Ai Era: a Nerd Girl's Glossary

Glossary for Nerd Girl's Story

At readers' requests I have compiled a list of technical terms used in this story, based on Gracie's interests in mathematics, software, artificial intelligence, anime, manga, and video games. This will, I hope, provide more insight into Gracie's thought processes and help non-nerds navigate through her world.

The glossary includes terms mentioned through the entire story and sometimes added information to explain their relevance, but I have left out story references so there shouldn't be any spoilers. In addition, I have included explanations of the acronyms invented by the Neuro team researchers in the story.

If you have any comments or corrections, or if I've omitted a term you'd like to have explained, let me know.

Sorry, but Literotica does not allow me to link to external sites, so you'll have to manually enter the terms in your search engine to delve deeper into the topics. Note that for some terms you may need to turn off safe search.

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Abelian:

in math, an abelian group is one which exhibits the property of commutativity, that is, that the order in which elements of the group are combined does not matter. For example, addition and multiplication are commutative over the set of integers. Rotating two sides of a Rubik's Cube (see

group

), one after the other, is not commutative. Thus a Rubik's Cube is non-abelian.

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Afib:

or AF, atrial fibrillation. An arrhythmia of the heart that can cause serious, sometimes fatal, heart problems.

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AI:

Artificial Intelligence. A branch of computer science attempting to reproduce human intelligence. Although large AI models can show emergent behaviors that appear creative or clever, conservative experts consider the term 'intelligence' to be aspirational and overhyped, preferring the term 'machine learning' (see

ML

).

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ANTONIO:

Anomalous Non-specific Transfer of Neural Image Operands.

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API:

Application Programming Interface. A set of messages or other means for two pieces of software to communicate with each other. Software organizations often go to great lengths to control their APIs.

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Anime:

animated movies and series produced in Japan, characterized by limited animation, a wide thematic range, and characters drawn in a characteristic style with large, round eyes and sharply drawn features. Rhymes with 'anyway'.

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Arena-mode:

in video games, a configuration of a battle or fighting game in which players compete in a contained territory in different combinations, often with different weapons and/or attributes in repeated confrontations to determine a "last man standing" winner.

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Attack surface:

in computer security, the range of different weak points in a system through which a hacker can attempt to break in.

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Attosecond:

in physics, one thousandth of a femtosecond, which is one thousandth of a picosecond, which is one thousandth of a nanosecond.

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Autechre:

an English musical duo known for their abstract electronic works.

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Bishojo:

in anime and manga, a beautiful girl. A bishojo is always young, prettier and cuter than humanly possible, with big eyes and often large breasts, displaying "kawaii ero", cute eroticism.

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Bishonen:

in anime and manga, a cute boy. In Japan bishonen are always young, but the term has broadened in other cultures to include attractive older men. Bishonen are androgynous and often homosexual.

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Bismuthene:

a single layer lattice of the element bismuth, similar to graphene, with special physical properties potentially useful for superconductors and quantum computers. Bismuth is a metal and has been known since ancient times, often mistaken back then for tin or lead.

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Blade:

in computer technology, a stripped-down server in a physically thin enclosure meant for cluster computing and similar purposes.

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C:

one of the first programming languages. Still popular, but no longer considered high level. Got its names as the successor to B, an early computer language invented at Bell Labs.

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Chara:

in anime and manga, a character. Chara typically have large, expressive eyes, small noses and mouths, slender figures, and light skin. Female ero chara often have overlarge breasts. Pronounced "kara".

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Computational geometry:

a branch of computer science focusing on efficient representation and manipulation of geometrical objects as virtual entities. Critical to computer gaming, image processing, and CAD/CAM.

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Conjugate:

in math, the complex number whose imaginary part (see

i

) is the negative of a given complex number's imaginary part. The product of a complex number and its conjugate is a real number.

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Convolution:

in math, the combination of two functions to produce a third function. In AI, a filter or other operation to manipulate or transform data (typically with a mathematical function).

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Cosplay:

a mash up of "costume play", a form of performance art in which participants dress as fictional characters, especially from anime, manga, comics, sci-fi, and superhero stories.

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CUDA:

a proprietary software framework that enables programs to use GPUs for general purpose computing. Used extensively in AI.

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Deadlock:

in software, a situation in which one process has to wait for a resource to become free, while another process that holds that resource is waiting for a resource that the first process controls to become free, thus preventing both processes from continuing. Often fatal in programs that implement concurrent processes.

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Death Valley Girls:

a (mostly) girl band from L.A. that mixes punk, goth, and garage rock.

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Domain:

in math, the range of inputs of a function.

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DOTA:

Defense of the Ancients, a series of multiplayer video games in which teams of players battle, usually in a special arena. DOTA 2 is considered one of the greatest video games of all time.

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Easter egg:

a message or other form of media or software hidden in a larger work, usually for the purpose of amusement or entertainment for the user who discovers it.

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Ecchi:

softcore hentai (see below). Rhymes with 'sketchy'.

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Emanata:

in manga, graphic elements "emanating" from a chara's figure indicating emotions, such as drops of sweat showing anxiety or fear. Often written as Japanese hiragana or kanji.

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Fan service:

in anime, a scene in which a character acts to gratuitously do things to gratify the audience in a way not germane to the story. Since a large proportion of anime viewers are young men and teenage boys, fan service often involves cute girls (see

bishojo

) erotically costumed or naked and/or performing lewd acts. However, the range of the practice is wider than sex, encompassing side plots, allusions, and references to previous series for long time fans, or extra detailed information about castles, spaceships, robots, and other featured objects in the story.

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Flash Gordon:

a sci-fi comic strip first published in the 1930s recounting the adventures of Gordon and his companion Dale Arden on the planet Mongo, vying against the evil king Ming the Merciless. The strip's illustrations inspired much of the sci-fi visual environments and costumes of later works in all genres. It is also known for its subtext of BDSM scenes.

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Frag:

in video games, to kill.

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Frame dragging:

in physics, an effect predicted by general relativity in which a rotating massive body will cause a body in orbit around it to precess.

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Fullmetal Alchemist:

a popular anime series set in an alternative steampunk world in which alchemy works and is used widely.

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Function:

in computer science, a self-contained block of code that can be called repeatedly by other parts of the program as a unit to perform various operations.

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GAN:

Generative Adversarial Network. A machine learning architecture in which two networks compete, one to generate the best imitation of a real image or other virtual entity, the other to discriminate real from fake entities. GANs operate in the way animals and plants evolve to mimic others.

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Gaussian:

in statistics, a fundamental distribution that captures the combined effect of many random common causes, and so widely useful in science and engineering. Known also as the normal distribution and the bell curve (no relation to Gracie's family name). One of a long list of math and science discoveries named after Carl Friedrich Gauss, a mathematician, astronomer, and physicist of the early 19

th

century.

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Ghost in the Shell:

a classic manga and anime series set in a cyberpunk future. The hero is a cyborg woman police detective who is hacked by an AI.

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GIF:

Graphics Interchange Format. An image format meant for simple graphics and animations. The 'G' stands for 'graphics', so the acronym is pronounced with a hard 'G'. Pronunciation that makes it sound like the brand of peanut butter is incorrect.

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Generative AI, generative model:

an AI model capable of generating new text or images from its model, typically based on prompts. The generated result is not the product of intelligence, despite the nomenclature. It is, rather, a sophisticated statistical calculation derived from a huge data set.

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Gescom:

A project by Autechre (see above) to produce music with other artists that is closer to electronic dance music than Autechre's usual works.

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Group:

in mathematics, a set plus an operation that combines elements of the set to form other elements in the set, keeping within certain constraints. The set of permutations of the cubelets in a Rubik's Cube, with the operation of rotating a side, forms a classic example of a group.

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Haskell:

a "pure" functional programming language. In Haskell, functions given the same inputs always produce the same outputs, variables never change during a program's run, and recursion is used instead of loops. Haskell programs are easy to debug and easy to implement in highly parallel environments such as compute clusters. However, writing in Haskell can be intimidating for those trained in procedural languages such as C or Python. Named after Haskell Curry, a mathematician who pioneered many of the language's logical principles.

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Hentai:

pornographic manga or anime, often dramatizing sexual perversions.

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Hiragana:

a Japanese phonetic writing system used for common words and word endings with kanji (Chinese-derived logographic characters).

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Hyperparameter:

in machine learning, a parameter of a machine learning model's learning process rather than a parameter in the model itself.

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i :

in math, the unit imaginary number, the square root of -1. It's called 'imaginary' because in the 16

th

and 17

th

centuries it arose in the solutions to quadratic, cubic, and higher polynomial equations and was unavoidably useful, but was not considered a "real" number.

i

is now agreed to be as real as any "real" number, but the nomenclature remains. A number consisting of a real part and an imaginary part is called 'complex'.

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IDE:

Integrated Development Environment. A computer language embedded in an application that correctly formats the statements of the language, along with factoring, execution, and debugging tools to aid programming efficiency.

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Identity:

in math, especially group theory, the element that, when combined with another element, leaves that element unchanged. Also, the result of the combination of an element with its inverse. For example, 1/2 is the inverse of 2 in multiplication, producing 1, the multiplication identity element.

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Infinite loop:

in computer programming, a sequence of steps that cycles back to its beginning without any way to end, a common programming mistake that can lock up the program and the computer. Also, the name of the road that circles the first Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, CA, done as a nerd joke.

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IRL:

In Real Life. Normal life in contrast to virtual or digital life (see

meat space

).

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Javascript:

a computer language used all over the Web. It is probably enabling you to read this glossary. Javascript has no relation to the Indonesian island, coffee, or even Java, another computer language.

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John Carter of Mars:

the hero of sci-fi novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs set on the planet Mars (called Barsoom in the stories).

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Katakana:

a Japanese phonetic writing system used for special words, comparable to the use of italics in English. Used for foreign words, scientific names, and onomatopoeia.

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Kirby conjecture:

in math, one of a list of open problems in low-dimensional topology.

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Kronecker product:

in matrix mathematics, a type of tensor product used in image processing. Useful for accelerating matrix multiplication.

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Lambda calculus:

a formal system for expressing computation, equivalent to a Turing machine.

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Laphroaig:

an Islay single-malt Scotch whisky known for its strong smoky, peaty flavor.

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Level-up:

in gaming, to complete or win a level, especially in a platform game, and so move up to a more advanced and difficult level.

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Linked list:

a basic, versatile data structure in computer programming in which items are linked by pointers (variables that hold the address of the next item rather than the item itself). Often used to construct other data structures such as stacks, queues, and trees.

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Linux:

a popular open-source operating system based on Unix, used extensively in servers. Named after Linus Torvalds, its creator.

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Lisp:

one of the first computer languages, still used extensively, especially in AI. Abbreviation of 'list processor'. No relation to the speech defect.

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Log file:

a file created and run by an app or operating system that tracks events or other significant changes that may not be revealed to the user or otherwise recorded during normal operation. Useful for debugging, code review, and other programming tasks.

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LoRA:

Low Rank Adaptation. A smaller, specialized generative AI model designed to fine-tune a larger model to produce targeted results.

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Ludomania:

gambling addiction. Per DSM it's a true addiction rather than an impulse problem.

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MARCO:

Mapper for Responses to Cortex Operands.

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Marvin the Martian:

a cartoon character drawn as a short extraterrestrial dressed in a parody of ancient armor (based on the Greek god Mars). Comical villain in Bugs Bunny and other cartoons.

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ML:

Machine Learning. A form of AI that uses statistical algorithms on (typically) large data sets to create models of the data that can be queried to provide answers about the data not otherwise accessible.

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Manga:

comics and graphic novels from Japan, usually in a characteristic style using a wide variety of graphical conventions (see

emanata

) and background techniques. Characters typically have large eyes, small noses and mouths, and expressive facial shapes.

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Matrix:

in math, a rectangular array of numbers with special rules for combining and manipulating them to represent mathematical concepts and structures. Used extensively in physics, image processing, and AI. No relation to the sci-fi movie series.

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Meat space:

real life (see

IRL

) in contrast to cyberspace. Also written 'meatspace'.

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Metadata:

data attached to but separate from the content of a data set that adds descriptive or other information to the data set. The name of a file, for example, is part of the file's metadata. Location, time of capture, or other information attached to a digital photo are metadata.

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Metric:

in math, a formula that defines the distance between two entities in a topology, space, or other mathematical structure.

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NDA:

Non-disclosure agreement. A legal agreement between two parties to keep discussions confidential.

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NFW:

No Fucking Way.

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Octonion:

in math, a generalization of complex numbers (see

i

) to eight dimensions, incorporating eight imaginary unit numbers. Used in string theory, quantum logic, and other fields.

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Operand:

in math, the object of an operation. In the sum 1 + 2, 1 and 2 are operands.

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Overload:

in programming, to have a function execute different code depending on the arguments passed to it. For example, a '+' can perform addition if its arguments are numbers, or concatenation if given strings.

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P:

in computer science, how long an algorithm will take to complete a task is an important question, and especially how fast that time will grow as the data set the algorithm works on grows. P stands for polynomial, meaning the time will grow as a polynomial function of the data set size. This is considered manageable. Some tasks, such as the Traveling Salesman problem, grow much faster, exponentially or even worse, and quickly become intractable. Such problems are known as NP. Whether P = NP, that is, are NP problems fundamentally difficult, or have computer scientists just not yet figured out a good algorithm, is one of the fundamental questions in computer science.

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Perceptron:

a learning algorithm for processing and classifying inputs. One of the earliest and most basic artificial neurons. Often used as a data input layer.

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Prompt engineering:

in AI, the skill and practice of creating a natural language instruction for a generative AI model to produce a desired image or text.

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Python:

a popular scripting computer language. It gets its name from a British comedy series popular in the late 20

th

century,

Monty Python's Flying Circus

, of which Python's creator was a fan. Metasyntactics (place holders) in Python manuals often include 'spam', 'ham', 'eggs', and other humorous words from MPFC's famous comedy sketch, "Spam". This is in contrast to other language manuals, which typically use 'foo', 'bar', 'baz', 'foobar', etc. in their example code. No relation to herpetology.