AI is a vague category. Whatever Horace is (I didn't specify too much...), "he" is not (yet?) up to Skynet levels.
Canada has a bigger territory (Alaska!), more population (result of longer settlement), and of course its colonial empire around the Pacific, but is just a second-rate power compared to the Big Three. Anything else would be an illusion.
Magnus? I guess he likes neither too much.
Now to the new stories, and this time, it's a bigger pack.
The current Top 10 charts list in Germany (1993, 2nd week of July - chart position in the previous week in brackets)
10. (10.) Snotty Bugs (Canadian fun rock band)
9. (7.) Pinselchen (a blonde with short hair, looks somewhat 1980ish)
8. (9.) Gundula (tall blonde, cool to arrogant)
7. (-) Michaela (quite political singer, sides with the Menschenhelfer scene and similar groups)
6. (5.) Sina (more into cabaret, satirical stuff)
5. (6.) Bettina (blonde girl-next-door)
4. (3.) Oily-Moily (boy band, cult among gays)
3. (4.) Nalân (of Turkish origin, long dark curls, belly-dances at her concerts, stands for everything starting with e- and ending with -otic)
2. (2.) Cornelia (sweet little brunette)
1. (1.) Anjaka (from the city of Berlin, real name is Anja Krabbe; in her latest video she dances naked, but bodypainted in the national colors of black, red and gold before the scenery of her home city Berlin)
(Seems to me that female singers who don't use their last names are very popular at the moment.)
In the 10s, Germany and China were brothers in arms.
In the 20s, Germany and China were the best buddies, and nothing could ever separate them from each other.
In the 30s, Germany and China were good friends, and would always stay together.
In the 40s, Germany and China had sympathies for each other, although both went their own way.
In the 50s, Germany and China had a friendly relationship.
In the 60s, Germany and China were competitors, but respected each other.
In the 70s, Germany and China were hard competitors, but didn't break certain rules of peace.
In the 80s, Germany and China managed not to make war with each other.
In the 90s, Germany and China...
Various stuff from Chaos TL's popular culture:
Most popular TV series in Germany at the moment: "Die Kampfkatze" [1]
This is another action-based show, which protagonist is a woman versed in martial arts, wearing a black, vaguely Gestapo-looking coat. She looks a bit like Kate Beckinsale on the cover of the Underworld movie. (I can't tell more about the show since I only saw some stills. See the first story of this thread to know what I mean.)
[1] Lit: "fighting cat" or "catfighter", but ITTL German this doesn't have the connotation as catfight has in our world.
A new phenomenon: Industrial Age nostalgia
Experts for the history of religions claim that the biblical story of the lost paradise really refers to when the hunter-and-gatherer societies (of which they claim that people in it only had to work three hours per day to find enough food, in opposition to the much harder life of peasants - hence the biblical words of "In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life" and "By the sweat of your face will you eat bread").
During the later Roman republic and the empire, many philosophers and others stated that people had lived better when their society still had been one made of yeomen, other than in the decadent present.
During Rinascita, the medieval people looked back in desire to this very Rome, which they now rated totally different.
And even later, people also made the medieval times an object of nostalgia - whether they were Christians remembering them as a time when people were more pious, or Russians longing for the greatness of the Kievan Rus, or German monarchists looking back to Friedrich II and Barbarossa. Or simply Midworld-fanboys and -girls visiting Renaissance Fairs.
Considering this, it probably wasn't exactly a miracle that nostalgia for the Industrial Age also would appear, given enough time. The 'net culture (especially in the Russian lands) already had been fascinated with the Revolution of Communication thanks to the telegraph that happened in 18th century; Socialist Britain also exalted the Industrial Revolution in its own way; various books and (roleplaying) games followed [1].
But some see a deeper meaning in this too: According to them, this new nostalgia is based on the dream of a world where new inventions completely changed society, and the chance to become famous as a lone genius - which was sheer impossible in a world where the scientific community couldn't be ignored and scientists *had* to work in teams to make any success.
[1] Think about the anime Steamboy, or the whole steampunk genre IOTL.
The newest fad: Nostrology
This came into existence after personality quizzes of the form "Which animal / fantasy race / color are you?" spread through the Weltsystem. From its intention half-serious, half for fun, its various forms became so well known that people even used to talk about their nostrological signs on parties and use them to approach members of their preferred sex (most popular: the animal version, also thanks to the similar concept of the Twelve Chinese animal signs, which was spread by various wan-tu comics - although in the west, some unpopular animals like rat and pig were exchanged for fox and lion). The name comes from the ending -logy as in astrology, numerology and so on, and the word noster (Latin: "our") to show that this was a genuine invention of the 'net community.
The newest joke genre:
If ... talked like ... (frex: If managers talked like physicists)
Excerpt from a fantasy novel:
The patrician of the great city, Lord Vetinari, and Hauptmann Mumm of the City Watch looked at the party that was taking place in the Great Room.
"What do you think if you look at these people talking,
Hauptmann?" Vetinari asked.
Everyone's guilty of something, and in many cases, I even have proof, but I can't arrest them because they're too powerful, Mumm thought. Aloud he said, "I don't know,
Herr."
"I think of it as a billard game", the patrician said. "You shoot a ball, which hits other ones, and those again hit other balls. Everything moves, but the direction you had intended can change, and it may even turn into the completely opposite direction."
Magnus Finster is sitting at his computer. He's not a boy anymore - soon, he'll have finished school (even if it's not the technical school). After the army, he wants to study computer science, or at least work in this field. It's practically a natural thing for him - he already spends most of his wake time on the computer.
Many people who call themselves Logos simply don't want anything else but wreak as much havoc as they can, against people they don't like, or not even against anyone in particular. The real Logos, who're more interested in writing good programs and testing out the possibilities of computers call them
Illogos [1].
At first, he starts a few programs to hide his identity in the network. Now he's ready for today's "work". There's a bit he has to do in this forum he discovered recently - "ZG.bnl". He enters his nickname - "Fynstr". Maybe not the best one, but it does the job.
Fynstr doesn't waste time with looking at the new posts, but goes directly to the member list and picks out the profile of one member. "Dieter Waas", 38 years old, according to some of his posts working for the government at Zürich, capital of Upper Switzerland.
A click on a small icon in the shape of a stick figure, and a new window opens on the screen.
Fynstr: Hallo Dieter!
Dieter Waas: Hi... Fynstr, whatsup?
Fynstr: I've lurked in this forum for a long time, but now I've decided to join because I wanted to have a talk with the guy who tells all the lesbian stories. ;-)
Dieter Waas: Seems I've converted another one.
Of course, you're aware that being the latest n00b, you'll have to cook the coffe for the next two weeks?
Fynstr: Waitamoment. Actually, I've got a new story for you. It's about some net friends of mine. But it's not free, you'll have to do me a small favor.
Dieter Waas: A favor? Let's see, Fynstr-boy. Now tell your story.
[1] Pun on "illegal" and Logo. Just like with hackers and crackers IOTL.
Cyprus. The traditional, more-or-less neutral place where Greater Judea and the Socialist Block meet for trade, negotiations and whatnot.
Tatjana leaves the airplane, taking a look at the view. Since the last time she visited the place, they've installed lots of Artificial Intelligence and nanotechnology - almost invisible for average people, but clearly remarkable for those who know about, like her. She gives the place her usual, undecipherable smile. So today she'll meet with the Socialist delegation, to talk about the deal for the new generation of brainchips. It's the first time she'll meet them in person.
The place is full of people - Greeks, Jews, Arabs, Italians, Turks, Armenians, and the ubiquitous Germans and Chinese. Under normal circumstances, it'd be impossible to find someone here. But with today's technology...
Tatjana sends a thought to the computer system of the airport, and also activates a subroutine that creates in her one contact lens an overlay with pointers to wherever her business partners are - and while she's at it, to the more interesting shops in the airport too. Now if only the Reds were smart enough to use the system too... but since a highly visible red arrow appears on her sight, it seems they were. Finding them is a no-brainer now.
The leader of the delegation is a man who seems to be Italian, but her glimpse falls immediately on the big guy who walks behind him. Sure, it would be difficult to overlook him anyway. It's quite unusual for her to have to look up to a man - more than 6 feet tall, she has scared away numerous men (East Asians, North Africans, Southern Europeans) just because of this fact. This guy however...
At the moment, he is just fascinated. Clearly, there's no other woman like her in the world. It's not so much her purple, strangely cut dress - there are enough other women around here in expensive clothes. And yes, it's decadent (he can't deny the influence all the hours of Socialist propaganda had on him). But her long, wavy, brunette hair flying through the air although the wind isn't stirring, her green eyes, and her catlike movements... she doesn't really look like it, but he has to think of her as the living embodiment of the Kampfkatze [1]. (Yes, the Logos in the Block like to watch that too.)
Half an hour later, they sit in the best restaurant of Lefkosia. The men've opened the first bottle of Cypriote wine, while Tatjana drinks vodka, strangely.
"So... who of you gentleman was so intelligent to register your arrival in the airport system?" she asks.
"That would be Kristian here", the delegation leader answers for him. "He's our computer expert."
"Kristian? Ah, so that's your name..."
Two hours later. Except for Topper and the delegation leader, the others already left for the hotel. The negotiations continue.
Suddenly, the maitre d' approaches the table, addressing the leader. "Excuse me, sir? I've got a very urgent message for you." He bends down onto the Italian and whispers a few words in his ear. The man goes silent, almost jumps up and follows the head waiter very quickly. For a short while, they're alone.
"It seems that he got a phonecall from Rome - his wife is sick, or the bosses want his ass, or the Colosseum is burning, something like that", Tatjana grins. "As I said - with a brainchip, you can spend your evening in a nice restaurant and do business in the Weltsystem at the same time."
Kris leans over. "Lady... I am impressed."
"So - is there something you want to ask me in private?" She means it half jokingly, half seriously.
"How is your life in Judea? How is it having your own business - and no boss? Or does the state somehow interfere in your life? Do you have to pay many taxes?"
"Don't get me started about taxes! Argh! I could run away if someone mentions it! Why does everyone believe today that raising taxes can solve all the problems in the world?"
Topper looks down (well, he has to): "I don't."
"Pardon me?"
"I don't believe it. Just among us, I'm no Socialist either."
She looks at him. "Eh? You lived all your life in the Block, and suddenly you decided you didn't like it anymore?"
And Topper starts to tell his tale...
[1] See post above.
Kristian is at his place in the House of Tomorrow, as he is most of his time, except when sleeping (and sometimes even then). Not that he particularly enjoys it anymore, but he doesn't have anything better to do either.
Sometimes he's still playing games with Horace the AI, but even that isn't as much fun as it was years ago. Of course, at this time Heiner, Ludger and Jupp were still around. Yes, the other three guys... Jupp was eight years ago caught by the political police. (Topper even could find out for what they got him, but didn't want to research what had happened to him.) Five years ago, Heiner went mad and was returned to Germany, where he got an easier work - peat harvesting in East Frisia. And three years ago Ludger went away - he went to the sea, apparently just for some swimming, and never returned. Most others were satisfied with this explanation, but Topper isn't. - Among the folks from England and the other nations, there have been losses too, and of course new folks from Germany arrived in the HoT too, but somehow Kristian feels lonely nowadays.
He continues with his calculation. It's about theory of complexity [1], a problem having to do with a chaotic, dynamical complex. He looks at its 2D representation in the computer: Two points are marked, the two gravitors [2] of the complex. Now he starts coloring the area, one part in red, one part in blue. Depending on where you start, the state of the complex will either tend towards the one gravitor, or the other one, thus the two colors. In most cases, that is. But there are cases too when it takes longer. Now if you imagine that one gravitor stands for success, and the other one for failure, and stretch the time from a few seconds to some decades, you could take the complex as an abstract representation of human life, which either turns out good, or bad, and if neither is the case, it means that you're one of those people who hang around in their life, not falling in the abyss, but gazing into it, until you either finally fall, or manage the saving escape in the last minute...
Better stop thinking like that. He has enough work to do. In a few days, he has to go to Cyprus, to the conference. Things have to be prepared. Why him? Knowing the superiors, he guesses that it was simply because he didn't do anything suspicious. (At least, he wasn't caught for it.)
[1] OTL cybernetics, the science of systems (like ecosystems).
[2] IOTL we'd talk about attractors.
"...so that's it. I was fed up with Freemlin' the program, so I thought about how a society would develop if you tried to achieve material equality among people. The simulation included everything - economical, social, scientific and psychological aspects."
"So that's what you're doing all the day? And the result was, what?"
"Well, it was not very pleasant, so to speak."
How can a disillusioned seven-feet man from the Socialist Block and a lesbian from hyper-monetarist Judea fall in love with each other?
Seems some things can only be explained by what the Logos call (their special humor...) "black magic".
Fynstr: So, that was the story. Did you like it?
Dieter Waas: Well, it was uncommon, but Lesbians are always cool
So, what's the favor you wanted?
Fynstr: A few days ago, you told me of the party you were having in your office. I just wanted to ask: Did you make some photos? I'd like to see them.
Dieter Waas: Photos? No problem, just a moment, here's the net address...
While Dieter keeps talking on screen about said party, some hundred photos are copied to - not Fynstr's computer, but some other place in the Weltsystem, where people can store their photos to keep them hidden. Recently a shadow of doubt was cast on said place by the users because of a claim that the owners of the place used compression programs to save on server storage, since most of the people just store identical 3D photos of nude women anyway... Fynstr guesses the opposite though, since you need bigger data nowadays to break your quota. A whole database for example. But now to the next step.
In Germany, Artificial Intelligence is very sophisticated (they're smart enough to do most of the service work after all), but you only get to look at the code if the bosses or the government know who you are and where you live. Other countries, however, like Braseal...
Fynstr has everything ready. The pattern recognition program was downloaded and compiled a while ago, and he already tested it with some self-made pictures. Then he goes through the party photos - in such a big office, someone simply must've left a note with a password on the monitor...
He selects about two dozen photos that could work and has them processed by the program. The letter recognition software spits the results out... "Buy milk, bread, apples and muesli"; "call Kerstin"; a list of telephone numbers... but nothing he could need.
Damn. He goes through the photos of people dancing on tables and drinking from bottles again. Some of them are pretty tilted. No wonder. But if the photos are like that, the program can't make out written texts.
So he again searches the Weltsystem for pattern recognition software. Soon, he finds something: A program for finding out in which angle a picture (of a normal environment) is titled. Of course, walls and trees are always vertical, that helps. Now if you use this new program to find out the angles for the corresponding photos, rotate them as much as necessary, you will get new pictures that will be standing straight, if a bit grainy. But now it could work...
One problem solved, a new one immediately appears. For some reason, the new program crashes once he tries to feed it the pictures. But why? He reads the FAQ, can't find an answer. He takes a look at the source code, which doesn't help either. And he isn't accustomed to the programming language, so he only can rely on the comments anyway. At least they're in German.
But there's no way out, he has to contact someone else for help. And since such a specialized program doesn't have a big user community, he has to hope that its maker can help.
A homepage. Another dialog...
Fynstr: Hello Fernando!
Fernando55: Oi Fynstr!
Fynstr: Excuse me... I was working with your program, but there've been problems.
Fernando55: Which one? I've written at least a dozen
Fynstr: That one program for finding out verticals on photos.
Fernando55: W? [1]
Fynstr: W. You have an idea?
Fernando55: What's your operating system?
...
Together, they go through it, and find out that the version Fynstr is using indeed has a glitch. He'll add a patch, and Fernando can add the problem as solved to his FAQ.
Some hours have passed. He can see through his garret window how the sky is starting to light up. But he doesn't want to look at a great Swiss sunrise now. He is so close to his aim now, he doesn't want to wait for tomorrow.
There are two ways to break in a computer system. The first way only works if you have the source code - and some bit about the principles of computer security, operating systems, networks and maybe cryptography too, which a talented individual can learn in, let's say, five years, if you don't have anything else to do. Still reason enough for the most bosses not to use open-source software. The second way relies on existing mistakes in software, which can be exploited by a few well-known ways. And if it's about software errors, WersTHand [2] has never disappointed people like him. It's just a few steps: Check which version the operating system is - look for known glitches of it in the Weltsystem - use one of them to get all the rights you want. The rest is but a common data retrieval.
SELECT departments FROM main_database [3]
> ...
> Custom
> Political Police
> Criminal Police
> ...
SELECT full_name FROM political_police_database WHERE assignment IN (SELECT assignment FROM political_police_database WHERE date=5. 6. 1981 AND place=...)
> ...
A warning program gives a beep. For a second, Fynstr is almost paralyzed, but then he's aware again. Seems someone is watching what he's doing in the other computer. Maybe he made a mistake doing it the hard way, not using the friendly interface - who except a sysadmin or maybe a programmer would do so today? Quickly, he cuts the connection, not without leaving a message as his distinctive mark - "Schmöcksch, wie's töötelet?" [4]
Of course it's sometimes dangerous. But now he's got the data he's searched for so long: Ignaz Schuhmann. That's the name of the policeman who arrested his brother.
He murmurs to himself: "Brother - you have believed in the international brotherhood of workers, but I've found a real international brotherhood."
[1] "W" and "F" (short for "wahr" = true and "falsch" = false) are the jokers of Logo slang, so to speak. They can mean, depending on context:
W: "That's true", "There's proof for that", "q.e.d.", "Yes", "You're right", "I'm right!", "I swear!", or here "Is this true?"
F: "I don't believe that", "This contains a logical contradiction", "No", "He lies", "That doesn't make sense", "That doesn't fit my experience"
They even are used as sign language: W (three Fingers pointing up) and F (Hand held horizontally, two Fingers stretched out)
[2] Real name is Werstand. People ITTL write names of firms they consider too greedy with TH in place of T's, since TH is the abbreviation for Thaler, the German currency. IOTL they'd write Wer$tand instead.
[3] In short: Fynstr is looking for the policeman who was on duty on June 5th, 1981 in his village. The names from the database were translated into English.
[4] Swiss German for (roughly) "Do you feel the creeping death?"
Of course, you're aware that being the latest n00b, you'll have to cook the coffe for the next two weeks? 