Some may wonder at the mention of “empire time” in the second excerpt from chapter 5. It refers to a kind of artificially constructed simultaneity available to civilizations which have mastered both traversable wormholes and near-light-speed travel. It doesn’t really do much for a civilization bounded within the orbit of Jupiter, which is only about a light-hour across. I think Stross included it as a flavor phrase. It’s marvelously evocative even if you don’t know what it means.
Back in the early ’90s, when all this singularity stuff was much more theoretical, I remember empire time making a big impression on me. It was neat how we could discern some of the contours of future possible civilizations before we got there.
Some may wonder at the mention of “empire time” in the second excerpt from chapter 5. It refers to a kind of artificially constructed simultaneity available to civilizations which have mastered both traversable wormholes and near-light-speed travel. It doesn’t really do much for a civilization bounded within the orbit of Jupiter, which is only about a light-hour across. I think Stross included it as a flavor phrase. It’s marvelously evocative even if you don’t know what it means.
Back in the early ’90s, when all this singularity stuff was much more theoretical, I remember empire time making a big impression on me. It was neat how we could discern some of the contours of future possible civilizations before we got there.
You can read more about it here: http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Tech/Space-Time/wormholes.html#6
Neat, thanks!