Devices developed at Hefaistos Defense Systems' Shadow Labs have various applications, all based on the principle of altering the fabric of space-time. These vacuum manipulators can modify the properties of the surrounding vacuum, specifically permittivity and permeability (physical quantities that measure a material's ability to support the formation of magnetic and electric fields). These properties are represented by the Greek letters ε (epsilon) and µ (mu), which inspired the name.
By altering these properties, vacuum manipulators can dynamically change the index of refraction in a specific region of space, enabling them to bend beams of light and other electromagnetic radiation.
Currently, vacuum manipulators offer a wide range of functionalities, such as:
protection against cosmic radiation
shielding from short-wavelength radiation caused by the relativistic Doppler effect at speeds approaching the speed of light
invisibility to various detectors based on electromagnetic radiation (radars, IR cameras, human eye)
defense against beam weapons
manipulation of matter through direct or indirect effects of localized changes
Ongoing research aims to further explore significant space/vacuum alterations, allowing for experiments investigating the behavior of various particles under the influence of more fundamental changes in space-time. This understanding could help scientists comprehend how different universes with distinct initial setups function.
The results of these experiments may also contribute to advancements in superluminal speed engines, primarily in terms of energy efficiency.
This approach can be succinctly described as creating an "altered space-time" bubble that envelops a spaceship. The bubble, with its modified space-time, enables particles (and energy in general) inside it to travel at speeds exceeding the speed of light within our universe.
An analogy for this approach can be drawn from underwater torpedoes surrounded by an air bubble, which helps reduce water drag. In this case, the bubble lowers the "drag" of the surrounding space-time, decreasing the energy required to accelerate a particle at increasingly higher speeds.
The white spots on the dark side of the second planet resembled a lopsided snowman. Korven observed the view from the base situated at Tara's fourth Lagrangian point. He had also witnessed planets crossing the star's disk, vibrant auroras gracing Tara's sky, and much more.
He shuttled between this base and another floating on the surface of Tara's only ocean. There wasn't much for him to do, aside from observing. At times, the events around him seemed to unfold rapidly, while during other, more extended periods, he simply shut down.
The primary purpose of the ocean base was research, followed by the business interests of various people and entities. The base was shared by numerous minds and societies, reflecting the increased diversity in the wake of the intelligence explosion. Only a few enhanced humans inhabited the base, and Korven was among them.
Adjusting to this new situation proved challenging for him. It reminded him of a time before his enhancements when information wasn't readily available at a moment's thought. His uploaded cortex representation had been initialized after the explosion and stored on Tara. He had never wanted to be an imperfect copy of the original, but it happened as part of his contract with Hefaistos. Due to resource sharing, his consciousness sometimes lagged, making the events around him seem to happen very quickly. The base now had to accommodate a large number of awakened minds. Additionally, reports from other systems arrived only sporadically. Everything appeared like a movie to him, leaving him bored. Yet, his boredom was gradually transforming into a desire for revenge. He wouldn't let this situation end so easily.
He watched as the surrounding structures began to collapse inwards, the dining room vanishing amidst the debris, indistinguishable from the pile of rubble. An entire quarter of the base was engulfed in flames, and numerous drones took to the sky, moving about like flocks of birds.
The base was shaped like a cross, with a spaceport at its center. Each arm of the cross consisted of two long platforms with cranes and other equipment. Upon closer inspection, the distinct shape dissolved, and the entire scene resembled a vast ant colony teeming with countless small drones and irregular, functional structures.
One side of the base was severely damaged, the flames blending with the blood-orange glow of the star as it scattered throughout the atmosphere. The star, appearing twice the size of the Sun in the sky, hung low just above the horizon, its shape distorted by refraction.
That was all he could see on the recording. His last memory before the incident was falling asleep in his room, leaving a 19-hour gap between the event and his recollection. Some other video footage of him was available, but it only showed him walking through corridors. He decided to review it later.
"You were awakened after 68 hours when we managed to contain the effects of the explosion and secure sufficient resources. The attack on the base was one of multiple simultaneous assaults within the system. Other incidents occurred on the second planet and at mining facilities in the outer regions. We've lost almost all connectivity to the Hypernet, with only two small data portals remaining. Additional connections will arrive in the next 8 months via superluminal ships from Strongpoint 9," said a voice, adding, "That's all I can tell you for now."
The voice was his sole source of information since waking up. As it paused, an eerie silence and emptiness enveloped him. There was nothing to see—only emptiness and his thoughts.
I wonder about the future of space exploration: how to finance projects beyond Earth's orbit and gain experience in space exploration and colonization?
My answer is: Orbital plots
Creating basic, scalable infrastructure that provides a stable orbit, communication, and energy (and its storage) for tenants could be a solution. Initially, autonomous orbital plots maintained by robots and avatars could later host the first commercial astronauts.
The prospect of more affordable space flights from companies like SpaceX will enable smaller businesses to access orbit, opening up opportunities for a wider range of industries. These platforms can be accessible to various parties without restrictions and available to all nations worldwide.
Orbital plots would be most beneficial for projects that don't require a specific orbit for operation. The main goal is to lower the costs of maintaining private devices in orbit, making them more affordable and independent of proprietary infrastructure and engines. Such devices could also spend a long time in orbit, without dependence on their own resources.
Orbital plots could host existing and future services, such as:
automated zero-gravity experiments
remote sensing
Internet access provision (part of a network, or access points of more such networks)
zero-gravity factories for alloys, drugs, and transparent aerogels
microchip factories
deployment of lab modules from various countries
hosting space hotel modules from multiple companies at once
deep space missions refueling
sensors useful for the detection of NEOs
small autonomous space telescopes
space debris removal
maintenance robots servicing satellites
.. and many more.
Orbital plots could facilitate moving heavy industries to space, as envisioned by Jeff Bezos turning Earth into a protected nature reserve for the benefit of all humanity.
The experience gained can be applied to constructing larger structures further from Earth, attached to asteroids, hosting multiple private parties, and sending manufactured goods back to our planet.
Small fragments of ice were tossed about on the dark blue surface of the ocean by large waves. From the observer's distance, these waves seemed rather insignificant. The frigid exterior was faintly illuminated by weak, orange beams of light emanating from the obscured horizon, hidden just behind a towering structure.
The sky was a blend of dark red and blue, with hardly any clouds except for a few wispy cirrus formations. Fortunately, the chilly weather was separated from the cozy dining room by a transparent barrier. At this hour, the dining room bustled with activity as people from nearby laboratories gathered around a long buffet table laden with two lengthy portions of in vitro meat – fish and beef.
Korven, however, was primarily focused on the outdoor scenery, gazing up at the sky while cradling a warm mug of tea in both hands. He was lost in the music playing in his ears, undistracted by any messages from home, taking a moment to unwind. Having just finished his meal, he continued to observe the view, framed by the construction site with its numerous mechanical arms and cranes on either side. A solitary moving object, a trimaran drone, was docking directly beneath the section housing the dining room.
Gargano is a peninsula in Italy, at the shore of Adriatic Sea, forming the "spur" on the Italian "boot".
It is home to a massive isolated mountain massif and the ancient Foresta Umbra. The coast boasts numerous beaches and tourist facilities.
Arrival and hotel
It was my absolutely first visit to Italy and it took us almost 22 hours by bus to reach our destination.
We were accommodated at Parco Del Sole, where we stayed for a week. We, besides exploration of the surroundings, also enjoyed the residence's swimming pool and tried creating slow-motion videos:
There were possibilities of optional excursions - unfortunately at the beginning of our vacation a problem with big waves raised - so I decided to take a trip the next day to see sea caves, it could be the last day of vacation to see them due to the big waves.
You can see the face of Padre Pio at the bottom of the hole
This problem was also blocking another trip - visiting Tremiti islands - I gave it up. Besides the sea caves, we chose to focus on exploring nearby cities and enjoying the sea and big waves on a beach.
Another block for me, for so active person, was the Italian siesta, from 1 PM to 5 PM - I don't understand how they can rest so long :-).
And there can be generally communication difficulties in English, but surprisingly some locals were at least slightly handling the Czech language.
Nature & landscape
The landscape is, surprisingly, mideterrian there, based on limestone bedrock, and features bushes and small trees mainly. Sometimes with stone pines, sometimes with growing prickly pear cactuses and palm trees. Lizards can be spotted crossing roads.
There is a really nice chain of medieval coast towers on the shore - protecting the land from invaders. Each tower can see the next one. Sometimes they are surrounded by special fishing stations - trabuccos. Some of both, the towers and trabuccos, have been transformed into restaurants.
One of the modified trabuccos
One of the coast towers
Food
We had fresh figs there, not so common to buy in the Czech Republic. Grapes were surprisingly inexpensive at 1 EUR per kilogram only.
And, for sure, we tried some local food, as the Italian kitchen is one of the best kitchens in the world.
The pizza was really thin and really good. Not with a lot of stuff on it like in the Czech Republic.
One of the pizzas we tried - pizza la diavola - slightly spicy, in a very tasty way
Ice cream
And my pasta tasting - I've visited one restaurant where they didn't have any English menu, the only Italian one, where I saw the only one familiar word for me (except pizza) - spaghetti - and I ordered it. I've got spaghetti with mussels :-).
Alcohol
I was again tasting beers - I found three Italian brands only there (Nastro Azzurro, Angelo Poretti and Peroni). And we were tasting a wine every evening - which was generally quite bitter for me.
Towns
Generally, coastal towns are small there, with a lot of small streets, situated higher on a limestone shore.
We've visited:
Peschici
Lido Del Sole
Rodi Garganico
Vieste
Foresta Umbra
On our last day, we took a trip through the Gargano peninsula with Gargano Jones in his Land Rover. He knows the Czech language very well - he was even singing Czech anthem :-)
We were a mixed group of tourists - Czechs and Italians - and we started with a ride through dry limestone riverbed...
... and then directly into the mountains, entering Foresta Umbra - a forest resembling a Central European forest, where even snows sometimes.
The forest features giant pine trees, wrapped in ivy, with fallow deer enclosure in the middle.
With a near small pond, with a swimming turtle in it, and feeding fish.
In the end, we had a quick visit to San Giovanni Rotondo city - the major shrine of Padre Pio.
Dimly illuminated ice crystals, barely visible as they lay scattered on the ground, began to stir due to underground movements. The shifting soil revealed an elongated, many-legged, insect-like creature, resembling a colorless spiny worm—an unnamed species distinguished only by its genomic entry in a catalog. Roused from its lethargic energy collection underground by warm gusts of wind, the creature awakened. The wind originated from the ever-present crimson horizon, occasionally obscured by clouds.
The creature had started to breathe deeply fresh air from the atmosphere, an atmosphere low in oxygen. The fresh air had filled its body through its many noses, located throughout the body. While just standing, its two pairs of wings, relatively small in comparison to its body, started to appear on its back.
A slightly brighter red dot stood out in the sky—the red dwarf, twin to the planet's home star and part of this binary-star system. Though currently alone, it was sometimes accompanied by planets wandering the outer reaches of the system. The creature saw the star more brightly, as its vision is shifted further into the infrared spectrum, where red dwarfs emit most of their electromagnetic energy. This type of vision was more useful here, aiding in foraging and locating shelter, typically warm spots emanating from underground where most animals resided in the colder regions of the planet, a short distance from the terminator.
The male creature instinctively moved further from the terminator and toward the colder parts of the planet in search of a mate. The females, larger and more resilient, lived in the coldest habitable areas, deterring predators and forcing males into a lifelong performance that led to the natural selection of the strongest individuals. They recognized each other in the vast frozen wasteland through infrared flashing, partially visible in visible light as well. In the end, the male would be consumed—but the same fate awaited the females. They would return closer to the terminator, where their offspring would eventually devour them. In the best cases, nearing the end of their lives, the females would sacrifice themselves to a predator or scavenger, transferring their young to the new host as parasites.
However, this particular male's journey came to an abrupt end. A remotely controlled avatar's leg crushed the creature, eliminating it from the planet's gene pool. The avatar continued its rapid journey, venturing deeper into the darkness towards the far side of the planet.
The Phoenix is a reusable second rocket stage designed for efficient and safe re-entry. Its heat shield is strategically positioned at the top of the stage, directly beneath the payload. After completing a few additional orbits around Earth, the Phoenix uses the remaining fuel to decelerate sufficiently for a controlled ocean landing. For a gentler touchdown, parachutes are deployed—similar to the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster of the past. Upon landing, recovery ships are dispatched to retrieve the stage. The Phoenix system is maintained and operated by Hefaistos Defense Systems.
... the software doesn't have such limits, it is not even limited by three-dimensional space - particular artificial neurons can be linked in virtually any way - opens space to artificial neural networks more complex than biological ones.
Consciousness evolution (excerpt from the link below):
... The Attention Schema Theory (AST), developed over the past five years, may be able to answer those questions. The theory suggests that consciousness arises as a solution to one of the most fundamental problems facing any nervous system: Too much information constantly flows in to be fully processed. The brain evolved increasingly sophisticated mechanisms for deeply processing a few select signals at the expense of others, and in the AST, consciousness is the ultimate result of that evolutionary sequence.
If the theory is right—and that has yet to be determined—then consciousness evolved gradually over the past half billion years and is present in a range of vertebrate species.
Evolved from not selective processing of external sensory inputs - the same response to almost everything - to selective signal enhancement - and after that to a centralized controller for attention that could coordinate among all senses.
In many animals, that central controller is a brain area called the tectum. It coordinates something called overt attention – aiming the satellite dishes of the eyes, ears, and nose toward anything important.
To control the head and the eyes efficiently, it constructs something called an internal model. An internal model is a simulation that keeps track of whatever is being controlled and allows for predictions and planning.
With the evolution of reptiles around 350 to 300 million years ago, a new brain structure began to emerge – the wulst. The cortex is like an upgraded tectum.
The most important difference between the cortex and the tectum may be the kind of attention they control. The tectum is the master of overt attention—pointing the sensory apparatus toward anything important. The cortex ups the ante with something called covert attention. You don’t need to look directly at something to covertly attend to it. Even if you’ve turned your back on an object, your cortex can still focus its processing resources on it.
Unlike the tectum, which models concrete objects like the eyes and the head, the cortex must model something much more abstract. According to the AST, it does so by constructing an attention schema—a constantly updated set of information that describes what covert attention is doing moment-by-moment and what its consequences are.
Then self-models become models of others. Once the basic mechanism was in place, according to the theory, it was further adapted to model the attentional states of others, to allow for social prediction. Not only could the brain attribute consciousness to itself, it began to attribute consciousness to others.
We understand other people by projecting ourselves onto them. But we also understand ourselves by considering the way other people might see us.
We attribute consciousness to characters in a story, puppets, and dolls, storms, rivers, empty spaces, ghosts and gods. Justin Barrett called it the Hyperactive Agency Detection Device, or HADD.
"If the wind rustles the grass and you misinterpret it as a lion, no harm done. But if you fail to detect an actual lion, you’re taken out of the gene pool."
Evolution turned up the amplitude on our tendency to model others and now we’re supremely attuned to each other’s mind states. It gives us our adaptive edge. The inevitable side effect is the detection of false positives or ghosts.
And so the evolutionary story brings us up to date, to human consciousness—something we ascribe to ourselves, to others, and to a rich spirit world of ghosts and gods in the empty spaces around us.
Seychelles is an island country placed in the Indian Ocean, approx. 4.5 degrees south of the equator. The currency is the Seychellois rupee (approx. 1.8 CZK, or 0.076 USD). The climate is equable for the whole year - so sometimes there is rainy weather, but it is not a problem since the weather is still warm and rain is not lasting for a long time. Rainy weather can be wonderful there - we experienced it during our trip, and you can see it in the video below:
Rain at Petite Anse
Golden waterfall at Petite Anse
Rain is sometimes making temporary waterfalls in the mountains
Because Seychelles is situated very close to the equator, the day has almost the same length for the whole year - quite unusual for me (when you are used to seeing sunset several hours later during summer) to see the sunset at 6 PM.
Night sky - Moon is not lopsided, it is just lying, like the Orion constellation, thanks to its position close to the equator. You can also observe Alpha Centauri from the islands, as well as the Crux constellation - southern sky objects.
Mahe
We spent two weeks there - at the beginning of April 2016, in a lovely Chant Doiseau - a private house for 8 people (we were 5) with a terrace and garden.
Interior
Garden
Transportation
We tried to explore the surroundings by walk, but it wasn't so safe, or at least it looked dangerous, because of narrow roads with many curves, usually with no sidewalks. We quickly refused to continue with this kind of exploration.
After that, we tried bus transportation - a cheap kind of transportation (5 rupees per ticket) with old Tata buses. The need to wait for the bus is a drawback because the bus might not arrive at the time (this can happen most probably only at the main bus station in Victoria). The bus ride is sometimes funny, like a ride on a roller coaster, especially in the mountainous inland (see video below). Once our bus even ripped off the rearview mirror of a car - the roads are really very narrow there :-).
Bus rides
Most bus stops are just painted on the road. And if you want to tell a driver to stop, you have to either use a trembler (which is usually situated close to the seats) or call "devan".
Car rental
The best choice. Relatively cheap (around 40-50 euros per day) and you can drive wherever you want, whenever you want. Cars drive on the left side - like in the UK.
We were using one offline map application for navigation - It is not showing sea, so it was slightly confusing during searching for Cat Cocos ferries offices. Roads are perfectly displayed there (except in one, or two cases - for example, rebuilt crossroad) - so it was really useful for us.
Alcohol
Drinking before noon (I don't remember the exact time) is prohibited. Beer is expensive there (50 and more rupees for 0.5l), but on the other hand, you can taste beers from different parts of the world - South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Australia, Italia, Czech Republic... Anyway, Seychelles holds second place (right below the Czech Republic :-)) in beer consumption per capita. Seychelles Breweries Limited (SBL) stopped beer production during our visit, but I tried at least one local beer:
You can also try the product of one local distillery - famous rum from Takamaka Bay.
Food
Prices of food are similar to Czech prices, sometimes slightly higher (e.g. hot dog at Beau Vallon - 25 SR, or melon ice cream - 9 SR).
You can try local kind of "fast food" if you want cheap cooked food - takeaways - places where you can combine parts of your meal (meat - pork, chicken, fish - with for example rice or potatoes + salad). They are opened around noon and marked with a "take away" label. Here are for example prices which I paid for two meals:
60 SR - rice with curry + chicken with curry
40 SR - rice, chicken, salad
You can also buy really cheap fish at Victoria market - red snapper, or bonito - we paid approx. 300 SR for portioned fish. Other foodstuffs are produced in Seychelles as well, for example, vanilla tea or spice. We also found Czech goods there - cheese and other dairy products and Czech beer - in a mall close to the main bus station in Victoria.
Czech cheese
Czech beer
Victoria
The capital city of Seychelles, the smallest capital city in the world, has cca 26450 inhabitants. You can visit the Hindu temple there, which is situated very close to the city market. Another interesting thing is Victoria Clocktower, staying in the city center for almost 100 years, or a botanical garden.
I am not going to continue with a list of other interesting places, there are a lot of better descriptions and guides on the Internet.
Animals, Nature
There are no dangerous animals on the land. Any venomous snakes or something like that. You can meet geckos as your roommates. And see bats during the day, flying on the seashore, and hear them screaming and quarreling at night. You can also meet giant tortoises - some of them are in the National Botanical Garden in Victoria (you must pay if you want to feed them). Other ones are at Le Jardin Du Roi Spice Garden - you can feed them for free. Other ones are in a corral at Takamaka Beach.
Trails
If you want to experience local nature more closely then you can try some of the local walks and trails. Some of them can be very strenuous due to high temperatures and a big height difference.
Seychelles is well known for its beaches. And they are really gorgeous. We tried to visit as many as possible, and they were awesome, even when we were there during big waves (it was fun to jump into them) and there was a lot of kelp washed up on a shore. Even rain can be nice there as mentioned at the beginning of this article.
We have also visited Praslin apart from Mahe. You can reach it quickly and easily with Cat Cocos catamarans - a trip takes just around 90 minutes. Flying fish are making the company during the trip to the island.
We were a group of nine there and we were considering renting a minivan for one day, but we quickly figured out that there are small cars available only. So I recommend arranging your trip there a few days ahead if you are traveling with a bigger group of people. In the end, we were traveling by bus only.
Praslin hosts Vallee de Mai Nature Reserve with the biggest population of the endemic Coco De Mer palm genus and it is also inhabited by endemic black parrots (we just saw only one of the parrots).
Coco de Mer nut
We tried to visit some beaches, but slow traveling by bus was a drawback. But we visited Grand Anse and Anse Volbert beaches.
There was just one problem with accessing one beach - Anse Kerlan - it is surrounded by one hotel resort, so we weren't able to reach it.
Grand Anse
The end of the day was rainy, but with a really beautiful sunset with storm clouds during the trip back to Mahe - see From Praslin to Mahe video.
Construction of the first orbital plot began in the mid-2030s as a successor to the retired International Space Station (ISS). These platforms shifted their focus towards commercial usage rather than primarily research-based ISS. The orbital plots offer communication, energy, and stable Earth orbits for tenants, typically housing equipment for remote sensing, internet access, microgravity labs and factories, fuel resupply for deep space missions, and in some cases, space hotels. To minimize light pollution, the size of an orbital plot is generally smaller, encompassing up to a quarter of a square mile. The entire structure is primarily managed by avatars operated from Earth, with some orbital plots utilizing Inchworm Space Arm for maintenance. Hefaistos Defense Systems introduced the first orbital plot platform.
The Inchworm Space Arm is a versatile autonomous system designed for various tasks, such as maintaining orbital plots and assisting with cargo ship docking. Unlike fixed-point systems, it can maneuver across entire structures, making it highly adaptable. The space arm is equipped with rollable flexible solar panels as an independent energy source and stores energy in lithium-air batteries housed within the arm itself.
Both ends of the arm serve specific functions: one end is designed for secure attachment to the structure during work and can also be used for additional charging, while the other end houses an array of maintenance tools. This dual-purpose design enables the Inchworm Space Arm to efficiently perform a wide range of tasks in the space environment.
We were traveling through the Baltic states. We have visited the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania, at 2 AM (scary, mainly because of small hanged crosses, shaking in a wind).
Estonia - one long road heading to Tallinn, surrounded by swamps. And bus stops in no man's land. And first traffic signs with reindeers (or moose? now I am not sure).
Tallinn - a traffic signs with ducks :-)
Seagull on a ferry to Helsinki
Helsinki Cathedral, without snow in December
We spent one night at Villa Tammikko
Helsinki - no snow, surprisingly, at the beginning of December. First snow appeared approximately in the middle of the way to Oulu.
One of our stops - Kuhnamo lake, close to Äänekoski city
We spotted the first moose approx. 70 kilometers south of Oulu. We visited the local market at Oulu and tried some local food there (Pulla pie, some pies with salmon and reindeer meat, etc.).
"Continue" and "tall" in Finnish - "Slaughterhouse" and "Cunt" in Czech
The Finnish language is using very strange expressions sometimes
Oulu market hall
Rovaniemi - lampposts are representing polar circle line
Lapland
Beautiful northern lights appeared at the time of our arrival at our destination, house on the shore of Vuontisjärvi lake.
So, what you can do in Lapland during the winter?
cross-country skiing (my absolutely first experience)
snowshoeing
ice fishing (I was not attending :-))
ice skating, ice hockey
building an igloo (we have not finished it)
taking a sauna (sauna is basically in every inhabited house)
dog sledding
Polar night is really long (a day has approximately 3-4 hours only), so there is a big problem distinguishing actual time, you don't know if there is 4 PM, or 9 PM :-).
The lowest temperature, which I've seen there on the thermometer was approx. -28 degrees of Celsius. Sometimes power outages happen because of the freeze.
Dog sledding
We had an amazing ride with Hetta Huskies, during sunset. We took a shorter ride (6 kilometers) because of low temperatures.
And one video:
Meteorological phenomena
Light pillars (created by ice crystals in the sky) - very nice in the night, pillars are soaring from each source of light. You can see for example a village over the horizon. Or passing car behind trees.
Arctic clouds - Polar stratospheric clouds, rainbow clouds, formed by frozen particles.
Belt of Venus - Since the Sun is not rising over the horizon in winter, you can observe phenomena called the belt of Venus.
Nature
Reindeer
Reindeer
Belt of Venus and hill without trees
Really thin and short trees...
Food
Candies - really weird approach, to have salty candies. I don't want to see Salmiakki anymore :-).
Pies - Pulla bread was really good, together with meat pies (reindeer, solomon).
Meat - Reindeer meat is awesome, with a fine structure and liver look. Moose (hirvi) sausage was also really good.
Fish - We tried some fish from a shop - all of them were sweetened, so quite unusual for me.
Trip back to the Czech Republic
We have visited the ice hotel in Kiruna (Sweden) during return:
