Theoretical Calcodynamics
When the stuff that actually somewhat makes sense wasn’t enough.
This document isn’t entirely essential for understanding the workings of the canon, and instead exists mostly for me to safely store some more ‘out-there’ ideas I have to explain some things that I felt could use more explaining with regards to their fundamentals, even though they work fine as is. As such, a firm grasp of all of Samsara is greatly encouraged before perusing this document, as it draws from many existing things to make its own writ.
Proposal: Stacked Space
It gets freaky in here.
This section seeks to solve a problem that may not necessarily exist, that being the final layer of explanatory material that shoos away the metaphorical magician’s curtain. Samsara’s many concepts and mechanics are - relatively speaking - better documented and explained than their equivalents in various other canons. That being said, there is still an amount of ‘handwavium’ employed to avoid having to perform the equivalent of explaining the dynamics of the subatomic gymnastics that makes up our world’s chemistry and physics.
As such, this document can be neglected at virtually zero cost to a reader’s understanding of the subject of Samsara. Mostly, it exists for documenting a hypothetical means of solving a higher-order problem by providing absolute lowest-order mechanical explanations for why it works as they do. This section would - in theory - aid in explaining the finer intricacies of chalk ritualism (‘arcane mechanics’), praximechanics, the Current, and chalkweaving at large.
Unspecific Shape Dimensions
A classification. It might not be necessary. The unspecific shape dimensions are spatial dimensions with no restrictions on what may occupy them. Why this distinction is necessary to make is due to the fourth dimension - which facilitates the existence of the Void - being unique in working the way it does. Other spatial dimensions do not allow chalkweave of certain shapes to ‘access’ them in the way one accesses the Void by quirks of altitude.
4D Space: Three Plus One Spatial Dimensions
Space in Samsara is four dimensional, in that it has an x, y and z axis, and a fourth, additional ‘v axis’. This axis ‘points’ in the direction of a relative ‘down’, and as such acts somewhat like a second y axis. An object’s placement on the v axis determines whether it is in the Dancirah or the Challenger Dark, as the farthest reaches of the v axis corresponds to the deepest recesses of the Void.
In practice, this means that bodies in the Switchboard - from pennies to planets - occupy an ‘altitude’ which expresses how far above or below they are relative to the surface of the Void - that being the Challenger Horizon; the boundary between the Dancirah and the Deep. It can be viewed as its own kind of sea level, and going too low results in slipping into the Void.
It is necessary to mention that this sea level isn’t static. While there is an average altitude of the Void’s territory which has come to be used as the origin, the Void is an immensely chaotic system with regards to spatial stability, and events such as flux storms or huge objects being swallowed by the Void affect its effective surface level. As such, in areas of high spatial turbulence, objects that otherwise would’ve been safe from the Void find themselves caught under metaphorical waves of shifting space, and once in the Void, its own physics takes over, resulting in submerged subjects being dragged even further below.
It also bears mentioning that this ‘v axis’ does double-duty for the Void… and the Vitric Shelf. Objects can also move ‘upwards’ sufficiently along the fourth axis and find themselves in the glass realm of the Vitric Shelf. Unfortunately - or fortunately, perhaps, considering the subject matter - unlike the Challenger Horizon between the Dancirah and the Void, the boundary between the Dancirah and the Vitric Shelf is a solid barrier, and passage beyond it is unachievable through normal means. Passage to the shelf is accomplished only with the glass jaws that form errantly in space, or through some other esoteric means.
The Vitric Shelf, Dancirah and Void can be viewed as a ‘stack’ of dimensions or planes, and the fourth spatial dimension and corresponding fourth axis exists to express the location of an object in this dimensional stack.
The Fifth Dimension, Time
In our own canon, we are three-dimensional beings moving through the fourth dimension of time. Time in the Switchboard is ultimately an expression of the distance from the Astrolabe’s first penned ledgerial entry to its latest. In practice however, time in the Switchboard works much in the same way as time in our canon - though perhaps Switchboard time is even more rigid as quirks of space in the Switchboard do not produce quirks in the flow of time.
Specific Shape Dimensions
Conversely, the specific shape dimensions are those that can only be accessed by chalkweave that holds a specific shape. Like sediment poured through a filter, only certain chalkweave may pass through the - supposedly - boundary between 5D unspecific space and the higher dimensional planes.
The Sixth Dimension, the Praxis Space
It is worth prefacing this section with mentioning that I almost certainly do not have the physics knowledge necessary to execute this idea without flaw. For one, Samsara doesn’t operate under our physics, so there exists the argument that judging the workings of its physics using another system’s physics as a meter rule is unfair at best, pointless at worst. That being said, many terminologies used to describe Samsara’s physics are borrowed from our own, and those terms mean something within our knowledge domains. Butchering their meanings doesn’t serve my ends.
The hypothetical sixth dimension in Samsara exists to give a solid backing to the workings of praximechanics. More solid than writ or experiment. As solid as physical matter itself. Accepting this sixth dimensional explanation for the workings of the praximechanics grants us two very different explanations for the workings of the entirety of Samsara at large. They can be thought of as means of building the entire mechanical foundation of the canon.
The first build option is what already exists; that all of the workings of the praximechanics are ultimately a product of Astrolabic calculus. Thrashed more thoroughly in the Astrolabe’s dedicated document, the workings of praxis are subject to unknowable math, and the outcomes it produces are - again - a product of this math. The Astrolabe is physically accessible and observable, but there remains a final black box frontier that none may access. While this explanation works, it can also be viewed as somewhat ‘hand-waving’ away what is a fundamentally critical aspect of how the world works.
The second build option - one I seek to propose in this section - borrows an existing concept and takes it further. This concept - and the term that denotes it - was brought to be by philosopher Édouard Le Roy. This concept is the noosphere.
The noosphere proposes the existence of an immaterial ‘layer’ over our planet in the same vein as the geosphere (inanimate matter) and biosphere (biological life), this one instead constituting of the collective consciousness and shared intellectual activity of all of humanity, including culture, science, technology and social systems. Essentially, it’s a means of viewing the totality of human intellectual product as nigh-material phenomena, as though concepts like ‘democracy’ or ‘12 month years’ were solid and tangible like rocks or elephants.
In realizing the concept for Samsara I changed a few things, working towards refitting the concept for inclusion in the verse. The most tangible of these changes is that the noosphere - as realized in Samsara - is a spatial dimension. Objects and entities existing in the Switchboard universe can have their physical characteristics quantified in six dimensions; three dimensions express its location in a relevant plane, the fourth dimension expresses its location in one of the planes of either the Vitric Shelf, Dancirah or Challenger Dark, and the fifth dimension expresses the object’s location in time. But the sixth dimension expresses the object’s location in the realm of praxis.
What does this mean?
The praxis space in Samsara differs from the noosphere in a second key way; the noosphere starts small and expand outwards as human intellectual activity increases in both size and complexity. There are more thinkers, and as thought produces more complex things, a greater share of all the thinking done is done with more complex subjects at their epicenter. Samsara is different. Instead of the noosphere, Samsara has the Ideaplex, and the Ideaplex is a physicalization of the ultimate intellectual extent that can be explored by the dominant thinking weave of the Switchboard at that given time. Essentially, so long as ‘thought’ can be conceived of as the act of producing physical weft construct via fold operations conducted by the computational strait, then the Ideaplex - as it exists now under the era of the Third Kin, and this must be mentioned due to subjects that will be discussed later - is a physical representation of the hard limits of the computational strait. More succinctly put, the Ideaplex represents everything that can be concocted by the computational strait. If the computational strait cannot fold it into being - or rather, if a third kin mind cannot fabricate it - then it does not exist in the Ideaplex.
Essentially, the noosphere is a bubble that expands, while the Ideaplex is an unknown territory that is gradually charted by the minds that explore it. Like a fog of war in a strategy game that recedes as one advances their units, the Ideaplex is gradually mapped out as Third Kin thought expands to fill its extent. Considering it is a physical manifestation of what the kin can conceive of using their thinking faculties, the Ideaplex is absolutely massive - but that also means it is finite. The Third Kin - left to their own devices - will eventually think every thought they are fundamentally capable of, and will be faced with a problem that is for future discussion.
Fearing this future, the Kin of Dancers Salyne Khateleya acted in the manner that she did.
So what then exists in the Ideaplex? Most easily put, two things; ideas, and computational straits of all thinking weave extant at any given time. But this isn’t the whole picture, and this is where things get somewhat finnicky. The best way to imagine what exists on the Ideaplex - speaking on ideas, straits will be handled later - is to think of ideas in terms of the questions they answer. For example, ‘toaster’ exists in the Ideaplex as the answer to the question of ‘how to make toast’, but ‘toaster’ also isn’t the only answer to this question. You could also make toast with a campfire or pressing iron, albeit with some added difficulty. The difference between ‘toaster’ and ‘pressing iron’ or ‘campfire’ in the Ideaplex sense, however, is that ‘toaster’ is the dominant answer to this question as determined by the collective of Third Kin minds. As more minds pose questions, the answers to those questions increase in prominence in the Ideaplex, manifesting as a tangible accumulation of chalk towards them in the Ideaplex space like singularities pulling errant asteroids towards them. Those who know the answers to these questions are then issued chalk as dividends - rewards, in a sense, for exploring the Ideaplex and finding the answers wreathed in shadows.
The Ideaplex being a tangible physical space gives it geography. Simpler ideas congregate at the center, and more complex ones are further away and more spread out. Navigating the Ideaplex requires a mind tuned for seeing paths only where they exist, as navigating the noosphere is fundamentally an exercise in constructing models of reality as accurately as possible. Most questions conceivable about reality have answers within the Ideaplex, but many require a truly talented mind to navigate their way towards them. Additionally, however, there are questions that the Third Kin cannot conceive of as a product of the limit of their computational straits, and similarly the answers to those questions don’t exist in the Third Kin Ideaplex. Again, the cause for this specificity is elaborated upon later. On the topic of tuned minds capable of finding paths to answers, it is worth referring to The Blank-Slate Mind.
Let’s consider a different approach angle that will help in grasping the Ideaplex. The Spyndl Academy is fundamentally an answer to a question. Eventually, it became the answer to many questions, and thus grew in prominence on the Ideaplex. As it grew in size, it took an additional quirk of its behavior that follows all in the Ideaplex; a certain kind of ‘field’. In addition to ideas, computational straits exist in the Ideaplex, straddling the dimensions of space. Bearers of the straits gravitate to the most dominant ideas of the Ideaplex - not toasters, but colossal entities that exist in multiple scopes, such as the aforementioned Spyndl Academy, or other groups of interest like the faithful of Vahn, or Fel-Arcad Rosenthalists. Proximity of straits to various ideas in the Ideaplex is ultimately what yields the praximechanics, as ideas in the Ideaplex are subject to their own brand of physics akin to Newtonian motion, and thus the interplay of doctrine can be boiled down to - in a sense - marbles colliding in a large bowl.
A very large logical leap has been here, which I will walk back and then walk through more slowly. The praximechanics in practice works to facilitate unconventional behavior in chalkweave. An engineered technique is designed to be effective against members of a group or faction, but what makes this possible? Rather simply, both attacker and target exist in the Ideaplex as explorers in a dark forest, and occasionally they see one another’s shadows deep in the thicket. Confrontations in the lower planes are mirrored in the upper ones, and conflicts of praxis against praxis can be viewed as large bodies exerting their gravity upon the movements of the other. The larger usually succeeds, but the interplay of the Ideaplex is complex enough to allow the occasional surprise. Ideological conflicts in the Switchboard are, in a sense, governed by their own kind of physics, occurring in the Ideaplex and away from the conscious viewing of those subject to its workings.
All phenomena that are governed by or employ the praximechanics in some way set in motion events on the Ideaplex that are resolved by its own toolbox of physics exclusive to its plane. That the Spyndl continues to exist then, is due to constant reinforcement of its importance to the workings of the Switchboard by the dominant thinkers who inhabit it. Should this change, the idea of the Spyndl Academy would slowly fade into obscurity, or be subsumed into another dominant idea like a unicellular being engulfed by another, slightly larger unicellular being. Buttressing the Spyndl’s continued existence - and the existence of other similarly large ideas - are the fact these ideas accumulate chalk to them as well, which is allotted to the minds congregating around these ideas in a sort of symbiotic exchange, as chalk is needed by these minds to shape the reality in the lower planes in line with the idea domiciled in the upper. Ideas almost want to survive, as it were, as though they had awareness of what they are currently, and how it is different from the ‘nothing’ that they emerged from. Instead it is more so that - like the kin - ideas too are subject to the Astrolabe’s perpetuation, and continuing to be looks similar in both living things and abstract concepts.
Let us now address the specificity above; the reason why ‘third kin’ must be stressed when discussing the current Ideaplex of the Switchboard. The answer is probably clear at this point; the Ideaplex is a product of the extent of the computational strait’s capabilities, meaning that thinking weave before the Third Kin had their own Ideaplex, and thinking weave that would come after the Third Kin would have their own as well. Earlier generations of thinking weave had smaller Ideaplexes, in the sense that their more primitive minds had expectedly more humble capabilities. As later generations of thinkers emerged, the ideas of the old generation were gradually pushed to the center of the Ideaplex and compacted until the borders between individual ideas dissolved and the matter became mere chalk, effectively ‘destroying’ those ideas. Some ideas had different fates however, be appropriated by the new generation of thinking weave rather than destroyed, and being summarily redefined such that the older thinking minds - exploring the Ideaplex - found themselves literally incapable of grasping the ideas that not dotted the landscape. The Vermeil did this to the First Thinkers, and it is why the First Thinker Minds were moved to take the actions they did as outlined in The Dawn of the Dancirah. Sensing annihilation of a form previously beyond conception, the Minds sought to destroy the Vermeil and eliminate their hostile takeover of the Ideaplex. It worked. Once. The rise of the Third Kin was followed by a wholesale capturing of the Ideaplex, but the Minds were destroyed physically long before they saw the ideas that they anchored to meet the fates allotted to them.
The Seventh Dimension, the Current
How many is too much?
I was always deeply unsatisfied with the writ of the Current for one reason; it couldn’t realistically exist in the way I wanted it too because the Switchboard universe is too ‘material’. Much of my gripe with the Current is the fact that it was realized multiple times under too many visions, and even after trimming the fat and rot to get a leaner, better product, there were still holes that didn’t satisfy me. Chief amongst them was the fact that the Current needed to exist in a manner where the third kin were subject to the Current, but the Current could not be subject to the third kin, in the sense that the Current needed to exist outside of the ability of the third kin’s ability to tamper with it. This is a problem, because I also needed it to exist in a manner where it would make no sense if the third kin couldn’t access it physically, but also making it inaccessible to them would make its workings unjustifiable.
The Current is fundamentally a collection of third kin memes, memes in the sense of its usage in the fields of anthropology and psychology, that being units of cultural data that are passed from person to person. The third kin - being very much like us - have created an incredible amount of memetic mass, and this mass - like everything - is itself chalk, and thus subject to similar rules and capable of identical interactions as all else. As computational straits exist in the sixth space of praxis, memory straits also exist in the seventh space of the Current, and the seventh dimension is effectively the noosphere proper as it was defined by the original coiner of the term.
For this reason, and also due to some overlap in function and motifs, the sixth and seventh dimensions can be treated as a singular concept, with little lost in doing so. They are spaces accessible only by the unique twists of chalk that give the third kin their cognitive faculties, and thus what makes them ‘thinking wave’.
The Current is a sea of ledgers, and ledgers are an Astrolabic construct employed in the extensive recordkeeping necessary for the Astrolabe’s calculus. Having all ledgers be here - in a space that the kin have access too, but not wholly - neatly solves the problem outline above. The Astrolabe is privy to the minds of all third kin, but this connection isn’t two-way nor is it peer-to-peer, meaning that third kin memory straits cannot access the ledgers on this seventh plane, nor can they access the memory straits of other third kin.
When kin die, their lattice begins the slow process of decay if flesh, or crumbling to dust if flesh has been calcified. The interface, interpreter, potential and computational straits follow soon after, undergoing their own kind of decay. But the memory strait has a different fate; instead of crumbling to ordinary chalk, it is instead ‘dissolved’ into the Current, becoming a dense serving of third kin memes that swiftly joins the memetic slurry of all other memes in the Switchboard, in turn becoming a dense soup of sorts filled with the ‘essence’ of the third kin, told through memories and powers and all else that saw fit to be stored in the mind of the inhabitants of the Switchboard.
The most important ramification of this is that there are processes in the Switchboard that ‘drink’ from the Current in their workings. Most notable - and perhaps, the driver of why this sections exists at all - is birth. When third kin are gestating either through the Conjugation or in wombs, the developing kin draws from the Current, and the result is that they drink from a deep sea filled with the essence of innumerable beings that came before. This is why kin born in the Switchboard inherit things from ages past, from looks to even memories and powers held by deceased members of older generations. Mindspun are influenced in the same way, absorbing third kin memes during their formative processes, which they then instinctively employ in various ways. Suffering a physical infestation of mindspun in the mind and straits is much like having an unwanted tenant in your mind whispering ideas that aren’t yours, and while for some it would merely be a nuisance, the right combination of intoxicating idea and vulnerable listener can spell havoc.
The Current facilitates its own kind of samsara in a sense; its own cyclical paradigm of death and rebirth, as third kin are born, gather memes, make new ones, and then release them back into the sea so that all who are born and drink from it take something with them. This ‘soft reincarnation’ is of particular cultural interest to various parties in the Switchboard, particularly the Sil’khan whose short and frequently dangerous lives means that they are returning their memes often to the Current, and drawing from it again as new Silks are born frequently.
Third Kin Memetics are a field of study in the Switchboard as a result, emerging naturally once it was realized that Third Kin memes - again, these memes being folded chalk - began appearing where no one thought they could. Chalkweaving isn’t without its errant kinks, and third kin researchers are beginning to observe that - just as the Switchboard shaped them - they too are beginning to shape the Switchboard in their own image, a product of third kin memes finding their ways into equations and rituals of all kinds, and - most interestingly - Astrolabic calculus. The ramifications of this are unknown and impossible to conclusively determine, as the third kin who would like to perform the experiments are unfortunately currently within it. And considering that experimentation would require effectively a second Astrolabe, there is very little hope for having the answer to this question before it arrives unceremoniously at the doorstep.
Closing Remarks
I am unsure how to close this document.
For one, I’m not even sure if it’s finished. For another, I’m also not sure if it actually achieved it was meant to do. And perhaps above all that, I don’t actually know what to do with this writ. To liken this doc to past ones, many a time Samsara has been forced to undergo sweeping revisions that manifested as docs getting second and third iterations upon their originals. This document is very much in the same vein of demanding revisions to existing canon. At the same time, I do also feel that this doc is different in that it doesn’t really change what exists, but rather fully removes the veil from what existed within penumbra; wholly functional but built on fairly undefined fundamentals.
I’ve chosen to file this document under two categories. The first is as a Samsara document, which is what it is, meaning that it serves the purpose of expanding the universe of Samsara. The second is as a document for those truly dedicated to the canon, to expand their understanding of the universe of Samsara. Much of the issue with the last bit stems from the fact that this document isn’t necessarily canon in the sense that this document isn’t critical to understanding Samsara because it is not how Samsara works. This document merely outlines how it could, and why I haven’t made it official stems from uncertainty around some of the physics of it all.
It begs the question of “Why not make it canon then if no alternative explanations exist?” which is a stellar question all things considered. I’m not entirely sure. I penned this document to put an idea into more tangible form above all else, and to not do the most logical thing with it seems nonsensical. I feel that this document is emblematic of a larger problem of worldbuilding almost; was anyone actually asking the questions this document answers? Was anyone really bothered that the Current or the praximechanics didn’t have thoroughly thrashed writ on their absolute bedrock fundamentals? I think it’s the wrong way of looking at things; the project is better off because it has answers to questions, even unasked ones.
On that note I feel I can close this document. Theoretical Calcodynamics exists because the nature of what I’m building needs it to in any capacity at all, even if limited. Sometimes, just the process of writing alone justifies what was written. This document is perhaps just a manifestation of my love for the craft, and that will be apparent enough to the right people.
pNarrat: Philosophy as Pattern
Much of Samsara exists downstream of tiny things. If I’m so much as struck with anything that appeals to me in some way - a stray line, a random picture or gif, a novel approach vector to an old concept - it likely gets realized in the canon in some way. Perhaps it results in Samsara being bloated, but it also makes it true to the figure behind it. Keep that in mind.
A natural consequence of my extensive effort to cast Samsara as materially as possible is that it then becomes possible to look at more intangible things in tangible terms. The ‘supernatural’ doesn’t exist in Samsara, as all things that exist are within some kind of reach of the Switchboard’s denizens. The modern Switchboard, after all, is a product of grand, sweeping decisions made in the past where those who learned the tongue spoke it to space, and it curved as they saw fit.
That brings me to the meat of the discussion; Samsara’s nature of conflict.
A core concept of Samsara is the idea of perpetuation; the idea that things inflict themselves further into time. It’s the core principle that informs the actions of the Astrolabe, for example, in that the Astrolabe’s calculus is ultimately towards the end of ‘anti-stagnancy’. Perpetuation is inherent to living in that way; to live and exist is to persist, and to persist - against all odds - is to succeed. With this understanding, how can one guarantee their ability to persist?
The most viable means, and the core idea of this discussion, is propagation. The easiest way to ensure one’s survival - perhaps, and in some way or another - is to make more of oneself, and come to dominate as much of the contextual playing field as possible. By becoming either too big or too numerous, you guarantee that the reaping scythe of probability will never completely wipe you out, even if it swings again and again and again. Things that live seem to fundamentally understand this, hence the drive to reproduce. The Switchboard is no different. Where it does differ, however, is that it applies to ideas as well.
A great and terrible war is being waged in the Ideaplex. There are infinite creeds and thus infinite sides, and rather than meeting individual parties in combat, it is more so that commanders are scrambling for as much territory to hold. If one imagines ideas as shapes, you can in turn imagine philosophy - tessellated ideas - as patterns. These patterns replicate and propagate through the Ideaplex, and dominant ideas under Switchboard praximechanics are rewarded with calcic dividends that allow them to propagate further.
What makes a good idea - as outlined under The Blank-Slate Mind is the ability to accurately model the nature of the world. At times, ideas are tested. The shape meets a slot - a challenge posed by reality - and faces a check of whether that shape is compatible with it. Some - most - shapes are not, and thus they are compelled to either flee the challenge, or be filed down to fit the slot in question. What is just as interesting however, is that often, tessellated patterns encounter other tessellated patterns in the Ideaplex - a philosophy meets another philosophy - and they face an irreconcilability inherent to their natures. In these cases, conflict emerges.
All conflict is a product of differences. Switchboard conflict is the same, but additionally mapped in a physical realm, where shape crashes against shape and the superior pattern emerges. How this ‘superior’ pattern is determined, however, varies. It is important to recall that under patterns are people, and ‘poorer’ ideas with stronger proponents of them may emerge victorious. Sometimes, the brutes burn Rome, and it can just as well be an indication of nothing more than that only marginally less important than being right is being strong. The Spyndl may not necessarily be ‘right’, but it has become strong enough to persist irrespective of that. This truth reigns throughout the Switchboard.
Emergent from this conflict can be change, but it can be reinforcement of the existing too. A pattern may face a challenge posed by reality that it cannot ordinarily overcome, but one willing to push through notwithstanding earns the right to persist all the same. It doesn’t do so without some scars to show for it, but that means little for someone convinced of their own righteousness. It goes without saying that patterns are hardly ever pure. Just as plausible is the idea of assimilating external shapes into one’s pattern, compelling a revision of how it tessellates, but also a possibly increased ability to respond to the challenges posed by reality around it. It is also just as possible to integrate ideas that fundamentally conflict - becoming a hypocrite, in a sense - and one will watch the pattern fall apart entirely once it is even mildly tested by the wider world.
Where am I going with this?
In truth, nowhere in particular. It helped to understand conflict in Samsara as a game of shapes and patterns, where characters are incident upon other characters and the world, and they shear off their edges or chip and form new ones in the process. Occasionally, there are sparks, and something emerges from the fire that spawns; new, powerful, and dangerous. The irreconcilability of tessellated patterns is the catalyst for the Switchboard’s perpetuation. Shapes collide, and the world spins on. Only when a final, perfected shape emerges will the clock tick its last.
Is such even possible? That remains to be seen.