Astral Ascension (Civ4)/Final Frontier/Civilopedia

A sudden explosion of research followed the discovery of a cache of notes containing the works of Jing Shen, Old Earth's greatest scientist. Two major developments - Ascendancy Theory and Quantum Control - were quickly extrapolated and applied to the modern sciences, yet the consequences and understanding of these sciences would be slow to come. Many intuitive computers, the fore-thinking machines that had led scientific discovery at a breakneck pace, malfunctioned or refused to work on either theory, while a select few turned out a more ominous message. "Ethically Unsound Research. Casualty levels will rise exponentially with construction of an Ascendancy Gate." Taking these fearful messages at face value, scientists throughout the cosmos agreed to not battle over the knowledge of the negative energy gate, hoping to avoid the violence the ICs foresaw.