And it is not just a micro management issue for the player. According to SD (i think it was Paul in one of the dev feeds) the effects of the Shrinker can not be limited to just one planet, because then the auto ship designer (the code that generates the various versions of ships) must design ships for planets/shipyards without the shrinker, and ships for the planet/shipyard with shrinker. And if you have more than one shrinker (but with a different adjacency levels) that should then generate again for all ships a version that can be build upon those planets/shipyards. Also it would make the auto obsolete of ship versions very complex.

This would mean that the number of active ship designs will grow out of control very fast, and that will complicate the ship building decision process for the AI; and that will cost game speed.

An update on the Hyperion Shrinker:

Upon reading this thread I went a little crazy.  Playing as the arrogant Altarians (I love them!), I was just starting to build up my military with maxed out Cruisers in the Age of War.  I play a very peaceful game and develop military very late.  In GC2, that is very risky.  So far in GC3, I am getting away with it.  

I switched gears.  I went through my colony list in my immense spiral galaxy and I searched for military bonus tiles, which I had always ignored before.  On each one, I put a Hyperion Shrinker at the top of the build queue.  I had 10 or 12 set up.  Two of them, I paid for.  Next thing I knew, the Cruiser Mk12 was much more sexy than the Cruiser Mk11.  As a sample, the laser attack went from 81 to 120.  The other Hyperion Shrinkers kept building but I couldn't queue up any more of them on other planets.  

I am now constructing pre-designed Cruisers Mk16 with 204 attack.  I am filling Transports.  I am probably 10 techs from the third age and its weapons.   I am filling in the logistics techs.   I am NOT doing the massive production 1 ship/turn thing other people are achieving, but I am doing pretty well.  In 30 turns, it will be legal to attack me again.  We'll see what happens.  I will probably just scare them to death.  I can't see the AI being able to match anything this massive.  I'd be scared if I met me a dark spaceway somewhere.

The interesting thing is the multiple Shrinkers.  I am convinced it is because I started them all at once and otherwise I wouldn't have gotten away with this.

If someone from SD needs a save file for curiosity, let me know.

thecw, thanks for the clarification, I used the incorrect terminology, meant mass.

Sorry about the necro, but I was able to do this via modding.

Basically you can use this to build stacks of doom.