Glossary of terms

This page lists the definitions of various terms in the Gamedec universe. Terms that can support prolonged descriptions, details, and images may warrant a dedicated page.

Terms are in alphabetical order.


 * Biotechnology: A scientific discipline dealing with the use of the intelligence of living structures to construct devices and clothing. The most frequently exploited aspect is the natural tendency of living organisms to maintain homeostasis. Applied in all kinds of regulators: temperature, humidity (see CC (climate controller)), light (see autoluxes), or shape (see biorecliners).
 * Brahma: A world that replicates the realium, created to fulfill the special needs of zoenets. Thanks to the implemented software, zoenetic children can experience the development of their own bodies, watch the hormonal changes, etc. All physiological processes, such as eating, defecating, and sweating, are also active.
 * Castaway: A colloquial term for a gamer lost in sensory worlds, unable to find pleasure in either the real or the virtual world.
 * Couch: A device that monitors and sustains the life functions of a gamer's body when in the Net. It controls the suit. It is equipped with a temperature regulator, an attachment for infusion fluid, an automatic massage function to prevent bedsores, etc.
 * Devitalization: A procedure generated by the helmet. It involves detaching the motor and emotional centers of the central nervous system from the user's real body and transferring them to the sensations and movements of their virtual incarnation. This process activates the gamepill. The autonomous nervous system is not detached, meaning the organism’s homeostasis is maintained. A side effect is potential shock caused by stimuli in the game.
 * Digi: A term that applies both to a zoenet and diginet, regardless of their origin (digital or organic); a person living in the Net.
 * Diginet: A person living in the Net whose psyche is housed within a rendan. Unlike a Zoenet, a diginet has never been organic. A diginet's psyche was created by humans and implemented into a synthetic brain. Despite the differences in their origin, in formal terms, a diginet is no different from a zoenet.
 * D-Runners: Short for Digital Runners, a new police unit (Free States of America) that functions in realium. It is made of zoenets who have the acceleration option.
 * Gamepill: A capsule taken by a gamer before entering the Net when intending to spend more than a few hours there. The nanobots it contains switch the biochemical pathways to minimize the production of metabolites. The gamepill delays the production of stools and affects the recirculation of urine. Its action is initiated by devitalization and interrupted by revitalization.
 * Ganic: A colloquial term for people who have a functioning body or an organic past.
 * Geskin: Short for Genuine Skin. A mobrium made of biological tissue. It cannot be distinguished from a ganic without the use of professional instruments or prolonged observation.
 * Gravidence: A luxury hovering house, kept in the air by anti-gravity generators.
 * Great Temporal Crash: The largest information crisis in the history of humankind, induced by the temporists. As a result, the human population lost its temporal orientation: the destruction of dating information data and the illness known as TRID led to a paralysis in all areas of human activity. Factories, power stations, service companies, stockbrokers, and banks came to a standstill, and armies, space stations, and oceanic complexes were also plunged into chaos (the RAC-5 virus was probably transported to those places with food). Many countries experienced riots and bloody confrontations, with acts of violence and vandalism rife. After the Crash, seventy years of human history had to be reconstructed on the basis of warped data. The Chinese IT company TAO provided invaluable assistance, especially its reconstruction programs, which ultimately determined that it was the year 2120. The Great Temporal Crash is attributed a significant role to the start of the Renewal Era.
 * GWG: Short for Gravity Wave Generator. A device that enables the remote navigation of mobriums and other devices that receive gravity waves.
 * Helmet: A device worn by a gamer who wants to enter the Net. It generates impulses that give the impression of sensory presence. It applies the processes of devitalization and revitalization.
 * Homo realium: A colloquial name for people living in the real world.
 * Homo virtual: A colloquial name for zoenets, also assigned to semi-zoenets.
 * Information Era: Sources from various countries indicate that it started around the 2040s and spread all over the globe within the next ten years. The 2050s saw the abandonment – and later the ban – of the practice of keeping written information on physical materials. There were several reasons for that: saving the lungs of the Earth (paper production), environmental concerns (after synthetic substitutes replaced paper), as well as problems with increasingly expanding amounts of data in terms of physical storage. The Information Era was distinguished by an unprecedented rate of technological development. It was then when the great skyscraping metropolises were built, and many vital discoveries in the fields of information technology and physics were made. After the TRID epidemic at the beginning of the 22nd century, many countries permitted the use of real writing for documents of great importance.
 * Infusion fluid: A container that holds an appropriate proportion of nutritional substances maintaining the homeostasis of the gamer’s body during their time spent in the Net. It is connected to a nanoplug.
 * Mobriums: Self-propelled equivalents of netriums that resemble robots. Instead of organic brains, they may also carry rendans.
 * Nanobot: A minuscule robot which, depending on its function, has the size of more or less advanced enzymes or their conglomerates. Commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry (nanomeds, e.g., Telomin: nanobots transport mineral compounds to where they are needed; also gamepill).
 * Nanoplug: A plug used for connecting biodevices. Intended for gamers,it is placed on the forearm and guarantees asepsis. Gamers connect an infusion fluid before beginning a game. Although it was created using biotechnologies, it is not susceptible to damage during a change in the owner’s phenotype.
 * Net: The 22nd century equivalent of the Internet.
 * Netriums: Gravitational containers that keep the brains of zoenets alive. They fulfill the function of helmets.
 * Omnic: A device that performs all media functions. It is worn on the wrist. Equivalent of the older walktel.
 * Out-Rangers: An official paramilitary unit responsible for the areas outside of ABB filters. Members undergo a training program to learn to survive in the extremely tough conditions of the terrestrial biosphere.
 * Pershell: Short for "Personal Shell", a custom made mobrium that shows the individual appearance of the owner, as well as specific requirements.
 * PSD: Short for "Personal Security Droid". A virtual device that protects the gamer from digital mutants. Usually invisible, it shows up only when intervening.
 * PTT: Short for "Public Transport Tube". A form of public transport that resembles a train. It operates in the middle and lower levels of megapolises.
 * Realium: A colloquial name for the real world.
 * Rendan: A synthetic structure that is an exact copy of an individual brain.
 * Rendanite: A person whose psyche is held within a rendan. May be of organic (see zoenet) or digital (see diginet) origin.
 * Renewal Era: Enthusiastic cultural movement encompassing most of the world’s population, following soon after the Great Temporal Crash. This resulted in the re-evaluation of many concepts and the emergence of new fashions and trends, including a retro wave – a return of old materials such as ‘chrome’ and ‘glass,’ the promotion of old lines of pneumobiles, clothes, etc. The traces of those times can still be seen today, e.g., due to the fact that the Renewal Era was characterized by name changes. This was the period when such family names as Aymore, Dal, Eim, and Ernal came about.
 * Revitalization: A procedure that does the opposite of devitalization. It cancels the action of a gamepill.
 * Safe: An armor-plated container in the torso of a mobrium that protects the brain or rendan that was placed inside it. It possesses its own life-support systems in case the mobrium breaks down.
 * Semi-zoenet: A person who owns a body and is able to keep it alive, but prefers the existence in sensory worlds. Semi-zoenets tend to be older, infirm, or paralyzed people.
 * Skin: A costume worn in a game to mask or modify the gamer’s external appearance. It can be used to remove or add limbs (e.g., wings), change gender, etc.
 * Telesense: The 22nd century equivalent of the telephone. Apart from hearing, it also engages the receptors of heat, sight, and smell.
 * Temporists: A parareligious terrorist organization active in the early 22nd century, whose objective was to introduce a holistic temporal chaos on Earth. Their actions (see Great Temporal Crash) led to damaging the digital data coding dates and periods. The Temporists destroyed hundreds of thousands of cemeteries and monuments, works of art, and commemorative plaques. They created thousands of fictional objects complete with dates from the future. Those objects were found not only in public places but also in private homes. According to the most common theory, the Temporists bred and released into the air the RAC-5 virus that caused the TRID illness, and then used the symptoms and the Net to recruit around ten million supporters. The computer attack, hundreds of thousands of acts of vandalism, and other disorienting actions all combined with the epidemic and resulted in total chaos: nobody knew what had happened, when, or how long it had lasted, and since data was not recorded in material form (see Information Era), there were no sources to rely on. Most dates and periods were reconstructed on the basis of recovered information and detailed logical analyses, yet even today, it is uncertain whether the reconstructed historical realities of the Information Era are correct. The leaders of the Temporists were never captured. Most circumstantial prosecutions of their supporters were dismissed due to a lack of evidence and significant extenuating circumstances.
 * TRID: Short for Time Recognition Impairment Disease, an illness caused by the rotavirus RAC-5. The only worldwide epidemic probably occurred in 2120. The symptoms included short and long-term memory disorders, difficulties with locating events in time, incorrect identification of dates and periods, and less frequently, personality disorders, paranoid behavioral disorders, and psychoses. TRID had an extremely high mortality among people aged over 60. A typical course of infection probably lasted around a month, failed to respond to treatment, and subsided on its own, permanently affecting the memory of past events, but not affecting new memories.
 * Viper: A simplified version of the virtual Net presence, sometimes used instead of telesenses. Interlocutors meet in virtual reality to talk without witnesses. It is mostly used for commercial presentations.
 * Vishnu: Brahma's sister world, created for zoenets who are ideologically against homo realium. Contrary to Brahma, Vishnu is free from the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology that are in force in realium. That's why the habitants of Vishnu are able to fly, pass through walls, see through obstacles, etc.
 * V-Runner: Short for Virtual Runners, a police unit responsible for investigating digital crimes.
 * Walktel: A mobile device used for all media functions. The screen is projected on glasses or corneal lenses (newer models) with implanted transmitters stimulating the centers for hearing, smell, and touch (fingertips). Newer variant: wrist omnics
 * Zoenet: Cyberghost. A person existing only in the Net and sensory worlds. The psyche resides in a body or brain that is artificially kept alive (see netriums) or in a rendan.