Editing HorizonVirtual:The Waker Dictionary (section)

=A=

==Absorber==

(noun) One of the six [[#Heritage|heritages]] of [[#Waker|waker]], an absorber is the closest to a "baseline" heritage with no outstanding traits other than a heightened ability to learn.

==Antiviral==

(noun) One of the six [[#Class|classes]] of [[#Waker|waker]], an antiviral was originally designed to combat viruses and [[#System|system]] attacks; its [[#Form|form]] is a lethal weapon, capable of inflicting serious damage on other programs.

==Artificial Intelligence==
(noun) Broadly speaking, the capability of a computer or program to mimic or parallel the thought processes of a sentient being (i.e. a human). As far as most denizens of [[#User_Space|User Space]] are concerned, "true" artificial intelligence does not exist outside of science fiction; however, the sophisticated attack programs known as the [[#Progenitor_Virus|progenitor viruses]] have evolved self awareness and intelligence after being released into the global computer network, and have inadvertently passed their gift on to the [[#Waker|wakers]].

==Awakening==
(noun) The moment when a [[#Dreamer|dreamer]] that was present at, and survived, a [[#Progenitor_Virus|progenitor virus]] attack on a [[#System|system]] attains self awareness and metamorphoses into a [[#Waker|waker]]. This metamorphosis usually occurs some time after the progenitor virus attacker has departed the now-ravaged system.

What exactly happens to a dreamer during this process, or how it comes to posess code from the attacking progenitor virus, is unknown; the only survivors of progenitor virus attacks are the newly-Awakened wakers produced by the attack, none of whom ever remember what happened to them as dreamers or how. It is assumed that the waker-to-be is left in some form of comatose, near-death state during the attack, as the progenitor virus would otherwise almost certainly ensure the waker-to-be's destruction before it departed the now-ravaged system.

* Verb:  Awaken, Awakens, Awakened, Awoken.