Transcendent (novel)

Transcendent is the third novel in the Destiny's Children series by Stephen Baxter, and a 2006 Campbell Award nominee.

Plot summary

The story alternates between two timelines: the world of Michael Poole in the year 2047, and that of Alia, a posthuman girl who lives approximately half a million years in the future.

Engineer Michael Poole is recovering from the death of Morag, his pregnant wife. Poole works as a consultant designing space propulsion systems, and dreams of being able to one day explore the stars. However, there are more pressing matters; humanity faces a serious bottleneck, with the Earth reeling from the effects of anthropogenic climate change and resource depletion; automobile production has all but ceased, except for hydrogen-based mass transit, and air travel is limited to the very rich. Due to climate change, the oceans have become dead zones, with rising sea levels and severe weather displacing millions.

While working in Siberia, Michael's son Tom is injured by an explosion of methane gas from previously frozen hydrates, suddenly released from the now-melting tundra. Michael begins to research whether this is an isolated incident or the beginning of something more serious. With the help of an artificial sentience named Gea, he discovers that a potential release of all such frozen greenhouse gasses could destabilise the environment enough to make the Earth untenable for human habitation, in a repeat of the Permian extinction.

Transcendent theosophy

Transcendent theosophy or al-hikmat al-muta’li (حكمت متعالي), the doctrine and philosophy developed by Persian philosopher Mulla Sadra is one of two main disciplines of Islamic philosophy that is currently live and active.

The expression al-hikmat al-muta’liyah comprises two terms al-hikmat (meaning literally, wisdom; and technically, philosophy, and by contextual extension theosophy) and muta’liyah (meaning exalted or Transcendent). This school of Mulla Sadra in Islamic philosophy is usually called al-hikmat al-muta’liyah. It is a most appropriate name for his school, not only for historical reasons, but also because the doctrines of Mulla Sadra are both hikmah or theosophy in its original sense and an intellectual vision of the transcendent which leads to the Transcendent Itself. So Mulla Sadra’s school is transcendent for both historical and metaphysical reasons.

When Mulla Sadra talked about hikmah or theosophy in his words, he usually meant the transcendent philosophy. He gave many definitions to the term hikmah, the most famous one is: hikmah is a vehicle through which “man becomes an intelligible world resembling the objective world and similar to the order of universal existence”.

Spectre

Spectre or specter usually refers to a ghost or other apparition. It may also refer to an optical illusion called a Brocken spectre.

It may also refer to:

Automobiles

Aviation

Fiction

Specter (2005 film)

Specter is the first tokusatsu short film created by Konami. The film itself made its appearance in conventions and shows to promote the film of 2005. The movie itself never made international release, but found its way through the internet. During display shows the "Specter" motorbike as well as the "Specter" Turbo Suit was featured. The effects of the film were done by Buildup Co., the same effects company that did the 1998 mecha tokusatsu, Dark Soldier D.

Synopsis

Agent Tetsuya Teresaki is the local Earth Defender enforcer in Japan. After fulfilling his mission he was immediately assigned to deal with the threat of alien invaders trying to steal an alien artifact from a local archaeological research site.

Cast

Story

Japan D.O.E. Agent, Tetsuya Terasaki, having just completed a difficult hunt for a fugitive alien, is ordered to investigate a local alien disturbance. Expecting resistance, he has his SPECTER armor sent to him. Arriving at the site, he finds aliens torturing two scientists, trying to extract information from them. He fights off the aliens and powers down to make a report to Command.

Spectre (1977 film)

Spectre is a 1977 made-for-television movie produced by Gene Roddenberry. It was co-written by Roddenberry and Samuel A. Peeples, and directed by Clive Donner.

Plot summary

William Sebastian (Robert Culp) is a former criminologist who now studies the occult to explain the problem of human evil. He has been cursed on one of his adventures by the demon Asmodeus, leaving him in constant need of medical attention. He summons an old colleague, Dr. "Ham" Hamilton (Gig Young) to his home to help him with a case involving the Cyon family. Dr. Hamilton does not believe in the occult and thinks that Sebastian and his housekeeper Lilith (Majel Barrett) are playing tricks on him when he witnesses unusual events.

As the pair are getting reacquainted, a woman claiming to be Anitra Cyon (Ann Bell) unexpectedly visits and tells Sebastian that his services are no longer required. Sebastian recognizes that this person is not Anitra Cyon, but rather a succubus sent to stop Sebastian from investigating the family. He defeats her using the Apocryphal Book of Tobit. He and Ham depart to the airport where they are flown by Mitri Cyon (John Hurt) to London. While over the Atlantic the engines of the plane fail, something that Sebastian claims is the result of supernatural intervention.