To reach our goal of creating a gaming experience that the players are able to tailor to their own style, preferences and whims ICNH Games have tried to create a technology and research system that allows a Culture to develop over a vast range of areas. The Technology Web is a network of interconnected, distinct levels of knowledge that a Culture can research and refine. Each gives unique benefits (and sometimes restrictions) on the Culture and allow for a Culture to discover great secrets and abilities that will push it forward in all aspects of life.

The Tech Web is broken into 5 main branches that represent major aspects of development and knowledge. They are Philosophy, Engineering, Science, Society and Warfare. Each contains vital technologies to any Culture and none can be researched in isolation. Knowledge without a greater perspective is worse than useless - it is dangerous.

While each branch contains distinct technologies they are also further divided into 3 strands (See below for more on these specialities) that cover one major flavour of each branch. These are broken up into broad groups that define one part of the branch (eg Science is broken down into Maths & Physics, Biochemistry and Geosciences) so that Cultures can put their research into the fields they are most interested in rather than be lumped with technology that their Culture has no use for. This, along with the fact that many of the hundreds of available technologies can be further refined to increase their impact, gives players unparalleled control over the destiny of their Cultures.

Players can concentrate on their military prowess, or use their skills of diplomacy to manipulate their neighbours, they can find secrets that can unlock the mysteries of the universe and their own bodies, create a utopian society without conflict, build epic projects that rival anything in history or all of these at once. The Technology Web, like all the aspects of No Horizons is up to the players to fully investigate and use to their own ends.

The Science technology strand relates to the observable universe. While Cultures do not arrive at the sphere completely bereft of this knowledge they do need to investigate this new universe and how the rules have been subtlety altered. Science covers a very broad spectrum of knowledge and each Culture must decide for itself how important each branch is. Science is broken up into Maths & Physics, Biochemistry and Geosciences.

Philosophy dictates the different way that a Culture sees the universe and its own place in it. By exploring and refining these ideas the culture is better able to understand itself and the other cultures around them. They are better able to see the path they are on and the direction that it leads them in. They are better able to understand the universal energies and the way in which the Sphere utilises and manipulates them. Philosophy drives the pursuit of ethics and economics within a culture. It is broken up into Reason, Religion and Geomancy.

Engineering allows the Culture to build complex structures, equipment and cities. It allows the use of more rare and powerful resources and is vital to the success of any Culture that wishes to pull itself up from its rude beginnings and create a legacy that will endure. It contains the strands of Construction, Bioengineering and Psychokinesis.

A culture's ability to defend itself against threats (both external and internal) is determined not only by its will but by the military technologies it can bring to bear. The Warfare branch of the technology web covers all the knowledge one needs to build engines of war and to train the people capable of using them as an extension of the Culture's power. Warfare is broken up into Biowarfare, Psywar and Conventional Warfare.

How a culture goes about its day-to-day life can vary greatly. The society branch of the technology web defines how a culture embraces the role of governments and the citizens that make it up. Unlike other branches a Culture is more likely to research one of these strands to the exclusion of the other two. While all may be researched, only one can be implemented fully at any one time. Society is broken up into Individual, Consensus and Hive Mind societies.