Re: [FT] Alarishi Sovereignity Report

On Tue, 2 Mar 1999, Laserlight wrote:

>  Do you need new software, a new operating system, or a whole new
> information structure?  Look no farther!  In Alarishi space, orbiting
LTT
> 4818, you'll find....
> 
>      The Planet of the Geeks!

cool! can i apply for citizenship? hmph, come to think of it, i probably
already am a citizen ... :-).

> A place where live geeks of every kind: MacUsers,

part of the point of mac users is that they're (we're?) not geeks - macs
are friendly and nice. MacKiDo warriors, on the other hand, are
RISC-crazed code samurai. they'd move in.

> Nerds,
> Pointy-Ear Trekkers, B5-ers and L5-ers, Linuxers, even the rare
> Propeller-Beanie Geek!

one question here: given that geeks tend to be male (why bother with the
excess weight of a second full X chromosome?) how do they breed? i
suppose
they might have a treaty with that lesbian commune you have ...

> In fact, the sovereignty's charter is not in English,
> Russian, or French, but in Molniya machine code

i'm not familiar with the Molniya's architecture myself, but i wouldn't
have thought that an imperative language, as any von neumann machine's
language has to be (i think), cannot be used to frame charters,
constitutions, laws, etc. plus, the page size is too small (ouch!).

no, what you need is predicate calculus. it is entirely possible to
write
rules in predicate logic - i've done it myself, in a proposal defining
hereditary membership of the university SF society. the proposal was
rejected as being too vague, which really takes the michael.

anyway, predicate logic would be your language of choice.

> (and whether you read
> machine code or not, the charter should tell you all you need to know
about
> becoming a Geek citizen)!

i assume the identity cards (which are digital, of course) carry a Geek
Code Block.

> So whether you're planning the Ultimate Trek Triviabase(tm),
> or a No Sparrow Shall Fall Skywatch array, just bring your problem
(and your
> MUCr) to...the Planet of the Geeks!

although the Planet does prefer to barter, provided you have cool stuff.
after all, they'd just use the money to buy cool stuff anyway, so why
not
cut out the middleman and get the client to do the buying?

i'd add that geeks aren't just computer folk; the Geek Code defines 21
types of geek, plus four nonspecific types. it doesn't mention military
geeks either, and they are bound to exist. remember, a planet full of
wargamers with that much computer power is going to be damn good at
tactics ...

Tom