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INTRODUCTION
Back in 2002-2003, the background for Steve Jackson The incidents described in these reports can occur whenever
Games’ Transhuman Space hard SF setting was expanded by suits your own campaign.
a series of reports from that solar system’s leading news source, – Phil Masters
Teralogos News (Fifth Wave, p. 64), distributed through an
e-mail mailing list. Since then, this rich collection of setting
details, local color, and potential scenario seeds has only been ABOUT THE EDITOR
available in the form of a little-known raw text file. Phil Masters is the author of Transhuman Space:
So we’ve decided to do something about that. This is one of Changing Times, Transhuman Space: Shell-Tech,
four free PDF files that collect those reports. Transhuman Space: Personnel Files 1-5, and a chapter in
The dates on each report are a bit of stylistic detail, related to Transhuman Space: High Frontier. He has also worked on
the real-world dates on which the posts were originally distrib- countless other GURPS products, including GURPS Castle
uted. Don’t take them too seriously as setting canon; after all, Falkenstein, The Discworld Roleplaying Game, and GURPS
Transhuman Space doesn’t have a fixed future or “metaplot.” Y2K, and on products for other companies.
GURPS System Design ❚ STEVE JACKSON Managing Editor ❚ PHILIP REED Prepress Checker ❚ WILL SCHOONOVER
GURPS Line Editor ❚ SEAN PUNCH Assistant Managing Editor ❚ MONICA STEPHENS Marketing Director ❚ PAUL CHAPMAN
Transhuman Space Line Editor ❚ PHIL MASTERS Art Director ❚ WILL SCHOONOVER Director of Sales ❚ ROSS JEPSON
e23 Manager ❚ STEVEN MARSH Production Artist ❚ NIKOLA VRTIS GURPS FAQ Maintainer ❚ –––––––
Page Design ❚ PHIL REED and JUSTIN DE WITT Editorial Assistance ❚ JASON LEVINE VICKY “MOLOKH” KOLENKO
INTRODUCTION 2
2101, SECOND
QUARTER
It is unknown at this time how many Lords of the Belt fans
NEW DISCOVERIES IN have illegally copied and listened to the song.
DIGITAL ARCHAEOLOGY “I’m burnt and cored, and I want to tox the downlift or elf
who dooped our song,” said Lords of the Belt lead singer,
GREATER SAN FRANCISCO, Parallax Verge, apparently expressing anger over the theft of the
United States/Teralogos: April 3, 2101 piece. A preliminary search of the employees of 0G33 Studios,
Posting today to a popular infotech news site, digital where the band was recording their latest songs, indicated no
archaeologist Auberon MacWilliams announced the recovery connections to the TSA. Unlike most current musical groups, the
of “a true gem of early computer science.” Lords of the Belt continue to record and perform in person.
MYCROFT is a typical Low-Sapient AI operating system, “Gordo is asymp over this,” continued Mr. Verge, referring
first released by System Technologies AG in 2085 for the home to Gordon 25, the band’s songwriter. Gordon 25 is well-known
and small-office markets. Sales of MYCROFT have suffered for his regular attempts at self-modification. “We’re on track to
considerably in recent years, so in November, System purge and refit again this cycle. That’ll toss all of the new songs
Technologies chose to release the foundation source code for downwell, and we’ll have to start over.”
the operating system. MacWilliams immediately began
reverse-engineering the source code, searching for clues to the
“ancestry” of MYCROFT.
What he discovered astonished him. “I found dozens of I’m burnt and cored, and I
modules identical to portions of the 2005-era Linux kernel,” he
said in today’s announcement. “This is by far the largest surviv- want to tox the downlift or elf
ing block of code ever found from that period. MYCROFT was
clearly built on a foundation of code from the last great era of who dooped our song.
open-source programming.”
MacWilliams’ discovery is potentially embarrassing for
System Technologies, which has long been an advocate for
strong intellectual property rights and “closed-source” pro- The WTO spokesbot released the standard response, pend-
gramming. System Technologies has so far declined to com- ing further examination of the band’s claims. “The World Trade
ment to MacWilliams’ announcement. Organization stands shoulder-to-shoulder with all content
– filed by John F. Zeigler manufacturers and disseminators in opposition to intellectual
property theft. We will do the utmost to assure a satisfactory
result.” It is believed that, if the band’s complaint is accepted,
MUSIC GROUP SEEKS it will be added to the WTO’s ongoing lawsuit against the TSA.
Reports that the band had initially tried to hire the private
WTO PROTECTION security company Kinetic Logic to track down the violators
SILAS DUNCAN STATION, Ceres/Teralogos: April 10, 2101 could not be confirmed. Among Duncanites, private security
firms are often the only law there is, but these agencies have
The Lords of the Belt, a popular Duncanite musical group, little influence beyond the Main Belt and Trojans.
has filed an official complaint with the World Trade Nanosocialists who frequent the TSA music channel claim
Organization, seeking its protection against the ongoing that the lawsuit by Lords of the Belt is motivated by spite, as
piracy of its work in progress. A copy of a new song, “Biometal the majority of comments left by downloaders about the song
Lullaby,” appeared late last month on the new music chan- have been highly critical.
nel of the Transpacific Socialist Alliance information web. – filed by Jamais Cascio
GURPS, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Transhuman Space, Teralogos News, “2101, Second Quarter,”
Pyramid, e23, and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated,
or used under license. Transhuman Space: Teralogos News – 2101, Second Quarter is copyright © 2010 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated.
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