Decoupled Momentum

Decoupled Momentum was first discovered as a virtually inexhaustible source of energy by the Anchorage based research labs of the Duracell company in 2065.

The discovery lead to the invention and marketing of the PermaCell, or 'Nole'®, as a replacement for the company's range of electro-chemical batteries.

Development

Inspiration

The initial research into the possibility of Decoupled Momentum was originally inspired by Milus Blondel using the now infamous technique of Invention by rumour. Mirus was desperately in need of a high power, long lasting, portable power source in order to remove the static restrictions placed on the EMTI of having to be wired into an electrical mains supply or suffer very high battery drainage and short power cycles. He seeded each of two companies; Energizer and Duracell (of whom, IRAK was an extremely high volume customer) with the 'inside' information that each of them were secretly developing small and light power sources with an almost infinite life-cycle based on the technology of de-coupling momentum from sub-atomic particles, specifically, higher level orbiting electrons.

Milus, had enough theoretical knowledge to convince each company this feat was not only possible, but actually close to being reliably reproduced by their competitors. The induced paranoia was sufficient to overcome the loud protestations from all of the respective and respected research scientists employed by both companies. Prof Ed Panard, the then head of the Energizer Research Labs was quoted as saying; "we all knew DM as a concept was absolute garbage and provably impossible - but as we were also convinced those bastards were on the brink of a major breakthrough in this area, we threw everything at it."

Technology

The actual technology for manufacturing PermaCells has been one of the closest guarded secrets any industrial corporation has ever maintained. No patents have ever been filed because any such filing requires the publication of the methodology. Any attempts to tamper with the PermaCell in order to investigate it's construction, results in it's instantaneous collapse into nothingness. This strategy maintains Duracell as one of the world's most enduring companies - a fitting reflection of their own name.

As the actual discovery had been made by a computer which had been programmed to encrypt the experimental data with an algorithm and key known only to itself, there were no human researchers who actually knew how it was done. With no-one to bribe or coerce and no way of getting at the data, the secret has been maintained ever since. It is claimed as the first machine-made scientific discovery although that term fell into disuse after it became politically incorrect to refer to a computer as a mere 'machine'.

Company Strategy

The fact that their scientists had developed an almost eternal power supply that needed no maintenance or replacement was both extremely good news and extremely bad news to a company who had previously made almost all of their income from selling devices that were specifically designed to rapidly wear out and leave the consumer with useless containers of toxic chemicals they had been expressly warned not to throw away. The decision not to patent was made by unanimous board consensus when it was explained to them by their legal advisors that they had two choices; they could patent their invention, and protect themselves for a very short period of time, after which their company would become as valueless as, say, a spent battery or they could protect their trade secret and charge an exorbitant amount for each device sold. The directors reckoned on the fact that only a company with similar resources and expertise to themselves would be able to figure out how to make something similar and they would be equally concerned about putting themselves out of business.

The only detail that had ever been revealed was inadvertently let out by an anonymous member of the successful development team who had been 'celebrating' for three weeks straight after receiving his annual performance bonus. When pressed about how the PermaCell worked, he tapped the side of his nose and drunkenly declared "because it's got an 'ole in it!". The phrase was misheard, thereby giving birth to the term 'Nole' which the company later registered. It is generally accepted that the hole referred to is in fact a cross-dimensional portal which is capable of transferring the miniscule mass of the electrons into another, parallel universe. Once the mass has been removed, the only thing left is the kinetic energy of the particle which is used to compel other electrons to propagate the energy as electricity. However, most physicists agree that the energy required to maintain such a cross-dimensional portal, even if such things existed, which they can't, would be several orders of magnitude higher than the energy generated by the reaction in the first place. Scientists love to prove that things can't be done.

Uses

The virtually inexhaustible power of the Nole and it's very small size has facilitated the ubiquitous use of sub-neural implants for Slabwide communication and data access. Complete reliance on this technology gave rise to the saying "I need that like I need a Nole in my head" being the exact opposite meaning of it's former usage.