The Cortex - Internet, Multivac or Big Brother? by SpaceAnJL

BLUE SUN ROOM

The Cortex - Internet, Multivac or Big Brother?

POSTED BY: SPACEANJL
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 01:00
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Saturday, September 8, 2007 8:06 AM

I can't quite get a handle on the level of the technology of the future. Is the Cortex just a form of the internet, a communications system with research capacity? Or is it the only, and rather tightly-controlled, media system in operation?

There's something a bit more sinister going on, because all those screens that show ads are also recording and sending info back to somewhere. (And folks like Mal and the Rample twins know it.) Retinal scans are used for identification. So, to me, this says that anywhere that has a Cortex screen has the capacity to track and find someone. Very 'Minority Report'. So...when Mal uses the Cortex to wave Bernoulli or Patience, is this picked up by some monitoring station? Is the 'freedom' Mal craves just an illusion?

Is it governmental monitoring? Or commodity based, like 'M.R'? And how the hell do you avoid something that prevalent? (I have my own ideas, as I always do, but I'm curious...)

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Saturday, September 8, 2007 12:07 PM

NCBROWNCOAT

Quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAnJL:
I can't quite get a handle on the level of the technology of the future. Is the Cortex just a form of the internet, a communications system with research capacity? Or is it the only, and rather tightly-controlled, media system in operation?

There's something a bit more sinister going on, because all those screens that show ads are also recording and sending info back to somewhere. (And folks like Mal and the Rample twins know it.) Retinal scans are used for identification. So, to me, this says that anywhere that has a Cortex screen has the capacity to track and find someone. Very 'Minority Report'. So...when Mal uses the Cortex to wave Bernoulli or Patience, is this picked up by some monitoring station? Is the 'freedom' Mal craves just an illusion?

Is it governmental monitoring? Or commodity based, like 'M.R'? And how the hell do you avoid something that prevalent? (I have my own ideas, as I always do, but I'm curious...)

OK, here goes and it based completely on speculation and a little bit of info in the RPG game.

The Cortex seems to be a combination of Internet, entertainment (media like movies and what TV will be)and communication. All in one instead of fragmented like it is now.

It seems that only the Cortex units in public areas like the Maidenhead do function as security cameras. I wouldn't think personal Cortex units would broadcast like the public ones. Maybe if you have some sort of recorder for your boat or house it would be recorded. The shear amount of data would likely prevent it.

Unless of course you're a super hackers like Mr. Universe, who knows "the truth of the signal" and has every electronic gadget and seemingly unlimited funds.

http://fireflyfaninnc.livejournal.com/

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Saturday, September 8, 2007 3:26 PM

NBZ

According to the firefly movie draft script, The cortex unit in the maidenhead was supposed to keep a local copy of the feed only.

Mr Universe only got hold of it because it was broadcast from the local copy to some probably military unit.

The cortex is probably not too much more than what the internet is becoming now. Voip/communication? Check. downloadable content/streaming? check. Broadcasting? check.

As with all things like this, there is always the possibility to hide in the masses. Like an "untraceable" GSM phone will be hidden in a city. However go into a rural area, and you are like a beacon. (some terrorist guy got caught a few years ago for using one in the third world - he did not cotton it was a numbers game.)

In the same way, the stuff can hide very easily. Then you can have encryption or other code, and it become a numbers game once again. It can be cracked, but is the price worth it?

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Sunday, September 9, 2007 6:12 AM

SPACEANJL

So, if it is one system, who runs and or administers it? Who decides what is fit to broadcast? (I'm thinking of the Blue Sun drinks commercial being shown on the Space Bazaar.) Is there a central Alliance Broadcasting Company, that accepts advertising on its channels? And of course, there would be pirate radio stations. (I am now seeing Wash a la Dodgeball and something Depp-like...I wish I wasn't...) Anyway -

The Gibson freak in me has become overly excited by the possibilites inherent here.

You Can't Stop The Signal...but you can hack it, suppress it or ride a little sublim adblip on the back of it, I'm thinking.

And if you do show up on the system if you wave from outside a populous zone, that raises some very interesting points about freedom. In 'Finding serenity', there is a very interesting article on the same.

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Sunday, September 9, 2007 6:29 AM

NBZ

If we take the modern internet as a guide stick, I would suggest it may be decentralised i.e no one company fully controlling access to it.

The "core" infrastructure on the other hand would need to be laid down, and that could be expensive. So, much of the core infrastructure could be controlled by one company.

I would hazard a guess this is linked to the navsats - to be of any use in a moving (multi)solar system, their locations would need to be predictable. Since there is one infrastructure here already, why not use it as a backbone for another? (link the two together and things get a little scary...)

Outside this "core" infrastructure, things could be more adhoc, depending on who is providing access and how. A world may have one connection to the cortex, which is then split up to allow greater access (using the same bandwidth). Think wireless internet.

For me, the Cortex IS the internet. Everything that the cortex is suggested as being able to do, the internet can do it now, or will be able to within a few very short years.

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Sunday, September 9, 2007 6:35 AM

LEIASKY

>Alliance Broadcasting Company,

ABC . . .

Am I the only oddball that got a chuckle out of that?

"A government is a body of people usually notably ungoverned."

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Sunday, September 9, 2007 6:43 AM

SPACEANJL

Or it could be something like...

First Orbital Xenolith Broadcasting

Y'know, a monolithic corporate entity that cancels anything that shows the slightest spark of originality...

*xenolith - stone or rock occuring in a system to which it does not belong. Kind of like the 2001 monolith, but with advertising...

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Wednesday, September 12, 2007 2:30 AM

WYTCHCROFT

i think the cortex is an umbrella that contains lots of seperate info loops and systems - as the alliance expands so it begins to fall victim to entropy, become easier to penetrate and harder to police.

Mr Universe can crack into pretty much anything once it gets up to military level - but small/local/domestic information would be the hardest.

tech wise - i think the central - high alliance elements are very hi-tech but the cortex as a whole has patches, bodges and antiquated bolt ons galore. Anyone remember the truck guy in Max Headroom???

just realised i'm probably not adding much so i'll stumble off muttering - stumble mumble etc...

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Tuesday, September 18, 2007 1:00 AM

SPACEANJL

Oh, yeah, I remember Max Headroom. Now you've started something very bad in my head, to go with all the other Corefic ideas.

Having seen D Krumholtz in Numb3rs, I actually have more of an idea of what Mr Universe might have been as a recurring character.

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