Appendix
Glossary and credits Chapters 1-6
Most of the final touches in Inter Alia are due to the input from Anya, who therefore deserves a mention. She's also suggested I elaborate on the following terms. Those taken from the Real World (RW) or that I've made up myself (MC).
Sub-quantum processes
All particles – from quarks to the Universe as a whole – can also behave like waves. Within the brain, the electrons that travel between neurons are also waves, and will propagate and interfere like wavefronts. The duality can be described as the wave being the sum of all the potential paths of the particle. However when these wavefunctions have propagated to an extent where, if they were particles, they'd have an effect, then they behave as particles. At this point, from all the possible paths that the wave took, only one is selected. This all happens at a level which cannot be observed, which I've called sub-quantum here. Within the brain, electron waves are interacting and diffracting, but the result is simply one neuron firing. In The Emperor's New Mind, Roger Penrose argues that this may be the basis of consciousness, although it seems to me that his argument is based on the fact that we don't understand consciousness and we don't understand quantum mechanics, so maybe the two are linked. (RW)
Heisenberg Compensators
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that there is a certain degree of uncertainty about the momentum and position of particles. The more closely we can define one, the less precise is our knowledge of the other. This isn't a question of measurement, it's one of reality – the actual particle doesn't exist in a precise state. Thus a transporter scanner would not be able to tell exactly where our particles are and what their momenta are because they're not exactly anywhere. (RW)
The Heisenberg Compensators in a transporter must deal with this ambiguity and replicate it. If Penrose is right, and consciousness is based on this fuzziness of the quantum world, which can't be measured, then each time someone in Star Trek is beamed anywhere, their thoughts on coming out of the transporter can't be the same as they were when they went in. (MC)
Time dilation
In his special relativity Einstein showed (and which has since been verified) that objects in a moving frame experience time at a slower rate than stationary observers. The amount of time dilation increases the closer to c (the velocity of light) you get. Thus at 94% of the speed of light 54 years can pass in real time, but only 12 years pass on board ship. The ratio t'/t is the gamma function and is given by
Interestingly, (well I thought it was interesting) Voyager could get back home in six years (ship time) if they travelled at 99.9999995% of the speed of light, although 60,000 years would have passed in that time. Objects also gain in mass by a factor given by the gamma function, so everyone on board would have a mass of around 700 tonnes. (MC)
Vulcan's Suns
Information on Vulcan's suns taken from The 40 Eridani Trinary System (
Glossary
This is a list of all the non-Terran words used in the stories. Unless I've indicated otherwise the words are already established within the Star Trek Universe and are care of The Universal Translator Assistant Project
|
adun, aduna |
betrothed (vulc.) |
|
arie'mnu |
mastery of passion and emotion. |
|
chakh' |
plant; its dried strings were used for weaving nets [vulc.] |
|
Chegh-chew jaj-vam jaj-kak |
It is a good day to die (kling.) |
|
fvai |
dog (rom.) |
|
Kal Rekk |
Vulcan holiday of atonement, solitude and silence |
|
kal-toh |
Vulcan puzzle in which rods are placed to form a pattern |
|
katra |
essential essence of person, inner consciousness (the soul).(vulc.) |
|
kolinahr |
Vulcan ritual intended to purge all emotion |
|
koon-ut-kal-if-fee |
Vulcan mating ritual – the marriage or challenge |
|
Las'hark |
Vulcan name for sun |
|
Mene sakkhet ut-seveh |
Live long and prosper (vulc.) |
|
na'tha'thhya |
passing-on. The investiture of one's self-that- has-been in 'katra' mode. [vulc.] |
|
pagh |
soul (Bajoran) |
|
par'machkai |
lover (kling.) |
|
plak tow |
blood fever (vulc.) |
|
pon farr |
Vulcan mating cycle |
|
qir'lal |
a benign edible fruited thorned succulent root [vulc.] |
|
qomi |
human (vulc.) |
|
saya |
fruit-water [vulc.] |
|
sehlat |
Vulcan mammal, resembling a teddy bear, but with six-inch long fangs |
|
skan |
family (Vulc.) |
|
soo-lak |
a dispassionate observer to an emotional state (vulc.) |
|
ta'al |
Vulcan salute |
|
tal'oth |
Vulcan rite of endurance |
|
t'an rod |
piece used in kal-toh puzzle (vulc.) |
|
t'an s'at |
intellectual deconstruction of emotional patterns (vulc.) |
|
t'hy'la |
friend-lover-lifelong companion (vulc.) |
|
totsu'k'hy |
Vulcan nerve pinch |
|
T'Sai |
lady (vulc.) |
|
tviokh |
derogatory term meaning neighbour used for a stranger (alien). [vulc.] |
|
t'zaled |
to be loyal to the end, protecting that ones life.(vulc.) |
|
vrekasht |
exile/outsider (vulc.) |