Editing Gear (section)

== Design and Fashion ==
Many objects in Eclipse Phase closely resemble their early 21st century equivalents—a bottle of soda is still a transparent container holding a brightly colored liquid, clothing is obviously something you wear, and a knife still consists of a blade and a handle. The materials, processes, and mindsets that go into making them, however, are quite different. To start, very few items look have a uniform, mass-produced look, even if they were. The procedures of minifacturing and nanofabrication allow every individual item to be manufactured with a unique (or at least different) look. In areas with anarchist/reputation economies, in fact, where personal possessions have very little intrinsic value, expression and creativity are favored and so many items are artistically personalized (and actual hand-crafted items are rare and prized). Likewise, almost all equipment is designed with ergonomics and ease-of-use prioritized, so gear with soft curves, pleasing colors, and form-fitting shapes are common.

Many items of personal technology, such as flashlights or small tools, are made in the form of ovoids that fit comfortably in the user’s hand or in similar forms that can be easily worn or attached to clothing. To someone from the 20th century, many common devices look like oddly colored rocks or decorative pieces of plastic or ceramic (in fact, many such items are referred to as “blobjects” by older transhumans). The materials used to create everyday items are also advanced, ranging from aerogel and graphene to smart materials and exotic metamaterials with unusual physical properties. In practice, this means that most items are light, durable (with both tensile strength and/or flexibility, as needed), water-proof, dirt-repellent, and self-cleaning. Most gear is also designed with zero-G or microgravity functionality in mind, and can easily be clipped, tethered, or stuck to a surface with grip pads.

Almost all gear available in Eclipse Phase is also available in forms that are wearable/usable by uplifted animals and non-humanoid morphs, such as novacrabs, slitheroids, and so on. Even if such customized gear is not immediately available, it is usually not dif� cult to nanofabricate. Smart materials also make interoperability between different morphs easy.

=== Sidebar: Future Materials ===
Many materials are available and commonly used in Eclipse Phase that are rare, theorized, or unheard-of today. The following entries note some of the more interesting.

'''Aerogel'''

Low-density, solid-state “Frozen smoke” is made by carefully foaming various materials, typically glasses or ceramics, to an ultra-low density state. Aerogel is semi-transparent and light-weight, feels like styrofoam, but acts as an incredible insulator against heat and cold. It is commonly used in habitats.

'''Diamond'''

Artiﬁcial diamond is lightweight and super-strong, has an extremely high melting point, and has near-perfect thermal conductivity. This makes it an ideal substance for hardening coated surfaces (armor) and creating super-tough diamond machinery.

'''Fullerenes/Fullerites'''

Fullerenes are molecular carbon structures (known as buckyballs, carbon nanotubes, and graphene) that are extremely strong (vastly stronger by weight than steel), heat-resistant, and can be either insulative or superconductive. This makes them useful in equipment as diverse as armor, electronics, sensor systems, or the cables of space elevators.

'''Metallic Foam'''

Metal foam is created by adding foaming agents to liquid metals, resulting in extremely lightweight metallic structures—light enough to ﬂoat on water. Ideal for habitat construction and ﬂoating cities.

'''Metallic Glass'''

Metallic glass are metals highly alloyed to possess a disordered (rather than crystalline) atomic structure with unique combinations of stiffness and strength, making it a good wear surface and alternative to ceramics in armor. It is also useful for its unusual (for a metal) electrical resistance properties.

'''Metamaterials'''

Metamaterials have unusual physical properties (usually electromagnetic) due to their structure, such as having a negative refractive index. Metamaterials are used to create invisibility cloaks, superlenses, phased array optics, and impressive 2-D holograms.

'''Refractory Metals'''

These metallic alloys have extremely high melting points, making them ideal for extremely hot engine systems, atmospheric entry vehicles, and hypersonic craft.

'''Transparent Alumina'''

In transparent form, this ceramic is often known as sapphire. Transparent alumina is harder than steel and zero-g casting techniques allow for intriguing transparent construction designs, so long as its poor tensile strength is respected.

=== Interface ===
It is not uncommon for everyday devices to have no visible controls as they are designed to be operated via radio broadcasts from the user’s ecto or mesh inserts. Any items crafted for use in emergency, combat, survival, or exploration situations, however, will feature basic physical controls, just in case. Physical interfaces are typically controlled by touch pads that are nothing more than colored spots on the device’s surface, though some may also project a holographic interface display. Most equipment of this sort can can also be voice-activated and controlled. Almost all devices are loaded with a complete set of help files and tutorials. Most electronics are also mesh-capable and equipped with specialized AIs (see Meshed Gear, below).

=== Smart Materials ===
Many common items of technology are made from so-called smart materials. These devices contain—or sometimes consist entirely of—many small nanomachines that can both move and reshape themselves to alter the object’s shape, color, and texture. For example, smart clothing can transform from a suit of specialized cold weather clothing suitable for the Martian poles in winter to a fashionable suit in the latest style due to hundreds of thousands of tiny nanomachines in the clothing that shift and move to reshape the garment. Similarly, a tool made of smart materials can switch from a powered screwdriver to a wrench or a hammer, as the nanomachines move around and completely reshape the tool. Smart materials all contain specialized advanced nanomachine generators that keep them in perfect repair as long as they are regularly recharged.