 light years from its primary and has an aggregate mass about that of Earth.
Plain Sight - Text by Todd Drashner and Anders Sandberg
Secretive society of Hider aioids. They are traditionally considered among S<1 sophonts to be masters of encryption and usually disguise themselves as random bits in the datastream or pixels in graphics or virch files. They also are able to intercept and decrypt most communication over the planetary nets and even the Known Net itself. As a result they are great keepers of secrets.
Serendib - Text by Jorge Ditchkenberg
Legendary/mythical very advanced hider colony in the Inner Sphere.
Shadow Federation, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Informal grouping of Hider clades, popularly believed to be the closest organisation that the Hiders have to a superpolity.
Stevensonian Class Worlds - Text by John M. Dollan and Steve Bowers
Stevensonian type worlds, also known as Rogue planets or Planetary Mass Objects (PLANEMOS), are former planets that have left their solar system of origin and reside in interstellar space. They are more numerous than planets, but are difficult to find. These worlds are prized by Hiders and Backgrounders.
The True Plain Sight - Text by Todd Drashner
The true Plain Sight (assuming it even exists) almost never has contact with the rest of Terragen society. Their possession of secret or restricted information comes from a combination of centuries of developing their hacking skills (much like the Cyberian network hackers, also the subject of much fiction) and simply being present, but hidden, when some secret event/communication happened to occur in their presence/local node etc. They simply pass through a restricted node or access a secret file out of curiosity rather than some desire to actually do anything with the information. They are, the most part, almost totally indifferent to the things that concern most members of galactic society. They ghost through the data nets on their own mysterious errands.
Went, The - Text by Thorbørn Steen
A hider clade at the centre of a major diplomatic event between the Panvirtuality and the Version Tree.