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SpaceOperaTechnology

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FTL gates

These massive artifacts are relics of an extinct advanced civilisation. They allow ships to travel between nearby star systems. They are usually placed close to a star; it is uncertain whether the presence of a massive gravitational well is necessary for the gate's operation, or whether this is done to allow easy access to the gate or efficient collection of energy to operate it. This has made it difficult for younger races to access the gates -- only ships with sophisticated shielding technology are able to approach them.

Each gated system has only one gate, which switches connections between a small number of neighbouring gates every few months, according to an ancient pre-programmed schedule. At a particular time, a gate is either receiving or transmitting. Some gates have repeating cycles which have been fully mapped out; others appear to be partially random -- this makes shipping between these systems frustrating and unpredictable, but makes them a target for explorers and other opportunists who are hoping for a once-in-a-lifetime ride to a previously undiscovered system.

There are some settings on which transmitted ships disappear forever, and some on which nothing ever comes out from the other side. It is assumed that some gates on the network have been destroyed, and their systems rendered unreachable.

Generation ships

Some star systems don't have gates. Some of those systems have planets. Some of them are in close proximity to systems with failed gate settings, and it is theorised that they are the systems which have fallen off the network. Various races have at various times sent generation ships to explore these systems. So far none are believed to have returned.

Impulse drive

Ships which travel between planets use an impulse drive which can reach a speed of a gigametre per hour. In our own solar system, it would take such a ship about a month to travel between the Sun and the orbit of Jupiter, or eight months to travel between the Sun and the orbit of Pluto. Most inhabited systems have a similar distribution of planets.

Stasis field

To reach a speed of a gigametre per hour from a stationary position at an acceleration rate of 10g (which is about the most a human can withstand for a prolonged period of time) would take more than ten years! In actuality, ships equipped with impulse drives take a day to accelerate and decelerate. This has been made possible by the development of the stasis field by the Flsfth. Human passengers survive the two days of intense acceleration forces in a suspended state, transformed into a solid, resilient material.

Stasis fields are also used in medical emergencies to hold critically ill patients in suspended animation.

The inner workings of the stasis field are a jealously guarded secret of the Flsfth. Sale of the devices is the foundation of their economy, and withholding the technology is their political trump card. It has not yet been successfully reverse-engineered.

Cyber-prosthetics and implants

Prosthetic technology is very good; lost limbs can be replaced with near-perfect metal and plastic replicas, and even covered with a lifelike synthetic skin. Some people have almost entirely cybernetic bodies, but this is rare.

Small cybernetic implants have fallen in and out of fashion several times in various systems. Replacement of entire limbs or bodies for non-medical reasons has never widely caught on, but there are some nations and even planets which practice it.

Artificial Intelligence and consciousness uploads

There are machines which are considered intelligent, but none which have been recognised as sentient. Even the smartest machine is crude and unimaginative when compared with a human or alien entity.

Nobody has yet succeeded in uploading a living consciousness into an artificial brain. No sufficiently advanced hardware exists.

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is commonly used for the construction of delicate machinery. Human nanotech is still quite primitive and limited in scope; the Toymakers are the recognised masters in the field.

Bioengineering

Bioengineering is the specialty of the Leetheelee, who developed on a watery planet almost entirely devoid of metal ores, but other races have made substantial progress in modifying organisms in their own ecosystems. The modification of the genomes of intelligent beings is a controversial issue among many races, most of whom are far less comfortable with the idea than the Leetheelee, who have been fiddling with their own genome for centuries (originally purely aquatic, they have made themselves amphibious). Civil wars have been fought over this question, and several small breakaway colonies have been formed by rebels seeking the freedom to experiment.

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