Infoquake (58 page)

The guiding principle of multi/meat interactions is that they should
be as "real" as possible. In an ideal multi experience, it would be impossible to determine whether the user was present in the flesh or in
multi. The multi network, unlike other networks, does not allow for
any "improvements" on the human experience. Thus, a multied body
contains all the warts and blemishes the actual human body does; multied bodies cannot fly, change shapes, or perform feats of inhuman
strength; and they are clothed in the same garments as their real
bodies.

Occasionally, things happen in the "real" world that cannot be reconciled in a virtual environment. One can throw a stone "through" a
multi projection without incident. Larger discrepancies typically result
in the automatic cutting of a multi connection.

As the ubiquity of the multi network has grown, society has
largely adapted. Most doors and windows are capable of accepting and
responding to multi commands. Auditoriums and meeting spaces generally have amenities for both types of audiences.

The verisimilitude of the multi network is what has kept it safe
during the decades it has been in widespread use. The network has
built-in safeguards that will automatically cut a connection in cases of
extreme pain or duress. Because its rules are so rigid and the chance for
mishap so small, the Defense and Wellness Council has fiercely
blocked any attempts to liberalize the network rules or allow other virtual networks to participate in public space.

Because of the high potential for danger in letting multi projections
connect anywhere on the network, the network's governing bodies
insisted early in its existence that entry points on the network be
restricted.

Entrances must occur in specially designated "gateway zones."
This is to prevent users from projecting to unauthorized locations, into
the middle of a wall, or into some other obstruction. Most homes,
businesses and public places these days are equipped with gateway
zones that allow apparition onto the multi network, but it is not
uncommon for restricted or sensitive locations to limit gateway zones
to a central location.

A user must be standing on a specially designated red tile square
to enter the network. If that physical contact is interrupted, the connection is immediately cut. Given the obvious security risk of leaving
one's body unattended, multi squares typically occur only in private
residences or in heavily guarded public locations (multi facilities).

One can exit the multi network instantaneously from any spatial
coordinate. Under pressure from the Prime Committee, the network administrators also developed a special device called a "disruptor" to
allow authorities to cut multi connections. The Defense and Wellness
Council later augmented the basic disruptor design to allow certain
bio/logic code to flow into a multi projection.

Multi technology relies on the fact that complete verisimilitude of
experience is not necessary. Often the network can take advantage of
common experiences stored within the brain and from them compile a
representative sample. Take the example of a multied user walking
barefoot on a field of grass. The network does not take up unnecessary
bandwidth and computing power determining the position of each
blade of grass and calculating its effects on the user's foot; it is deemed
sufficient for the network to provide a reasonable facsimile of the sensation. Randomness algorithms ensure that the simulated sensations do
not feel repetitious or calculated.

The network also maintains fluency and transmission speed by
taking a number of practical shortcuts. For instance, the multi network does not relay visual information for anything the user is not
focusing on.

Users of the multi network understand that their experience is
only a simulation, and that occasionally the simulation will differ from
reality in its details. As the technology has progressed, these differences have become smaller and smaller, to the point where the typical
user cannot reliably distinguish between virtual environments and
reality.

Rarely in the history of human enterprise has there been a more controversial entity than the fiefcorp. Conceived as a means to empower
workers, many now complain that it has become an instrument of
social ills.

Fiefcorps were made possible by the actions of Par Padron, who spent
most of his tenure as Council High Executive battling big business.
Padron believed that governmental regulations and tax structures had
come to favor larger companies, creating a climate in which smaller
entrepreneurs could not succeed. Over the years, he succeeded in leveling the playing field among businesses and in democratizing the
Prime Committee.

It was this latter action that triggered a populist resurgence on the
Committee several decades later, and the subsequent votes to approve
the business structure known as the fiefcorp. In order to spur innovation, fiefcorps were given substantial tax breaks during their initial
decade of existence. In order to spur employment, the fiefcorp structure was modeled after the feudal master-and-apprentice relationship
of ancient times.

Although the beginnings of the system were chaotic, the rapid formation, innovation and dissolution of fiefcorps soon contributed to a beneficial effect known as "carbonization economics."

The short time window of reduced taxation, combined with low startup costs, made fiefcorps a hotbed of innovation. Small companies were
encouraged to come up with new ideas and bring them to market
quickly. A fiefcorp master could bring in a number of apprentices, pay
them only room and board to start, turn a very good profit in a few
years, and then sell off his assets before taxes increased and start again.
If the master needed additional funding to get the company off the
ground, he could seek that money from the secondary market of capitalmen at relatively low interest rates.

With hundreds of thousands of fiefcorps formed, an economy based
on efficiency and powerful ideas moved quickly. Pundits likened the
effect to that of carbonized soda water, where bubbles quickly form,
burst and are replenished.

The rewards of running a successful fiefcorp were considerable.
Profits from the greatest fiefcorps were extensive, and often allowed
wily fiefcorp masters to leap into the more lucrative realm of real
estate. But even in failure, the fiefcorp structure proved beneficial,
because the labor market was constantly running a deficit of fresh
talent. It was not unusual for people to found two or three failed companies before finding a winning formula.

The biggest problem of a laissez-faire structure such as the fiefcorp
system was its rampant lawlessness. Zest for profit often trumped rules
of government, creed, and community. It was originally hoped that the
low penalties for failure in a fiefcorp would discourage rule breaking,
but this proved not to be true.

In an attempt to rein in the lawlessness of the fiefcorp sector, many
in the industry turned to the Meme Cooperative. The Cooperative,
founded a hundred years earlier by big business as a buffer to Par
Padron's populist reforms, had since become mostly a lobbying organization to the Prime Committee and the L-PRACGs. Fiefcorps voluntarily ceded strict authority to the Cooperative to regulate their
industry and act as a watchdog organization. Few believe that the
Meme Cooperative has been successful in its mission, however.

Another third-party organization, Primo's, arose to provide an
overseeing capacity to the fiefcorps. Founded by the fervent libertarian
Lucco Primo in 291, the company's objective rating system has acted
as a huge deterrent to fraudulent programming practices.

Still, many consider the problem of fiefcorp ethics a problem to
this day. As a result, grumbling consumers typically turn to the LPRACGs and the drudges for redress.

The author would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions to this book: Lou Anders, Cindy Blank-Edelman, Bruce
Bortz, Jerome Edelman, J.D. Landis, Philip Mansour, and Anne
Smith.

Most of all, the author would like to thank Victoria Blakeway
Edelman, who made him take out Ferris.

DAVID L O U I S E D E L M A N was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1971 and grew up in Orange County, California.
He received a B.A. in creative writing and journalism from the
Writing Seminars program at The Johns Hopkins University in 1993.

He has worked as a web programmer for the U.S. Army and the
FBI, a computer trainer to the U.S. Congress and the World Bank, and
a marketing director for biometric and e-commerce companies.

Edelman is also a freelance editor and journalist with publishing
credits from the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Publishers Weekly,
Chicago Sun-Times, Baltimore Evening Sun, Baltimore City Paper, and Virginian-Pilot, among others. Infoquake is his first novel.

Edelman lives with his wife, Victoria, in Reston, Virginia, a
suburb of Washington, DC, where he runs a web programming business and is currently at work on the second and third books in the Jump
225 trilogy.

Visit the author's website at http://www.david-louis-edelman.com.