Any method of sending information that has to account for the freaky rules of Einstein's relativity, where the order of events can be subjective and nothing can outrace light. It's not about FTL; it's about dealing with the mind-bending fact that due to time dilation and the relativity of simultaneity, "now" for you isn't "now" for someone moving at a different speed. This makes syncing up conversations across interstellar distances or near light-speed ships a total headache.
*Example: You're on a generation ship cruising at 90% light speed to Alpha Centauri. You send a video message back to Earth. For you, the trip takes a few years. But due to time dilation, decades pass on Earth before they receive it. Their reply takes decades to catch up to your moving ship. You might be dead by the time you get a response. The entire conversation is less a chat and more like sending cosmic voicemails into a time-warped void. GPS satellites already do baby versions of this, correcting their clocks for relativistic effects so your "Turn left" command isn't based on a skewed time signal.* It's relativistic communication.
by Abzugal January 24, 2026
Get the Relativistic Communication mug.The hypothetical (and probably impossible) idea of sending information using or through the fabric of spacetime itself, rather than through it. This includes notions like wormhole comms, quantum entanglement "spooky action" that somehow transmits data, or manipulating gravity waves to carry a signal. It's the dream of instant, non-local chat across the universe, violating the standard light-speed limit by treating space and time as a manipulable medium.
Example: In sci-fi, this is the ansible. A more "physics-y" but still speculative example might be creating and stabilizing two entangled quantum wormholes (Einstein-Rosen bridges), one kept on Earth and one sent to a colony ship. Modulating the quantum state of one instantly affects the other, in theory allowing for faster-than-light messaging. In reality, it's probably a pipe dream that breaks causality, but it's the go-to concept for any story that needs galactic empires to have a functioning internet. It's Spacetime Communication.
by Abzugal January 24, 2026
Get the Spacetime Communication mug.A method of transmitting information where the message itself is encoded as a conserved quantity within a pre-established symmetric system between sender and receiver. Instead of sending photons or radio waves, you perform a local symmetry operation (like a rotation or phase shift) that, due to the entangled or linked nature of the system, forces a corresponding change at the distant receiver. The signal isn't a traveling particle; it's the instantaneous enforcement of a conservation law across a gap.
*Example: Two quantum-entangled crystals, each with a fixed total "color charge" (a fictional conserved property). To send the bit "1," you locally rotate your crystal's color symmetry. To conserve the total charge of the entangled system, the distant crystal must instantly undergo a compensating rotation in the opposite direction. Your friend observes this mandated rotation and decodes the bit. It's not faster-than-light transmission; it's the exploitation of a pre-existing symmetric link where influencing your part necessarily and instantly reconfigures the other to keep the cosmic books balanced.* Noetherian Communication.
by Dumuabzu January 24, 2026
Get the Noetherian Communication mug.Direct, face-to-face democratic institutions where residents of a local area (a neighborhood, block, or housing complex) gather to make binding decisions on matters affecting their immediate community. A Neighborhood Assembly is the general deliberative body—the town hall for local issues. A Neighborhood Commune is the more radical form where this assembly assumes direct political and economic control, managing shared resources (gardens, tools, childcare), security, and dispute resolution, often operating on principles of consensus and mutual aid. They are laboratories of hyper-local self-governance, bypassing traditional municipal bureaucracy.
Example: After the city repeatedly fails to repair a dangerous intersection, residents of the Oak Street block form a Neighborhood Assembly. They meet monthly in a garage. They vote to install a community-funded traffic calming plan. This evolves into a Neighborhood Commune: they pool money to buy tools for a communal garden in a vacant lot, organize a rotating schedule for elderly care, and run a local security patrol. They've created a micro-polity based on direct participation, making the city government largely irrelevant for their daily lives. Neighborhood Assemblies and Neighborhood Communes.
by Dumuabzu January 25, 2026
Get the Neighborhood Assemblies and Neighborhood Communes mug.Scaled-up versions of neighborhood systems, encompassing a larger district like a village, town, or city ward. Local Assemblies are the sovereign decision-making bodies for that territory, potentially federating with other assemblies. Local Communes are the implementation of communist or anarchist principles at this scale, where the assembly collectively owns and manages major local resources (housing, utilities, workshops), abolishes private property in favor of usership, and organizes production for local need. They represent a vision of politics as a daily, participatory activity rather than a spectacle every few years.
Example: In a small de-industrialized town, the city council is corrupt and powerless. Citizens form a Local Assembly in the old union hall, open to all residents. It becomes the real governing body. They transition to a Local Commune by taking over a shuttered factory to run it co-operatively, converting empty homes into communal housing based on need, and creating a local currency for trade with other communes. The police are replaced by community peacekeepers accountable to the assembly. The commune becomes a self-sufficient, directly democratic cell. Local Assemblies and Local Communes.
by Dumuabzu January 25, 2026
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