Glossary
A
ACM (Anti-Clone Movement): An informal tag for a growing number of organizations including groups who see clones solely as competition for human workers as well as groups who want to grant clones the same rights as human beings.
Agroplex: An extremely large farm factory, from “agricultural complex.” Much of the former rain forest of eastern Ecuador, southern Columbia, and western Brazil is now devoted to agroplexes in order to feed New Angeles’ inhabitants.
Airbelt pack: Device used by authorized personnel, such as security forces, to maneuver in zero-G interiors, such as within the Midway Station complex. It consists of two jet packs worn at the center of gravity, one in front, one behind, and controlled by a small virtual panel above the front unit. It draws in air and expels it in a jet, so it cannot be used in vacuum.
AIVM (Accelerated in Vitro Maturation): The vat-growing technique used by Jinteki to rapidly mature clone specimens from zygote to adult.
Android: An artificially intelligent humanoid construct. Androids are distinct from robots or other constructs because androids possess “strong” AI. There are two known types of androids: synthetic bioroids and organic clones.
Anglo: A broad term for an English - or American-speaking culture, especially from the mainland United States and Atlantica.
Arcology or “ark”: A “city-in-a-building.” Tall structures, rising as much as a thousand stories or more, sometimes called “towers.” Arcologies house a community complete with offices, schools, shops, malls, an internal security force, and everything else required for living. Generally used by upper-middle class to upper class, arks are a feature of all megacities, including New Angeles. Often resented by lower classes, who aren’t allowed inside.
AI (Artificial intelligence): Createdintelligence, usually in the form of a machine or program. So-called “weak” AI (also known as “simulated intel-ligence” or “SI”), while sophisticated and sometimes convincingly realistic, falls short of true human-level intellect. “Strong” AI, or true intelligence, is currently only possible by utilizing brainmapping technology to emulate a human brain. Androids are the primary application of strong AI.
B
Backscatter or “backscat”: For backscatter X-ray. Also called “peek-a-boo” units. Security device that renders a subject nude on-screen in order to detect weapons or packages hidden beneath clothing. Modern refinements include the capacity to use focused ultrasound beams to search body cavities and internal organs as well.
Bangers, also “streetbangers”: Youth gangs common in the megacities. Often engaged in criminal activity, especially illicit drugs and sexies, and may go on crime sprees just for thrills.
Beanstalk, aka “New Angeles Space Elevator”: An approximately 72,000km tall elevator construct tethered in New Angeles. Its stations include the Root (aka “Earth Station”), Midway, and the Castle (aka “Challenger Planetoid”). A cost-effective way to reach Earth orbit and points beyond. Named for the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and the man who built it, Jack Weyland.
Bioplas: Biodegradable plastic commonly used in packaging and disposables.
Bioroid: A type of android manufactured by Haas-Bioroid. Bioroids are robotic humanoids built of metal, plastic, silicon, and other synthetic materials. Their artificially intelligent brains are neurally channeled from braintapes derived from human brains.
Blackout, the: A period of global disruption to regional networks that precipitated a sharp market downturn. The more secure architecture of SYNC’s Network eventually replaced the Internet as a result.
BMI (Brain-machine interface): A device that allows direct communication between a user’s brain and a computer system. Commonly in the form of a so-called “brain-net” (for a wearable BMI) or a “skulljack” (a BMI cybernetically implanted in the user’s brain). BMIs are a new technology originally developed by the military. The first consumer-grade models are just entering the marketplace, and they are most popular among Netcriminals and the younger generation.
Brainmapping and braintaping: Brain mapping technology was developed to scan the human brain to aid with the diagnosis and study of brain disorders. It has now become a general term for brain scans of many types. Braintaping is a specialized, extremely detailed application of brainmapping technology that allows the user to develop a working (but currently imperfect) copy of the original brain. Both technologies are essential for the creation of strong AI and androids.
Brain-net: A type of BMI that is worn over the top of the skull. Brain-nets often resemble a “net” of threads linking contacts that are placed on the skull. Sometimes the net is built into a helmet, hood, or other piece of headgear.
Buckminsterfullerene, also “bucky balls”: A carbon molecule (C60) with a number of unique properties. The term “buckyballs” has become the root of a number of terms for nano-scale carbon assemblages. Named for Buckminster Fuller, whose architectural designs resemble the shape of the molecule.
Buckyfilm: A frictionless surface comprised of buckyballs, nano-scale carbon-atom spheres in an electrical field matrix.
Buckyweave: A type of material, immensely strong, consisting of woven, open-ended buckytubes - carbon atoms in tube form. The space elevator began as a buckyweave strap lowered from synchorbit to the top of Cayambe.
Burnout: Popular term for a person burned out by drugs, drink, or BMI malfunction.
C
Camdrone: Weak AI–powered drones with holo/threedee recording capabilities. Deployed by NBN to supplement its surveillance network and get Netcast-quality footage.
Chatspace: A virtual space where remote users can meet and chat comfortably. May or may not be fully rendered as a virtual environment.
Chromehead: A member of a subculture devoted to ostentatious cyberware as a fashion statement.
Cleansuit: Smartsuit used to avoid contamination in either direction, e.g. for doctors treating infected patients, or for police personnel investigating a crime scene.
Clone: A type of android manufactured by Jinteki Biotech. Clones are organic beings with largely human DNA and are customized for a variety of purposes. Despite their organic nature, they are classified as machines.
Clone-tel: A slang term, derived from “hotel for clones,” for the nicer, more expensive version of clone barracks.
Comm: Short for radio communication.
Constructorbot: A generic term for construction robots, usually non-android and most often in space, used in large projects such as the Beanstalk.
Credaccount: The common name for a bank account, which is accessed electronically by readers. “Bank account” implies a physical building - a bank - while most financial transactions and records are purely electronic.
Credit: Usually refers to the Titan Trans national Credit, a corporate-backed multinational virtual currency. Can also be used broadly to mean money in general.
Cybernetic, also cyberware: Although still sometimes used in its archaic sense (especially among academics), the term generally refers to machinery designed to be implanted in the human body, either to replace or to augment organs, limbs, and other body parts. Can be used as an adjective (as in “cybernetic heart”) or as a noun (as in “the organ grinders removed his cybernetics”).
Cyberspace: A broad term for the state of mind runners and other BMI-users experience when they directly interface with the code behind the Network. Compare “meatspace.”
Cyborg: Slang term for a person with cybernetic implants.
D
Dataddiction: A recently recognized dependence on constant input and connection to the Network. Dataddicts are uncomfortable when not presented with a constant stream of distractions and updates to social media, newsfeeds, and other sources of information.
Datacard: Like a business card, with printed information, but containing embedded electronic data. Usually used to download contact information into a personal PAD or wrist implant.
Datastick: A general term for computer storage space in a small, hand-portable format. Some are wireless, but most require insertion into a port to exchange data with a computer.
Datastream: A feed or stream of information in cyberspace.
Depresh: Slang for “depressurized,” as in “I know I depreshed him,” said of a man shot in a firefight on the lunar surface.
Disenfrancisto: Spanish slang for impoverished New Angelinos who have voluntarily (or involuntarily) renounced normal society and legitimate employment.
Door-sec: Door security. Generic term for secure access to businesses or even homes. May have a human operator, or it may be entirely robotic. Frequently, backscatters are used to scan incoming people for weapons. Bars or other facilities with a rough clientele frequently employ g-mod human bouncers with a backscatter screen inside an armored booth at the door.
Down-Stalk: Slang term for traveling down the Beanstalk, toward Earth.
Dropship: Any of a large variety of transatmospheric spacecraft used to access orbit, the Beanstalk, the Moon, or other points on Earth (or even in the same city). Some take off vertically from space launch facilities; others are carried aloft from commercial airports by a carrier jet. The term includes “subs” or “sub-o flights”: commercial suborbital flights that can reach any place on Earth in less than ninety minutes.
E
e-Pharm: Electronic addictives or hallucinogen, the electronic version of illegal drugs. Includes sexies and snuffies, as well as programs designed to create general feelings of euphoria and well-being. Legal versions have therapeutic value.
F
Forspec: Police specialist.Slang for forensic.
Full-immersion: A means of directly experiencing data via a brain-machine interface. A rare new technology with limited popularity as an entertainment medium, such as sensies, most users of full immersion technology are Net-criminals known as “runners.”
G
G-mod: Slang for “genetic modification.” Used to refer both to the modifications themselves and to people who have received such modifications.
Gog: Genetically altered hog. Derived from the genome of Sus domesticus, the domestic pig, it is designed to grow quickly on an inexpensive diet. Designed for meat production only, it has a small head, no eyes or ears, and only a rudimentary nervous system.
Gripslippers or grip-booties: Special booties that fit over normal shoes and keep a person’s feet adhering to a carpet covered floor. They are issued to visitors at low-G stations such as the non-rotating portions of the Castle Club.
Guidelight: Lights that direct a visitor through an unfamiliar facility. They appear as moving or blinking arrows, or as moving streams of colored light, on walls, floors, or ceilings.
H
Hand Time: An implant time function that displays across the back of the hand or on the wrist when a spot on the hand is pressed. Like the earlier term “wrist watch.”
Helium-3 or He-3: An isotope of Helium vital to the modern fusion power industry. Vanishingly rare on Earth, He-3 is relatively abundant on the Moon.
Holography: Routine tech used to project virtual displays and keyboards, signs, advertising, guidelights, and the like.
Holoscreen: Another term for virt.
Hopper, also “skyhopper”: A common personal vehicle powered by hoverfoil rotors and capable of short-duration flights (“hops”), usually from hopper pad to hopper pad within a single city. Normally flown by autopilot. There are many variations, including minihoppers and cargo hoppers.
I
Ice, rarely “intrusion countermeasures electronics”: Software devoted to protecting computer servers and devices from unauthorized access. Ice often uses “weak” AI.
Icebreaker, rarely “intrusion countermeasures”: A program used for circumnavigating or deactivating ice and gaining access to secured data. Often uses “weak” AI.
ID, also “ident”: Personal digital identification, usually accessible via wireless prompt. Often worn as a tag implanted under the skin, usually in the back of the hand. Carries basic contact information such as name and eddress. Also carries credaccount data for financial transactions, with coded security software at various levels to prevent unauthorized access. Although not legally required, IDs are in such widespread use that failure to respond to an ID ping can arouse suspicion with security personnel.
Infobroker: A dealer in information.
J
Jacker: A slang term for a hijacker of vehicles, cargo, etc., who frequents the Martian frontier in particular. Jack in/out: To (dis)connect to the Network via full-immersion technology (i.e. a brain-machine interface).
Journo: A slang term for a journalist.
K
Keychip: Chip with embedded credentials to activate hoppers, open doors, etc.
Klick: Military slang for a kilometer.
L
Las-scanners: Technology used to map a room or other area by means of laser imaging software (lidar).
Loony: A slang term for a person who lives on the Moon. Usually refers to those who consider themselves Lunar citizens first, or to participants in the Lunar Insurrection.
L-square: From “elevated square.” A pedestrian plaza suspended from one or more arcologies, usually quite high above ground level.
Luna: Official U.N. name for Earth’s moon.
M
Mag-lev: Short for “magnetic levitation.” A type of train that is magnetically suspended just above the track, allowing for very high speeds due to a reduction in friction. Mag-lev trains use magnets for both lift and propulsion.
Makerbox: A threedee printer or other commercial-grade automated assembly device. High-fidelity makerboxes are available for rent in commercial makerspaces.
Martian: When used by an Earther, typically refers to a human being living on Mars. Members of the Martian clans reserve the term Martian for people who were born on Mars.
Meatspace: A slang term used by Netcriminals for the material, physical world experienced in waking consciousness. Compare “cyberspace”. A number of allied terms are derived from it (such as “meat body”).
Med-techs: Short for medical technicians.
Megacorp, also “corp”: A generic term for a megacorporation, generally an inter- national corporation. Many have their headquarters in New Angeles to minimize legislation or oversight by Earth governments.
Megapolis, also metroplex: Proper terms for very large cities, especially for several cities that have merged into enormous metroplexes covering, for example, the northeastern U.S. seaboard from Boston to Washington (BosWash), or the coastal city running from San Francisco to San Diego (SanSan).
Mem-running: Slang term for recording, selling, transmitting, receiving, and playing memories and/or emotions from someone else. Derived from braintaping technology, it allows the user to experience the memories and emotions of another person. A commercial product for a large and fast-growing field of popular entertainment, it usually has the specific meaning of illegal memory transfers involving sex or murder.
Meta: An exotic rocket fuel—metastable N-He64. Lasers excite helium atoms into a metastable quantum packaged with nitrogen within insulated high-pressure tanks. Heating causes the helium to revert to its normal state, releasing the tremendous energy used in packing the stuff.
Monocam: Originally “monocle camera.” An eyeball-sized camera worn over one eye that allows reporters like Lily Lockwell to record and upload vid and audio while interviewing a subject.
N
Nanodisplays: Super-small display technology used in creating smartfabric for use in fashion and newsrags.
NEO: Near-Earth orbit. Used generally to refer to anything orbiting at the altitude of the Challenger Planetoid or less.
Neoluddites, also “luddies” or “neos”: Groups that protest (at times through sabotage) pervasive and intrusive modern technologies, the use of simulants in the workforce, the loss of privacy, and other social issues.
Network, the: When used as a proper noun, refers to the publicly accessible network of computers and machines that connects the entire Earth and most of the Moon.
Neural channeling: A term for the process of constructing a new brain template by combining and editing existing connectomes. The resulting brain can be constructed using proprietary Haas-Bioroid manufacturing techniques as a bioroid brain.
Neural conditioning: A term for the process of using (usually non-invasive) BMI technology to stimulate a clone brain, which shapes its connectome, until it matches the desired braintape.
New Angelino: A citizen of New Angeles.
Noirie: A subculture that celebrates retro fashion and media, especially that surrounding the early twentieth century. Fedoras, trench coats, and pinstripe suits are emblematic of this culture.
Nosies, also “news-nosies”: Slang for reporters by people who don’t like them—like the police.
O
Off-gridder: Someone lacking an ID who cannot (or refuses to) use the Network.
Optical brain: A collection of extremely advanced optical circuitry and micro-computers that is interconnected according to the specifications of the bioroid’s brain-taped template. Forms one half of a bioroid’s parallel brain.
Optical computer: A computer that uses fiber-optics, lasers, and other light speed systems. Now mostly outdated compared to quantum computing.
Organ grinders: Criminals who engage in kidnapping for the purpose of harvesting organs and cybernetics to be sold on the black market.
P
PAD or personal access device: A handheld or wearable device that allows aud and vid calls, access to the Network, data storage, and numerous applications. Common uses include pinging IDs and managing credaccounts. Some come with a small screen and are primarily voice controlled, but the more expensive units project holographic virts and respond to gestures.
Panic button: An app on PADs that summons police or security forces in the event of an emergency.
Parallel brain: The two-part brain of a bioroid. Sometimes refers specifically to the traditional quantum processor component of the two-part brain.
PAT or public access terminal: Prepaid public computer kiosks available for use by the minute. Used by disenfrancistos or off-gridders who need access to the Network but lack an ID or cred account. Exploited by Netcriminals and others for their relative anonymity.
Ping: Generic term for electronically accessing a person or system, usually by transmitting a signal which is detected by the target’s ID and retransmitted back, sometimes with additional information.
Plaza level: The above-ground network of slidewalks, elevated plazas (or “L-squares”) suspended between glimmering arcology spires, and rooftop gardens or shopping malls that create an artificial and carefully manicured floor to the life of the rich and comfortable. Typically refers to the specific stratum within New Angeles.
Plascrete: Building material—extremely tough—employing zero-G manufactory techniques. Used in floors, building walls, as pavement, and so on.
PriRights: Citizens privacy rights group. Dedicated to fighting invasion of privacy by government and corporations.
Prisec: A slang term for private security as commonly employed by corporate facilities and arcologies.
Q
Quantum computer: A computer utilizing quantum mechanics, which includes the ability for data to be in a superpositioned state. Dramatically more powerful than digital computers or even optical computers, but expensive and difficult to maintain.
Quito Accord: This international agreement made law the lease of New Angeles from Ecuador to the United States. It also declares both the Beanstalk and the Moon’s Heinlein Station to be a part of New Angeles, and it grants the New Angeles Police Department jurisdiction there.
R
Rag, also “smartrag”: Portable display screen, consisting of dark gray cloth with the consistency of very fine silk. Human touch generates a static charge that stiffens the material into the consistency of cardboard, and it will display information from a separate computer, or it can be programmed to display data held within its own internal memory. Crimping a corner causes it to revert to cloth. Cheap and disposable. Newspapers use the material, and are commonly called “newsrags.”
Reader: Tiny, portable device—sometimes worn as jewelry, or it can be inserted and worn as an implant under the skin, typically on a person’s wrist—that reads another person’s credaccount information from his ID and deducts a fee from it automatically. Used for electronic funds transfer.
Regolith: A layer of loose material covering solid rock. Although technically found on all three inhabited worlds, in common use always refers to Lunar regolith, which is rich in helium-3.
*“Respirocytes, also Freitas respirocytes**: Artificial red blood cells first described by nanotech pioneer Robert Freitas in 1996. Greatly improves the blood’s efficiency at transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide, allowing non–genetically modified humans to breath comfortably at high altitudes, or to survive for up to an hour without breathing at all.
Ristie: From “aristocrat.” Street term for wealthy people living in their high-sec tower communities.
Rivera Declaration: Leased the Root and the surrounding vicinity from Ecuador to the Weyland Consortium.
Runner: A slang term for Netcriminals who use full-immersion interfaces to break into secured computer networks.
S
SAM or Simulant Abolitionist Movement: Political grassroots organization that believes the use of clones is tantamount to slavery, that clones are humans beings denied their civil rights, and that clone-slavery should be abolished. Not the same as the ACM, which includes many groups that don’t think clones should have human rights.
SEA or Space Elevator Authority: The local governing body of the Space Elevator under New Angeles jurisdiction through the New Angeles Transit Authority. Created by the Treaty of Heinlein.
Sec: Short for security.
Seccam: Short for security camera. Small and unobtrusive camera providing views of either restricted or public areas. Police officers and other authorized personnel can type a code into their PAD to pick up the vid and audio from any such camera.
Secretary: Also sometimes avatar or PA, for Personal Assistant. A software app, often running on a PAD. Serves as an electronic secretary, keeping track of appointments, remembering key bits of information, and interfacing with the virtual world. Among other things, it can answer vid calls, displaying a life-like image of the owner, either to recite a short message (which can be tailored, by name, to different individuals) or to interact with a caller for fairly simple conversations. Many can pass the Turing test, at least for simple topics. By law, it must identify itself as an AI. “Sec- retary” can also be used for any weak AI construct, although such use is technically inaccurate and can be confusing.
Sensies, also simsensies or sensiesofts: Entertainment media that includes other senses than audio and visual. Illegal versions are sometimes called sexies or snuffies. Virtual reality and full-immersion versions both exist.
SEZENLA, also SEZ: The Special Economic Zone of Ecuadorian New Los Angeles. New Angeles.
Simulants: A slang word for androids or any artificial being.
Skulljack, also skullport: Slang term for an implanted BMI with a physical connection port. The terms are used interchangeably for both the male and female ends of the system.
Skylanes: Lanes in the sky dedicated to hopper traffic.
Skyway: Public hopper line used by commuters and tourists to get around New Angeles by air.
Slidewalk: Moving sidewalk in public places, such as between arcologies or in shopping centers.
Smart-: Used as a general prefix to indicate an object or system that has been integrated with the Network to improve its function.
Smartfabric/smart-threads: Fabric using nanodisplays used to design smartsuits.
"”Smartgun, smartbullet**: A gun (or bullet) with self-aiming capabilities. Sometimes integrated with a user’s BMI. Smartbullets also integrate identify friend or foe (IFF) technology.
Smartslick: One type of smartsuit commonly worn as a small package on the shoulders behind the head. When it senses rain, it unfolds to cover the head, shoulders, and upper body, refolding itself when no longer needed.
Smartsuit: General term for a set of clothing that has been made of smartfabric or otherwise enhanced with modern computer technology. Smartsuits may have cosmetic functions, such as integrated viewscreens or a color-change feature, or useful functions as in smartslicks.
Snobhob: A groupie or hanger-on of the rich social set. Part of the entourage of wealthy celebrities. From “hobnob.”
Spanglish: A language mixing English and Spanish grammar and vocabulary. The lingua franca of New Angeles.
Stunstick: A short baton extended by a flick of the wrist up to two meters; it delivering a powerful electrical jolt to incapacitate a human. Used by security forces instead of firearms anywhere a stray bullet could prove catastrophic, such as the Midway platform.
Subbing: Slang term for taking a commercial suborbital flight, as in someone “subbing in” from NeoTokyo. The regularly scheduled flight from Dulles to New Angeles takes about thirty minutes.
Subsid: Slang term for “subsidiary,” as in business subsidiary.
Synchorbit, also synchronous orbit or “Clarke orbit”: An orbit—for Earth 22,300 miles or about 36,000 kilometers high—where the orbital period exactly matches one Earth rotation. Objects in synchorbit appear to hang motionless above one spot on Earth’s equator, which makes the Beanstalk possible. Midway, on the Beanstalk, is located at synchorbit.
Synthskin: Artificial skin used in bioroids or cybernetics.
Sysop: A system operator or Network administrator, usually corp-employed.
T
Tab-rag: From tabloid rag. A type of newsrag long on thrills, shock, and scandal, and generally short on good journalism.
Threedee: Entertainment media that projects a third dimension around the viewer, typically through immersive holography.
Three Directives: The foundational rules of bioroid programming set by Haas Bioroid to ensure the androids never harm humans.
Transhumanism: A philosophy devoted to exploring the limits of the definition of humanity. Transhumanist thought embraces cybernetic and genetic modification and may include bioroids, clones, and even bodiless AI within its definition of “human.”
Transplas: An extremely tough, clear plastic widely used as a replacement for glass. It can melt at high enough temperatures, but will not break. It can be mixed with photo-responsive elements to turn dark under direct sunlight.
Treaty of Heinlein: At the end of the Worlds War, this armistice ended the hostilities of the War and created the Martian Colonial Authority. It also ceded additional authority to the Space Elevator Authority and limited the extent of U.S. federal authority in New Angeles affairs.
Tri-maf, also t-maf, triad-mafia, or TM: Generic term referring to various mafias—especially Sicilian, Russian, and American—as well as the Japanese Yakuza and Chinese triads. These frequently work together as a loose-knit, global organized crime community.
Tube-lev, or tube train, tube-lev car, or tube mag-lev: Subterranean mag-lev train systems, used widely on Earth and the Moon as mass transit. Tube-lev trains are extremely fast because their tunnels are kept at or near vacuum, which combined with the mag-lev system means the cars endure virtually no friction or air resistance. Tube-lev or tube-leving can be used as a verb: “He tube-leved to the Root.” The New Angelino tube-lev system is known as the Metro.
Turfed: Slang used by NAPD officers to refer to times when their cases lead onto corporate or private property where private security forces have legal jurisdiction but cops do not.
U
U.N.: Usually refers to the Universal Nations. Occasionally refers to the precursor United Nations, if referencing a time period before the Worlds War.
Undercity: General term for the poorer, lower levels of a city, including subterranean parts of the city.
Up-Stalk: Common term for moving up the Beanstalk, away from Earth.
V
Vid or vidscreen: Any display screen, but especially high-definition wall screens.
Virt: A display screen projected holographically in the air.
Virtual keyboard: A keyboard or other input device displayed holographically by PADs and other devices, which senses finger positions as a person types.
W
Waldo: A remote-operated (or sometimes AI-piloted) robot.
Warroid: A bioroid specialized for combat. Currently theoretical.
Wetware: Slang term for brains and other organic (“meat”) processing units.
Wetwork: Usually illegal paramilitary operations, including sabotage and especially assassination.
Worlds War, the: The first war in human history to extend past Earth’s atmosphere. It began with the Lunar Insurrection and lasted until the Treaty of Heinlein. Battles occurred on Mars and Luna. On Mars, also known as the Colony Wars and later the War for Martian Independence.
Wylder: A subculture that uses genetic modification and cosmetic surgery as fashion statements, usually by incorporating animal features into their bodies. The name derives from Wyldside, a nightclub in Heinlein where the movement began.
Y
Yellow Jackets: Slang for Space Elevator Authority Security Forces. They wear bright yellow jumpsuits, hence the name. Sometimes disdainfully referred to as “elevator mercs” or “rent-a-cops.”
