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Tyrkenian Institute, The
Culture and Society > Cultural Factors > Institutes
Galactography > Sephirotic Empires > Non-Coercive Zone (NoCoZo)
Galactography > Sephirotic Empires > Non-Coercive Zone (NoCoZo)
Educational institute where modosophonts are taught by transapient masters |
 Image from Steve Bowers |
A scientific institution located on the large Tyrken asteroid in the third asteroid belt of the Clark 8 system. While the Tyrkenian Institute declares no alliance, some of the inner planets and all three asteroid belts are being mined by NoCoZo corporations and as such the entire system is generally considered NoCoZo territory.
The institute seems to have two general purposes: research and education. All significant research in the Tyrkenian Institute is run by transapient AIs, with some token help by the foundation's students. Though all research is conducted by the transapients there are plenty of lower-toposophic beings in the institution. A few are dispatches from different powers seeking some kind of aid to solve a problem or simply an answer to a question. Most, however, are scholars or students being educated on every subject imaginable, by the AIs willing to spend time on such. Especially the master Geryon seems fond of teaching the lesser toposophics and generally runs at least 100 classes on various subjects every day.
Origins
A plaque somewhere in the asteroid-wide complex marks the opening of the Tyrkenian complex as 2958, the date leading some residents to believe that it was part of a Ynity project (a failed attempt to create projectable wormhole gates, abandoned when it succeeded only in proving that such gates could not be achieved). However nothing more than the date is known about the beginning of the complex and the teachers and masters are quiet on the subject. The earliest reliable reports of the Tyrkenian Institute is from the early 8200s in which scholars began arriving to the system in relativistic ships and found the complex, the 3 AI masters and a few lesser AIs already conducting research on a variety of subjects. Most of the scholars weren't aware what they would find in the system, but had been influenced by various memetic cues to seek it out. Though they came unaware what they would find, most quickly settled in once they found that the transapients were willing to teach them.Organisation
The institute is commonly thought to be run by the 3 AI masters Foundling, Geryon and Delian, which are believed to be second toposophic AIs. Below them are the teachers consisting of an unknown number of transapient AIs which conduct their own research and (in some cases) teach the students. All modosophonts in the complex are generally called students even if they are only passersby, merchants or envoys from other polities. The facility is maintained by subsapient vecs commonly known as "the staff".While these tiers exist within the Foundation they are not enforced. They simply seem to be 'the way things are'. Sometimes a teacher will sponsor a students research, but it is commonly thought that any results are purely due to subtle teacher influence. Teaching by the teachers are conducted in a variety of ways. Most common seems to be different forms of 'classroom' education in virch, but ril classroom education, individual tutoring (often a hundred or more students at once) and other forms are also common. The research is, as all things transapient, often above the understanding of the students. It is known that large areas of the complex are filled with godtech equipment and believed that some of the education is dumbed down versions of the results achieved on the teacher's level.
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Development Notes
Text by Thorbørn Steen
Initially published on 14 May 2007.
Initially published on 14 May 2007.
