Commit 00cac69fdc51dbd2c81f681bcafc94fa8e2db1b3
filled in remaining schema sections
dust committed on 2/17/2016, 7:15:42 AMParent: e093860bb5eb3980fa11fe405331ddd47a63ed4b
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| spaceship-schema.md | changed |
| spaceship-schema.md | ||
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| @@ -1,18 +1,20 @@ | ||
| 1 | 1 | # spaceship |
| 2 | 2 | |
| 3 | 3 | ## schema |
| 4 | 4 | |
| 5 | -### travelers, pilots, residents | |
| 5 | +### travellers, pilots, residents | |
| 6 | 6 | |
| 7 | +travellers are the people of cypherspace--its performative atoms. | |
| 8 | + | |
| 7 | 9 | **key characteristics:** |
| 8 | 10 | |
| 9 | -- travelers are people (agnostic to embodiment) | |
| 10 | -- travelers operate spaceships | |
| 11 | -- travelers are identified by transmitted IDs (e.g. public keys) whose | |
| 12 | - transmission they control | |
| 11 | +- travellers are people (agnostic to their particular embodiment) | |
| 12 | +- travellers operate spaceships | |
| 13 | +- travellers are identified by transmitted IDs (e.g. public keys) whose | |
| 14 | + transmission they control through spaceships | |
| 13 | 15 | |
| 14 | -travelers and residents pilot spaceships. they transmit messages that identify | |
| 16 | +travellers and residents pilot spaceships. they transmit messages that identify | |
| 15 | 17 | their crafts uniquely whenever they visit orbitals in different galaxies--but |
| 16 | 18 | they choose what to send and where to send it. |
| 17 | 19 | |
| 18 | 20 | ### spaceships |
| @@ -20,19 +22,22 @@ | ||
| 20 | 22 | a spaceship is any networked device capable of galactic communication. |
| 21 | 23 | |
| 22 | 24 | **key characteristics:** |
| 23 | 25 | |
| 24 | -- spaceships are the method by which travelers interact with cypherspace. they | |
| 25 | - are the embodiment of a traveler | |
| 26 | +- spaceships are the method by which travellers interact with cypherspace. they | |
| 27 | + are the embodiment of a traveler. | |
| 26 | 28 | - spaceships have an obligation to relay or mirror records they receive to other |
| 27 | 29 | parts of the galaxy. |
| 28 | 30 | |
| 29 | 31 | **design concepts:** |
| 30 | 32 | |
| 31 | 33 | - spaceships as vehicles of thought, as in |
| 32 | - [The Fountain](http://wallpoper.com/images/00/39/23/82/the-fountain_00392382.jpg) | |
| 34 | + [the fountain](http://wallpoper.com/images/00/39/23/82/the-fountain_00392382.jpg). | |
| 35 | +- spaceship as a traveller's creative personal space, as in | |
| 36 | + [starbound](http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starboundgame/images/6/6f/Customizedship.png/revision/latest) | |
| 37 | + (and many others). | |
| 33 | 38 | |
| 34 | -### records | |
| 39 | +### records, logs | |
| 35 | 40 | |
| 36 | 41 | a record is a semantically linked, sequenced data set that is useful to |
| 37 | 42 | spaceship pilots. it might be a message thread, a folder of data, or media |
| 38 | 43 | collection (such as a music album). |
| @@ -44,11 +49,14 @@ | ||
| 44 | 49 | - weak separation from other records in orbitals for ease of ordering/digestion |
| 45 | 50 | |
| 46 | 51 | **design concepts:** |
| 47 | 52 | |
| 53 | +- rosters of orbital residents | |
| 54 | +- votes on orbital policy | |
| 48 | 55 | - playlists (mixtapes, albums) |
| 49 | 56 | - message threads (conversations, diaries, notes) |
| 50 | -- stores of treasure (curated files, libraries) | |
| 57 | +- stores of treasure (curated files, libraries, source code repositories, | |
| 58 | + databases in general) | |
| 51 | 59 | - acts of theater (monologues, dialogues, and so on) |
| 52 | 60 | - serialised and one-off productions (webcomics, video dramas, zines) |
| 53 | 61 | |
| 54 | 62 | ### orbitals |
| @@ -63,20 +71,20 @@ | ||
| 63 | 71 | |
| 64 | 72 | **orbitals** are space colonies. from an social standpoint, they serve as |
| 65 | 73 | bounded, autonomous territories. From an engineering standpoint, this simply |
| 66 | 74 | means that they are a set of autonomously determined recipients and policies for |
| 67 | -communication. | |
| 75 | +communication. in other words, they are implicit stores of records. | |
| 68 | 76 | |
| 69 | 77 | an orbital's boundaries are established through cryptographic measures. by |
| 70 | 78 | default, records are encrypted with the public keys of, or keys generated from |
| 71 | 79 | the public keys of an orbital's residents. |
| 72 | 80 | |
| 73 | 81 | these boundaries are under the control of residents--an orbital's creator |
| 74 | -establishes the initial policies of an orbital, but may make them open to change | |
| 75 | -by the residents themselves. | |
| 82 | +establishes the initial policies of an orbital, but may open them to change by | |
| 83 | +the residents themselves. | |
| 76 | 84 | |
| 77 | 85 | orbitals are protocol agnostic--any decentralised galaxy can support orbitals, |
| 78 | -as long as it allows travelers to travel them, participate, and communicate in | |
| 86 | +as long as it allows travellers to travel them, participate, and communicate in | |
| 79 | 87 | the above self-determined manner. |
| 80 | 88 | |
| 81 | 89 | any traveler can establish an orbital, simply by propagating an identifier and |
| 82 | 90 | communicating a roster of invitees or residents. there is no barrier to |
| @@ -96,22 +104,47 @@ | ||
| 96 | 104 | |
| 97 | 105 | **key characteristics:** |
| 98 | 106 | |
| 99 | 107 | - independence from centralised, terrestrial-bound and mapped networks |
| 100 | -- structural protections against out-of-galaxy actors, such as | |
| 108 | +- structural protections against out-of-galaxy (or universe) attacks, such as | |
| 101 | 109 | denial-of-service, attacks on protocols |
| 102 | 110 | - no essential topographic borders: free entry to any spaceship |
| 103 | 111 | |
| 104 | 112 | galaxies are the main sources of mass (things that are interacted with by |
| 105 | 113 | spaceships) in the decentralised universe. |
| 106 | 114 | |
| 107 | 115 | galaxies are maintained by decentralised electronic infrastructure (at least |
| 108 | -when this draft was produced). it's worth clarifying what they are not: if your | |
| 109 | -infrastructure packs users into centralised accounts, centralised activity, or | |
| 110 | -prevents them from controlling what spaces they inhabit and establish, it's not | |
| 111 | -a galaxy--it's just a locked chamber. | |
| 116 | +when this draft was produced). it's worth stating clearly what they are not: if | |
| 117 | +your infrastructure packs users into centralised accounts, centralised activity, | |
| 118 | +or prevents them from controlling what spaces they inhabit and establish, it's | |
| 119 | +not a galaxy--it's just a locked chamber. | |
| 112 | 120 | |
| 121 | +**design concepts:** | |
| 113 | 122 | |
| 123 | +- the interlaced cities of | |
| 124 | + [the city and city](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_%26_the_City) | |
| 125 | +- the asynchronous interstellar civilisations of | |
| 126 | + [lockstep](http://boingboing.net/2014/03/27/lockstep-karl-schroeders-fi.html) | |
| 127 | + | |
| 128 | +examples of galaxies: | |
| 129 | + | |
| 130 | +- ssb networks | |
| 131 | +- swarmlog rafts | |
| 132 | +- twister blockchains | |
| 133 | +- freenet networks | |
| 134 | + | |
| 135 | +### cypherspace | |
| 136 | + | |
| 137 | +cypherspace is the observable universe of galaxies that can be traversed by | |
| 138 | +spaceships. | |
| 139 | + | |
| 140 | +**design concepts:** | |
| 141 | + | |
| 142 | +- the kriptosfear of iain banks' | |
| 143 | + [feersum endjinn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feersum_Endjinn) | |
| 144 | +- the posthuman editable universe of | |
| 145 | + [transistor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_(video_game)) | |
| 146 | + | |
| 114 | 147 | ## narratives of communication |
| 115 | 148 | |
| 116 | 149 | ### orbital |
| 117 | 150 | |
| @@ -126,22 +159,23 @@ | ||
| 126 | 159 | |
| 127 | 160 | #### orbital residency |
| 128 | 161 | |
| 129 | 162 | the residents of an orbital can read any record posted to an orbital. they have |
| 130 | -input to orbital policy, appearance, and can create logs. | |
| 163 | +input to orbital policy, appearance, and can create records. | |
| 131 | 164 | |
| 132 | -#### "inviting-in" | |
| 165 | +##### "inviting-in" | |
| 133 | 166 | |
| 134 | 167 | drawing from |
| 135 | -[CE 2010s western queer terminology]l(http://www.musedmagonline.com/2015/04/coming-semantics-reinforce-heterosexism-queer-people-color/), | |
| 136 | -a traveller (see below) may be **invited in** to the context or participatory | |
| 168 | +[CE 2010s western queer terminology](http://www.musedmagonline.com/2015/04/coming-semantics-reinforce-heterosexism-queer-people-color/), | |
| 169 | +a traveller (see below) may be **invited in** to the context or performative | |
| 137 | 170 | space of an orbital. in other words, they may be invited to some or all of the |
| 138 | -records of an orbital. this involves one or more residents re-encrypting a | |
| 139 | -record (up to some quota) with the key of an invited traveller. | |
| 171 | +past records of an orbital, and those occurring thereafter. this involves one or | |
| 172 | +more residents re-encrypting a record (up to some quota) with the key of an | |
| 173 | +invited traveller. | |
| 140 | 174 | |
| 141 | -this matches the human practice of appending-only to memory, but not making past | |
| 142 | -records visible to new residents without affirmative consent and contextual | |
| 143 | -appropriateness. | |
| 175 | +this matches the human practice of appending-only to memory, keeping past | |
| 176 | +records invisible to new residents without affirmative consent and contextual | |
| 177 | +fit. | |
| 144 | 178 | |
| 145 | 179 | an orbital may be set to invite any traveller in automatically; in this case |
| 146 | 180 | end-to-end encryption can be established, but the orbital is then simply |
| 147 | 181 | socially private, not technologically so. |
| @@ -152,17 +186,15 @@ | ||
| 152 | 186 | otherwise limit the amount of traffic they replicate for each galaxy. as a |
| 153 | 187 | general rule, terrestrial topology should not be privileged above galactic |
| 154 | 188 | topology--every orbital's traffic should be replicated by every other orbital |
| 155 | 189 | and spaceship if possible, regardless of stake, interest, or engagement with the |
| 156 | -content. in other words, discoverability and replication should be coupled, even | |
| 157 | -if messages are private to each orbital. | |
| 190 | +content. in other words, discoverability and replication are coupled, even if | |
| 191 | +messages are private to (many or all) orbitals. | |
| 158 | 192 | |
| 159 | 193 | saying that, discoverability should also be manageable. orbitals may be |
| 160 | -hyperlocal in some space; a spaceship should be able to travel from such | |
| 161 | -orbitals to others without replicating orbital-local traffic, if the orbital's | |
| 162 | -policy works that way. | |
| 194 | +hyperlocal in some space (e.g., a city orbital); a spaceship should be able to | |
| 195 | +travel from such orbitals to others without committing to replicate all | |
| 196 | +orbital-local traffic. | |
| 163 | 197 | |
| 164 | -examples of galaxies: | |
| 165 | - | |
| 166 | -- ssb networks | |
| 167 | -- swarmlog rafts | |
| 168 | -- twister blockchains | |
| 198 | +galaxywide broadcasts are of course also possible, but unreliable at | |
| 199 | +best. experiments in the centralised internet outside of cypherspace have shown | |
| 200 | +them to be deeply problematic also. | |
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