[Okay, this borrows very extensively from the futuristic roleplaying games of Cyberpunk and Shadowrun, as well as -hopefully- paying a bit of homage to visionaries such as William Gibson et al, but I don't think the story will be any the worse for this].
Setting (approx. 2100 AD):
Towards the mid-2000's, social strife and inequality had reached 'boiling point' in many countries, including the USA, the Eurozone countries, parts of Africa and most of Asia.
Eventually, the additional pressures of world overpopulation, the spiralling costs of fuels and overcrowding in the world's biggest cities spilled out onto the streets into mass protests, looting and rioting and confrontations between between the public and the authorities.
Against this backdrop of world upheaval and the UN's failure to deal with it, old nationalistic hatreds of religion and race (as well as simple races for territory and natural resources) came to the fore, embroiling most of the rest of the world, either internally or in armed conflict with neighbouring states.
After 4 years of turmoil (during which 3 nuclear warheads had been deployed), the national governments eventually restored control and a sense of normality returned.
However thanks to various countries' passing of "Acts of Extra-territoriality" in a rush for money, fuel and food, the main change has been that corporations how held a lot more power than they had previously done and several of the biggest (known as 'Megacorporations') now own -and govern- their own territories without regard for neighbouring national laws.
Thanks to the (largely good) reputation of the corporations, as well as the deals that they have struck with governments, technology has come on in leaps and bounds in the intervening hujndred years and things which the 21st Century population could only dream about have now hit the high street and the media in a big way and are still a source of intense consumer spending.
Now, people who have been seriously injured can return to work quicker than ever due to nanotechnology, although this is still the province of the rich and well-connected.
It is very rare to find anyone who lives in a city who is without access to a computer (or three) and much of education has been provided online for the last 2 decades, rendering schools nearly obsolete.
In addition, the never-ending desires for personal enhancement and to be different (coupled with advances in microtronics) have led to the development of 'cyberware'...the implanting of functioning technological devices directly into the human body.
Initially, this was as simple as have your MP7 player implanted into your ear (often so that rebellious teens could listen to music whilst pretending to listen to their parents' latest lecture) but it now also encompasses affordable replacement limbs for accident victims, as well as for uninjured people who are victims of fashion (just don't ask what happens to the fully-functioning limbs which have been removed in favour of ones made of metal and plastic).
The invention of the 'encephalon' device in 2080 (pioneered in '73 for the military) has finally provided mankind with a means to control most types of machines (including industrial processes, personal transportation and entertainment) with the power of the mind alone, simply by plugging these devices into sockets which have been implanted in their bodies.
Following a worldwide computer virus which hit during the 40's, a replacement was needed for the ageing 'world wide web' concept.
The telephone and cable companies joined forces to come up with a 'generic concept matrix' for computer software which is still followed today: Instead of using scrolling text and tedious 'point and click' and 'search engine' technology, the Internet was replaced with a series of generic icons ('The Net' or 'Matrix') which have made it much easier to find information and to access products and services.
This has meant that the majority of data transfer between companies and their transactions are carried out over the Net.
Although companies and organisations are responsible for the security of their own sites and for the security of data and sales, very few policing methods are required for the Net as a whole, as the system is generally viewed as impossible to corrupt; the couple of attempts which have been made to subvert the whole system have been very publically (and lethally) put down at an early stage.
The Net is viewed as an ancient third person shoot'em-up game, with a stylised character (representing the user) in the foreground and other people who are looking at similar records also beinfg displayed as characters. (Often, a user will be protrayed as generic 'stick person' image, but you can pay for -or design- specific images for yourself).
Computers can still be controlled throught the ancient 'mouse and keyboard' method.
However, most people use either gloves and a headset [a la 'Johnny Mnemonic'], or control their PC's with their minds by jacking in.
This ease of access to technology has invariably meant that -although the technology is largely sound and functioning- there are more users and this poses more of a threat to the security of information, money and personal data.
As a result, all companies have developed software (referred to as 'Intrusion Countermeasures', 'I.C.' for short. or as "ice" in the vernacular) to keep out the data-thieves and hackers and this comes in three varieties:
"White IC" is non-damaging and non-threatening, such as requiring a password for someone to get access to data.
"Grey IC" relates to non-damaging software which will try to kick a hacker out of the computer system completely and/or which often also tries to trace where the hacker is calling from so that they can be reported to the authorities and identified in the future.
"Black IC" relates to software which can acutally damage a computer's memory, erasing files, data stored or just destroying the PC itself. There are rmuours that, if someone is jacked in, they can be physically injured by Black IC, although this may merely be anti-corporate scaremongering.
The mantra of the neon-glare world of 2100 is definitely: "newer, smaller, faster, better, sleeker"...
Setting (approx. 2100 AD):
Towards the mid-2000's, social strife and inequality had reached 'boiling point' in many countries, including the USA, the Eurozone countries, parts of Africa and most of Asia.
Eventually, the additional pressures of world overpopulation, the spiralling costs of fuels and overcrowding in the world's biggest cities spilled out onto the streets into mass protests, looting and rioting and confrontations between between the public and the authorities.
Against this backdrop of world upheaval and the UN's failure to deal with it, old nationalistic hatreds of religion and race (as well as simple races for territory and natural resources) came to the fore, embroiling most of the rest of the world, either internally or in armed conflict with neighbouring states.
After 4 years of turmoil (during which 3 nuclear warheads had been deployed), the national governments eventually restored control and a sense of normality returned.
However thanks to various countries' passing of "Acts of Extra-territoriality" in a rush for money, fuel and food, the main change has been that corporations how held a lot more power than they had previously done and several of the biggest (known as 'Megacorporations') now own -and govern- their own territories without regard for neighbouring national laws.
Thanks to the (largely good) reputation of the corporations, as well as the deals that they have struck with governments, technology has come on in leaps and bounds in the intervening hujndred years and things which the 21st Century population could only dream about have now hit the high street and the media in a big way and are still a source of intense consumer spending.
Now, people who have been seriously injured can return to work quicker than ever due to nanotechnology, although this is still the province of the rich and well-connected.
It is very rare to find anyone who lives in a city who is without access to a computer (or three) and much of education has been provided online for the last 2 decades, rendering schools nearly obsolete.
In addition, the never-ending desires for personal enhancement and to be different (coupled with advances in microtronics) have led to the development of 'cyberware'...the implanting of functioning technological devices directly into the human body.
Initially, this was as simple as have your MP7 player implanted into your ear (often so that rebellious teens could listen to music whilst pretending to listen to their parents' latest lecture) but it now also encompasses affordable replacement limbs for accident victims, as well as for uninjured people who are victims of fashion (just don't ask what happens to the fully-functioning limbs which have been removed in favour of ones made of metal and plastic).
The invention of the 'encephalon' device in 2080 (pioneered in '73 for the military) has finally provided mankind with a means to control most types of machines (including industrial processes, personal transportation and entertainment) with the power of the mind alone, simply by plugging these devices into sockets which have been implanted in their bodies.
Following a worldwide computer virus which hit during the 40's, a replacement was needed for the ageing 'world wide web' concept.
The telephone and cable companies joined forces to come up with a 'generic concept matrix' for computer software which is still followed today: Instead of using scrolling text and tedious 'point and click' and 'search engine' technology, the Internet was replaced with a series of generic icons ('The Net' or 'Matrix') which have made it much easier to find information and to access products and services.
This has meant that the majority of data transfer between companies and their transactions are carried out over the Net.
Although companies and organisations are responsible for the security of their own sites and for the security of data and sales, very few policing methods are required for the Net as a whole, as the system is generally viewed as impossible to corrupt; the couple of attempts which have been made to subvert the whole system have been very publically (and lethally) put down at an early stage.
The Net is viewed as an ancient third person shoot'em-up game, with a stylised character (representing the user) in the foreground and other people who are looking at similar records also beinfg displayed as characters. (Often, a user will be protrayed as generic 'stick person' image, but you can pay for -or design- specific images for yourself).
Computers can still be controlled throught the ancient 'mouse and keyboard' method.
However, most people use either gloves and a headset [a la 'Johnny Mnemonic'], or control their PC's with their minds by jacking in.
This ease of access to technology has invariably meant that -although the technology is largely sound and functioning- there are more users and this poses more of a threat to the security of information, money and personal data.
As a result, all companies have developed software (referred to as 'Intrusion Countermeasures', 'I.C.' for short. or as "ice" in the vernacular) to keep out the data-thieves and hackers and this comes in three varieties:
"White IC" is non-damaging and non-threatening, such as requiring a password for someone to get access to data.
"Grey IC" relates to non-damaging software which will try to kick a hacker out of the computer system completely and/or which often also tries to trace where the hacker is calling from so that they can be reported to the authorities and identified in the future.
"Black IC" relates to software which can acutally damage a computer's memory, erasing files, data stored or just destroying the PC itself. There are rmuours that, if someone is jacked in, they can be physically injured by Black IC, although this may merely be anti-corporate scaremongering.
The mantra of the neon-glare world of 2100 is definitely: "newer, smaller, faster, better, sleeker"...
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