"I don't want slaves! It's the power of ideas!" - Trevor Goodchild, Aeon Flux
This lexicon is an invaluable reference to the many strange
words and concepts found in Neon Twilight. Please take care
not to be offended by any of these concepts, as they are
part of a fictional scenario, not a political agenda. A lot
of the terms here can be found in actual publications or speculative works.
DENIED AREA : Any place contaminated by
chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, esp. extreme infestations
of parasites. Denied areas are contained by a cordon
sanitaire of lethal force, but humanitarian missions such
as Medicin Sans Frontieres and the Red Cross/Red Crescent often
air-drop supplies to any survivors within. Anyone entering
a Denied Area is considered a non-citizen (fringer) under Protocol.
GAICA : The Geneva Artificial Intelligence
Control Agency, an international organization dealing with what where
previously called Artificial Intelligences (see Great
Minds). Its powers of enforcement include corrosive and organic
softwar methods against Great Minds as well as complete extermination should
the need arise. GAICA is based in Geneva and has an extensive multinational
secretariat.
APEC : Asia-Pacific Economic Council, the former
cooperative organization prevalent in South-East Asia during the TwenCen.
See SEACOM.
GREAT MINDS : 1. Sentient software entities
one scale above a Psi. Officially termed Intelligence Class 1.0+
(rated human-equivalent or beyond). 2. Any Psi which develops recognizable
personality traits. See also High Automation, Psi.
HIGH AUTOMATION : Sub-sentient adaptable
and reactive software automation. High Automation can recognize human
commands, perform complex operations with limited fuzzy logic and
even do simple guessing, but its capabilities are highly limited.
Officially termed Intelligence Class
0.25 under GAICA. See also Psi, Great Minds.
HUMAN CODE : A body of legal material
defining what constitutes a human being and the extent to which
the human genetic code can be altered. The Human Code is enforced
by the Medical Collegium and expressly forbids many types of
genegineering, cloning, and transgenic experimentation.
INFOSPHERE : the vast sum of a corporation's
(or other group's) knowledge. This knowledge is of the hard-earned
type, of personal experience, private hacks, little improvements,
and years of accumulated mistakes. In other words, collective wisdom.
Being very hard to acquire or digitize, Infospheres are incredibly
valuable and very well protected. In the 'global organism' analogy
of the webworks, Infospheres are the memories and experiences of
human groups.
MEDICAL COLLEGIUM : International organization
tasked with standardizing and enforcing global medical codes, esp. concerning
biosafety (under the Osaka Biosafety Convention), disease/parasite eradication,
and genegineering. Medical Collegiums operate in chapters, one for each
sovereign entity, but are composed of medical practitioners who are appointed
by the MC Secretariat, based in Atlanta.
MINDER : Xenorganic-cephalic implant which
purpotedly combines a bioprocessors and memory crystals with foreign
biological material to create an internal head computer. Speculative,
but extremely illegal if it actually exists.
NIHILIST : A terrorist who kills indiscriminately
and without a clear political or economic agenda. Nihilists differ from
classical terrorists in that they don't care about changing the world;
they just want to kill and hurt 'The Enemy' as much possible by any means
possible. A classical terrorist was more interested in new coverage of
his political agenda; a nihilist doesn't care about public support or about
the news. Destruction is the nihilist's ultimate goal, and the splintering
of most millenarian cults at the turn of the century has allowed many madmen
with chemical or biological weapons to cause great damage in major cities.
NUEVA VIDA : 1. Spanish name for the infestation
of macroparasites within the Amazonian jungles. 2. An especially vicious
infestation in any jungle. Meaning : "New Life".
PROTOCOL : International organization tasked
with implementing uniform global trade, competition, economic,
technological and other standards, and with handling all forms of
negotiation and arbitration, whether political, economic, or military.
Formal name Unified Arbitration and Protocol Organization (UAPO).
PSI : 1. acronym for PSeudo-Intelligence,
referring to any form of software mimicry which can reasonably pass
for human intelligence, but which is not actually intelligent. Also
known by the older name of Artificial Intelligence. Officially termed
Intelligence Class 0.5. See also
High Automation, Great Minds.
PURCHASE GROUPS : an association of
consumers designed to get the lowest prices and most protection
for its members (and only its members). Purchase groups are
different from traditional large-volume retailers in that they
encompass global constituencies (such as the Chocolateur's Syndic);
only serve their members; are usually specialized in one category
of products (eg: white goods); demand loyalty in the form of
mandatory weekly purchases; and deliver to your doorstep instead
of you having to go out and choose.
PURCHASE NETWORKS : part of the global
webworks, the Purchase Networks are vast collections of small
suppliers and parts-producers who offer their products for sale
to larger corporations on a global basis. This in effect turns
all industrial products into commodities and creates massive
efficiencies in both scale and scope. For non-economists, this
is A Good Thing.
PHARMAS : Legal drugs, usually stimulants
or mood-alteration synthetics administered by a central authority,
often the Medical Collegium. Pharmas are commonly used by people
to deal with problems, as a social anaesthetic (much like tv) and
as a cheap thrill.
RESEARCH CONTROL REGIME : International
convention delimiting permissible technological research in the
fields of biology, genetics, cybernetics, xenobiology, and xenorganics.
SEACOM : South-East Asian Community, the
new cooperative structure erected by the major powers of that region
following the War. Seacom includes economic liberalisation, political
discussions, and military cooperation. Nevertheless, Seacom is largely
a talking shop and has little global power.
SECURITY FRANCHISE : International
corporation/franchise selling private security and paramilitary
services. See also: Groupe Médi, Intervention Inc.
SIMEX : SIMulated EXperience. A form
of commercial virtual reality (virrea) environment in which the
user experiences simulated entertainment through projected
images on the optic nerve and associated aural and tactile
stimulation.
SYNDIC : a freelance judge/lawyer who
provides legal counsel to Denied Area residents and any other
Protocol legal entity which requires it. Syndics live by their
reputation, and are generally considered much more trustworthy
than common lawyers or police officers.
SYSTEM THREE : An international convention
specifying network hierarchies, data exchange protocols, and general
informatics standards. So called after the original Big Three subscribers
(USA, EU, and Russia). Competes with the Asian Streamlined Format (ASF)
network structure, but both systems are highly fluid and - to a certain
extent - interchangeable. System-3 is more flexible, but easier to crack.
TELEMATICS : The skill of operating
remote devices within a virrea environment, esp. vehicles.
VITALIZERS : 1. legal pharmaceuticals, esp.
those used for purification and to slow the natural accumulation
of biological toxins.
WAGE SCALE : a standardized form of
wage payment which is based on global averages of skill, productivity,
marital status, genetic purity, and thousands of other factors.
Most people do not have a permanent job, and must use their
contacts and personal networks to secure a job every day.
Wage scales serve as guaranteed contracts, so that a person
receiving a wage-scale IV.4.7 knows exactly what they're getting
without having to read a 50-page contract every day. Likewise
exployers know what they're handing out without having to
negotiate every day. Wage scales
can be incremental, exponential, or logarithmic. The last is known as
the superstar phenomena, in which the number one professional in
his field is often paid ten times the rate of the second-best person.
WEBWORKS : Global computer network which
connects together most of the world's sub-nets. The webworks is
self-structuring and self-organizing, and mimics a natural ecosystem,
complete with natural selection, hyperevolution, and software lifeforms.
The webworks 'gave birth' initially to spawn and then later
to Great Minds, and has become an uncontrollable flux medium
and the locus of human activity.