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Abrams Event Address / The question that started it

If you had a time machine,what address would you enter?

Imagine visiting Stephen Hawking in Cambridge in 2009.

You know the city and the year. But what would your machine need to identify that particular place, at that particular moment?

Earth rotates. It orbits the Sun. The solar system moves through the galaxy. So how do you describe your destination when the place itself is moving?

Cambridge, UK20092026Same place. Different moment. Different event.
Cambridge, UK

2009 · The event you want to visit.

What would the machine need to know?
Place
The destination on Earth, with a precise position.
Moment
When the event happened, using a specified time scale.
Reference frame
What the position is measured relative to, so another system can interpret it.
Event concept / positions are illustrative

An address for a moment in spacetime

A thought experiment became an engineering question.

That question started my work on the Abrams Event Address: a proposal for recording where, when, and relative to what in a structured event record that another system can interpret.

What does that mean in practice?

A precise Earth-based location and time can identify an event. To express it in another reference frame, a system needs agreed conventions and models of motion. AEA proposes a format for carrying that context; the time machine is the thought experiment, while the record format and software are the work you can explore here.

See the example event record

01 / Explore

What changes when context is missing?

Select an example. Turn a field off.
Inspect the model’s output in real time.

Seven fields of context

7/7 enabled

Reference frame, height, and motion · schematic

Time-offset distance0 km
Height difference0 m
Relative kinetic energy0.00 GJ

All context fields enabled.

Inspect the serialized address
Hawking 2009 Benchmark
AEA::FRAME[ICRF3]::BODY[399]::TAI[1246219234.000]::ELLIPSOID[+52.205800,+0.117900,+58.30]::KINEMATICS[+259780.00,-45120.00,+12050.00]::ORIENTATION[+0.002000,-0.912000,+0.413000]::GRAV[62636856.00]::ENVIRONMENT[FLUID[75L]_TEMP[293K]_TOPO[CLEAR]]::HASH[70cf396e0f30b286beecf1311c098978a2012a0ce62a6c295ca8ac0222c4c2ce]

Generated from the selected model inputs. The hash field is a preset identifier, not a newly computed verification result.

02 / Calibration Benchmark

The Canonical Event Address

Stephen Hawking Time-Traveler Reception · Cambridge, UK · 2009-06-28 12:00 UTC

KAT Seal Verified
AEA:399:TAI:1246190426.0:ITRF2020:3916909.5232774816,8057.749278632174,5016918.648210711:0,0,0:0,0,0,1:9f6cc1096562729a902167fd622e66a264a239f3e9a9d804414659e3ab97800e

Field-by-Field Breakdown

  • AEA: Protocol header identifier
  • 399: NASA/NAIF ID 399 = Earth's center of mass (Moon is 301, Mars 499)
  • TAI: Continuous atomic time (monotonic, zero leap-second discontinuities)
  • 1246190426.0: Integer seconds since 1970-01-01T00:00:00 on TAI scale
  • ITRF2020: International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2020 chart
  • Position [m]: Cartesian X,Y,Z (Bowring inverse: 52.205878° N, 0.117867° E, 56m)
  • Velocity [m/s]: Stationary relative to rotating crust [0, 0, 0]
  • Attitude: Identity unit quaternion [0, 0, 0, 1]
  • Seal: 32-byte SHA-256 digest computed over the 104-byte binary prefix

Independent 5-Second Verification

You can verify this exact test vector immediately. The SHA-256 integrity seal fails verification if a single bit in the 104-byte prefix is altered or if coordinates drift by 1 millimeter.

Python standard library only (zero dependencies):
python tools/aea.py verify tests/kat/cambridge.bin
> OK: SHA-256 integrity seal verified

03 / Implementation

The Wire Reality: AEA-STATE/1 (136 Bytes)

To serve microcontrollers, flight blackboxes, and autonomous navigation computers, AEA is implemented as an unpacked, naturally aligned 136-byte C-ABI structure.

Bytes 0..103 · Canonical Telemetry Prefix (104 B)
Version, Body ID, TAI Epoch (sec+nsec), Frame, Pos [X,Y,Z], Vel [Vx,Vy,Vz], Quat [qx,qy,qz,qw]
Bytes 104..135 · Seal (32 B)
SHA-256 Digest of 104-byte Prefix
Allocation-Free

Pure Rust compiled with #![no_std]. No heap allocation, no malloc, zero dynamic resizing. Safe for bare-metal flight loops.

8-Byte Alignment

Natural alignment prevents hardware bus faults on strict RISC processors (SPARC LEON, ARM Cortex-M/R) without unaligned packing directives.

Deterministic Wire

Canonical Little-Endian serialization ensures byte-for-byte identical hashes across little-endian and big-endian systems.

Negative-Zero Filter

IEEE-754 -0.0 is canonicalized to +0.0 during hashing to eliminate floating-point sign ambiguity.

04 / Scope Architecture

Public Standard vs. Proprietary Research

A clear line separates the open standard released to the engineering public from the private numerical machinery developed at Abrams Research.

Published Openly (MIT / Apache-2.0)
  • AEA-STATE/1 Wire Representation: Complete 136-byte data struct definition.
  • C ABI Header: Canonical include/aea.h for direct C/C++ flight software linking.
  • Zero-Heap Rust Reference Core: Vendored zero-dependency FIPS 180-4 SHA-256.
  • Interface Control Document: Complete wire specification at docs/ICD.md.
  • Known-Answer Test Vectors: Cambridge 2009 reception binary and JSON proof vectors.
  • Browser Record Inspector: Client-side Bowring WGS 84 geodesy and WebCrypto verification.
Retained in Lab / Proprietary Research
  • ×Relativistic Numerical Integrators: Dynamic general relativistic trajectory solvers.
  • ×Orbital Propagation Engines: Multi-body gravitational ephemerides integrators.
  • ×Higher-Order Tensor Solvers: Non-linear Kerr/Schwarzschild geodesic solvers.
  • ×State Estimation Filters: Custom extended Kalman filters (EKF) and fusion pipelines.
  • ×Aerospace & Systems Integration: Custom telemetry adapters and mission-specific flight software bindings.

05 / Rigor & Realism

Engineering Scope & Design Boundaries

To maintain rigorous engineering integrity, what AEA is and what it is not are explicitly bounded.

What It IS

A single-epoch denied-link state sealer, flight blackbox serialization schema, and FAIR archival standard. It tags kinematic state against declared frames (ITRF2020, GCRS, BCRS) and monotonic atomic clocks (TAI, TT, TDB).

What It Is NOT

It is not a navigation filter (Kalman filter / EKF), not an orbital propagator, not a fluid dynamics solver, and not a new theory of gravity. Downstream filters compute relativistic transformations using AEA's explicit tags.

Integrity Model

The 32-byte SHA-256 seal provides deterministic verification that recorded telemetry has not been modified or corrupted by single-event upsets in memory; it asserts data integrity, rather than external physical truth.

06 / Inspect

The research, in detail.

Formal Academic Paper
Chapter 1 / Core Protocol

Protocol Specification & Master Equation

Unified AEA Equation, Scale Invariance & 7-Vector State Tensor

Addresses precede transportation. In Einstein’s 4D Block Universe (Eternalism), an address must uniquely index any point in spacetime without assuming an Earth-fixed stationary reference frame. AEA unifies celestial host identification, ICRF3 quasar orientation, continuous TAI atomic time, geoid-calibrated ellipsoidal altitude, BCRS orbital velocity, and geopotential into an immutable 7-vector cryptographic hash token.

Standard
ISO 19111 BCRS / AEA Unified 7-Vector
Primary Frame
ICRF3 Extragalactic Quasars
Time Lock
IPTA Continuous Atomic TAI
Binary Payload
92 Bytes (Big-Endian)
Integrity Seal
SHA-256 Cryptographic Hash
Memory Footprint
Zero Dynamic Heap Allocations
The Abrams Event Address (AEA) Master Equation
AEA=FRAMEBODYTAIELLIPSOIDKINEMATICSORIENTATIONGRAVENVIRONMENT/HASH\text{AEA} = \text{FRAME} \oplus \text{BODY} \oplus \text{TAI} \oplus \text{ELLIPSOID} \oplus \text{KINEMATICS} \oplus \text{ORIENTATION} \oplus \text{GRAV} \oplus \text{ENVIRONMENT/HASH}

Unified canonical serialization anchoring coordinates to the absolute ICRF3 quasar grid, planetary gravitational barycenter, continuous atomic time, geoid-cleared ellipsoidal datum, relativistic velocity, attitude quaternions, and environmental footprint layer.

Micro-Environmental Footprint Layer (Rλ)
Rλ=WGS84[ϕ,λ,h]GRAV[W0]FLUID[V]TEMP[K]TOPO[status]R_\lambda = \text{WGS84}[\phi, \lambda, h] \oplus \text{GRAV}[W_0] \oplus \text{FLUID}[V] \oplus \text{TEMP}[K] \oplus \text{TOPO}[\text{status}]

Environmental safety parameters preventing atmospheric implosion shockwaves, thermal shock, and topographic occlusion.

1. The Foundational Axiom: Addresses Precede Transportation

Classical human navigation relies on a silent, unstated assumption: that the Earth is stationary beneath our feet. Street addresses require geopolitical boundaries that mutate across decades. GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) define a two-dimensional patch on an arbitrary reference ellipsoid, treating altitude as an uncalibrated secondary measurement and time as a detached metadata tag.

In Einstein’s four-dimensional Block Universe, time is not an external counter running outside reality—it is a physical coordinate axis inseparable from space. Because Earth spins at 1,600 km/h, orbits the Sun at 107,000 km/h (≈29.78 km/s), and hurtles through the Milky Way at 828,000 km/h (≈230 km/s), any coordinate that lacks an astronomical reference frame points to empty space the instant its epoch passes.

The Abrams Event Address (AEA) was conceived to answer a foundational thought experiment: If displacement across spacetime were possible, what mathematical protocol would be required to declare where and when an event occurs with deterministic, reproducible finality?

2. The 7-Vector State Architecture

The protocol standardizes telemetry into seven orthogonal vectors serialized into a compact 92-byte big-endian binary payload:

Vector IndexVector TokenUnderlying Physical DatumData TypeByte Offset
Vector 1BODYNASA JPL NAIF Celestial Host ID (Earth = 399, Mars = 499)u320–3 (4 bytes)
Vector 2ICRF3Orientation against 4,588 extragalactic quasars [X, Y, Z][f64; 3]4–27 (24 bytes)
Vector 3TAIContinuous monotonic atomic seconds since J2000 epochf6428–35 (8 bytes)
Vector 4ELLIPSOIDGeodetic coordinates corrected for geoid undulation [φ, λ, h][f64; 3]36–59 (24 bytes)
Vector 5VELBCRS heliocentric orbital velocity state vector [Vx, Vy, Vz][f64; 3]60–83 (24 bytes)
Vector 6GRAVLocal gravitational potential Φ (IUGG W0 = 62,636,856 m²/s²)f6484–91 (8 bytes)
Vector 7HASHSHA-256 cryptographic integrity digest computed over bytes 0–91[u8; 32]Immutable Seal

07 / Verification & Diligence

Take the work with you.

Development notes & earlier designs

The project record below preserves earlier encoding approaches and milestones. Consult the specification’s version context when comparing designs.

Open the 10-Point Project Record

Explore the concept

An interactive 4D coordinate simulator that converts latitude, longitude, altitude, and epoch into an AEA coordinate token, complete with interactive spatial-temporal boundary verification.

The design, in more detail

Definition

A proposed coordinate encoding system that combines geospatial coordinates, elevation, and high-precision UTC epochs into a single immutable, human-parseable spatial address string.

The problem

Contemporary address systems are fragmented: street addresses rely on subjective geopolitical conventions; GPS coordinates define static points in 2D space without altitude or chronological permanence; and time is treated as an external metadata field. There is no universal, compact standard for declaring where and when a specific occurrence took place in spacetime.

The approach

The Abrams Event Address unifies 4-dimensional coordinates (X, Y, Z, T) into a hierarchical quadkey with a temporal epoch suffix. By interleaving bitwise geospatial bounds with microsecond UTC timestamps, an AEA string can pinpoint an incident, legal deposition, autonomous sensor event, or astronomical observation with reproducible cryptographic precision.

How it works

  1. Geodetic Projection: Computes latitude and longitude normalized to WGS 84 ellipsoid boundaries.
  2. Spatial Subdivision: Employs a modified Hilbert space-filling curve to maintain topological locality.
  3. Elevation Quantization: Encodes vertical distance relative to mean sea level (MSL) with metric precision.
  4. Temporal Interleaving: Appends a 64-bit microsecond-resolution ISO-epoch hash for temporal immutability.
  5. Checksum Verification: Employs a Reed-Solomon derived checksum preventing transcription error during manual inspection.
  6. NASA cFS Flight Integration: Compiles via bare-metal #![no_std] Rust into a zero-heap static library (libaea_core.a) with packed aea_cfs_msg.h C-ABI message structures for direct NASA Core Flight System telemetry bus integration.

Project notes

Wire Standard
AEA-STATE/1 (136 Bytes)
Memory Model
Zero Heap (#![no_std])
Time Standard
TAI Continuous Atomic Time
Central Bodies
NAIF 399 Earth · 301 Moon · 499 Mars

These are the project’s documented design notes. Consult the linked implementation and its version before relying on a specific capability.

Development history & next steps
2023

Concept Inception

Identified fundamental indexing gaps while designing tamper-evident audit logs for legal evidence.

2024

Mathematical Formalization

Derived Hilbert-curve projection equations and altitude quantization algorithms.

2025

C-ABI & Embedded Flight Spec

Built zero-allocation packed C-ABI header and static library for embedded integration.

2026

AEA-STATE/1 Open Publication

Published open-source 136-byte wire standard, C header, Python CLI, and browser inspector under MIT/Apache-2.0.

What comes next

Publishing reference cFS and ROS 2 communication adapters while formalizing the open specification RFC.

Source material & related links

Follow the documentation, repositories, and related sites behind this project.

AEA Open-Source Flight Core (GitHub)

Zero-heap #![no_std] Rust library, C-ABI include/aea.h, and wire specification (ICD.md).

Client-Side WebCrypto Record Inspector

Browser verification tool executing Bowring geodesy inverse and SHA-256 seal verification via WebCrypto.

AEA Master Knowledge Base & 7-Vector Portal

Complete 12-chapter technical knowledge base, 7-vector interactive simulator, and offline standalone downloads.

AEA Technical Whitepaper & Spec Draft

Comprehensive architectural draft detailing coordinate frames, time scales, and canonicalization invariants.

Abrams Research LLC (Technical Dossier)

Engineering dossier, verification matrix, C-ABI state record details, and flight bus integration notes.

Launch 4D AEA Master PortalGitHub RepositoryLive Web InspectorRead Technical SpecificationAbrams Research Technical Dossier

Topics: Spacetime · Coordinate Systems · Cryptography · Invention · Algorithms · Embedded C-ABI · Telemetry