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Infinite Libraries

A Virtual environment catering for book-lovers

Infinite Libraries
Image from Steve Bowers and Artbreeder AI
When the Librarians and Guides are not helping visitors to find their selected reading matter, they like to socialise, celebrate and dance in the vast spaces of the Book Halls.

A popular virtual environment frequented by bibliophiles within many polities such as the Terragen Federation, Negentropy Alliance, the Fomalhaut Acquisition Society and the Sophic League. They are also used almost universally as places of relaxation or study, or as quiet social gatherings. Each of these virtual worlds is essentially a single, massive library that can host millions to billions of sophonts. They are often optimised for Nearbaseline use, but they can be adapted for hundreds of different clades or mindsets.

Virtual Overview

Nearly every Infinite Library for baseline or near baseline equivalents roughly follows the same layout, taking the appearance of the interior of an immense, seemingly endless, building with a massive vaulted ceiling held up by giant pillars (often in marble, but gold, platinum or more exotic pillars made of pure energy, glowing crystal or 'living' trees are also popular in some cultures). These interiors can often stretch to the far horizon, depending on the size of the virchworld. The roofs themselves often have murals of important historical or cultural significance, or they just have transparent domes showing planetary weather or breathtaking vistas such as stars or nebulas. Despite the name, these virtual worlds are not actually infinite, but they are meant to seem that way.

Each Library usually has the same interior design of large shelves holding virtual copies of books, of nearly all subjects and authors from across Terragen history, from the Agricultural Era to Current. Different forms of 'reading material' are also available such as Agricultural Era scrolls or Information Age computer tablets. Chairs, tables, and other seating arrangements are located close by, with designs ranging from conservative standards to the more whimsical. Of course, they are often rather eclectic, sometimes reflecting the local cultures or polities, or even more fantastic themes. This can also depend on the local geography of the Library. For example, the History section will often resemble an elegant museum with virtual displays of historical significance scattered about, while the Science section can look like a massive laboratory or academic institute.

The fiction sections of an Infinite Library, more popular with most visitors, take full advantage of their virtual nature, in order to maximize their respective themes. In one example, the Romance section is often paradisiacal, with indoor rows of flowering plants filling the air with their perfume, gentle music playing in the background and comfortable seating areas often designed for one or more sophonts. In contrast, the Horror section has often been compared to the Sepulchre Variations, usually designed to look like the interior of a stereotypical haunted house or derelict habitat. More creative designs sometimes include indoor forests with leafless trees covered in cobwebs or tombstones made to resemble books.

Navigation

Making one's way through an Infinite Library would be a daunting task in real life, but thanks to their virtual nature, the methods are rather straightforward, but they are often regulated. If one wishes to travel quickly, they can use virtual aircars, skyships, flying carpets or other forms of transport, depending on the size or layout of the library. Virtual teleportation or portals are also widely used. Vots are often used as guides to help first-time visitors to get around.

Some sophonts, such as humans or migratory provolves prefer to simply walk, without a destination in mind but for the sheer joy of exploration. For such travellers, rest stops and waystations are placed in random areas, often used by social groups or gatherings. For more direct travel with a certain area in mind, users can use their DNI interfaces to select a location and travel there by their chosen method.

Inhabitants and Guides

Like many interactive virchworlds, there are both non-sophont vots and fully-sophont Digis to assist visitors with finding books, acting as pre-Interplanetary Age librarians. Sometimes they take on the appearance of fictional characters such as wizards, mythological creatures or hardboiled detectives. Others look like ordinary sophonts wearing librarian uniforms of ages past.

As in most virtual worlds, some citizens such as Uploads or Copies will choose to live in an Infinite Library full-time, blissfully surrounded by a nearly endless supply of books to read. They often act as informal guides and teachers for visitors.

Variations

It should be noted that there are virchworlds similar in concept to the Infinite Libraries but have been designed for non-nearbaseline or even non-human sophonts who share an interest in archaic literature. For example, clades that were provolved from species with a strong sense of smell can use scent to track down whatever virtual items are used for reading materials or information uploading. Carnivorous clades can hunt down vots resembling petbooks. Other environments include aquatic or subterranean environments where clades use sonar to navigate. Non-humanoid vecs and aioid clades have reportedly used purely non-corporeal virchscapes, while AI bibliophile hobbyists of S:1 or higher have often created environments that defy modosophont understanding.

 
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Appears in Topics
Cybercosm, TheInstitutesVirtual Reality
Virtuals
 
Development Notes
Text by TerraNova
Initially published on 29 July 2024.

 
 
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