c.chun ➤ 001 ➤ text

[arkproject]

Hi, everyone. I'm Catherine!

I've been talking to a few people about our mission, and I've been thinking... Do we have any ideas for how to restructure the government that don't require full-scale fighting? Like, if we could gather evidence of the corruption and expose it to the public, through, say... cyber espionage? It would at least give us more information, even if we don't go that route.

Reconnaissance is a good first step!

I'm not an expert in this, but I figure one of you is. So I want your thoughts! Or if you have experience hacking and want to teach me. It sounds like it would be easier to sneak in and put a physical receiver into one of their central systems, but in the spirit of keeping our options open, I might as well learn.

Even if doing it the manual way is going to be very slow.

Comments

[arkproject]

[ Catherine is surprisingly patient with dumb questions as long as they're factual and not personal. This one is fine. ]

It's spying on people and finding out their secrets through the internet! Or their internal network, most likely, in this case.

[dominance]

Between you and me, I have never used the Internet before. Didn't even know it existed.

[ space!!! but the answer is simple — he's thinking it must be like the radio and the tech on the ark, even if the information had been more visual than text wall dumping. ]

Is it easy to push information through this network? I've played Chinese whispers before, and a lot of the original message got twisted out of shape. Kind of hoping networks here aren't the same.

[arkproject]

What is Chinese whispers supposed to be?

That's a sad life without the internet. The original message doesn't change at all! It's like our conversation right now. If this data stays preserved, you could dig it up-- digitally-- in a hundred years, and someone could read our exact words right now.

[dominance]

You say one thing to one person, that person tells another, and that person tells another. It goes through a few people before the whole message has changed completely. My sister and I used to play it. I sucked at it.

I better watch what I say, then. Don't want anyone judging me too poorly for not knowing what the Internet is. Unless you can make sure no one sees what we say?

[ is bellamy thinking? maybe. ]

[arkproject]

I don't get what's Chinese about it unless it's a scathing statement about misinformation, but that sounds like a nice memory.

I could try, but I'm not very good at that yet! That's a whole specialty. Just like breaking in, or hacking, is its own specialty.

[dominance]

No clue. The people who could shed some light on it are dead. I'd like to think they get credit for pointing out the flaw in letting word of mouth filter information.

If my friend was here, she would've gotten this all done within a blink of an eye. She was one of those people who just knew everything. You'd want to make sure anything you put out onto whatever network isn't seen by the government. Don't know how you can filter out the wrong people who aren't in the government, though.

[ probably call mark zuckerberg??? ]

[arkproject]

It's easier to create a small closed group of people than try to eliminate a whole group from accessing your communication. That's why the private function on this, having a conversation between just two people, is so easy. Not that it couldn't still be hacked into if someone understood Magitek well enough...

But yeah, it's too bad your friend isn't here.

[dominance]

Huh. Better watch what we say then, huh? :)

[ bellamy blake is that guy who uses smileys, who wouldn’t thought it? ]

It’s a good thing we have you. Ideas are just as important as those who can make it happen. I didn’t think about closed communication for the people who live here until you suggested it. Anyone offer you a solution that seems decent yet?

[arkproject]

[ Catherine definitely knows what emoji are-- whether she ever uses them is a toss-up. But she does have a playful streak. ]

You can-- I pretty much say what I want ;)

That's not a bad idea, although I bet they've already thought of it... It seems extremely difficult to escape government scrutiny, including online. If we could use a different type of tech altogether, one from a different universe, they wouldn't have a way of accessing it at all, though... Hmmm...

[dominance]

Too bad we don't seem to have that.

Only tech I've ever used is a radio. Had a look around, and considering it's been made here, probably under government scrutiny. I wouldn't even go as far as trusting the people who live here to give you something that's not somehow bugged.

[arkproject]

What? Sure we do. There's tons of people in Ophelia, someone has to have some knowledge. We're talking on Magitek right now. We could come up with something completely off-the-grid from Drakstaden local tech.

And even if we can't, there's a long history of spies using coded number sequences on short-wave radio frequencies to transmit messages. It's not fast or easy, but it'd work with the right cipher.

[dominance]

You sure you're not an expert at this? You know a hell of a lot.

Think if we found a book with enough information we could do at least get it started? Who knows, someone else in Ophelia may be onto it but missing a piece we might find.

[ hope springs eternal ... perhaps if he puts it out into the universe, the universe will deliver it. ]

[arkproject]

I'm an expert in intelligent systems, like programming the androids you've seen walking around in Drakstaden.

You mean, a book on an alternate kind of technology? Like someone else could be working on it already?

[dominance]

Yes. It's hard for me to believe that we're the only ones who have thought of some sort of private network for a certain group of people to communicate on.

There's always someone who is one or two steps ahead of the game. Right? You'd know better than anyone in your field.

[ assuming. ]

[ he starts off with such certainty before diving right into uncertainty. this isn't his realm of expertise, but if this is anything like what he's experienced on the ground, there's always someone who is a little wiser to the goings on than they may appear. ]

[arkproject]

[ Nah, she's pretty sure he's right, and Catherine has no problem giving credit where it's due. ]

You're probably right! That it hasn't happened before here is a testament to how thorough the government surveillance is. But, communication is such a priority, and so many members of Ophelia are savvy and experienced enough, there really might be someone who's been working on it.

At the very least, the Rost probably have a list of failed attempts...

[dominance]

Want to see if they do?

[arkproject]

Yeah! Let's do that. I don't think I ever got your name, by the way.

[dominance]

[ yay!!!! adventure buddies _へ__(‾◡◝ )> brb going to go get shirts printed. ]

Bellamy. And I'm going to apologize in advance for a lot of the ignorant questions I'm bound to ask about tech and the Internet, Catherine.

[arkproject]

[ Catherine is all about adventures. Not because they're adventures, but just because she's a go-getter who doesn't understand the concept of no. Others are always welcome to join her on her madcap self-assignments. ]

Nice to meet you, Bellamy! That's fine. I'm used to ignorant questions. Did you really not have anything like this where you're from?

[dominance]

If we did, I wasn't privileged enough to use it. My friend keeps me far away from technology ever since I threw a radio into a river.

[ let's not rehash that great life choice now, bellamy. it's great he can look back and joke(?) about it, but it's not a path anyone should go down. lesson for anyone with tech: don't let bellamy near water with it. ]

We use radios, and we've got some network systems up and running, but I doubt it's anything like the internet or what you're proposing. There really wasn't any need for private channels.

[arkproject]

Huh, that's interesting. Not a problem you'd have where I'm from! I came from a scientific installation on the bottom of the ocean. All of our tech was waterproof.

It's kind of crazy to be working on things that are meant to function in air, not water, again.