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Reminds me a bit of Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought concept where our galaxy is divided into various zones which supports different levels of technological and cognitive capability. All sophisticated tech fails at the core, FTL is impossible in the Slow Zone (where Earth is) but works in the Beyond, and past that is the Transcend where god-like superintelligences live.

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Interesting, because this is similar to a Chinese cultivation novels, or what is known as xianxia genre, trope. Usually, characters live in different “realms” and they have to train/fight/be lucky to “reach a higher realm” where the rules are different (usually means the pressure/danger/ambient-absorbable-energy is higher).

love those books, a similar concept was explored in the book "terminal world" by Alistair Reynolds. it goes into a bit more detail about why certain technologies fail in different zones.

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