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Solar System
90

April 16th, 2012






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24 . by: Anna October 4, 2020, 1:20 pm

For anyone who found the comments on this page as interesting and revealing to the plot as I did, there is a log explaining the three types of internet a bit more in the URL. (Thanks for finding it, Hawkpelt!)

I know that the mention of the intranet and Hector's reluctance to use it are sort of a Chekhov's gun, but I have to agree that the context in the comments made this page MUCH more interesting to me. I would've been confused and not picked up on the tension otherwise. Chekhov's gun works because it's a gun - you already know the implications. If I don't know the context of a detail, I'll forget about it or pass right over it.

Also, I have loved getting a taste of how common sounds to the uneducated human ear during these pages.

(P.S. Sorry to anyone checking out Recent Comments Elsewhere while I reread...!)

URL : http://nofna.com/log/?p=72
23 . by: Zack April 20, 2012, 7:55 pm

Hey Nigel,

As far as I can tell, the intranet is a discreet presence, not like the internet. It is always in the corner of a user's awareness, waiting for a subtle trigger from the user's consciousness to then be summoned and provide clarification. It's practically a component of the user, not the network. Kind of like a plug-in, stored both server-side and user-side.

Younger people, like Yuri, Strelka, and the other pilots, would have the network interface built-in to their consciousness. Older people, like Terran (who is around 80) might need some kind of peripheral to access the network and the intranet in the same way.
22 . by: Nigel April 20, 2012, 1:45 am

Fascinating. To expand on your examples, would I have to initiate action through the Intranet, or would the system pick up on my worries? Is the Network itself aware, on some level?

As a note, if I'm asking too many questions, or if answering my queries will somehow detract from future strips, by all means do not hesitate to deflect.
21 . by: April 19, 2012, 11:33 pm

That's interesting. It's sounding like the intranet was created at least partly to help humans and animals learn to understand each other better and prevent misunderstandings of nonverbal communication.
20 . by: kuu April 19, 2012, 9:31 pm

those cycopians are part of the intranet? were they stragalers from venom8 that did survive?
19 . by: Zack April 19, 2012, 9:07 pm

Hey Solifuge,

Although it will be a while, my explanation of the intranet as below will have manifested itself in the story eventually. This page is a Chekov's Gun, so to speak. The readers know that it's on the table, but it doesn't have any meaning yet.
18 . by: Zack April 19, 2012, 9:04 pm

Hey Nigel,

If you were to query my birthday of the internet, it would serve that information up (if it were anywhere). A date is information--content--that can be somewhere.

The intranet handles interactions. For example, if you were to order up a news story, and the newscaster is acting a little worried, you could summon up an intranet contextual feed which would tell you why the newscaster is worried. This way, you get a context that works to refine the content that is being served to you.

The main purpose of the intranet was to keep content from becoming corrupted by the viewer, smoothing out interactions and lending clarity to foreign concepts. Another example: If two people are talking about another person, and their conversation is somehow on the internet, you might not know who they're talking about. But if you were worried that they were talking about you, the intranet would make it clear for you that that isn't the case.

A third example: You might also be able to summon up the reasons for aggressive sales tactics or advertising campaigns. This way, if you felt that an advertisement came on a little strong, you wouldn't need to be worried that the advertisement is manipulative, but the aggression of the advertisement can work anyway, since it targets the basal brain.

The intranet smooths information out for everyone.
17 . by: Solifuge April 19, 2012, 8:54 pm

Yeah, even with that explanation of the nature of the inter/intranet, the grammar shift makes the intent behind their words tough to understand. I think what she was trying to say was "I -will- know where your pornography is", to explain Hector's reluctance. The conflict could also be made more apparent if Hector had a translator too, but that might be tied to their local network.

Actually, while on this note...

Let it first be said that I love this comic, its art and presentation, and this setting to pieces. Even as a fan since the early days of 10%+ though, the story can be really inaccessible at times. This is mostly due to the knowledge-gap between the world we readers know, and the setting itself.

I like the sense of these stories being a tiny window into a big, strange, wonderful SF world, and I think the lack of background exposition is central to that. Still, without that bit you shared with us, I would have no idea or cue to care about the conflict they're dealing with right now... which is a shame, because it's a really deep and interesting conflict, and the discovery that Hector -has- something to be secretive about is central to the tension!

Similarly, I can't help but feel that so much of the context that would makes parts of these stories more fulfilling and interesting is lost on readers, since we don't have authorial knowledge.

It's a tough line to walk, between explaining enough to give readers the context needed to appreciate the story, and not giving away so much that the setting becomes too familiar (or a fiction textbook ala Tolkein's appendixes). Also, presenting information in narratively-interesting ways can be an even bigger challenge... I think the rough translation helps that effect, but that on top of only speaking of this Intranet in the vaguest terms obfuscates things a bit too much to make it accessible or understandable.

I don't mind relying on explanations in the comments like this, but if there was a way to incorporate that background information into the comic pages themselves, if not in the panels and dialogue, I think it'd do wonders for making the story accessible to the audience.

That said, keep on rocking! This is among my favorite web-series to follow.

URL : http://www.youtube.com/user/Spikeyfiggin/feed
16 . by: Nigel April 19, 2012, 8:36 pm

The idea of a contextual intranet is fascinating, but I'm not clear on a few things.

So, if I query futureWikipedia for data, the Internet is what serves me the result of my search.

But if I query you, Zach for something, say the date of your birthday, it's the Intranet that serves me the result? Or the Intranet somehow verifies the data your PC returns as valid?
15 . by: InvaluableValue April 19, 2012, 7:43 pm

Wow, that was really helpful for you to write out, Zack, thank you. I imagine that a world in which one's past were totally public would have some really great benefits... though it wouldn't be without its problems as well.

Poor Hector. I wonder how far he'll take this and what he's trying to hide.
14 . by: lunch April 19, 2012, 6:44 pm

ah i think i understand, so Hector resists opening his intranet because he doesn't want his past open and viewable to the others?
13 . by: Zack April 19, 2012, 2:10 pm

Strelka is merely implying in her own way that everyone will, for a brief time, have forced and inadvertent access to a person's complete past. Since everyone already interacts through the network at home, the change is not too drastic--except for Hector, who was denying intranet inclusion. Here, he is insisting that his father reroute porting around his intranet.
12 . by: G April 19, 2012, 10:33 am

@11, I think it's a threat. I'm pretty sure Strelka is trying to black mail Yuri XD
11 . by: April 19, 2012, 4:45 am

Am I the only one who still doesn't get what Yuri's porn has to do with any of this?
10 . by: Zack April 18, 2012, 11:23 pm

Hi, I'll expound on what constitutes the network, this internet that exists in 2495.

In the beginning, there was the internet, as ours exists. As time went on, the two societies refined the internet into a network of three systems.

One, the internet, handled content. This is what is served to a person who asks a request of the network.

Two, the intranet, handled context. When something is happening on the internet, or you interact with someone, the intranet provides context for such interactions. The intranet makes sure that nothing is ever out of context and that all actions make sense. The intranet requires you to release your past into the public domain. As of 2495, most people have accepted this to the point that a person who does not do this is seen as having a psychiatric problem.

System three, which I think will not be covered in this story, is the karmic compressor "dripnet", an experimental network component which destroys, reinterprets, or sequesters actions that could be harmful to another person. Due to the way the human brain works, malicious acts are transferred from one person to the next like a virus (see Secretary). The "dripnet" stops this transfer. It is the newest component and I'm not sure if it's 100% operational yet.
9 . by: InvaluableValue April 18, 2012, 9:06 pm

Oh, you're right. I wonder what that even means? Is it something like public records or what?
8 . by: Nobody April 18, 2012, 8:23 pm

Yeah, Hector is trying to avoid opening up his intranet (it was mentioned to be sealed before).
7 . by: InvaluableValue April 18, 2012, 2:26 pm

Well, I'm glad they at least have those little crummy backup translators. I assumed they already had an onboard translator, considering they were leaving Earth and going into space. So much for overbuilding against the unknown!

Nigel, I get the vibe that Hector's trying to go through long-winded 'normal' protocol when all they need is a quick and dirty fix.

Also, Strelka certainly knows how to get a man in line.
6 . by: Nigel April 18, 2012, 11:01 am

Is...Hector doing something his dad doesn't want him to do? Some sort of back door protocol that may be unsafe?
5 . by: April 18, 2012, 8:54 am

whooo, glad to see those stars out there.
4 . by: Zack April 17, 2012, 7:17 pm

Hi Swift,

A person could learn. Learning languages is more of a novelty instead of a necessity in this, the late 25th century. The network takes care of all communication.

Yuri can't speak common simply because he never learned how to do so.
3 . by: Swift April 17, 2012, 9:30 am

I can't remember if this was answered or not;

Why can't humans speak Common?
2 . by: Swift April 17, 2012, 3:46 am

...maaaaan stuff is srs.
1 . by: Curious Mutt April 17, 2012, 1:44 am

Ha, pornography. I like how they're using those crude little backup translators to communicate with Yuri. Though I assume they can already communicate with each other speaking common, right...?

Poor little Hector.