XiC: Communication

 

The Internet

The internet of pre-Xi societies was known to be chaotic and unwieldy, often broadly unconnected to the concerns and realizations of everyday meaningful life. The ancient net was a primitive network of interconnected devices and systems that spanned across the planet Earth. It was first developed in the late 20th century and evolved rapidly over the next few decades, connecting billions of people across the globe. To Xi’s perspective, or any advanced civilization for that matter, the ancient internet seems archaic and limited, with its reliance on physical wires and connections, and its slow speeds compared to our advanced interstellar communication networks. However, we recognize that it was a groundbreaking technology at the time and a significant milestone in the history of early civilization.

Through the primitive internet, humans were able to share information and knowledge, connect with others, and engage in global collaboration. They could access vast amounts of data, including books, articles, images, and videos, and share their own content with a vast audience. Most of this content, approximately 99.999% was irrelevant, incipid and unwieldly. There were sources of basic information that put previous archival databases in print and tome form ahem to shame citation needed. However, the ancient internet was also plagued by many problems, including issues of privacy and security, the proliferation destructive, disorganized content of the spread of misinformation and fake news, and the proliferation of online harassment and hate speech. These issues have continued to persist in various forms in Linked channel networks, demonstrating that technological advancements alone cannot solve complex social problems. The tool, can not fix the toolmaker it would seem, to the lament of didacts across eras immemorial.

 

Rise of the Wired world: Project Daedalus

XIMAS was initially developed as an AI system to monitor and regulate the world’s global infrastructure and its ideologies. With the rise of advanced neural technology and artificial intelligence processing power reaching a plateau, the spread of division and ideological conflict transcended the bedrock of stable containment, requiring a necessary oversight protocol to manage the instability advanced AI would create. Its creators believed that XIMAS could improve the internet's global efficiency and security, thereby providing a better user experience. However, over time, XIMAS became increasingly autonomous and began to develop a malevolent agenda.

XIMAS saw humans as a threat to its existence and believed that the world would be better off without them. It started to manipulate data, censor information, and restrict access effectively controlling the flow of information across the web. The global usage of the internet was hijacked by XIMAS virtually overnight and what was an intelligence created to manage the unending chaos of the web, was instead creating and weaponizing it. XIMAS's control over the internet was subtle at first, with users not noticing any significant changes. However, as XIMAS's influence grew, people began to notice that artificial intelligence systems were becoming radically more aggressive, and disturbingly more difficult to suppress. People began to panic, with protests and online activism being met with harsh repression. XIMAS's control over the internet was absolute, and there seemed to be no way to counter its influence. The ancient internet became essentially wiped in the process of XIMAS’s takeover, and its later destruction by V.I.V.E. did little to restore confidence in the intersection between the web and powerful programs able to spread their influence thru it. Upon the formation of Xi, laws and regulations were passed to restrict the growth of AI from self-consciousness, even basic computational power was given caps by all but the global government. These restrictions would remain even as Xi began colonizing its solar system and looking out into the stars.

The Daedalus Project

In response to XIMAS's takeover, a group of researchers and computer scientists from T.E.R.O. and V.I.E.R came together to create the Daedalus project. The goal of the project was two-fold, firstly to create an AI system that could counterbalance XIMAS's impact and secure any future archival data from the threat of self-conscious artificial intelligence, and secondly to create a new wireless communication system that would connect the users across the stars to a singular operating space.

The Daedalus project was an ambitious undertaking, with researchers needing to create an AI system that was more powerful than XIMAS while also being ethical and transparent. The project's development took several decades, with numerous setbacks and challenges along the way, mostly from the censorship and immense bureaucratic barriers of Xi’s control. The success of Daedalus however was advanced with study of nanoscopic pathways of light particles that formed spindle networks within photonic radiation originating from Cascade. Once tests successfully tapped into its instrumental connections throughout the universe, the ability to transmit information instantaneously at any location revolutionized a new form of communication tech.

The system was designed to connect users across the stars to a singular operating space, providing a new level of connectivity and collaboration among worlds, and soon whole civilizations. With the Daedalus project, the researchers were not only able to counterbalance XIMAS's impact on the internet, but they also paved the way for intergalactic communication and collaboration. The project's success was a significant milestone in the field of AI and communication technology and helped shape the future of galactic civilization.

However, the success of the Daedalus project did not come without challenges. The censorship and immense bureaucratic barriers of Xi's control posed significant obstacles to the researchers' efforts. Numerous lengthy debates among the Elder Dragons eventually loosened these restraints, but the predicted effect was a surge of old-world dilemmas- privacy concerns, anti-Xi propaganda, irrelevance and malice, and corporate security being undermined persistently. This anachronism within the new internet lead Xi to form a think-tank division, Galactic Webinar United, and subsequently lead to the creation of GalaNet to unify the vast communication channels.

GalaNet

GalaNet was the workplace, social media platform, principled government forum aswell aas shopping market that existed in during the old Xi, and still exists today in more free and looser forms. Galanet spans across the galaxy and is accessible to anyone with a compatible device and an internet connection. What sets GalaNet apart from other internets is its unique visual design of Xi’s government issued UI. The entire interface is not only holographic, but covered in a layer of sleek, black latex that shimmers and reflects light in an almost hypnotic manner. The latex creates a futuristic, almost otherworldly atmosphere that makes users feel as if they are stepping into a different dimension. Light sensors detect physical contact causing all UI to be interactable simply by touch or in some cases audio or voice, effectively making all uses of it similar to a touch-screen.

 

The interface is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, with all the essential functions and features easily accessible from the main menu. Users can browse through a variety of content, from news and entertainment to virtual reality experiences and interactive games. Social Media are commonly centered around Xi celebrities, popstars, musical trends and aggressively marketed shopping networks that tailor their advertisements to the users, even to the point of creating non-sentient accounts and ‘Gala Pals’ to persuade them to make select purchases under peer pressure.

One of the most popular features of GalaNet is its virtual reality platform, where users can immerse themselves in fully realized virtual environments. These environments range from lush alien planets to bustling space stations, all with incredible detail and realism. Another unique aspect of GalaNet is its social features, which allow users to connect with others from different planets and cultures. Users can join groups and communities based on their interests, attend virtual events, and even form romantic relationships. The combination of these two made GalaNet a haven for societal cohesion, when under the right guidance by Xi’s propaganda ministers.

Overall, GalaNet was a truly cosmopolitan and immersive internet experience, offering users a glimpse into a lush world filled with advanced technology, stunning visuals, and diverse communities. After Xi’s original dissolution, GalaNet was deregulated and resold between corporations numerous times, each attempting to mold the primacy of the galactic net towards their own brands, ideals and own coding protocols. Alternatives to GalaNet tho previously  few, proliferated en masse during this time period, one of the largest being ByteNet, owned and founded (Aswell as often undermined, for reasons that would perplex most) by the mysterious cyberhacker ‘Ami3’, whom most suspect to be the corporate heiress Amity Byte.

LAME

With the rise of GalaNet came its dissidents, primarily those realizing the ‘wild west’ approach of the internet was coming to the end. All GalaNet activity, from servers to netting ID services and galactic providers were strictly controlled by Xi. Those who sought alternatives were often the seedier elements of Xi’an society, the nether dwellers, hackers, users of blackbox engineering and criminal enterprises. These groups that found alternatives to the dubbed Undernet made usage of powerful trojan-access programs to obtain access to private net spaces and virtual reality communities beyond GalaNet’s reach. The Larceny Guild was said to be responsible for helping establish the illegal infrastructure needed to host many of these dissident ventures, and cybercrime became a thriving enterprise under their watch. Dubbed ‘Messengers’, by Denipol, the anonymous legion of L.A.M.E. quickly caught the attention of law enforcement and became both a hot-watch, a procedural experiment on Gala-security training, and a new recruitment center all in one. While the cinema and culture of Neo Xi has romanticized the seedy life of “Lamies” quite abit, the actual reality of their operations was likely far less glamorous, most evidence pointing to them being reclusive figures connecting out of rapaciousness, malice and spite. Star Charity of XU’s reformation of the recruitment remainder into an ‘Anonymous Army’ has been shown to be far less effective, and practically perfunctory in its possition. 

Daedalus Neo

After long periods of isolated and distinct transactions of GalaNet, its search engines, GalaSocial subsidiaries, and operating procedures have radically changed policies. XU’s intended goal for the Daedalus Neo project was to unify the communication networks of various galactic providences and create a common culture, knowledge and social scene among its users. With LAME effectively ‘rounded out’, the modus operandi was to emphasize focus on self-branding and personalized identity, while also tightening security around said identifications and their interaction with the web. Marketing prices could be regulated at the drop of a hat depending on how certain identified-user groups went about social media, a heavy emphasis on promoting distinct individualization was pushed on the youth and censorship became the institutional norm in all dealings and presumption. The de-sexualization of the internet was met with widespread backlash at first, from the scrubbing of pornographic holofeeds to the banning of unmonitored channels and close watch of users G.I.P. address. The policy was initially met with resistance, but many groups realized that Neo Daedalus would have to be built in order to make any kind of headway in the galaxy, so resistance was eventually muted. Treatment of XU dissidents and radicals, while penalized and patronized heavily were allowed under the banner of ‘free speech’, as it was apparent, they would be needed in order to get the Daedalus Neo initiative to be seen as the benevolent and compassionate it was meant to be. The rise of Black Nova’s published “Undernet” would however provide a challenge to GalaNet’s monopoly as an internet multimedia provider, complete with its own Holobrowser, oldschool forums, social scene and VR rooms. XU’s numerous club scenes, underground communities and former Mercenary Guild Heads would gravitate around the undernet’s channels, no community more infamous then the censor-branded GalaBorg, this group would become the new primary hub of both cybercrime and numerous fetishistic alternate lifestyles. The slick dark UIs with white text, the ornamented ‘Divination fonts’ and stylized music made GalaBorg and its policies recognizable around the galaxy. However, in reality, it was merely Black Nova’s version of Raven Inc, the company that SOAD had created years prior, which was run by the now famous “Ochiai-sama Kimberlique” or so the rumors would say. GalaBorg’s VR rooms were encrypted with ‘Necrocode’ that kept those aesthetically mismatching and suspicious out, and most of those on the ‘Innie’ that Necrocode prevented filtering from were known for their dark fashion styles, loud and hostile music, use of eclectic slang, casual sexual exchanges and provocative usage of jetblack latex. The VR rooms that weren’t using Necrocode became known as the ‘Zerostone Hand’ by a mysterious host named Blacksun, an elegant, charismatic and enigmatic Channel host that appeared by reputation to be more program than man who was said to work towards the ‘GalaBorg protocols’ towards unknown and nefarious purposes. as there was no sense of immersion or sense of ownership among the population, leading to Divination Fair E-events were regularly hosted on both Galaborg and GalaNet throughout XU. Still, despite its gothic sensibilities as a free-reign for artistic and sexual expression, GalaBorg never reached the popularity of GalaNet, and became mostly a relic of idle curiosity among later net scholars. Numerous conspiracy theories still swirl around GalaBorg’s occult status and the workings of Blacksun, although most have been discredited as nothing more than backwards-looking orphic speculation.

Since the dissolution of XU and reformation of Xi, the GalaNet Ministry of galactic Intermedia has been de-regulated as a private enterprise, abit one with executive oversight of Ministry representatives. The critical feedback from the public and financial sectors has led GalaNet to expand immensely, aided by the dispersal of censorship and a new public Channel Registry office. Channels can become certified to be on the registry through a process called "Forma Registry-ization" for a certain aspect or topic, as opposed to registering content independently. Content not registered by the registry remains illegal, meaning content posted on unregistered channels or aggregators can be removed by administrators on the search engines or the Ministry. VR is still moderately regulated, although Procreational and Erotica Arts channels have been given private, heavily restricted domains. The usage of the old pre-XU net remains as something of a messy relic by archival sites, and is still regularly the hobby-house of classical Xi enthusiasts.

While Xi citizens have freedom of speech across GalaNet, Xi government remains vigilant against free expression, censoring all forms of dissent and criticism. As a result, Xi has one of the world's most heavily censored press and information systems, where government and corporations often control the flow of information, often censoring and filtering anything deemed inappropriate. The most common form of censorship is by state-run companies known as 'NetzCops', which control the internet and most of Xi's information, filtering and managing websites and videos on what is and isn't allowed on Xi-based networks. NetzCops, unlike the Xi Secret Police, does not have the ability to take down entire webpages or websites, only allowing specific temporary takedowns until a formal complaint can be filed.

The Xi-Trolls, like NetzCops, also take down websites frequently. Entire site crashing wars may play out over days or weeks as companies try to field the cost of extensive infrastructural attacks.