At the moment, we're in the process of auditioning voice actors for Technobabylon. Because of the way I write, I use lots of complicated/foreign/made-up words, and have to provide a guide to the meaning, use and pronunciation of them. Perhaps you'd like a look at a few? Don't worry, there shouldn't be much in the way of spoilers...
Automeal
An automated
food-dispensing/producing machine. People don't do a great deal of
their own cooking in the future.
Case Specialist
CEL likes to use
euphemisms to describe the roles of its staff. A case specialist
refers to those we might call “detectives” at the moment, whose
expertise in a particular area makes them more likely to be assigned
to a given case.
e.g. “We need to
get a case specialist on this, someone with a background in wetware.”
CEL – Centralized
Emergency Logistics
[“Cell”, like
the organic structure]
Umbrella agency
handling the city's emergency responses, civil order and law
enforcement. Coordinated by the city's overseer AI, Central. A
combination of police, fire, rescue and counter-terrorism, though it
does its best to keep its operations invisible.
e.g. “My name's Dr
Regis, I'm a CEL agent.”
Central
AI controller for the
city. Though it doesn't set policy, it executes that laid down by the
governing committee in the most optimally efficient way possible.
Appears to have a limited personality, but there's more going on
upstairs than most people realise.
Gas Chromatograph
A chemical sensor used
to break down and determine the contents of a substance or surface.
Gengineer,
Gengineering
[Jen-jineer,
gene-gineer]
Portmanteau of
“genetics” and “engineering”, referring to the specialist
practice of modification of organisms' DNA to produce desired results
that may not have otherwise occurred naturally, such as the addition
of firefly proteins to grass to create glow-in-the-dark lawns.
e.g. “I'm a
qualified gengineer, but my speciality is insects.”
Governor
Implanted into the
brain and limbic systems of paroled criminals, produces reaction of
violent sickness and immobility when thoughts stray too close towards
violence or deceit. Kind of a technological “Clockwork Orange”
effect.
Han, Greater Han
Republic
Ethno-Fascist nation
within the territory of the former People's Republic of China
Jahiliyyah
[Ja-hill-ee-yah]
An underground
media/techno-anarchist group, akin to Anonymous or Wikileaks. Name is
an Arabic word meaning “ignorance”, both as irony and
counterpoint to the dominant media corporation's name of “knowledge”.
Also serves as religious metaphor in Islam.
e.g. “The chairman
was trying to hush it up, but Jahiliyyah leaked the film on the net.”
Latha
[Laath-ah, Laat-hah,
or like “Arthur” with an L]
Sri Lankan/Indian
forename, main character of game.
Meatspace
Derogatory and
insulting term used to refer to the real world outside of the Trance.
MMI
Mind-machine interface,
any system used to directly interface the human brain with external
computer systems.
Quantum, Quanta
Currency used by
non-aligned cities and nations based on the value of energy. Singular
Quantum, plural Quanta. A single unit is worth about $0.20 in modern
terms.
e.g. “This project
has cost us a hundred and fifty million Quanta!”
Sconto
The city's social
assistance program for those unable to support themselves. An
umbrella term for social services, unemployment allowance, housing
support, etc. Can also be used to describe those who benefit from it.
Comes from Portugese root (desconto).
e.g. “This
neighbourhood is getting worse, gangs of sconto kids hanging around
on the corner.”
S.E.L.E.C.T.
Specialist Emergency
Law Enforcement Crisis Team – armed CEL officers, akin to SWAT.
Also like SWAT, people use “team” redundantly after the end.
e.g. “The robbers
are so dangerous, we've had to call in a SELECT team.”
Synthetic, Synth
Androids using
electromechanical insides and an organic façade on the outside.
e.g. “I lost my
job to a sythetic.”
Thrall
Derogatory and
insulting term used to refer to those perceived to be addicted to, or
spend too much time in the Trance.
e.g. “He's always
got his head buried in the net. He's such a thrall!”
Trance
A kind of cyberspace.
Virtual representation of the internet taking place within the
connected minds of those taking part in it.
Wetware
Squishy, jelly-like
mass of nanomachines held together in a gooey substance. One of the
underlying technologies of Technobabylon, used for organic computing,
medicine and construction.
e.g. “I'm using my
wetware to interface with a terminal.”
Wired
The
description of one who has been equipped with the techno-organic
systems necessary to interface with computers using their own brain.
Not literally metal wiring, more like an extremely fine mesh of
wetware acting like a second set of neurones within the brain.
e.g. “I can't use
this machine, I'm not wired.”
'Wetware', so called due to its gelatinous appearance, is the genericised term for a number of nanomechanical products derived from organic structures. Safeguards are in place in commercial wetware to ensure that replication of the material can only occur within secure factory conditions. Hobbyist gengineers have on many occasions taken it as a challenge to 'breach' new wetware products, and reactivate the material's ability to create
Santini, whose Federalist Party have been one of the keenest supporters of the new policy, greeted the change enthusiastically. 'Computing and commercial time measurement has long been carried out in a metric scale with atomic timing, and the division into 24 hours has itself merely been an arbitrary convention of history.'
