>[!abstract] >In Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos universe, farcasters are advanced teleportation portals that allow instantaneous travel between planets in the WorldWeb, a network of human-colonized worlds. These portals are crucial to the Hegemony of Man’s interplanetary infrastructure and play a central role in the tension between human expansion, artificial intelligence, and ecological consequences. >[!quote] >- For a person born and raised into a world where information was always at hand, communication with anyone anywhere a given, and no distance more than a farcaster step away, this sudden regression to life as our ancestors had known it would be like suddenly awakening blind and crippled ([[Simmons, 1990]]). >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): — >- **West** (similar): — >- **East** (different): — >- **South** (downstream): —