Author notes

January 4, 2010

katfeete

on Jan. 11, 2010

Alpha: for most of the 22nd and 23rd centuries, there were two distinct communications networks: the legitimate, stable, and carefully maintained one which was accessable only to those with the proper codes (or, at some points, the proper genetic modifications); and the ad hoc network of pirate boosters and carrier boxes that was used by the rest of society. The shadow network had no security save the sheer volume of information being moved around and its maddeningly vague structure; for example, messages passed through it keyed not off access numbers or codes, as in the legitimate networks, but off a set of searchable phrases – a person or organization's 'alphabet'.

These days the alpha networks, as they came to be called, are quite legitimate themselves, though they tend to be used more for informal or social communications. In Kieselburg – particularly Lowtown – they are used for almost all communications; the large networks are poorly maintained and, ironically, it is the diffuse and essentially inefficient alpha networks that are seen as the more reliable.

(Other references helpful for that second panel: the Green Curfew, the Leagua.)

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The mirrors will update on Tuesday and Thursday this week, since I only got two pages done last week. The day job is breaking my butt. :( Sorry about this.