OusiaNET
Ousia, a name for the total mental and physical existence of Lowiras, and a recursive acronym.
c. 150,070 BCE
c. 150,050 BCE
Communication across all of Lowiras
Connections are almost instant, at the speed of thought. The network operates mentally.
Vulnerable to attacks by skilled Neuromancers.
Conventional electronics as well as neural material. Psychic connections in the plane of Synapse.
The Ousia NETwork Enhancing Transience, known as OusiaNET or simply ONET, has been regarded as one of the greatest innovations in thaumic computing and computer networking—within Lowiras, that is. The ONET is practically useless outside of the isolated eight star cluster. Allowing near-instant communication, the ONET combines the Noosphere and Hylisphere of Lowiras (the union long being called Ousia by locals, hence the name) into one network of electroneural peers, though structures analogous to client-server models still form. Having overcome the limitations of lightspeed, the cyberculture of Lowiras has been integral in the development of Pan-Ousianism, the idea that all people of Lowiras—that is, all who have a connection to the Ousic Neural Amalgam, are Ousians, a single nation.
Architecture
Computers in Lowiras tend to be electroneural. This means they utilize a substance similar to the brain matter of sapient species of Lowiras mined from the Dark Core as part of the computer, allowing it to operate on frequencies of both Sarkic and Ousic[1] energies. The computers network through Synapse, connecting at the speed and clarity of thought. Information is transferred telepathically, in essence, which would theoretically allow for the transmission of pure ideas. However, as computers do not really "think" as existing, ensouled people do, they mainly transmit digital data in the form of thought. Higher power devices can convey thoughts, but will have to translate them to digital data for the sake of most users.
Peering
The ONET is built on peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, mainly. Each computer acts as a node that communicates with other nodes and shares its hardware capabilities. Basically, the computers work together for some common task, such as transferring data between different users, or running a program. Peers both supply and consume data. End-to-end Encryption (E2EE) has become common, but in the beginnings of OusiaNET, it was not difficult to hijack connections with the right setup. Cyberespionage, however, proved unreliable; in ONET, due to the peering system, if you can see them, they can see you, provided they know what they're doing as well as you do.
A subnetwork of peers forms a mesh, where the division between different nodes becomes blurred. This can form a true virtual place, just as real places are made up of the combined subjectivities of persons' perceptions. In fact, there is background radiation left behind after a mesh has fallen apart completely that allows for some level of data recovery. Essentially, a place can take on its own life after the mesh that spawned it is gone, to an archaeological extent.
Peers are identified by their psychic signature, or psigram, an averaged brainwave of the computer. These signatures are unique and nearly impossible to fake, but they can be easily changed, allowing a computer to have many different psigrams, serving as identities. A psigram, as a public datum, can be used as a key to encrypt data to send to the computer it refers to through asymmetric cryptography.
A psigram is not to be confused with a psychograph, which is a sort of electroencephalogram that displays a computer's mental status.
Servers
Client-server models are often organically replicated in cases of a large gap in the hardware capabalities between one or more computers and the majority of its peers in a mesh. It grows to dominate the others, controlling most of the programs and data. The peers have only the relationship with the server, not with each other. In this case, the same terminology as client-server models is used.
Culture
The cyberculture of OusiaNET is quite diverse. Much of the ONET is dominated by economic and political alliances. Governments, political parties, and corporations all have their own servers, with egalitarian meshes becoming less common in professional spaces. In general, the powerful in the physical world are the powerful in cyberspace. Despite this, strong counterculture networks exist on the ONET, mainly among younger demographics, ranging from simple complainers to organized insurrectionists and revolutionaries. These groups tend to emphasize the right to repair, modularity of software and hardware, freedom of information, communal peering over client-server relationships, and above all else, control and an intimate relationship over one's device.
History
100,000s BCE
In the Enlightening period of Ousian history, progress in the Noosphere, rather than the Hylisphere that was dominated by Andvaris, was paramount. While a dark age for most of Cosmoria, the period of suppressed interstellar travel elicited spiritual and cultural development in Lowiras. Around 150,070 BCE, the first Ousic computer network was established, called 8NET. It was built on Flaeyaer, used as a research network originally, but quickly a "hacker culture" emerged, where researchers would spend their free time messing around with the software (and among a few, even the hardware) of their local mainframes, creating games, practical jokes, and malware. This, of course, laid the foundation for personal computing for all of Ousia.
By 150,060 BCE, similar networks had been established all across Lowiras. And by 150,050 BCE, OusiaNET was cluster wide. An age of connection and information began in tandem with the spiritual revolution occuring at the same time. Cyberreligions[2] and electronic worship emerged in certain circles. Electronic augmentation became more fashionable. Some even started combining their own bodies with their computers, merging their own psigram with their device's, though they ended up being considered freaks by older generations and "sweats" by younger generations.
- ↑ Sarkic: Of or related to the Hylisphere or physical universe. Ousic: Of or related to the Noosphere or mental universe. See Lexica:Cosmoria
- ↑ May either refer to religions propagated in cyberspace, the virtual world, or to religions that somehow worship or revere the virtual world or simulations.