WHAT'S IN THE NAME

In S'n'K, a 'skin' is a virtual layer of perception added to 'reality' by means of a technology called the Lenz. This 'device' is really a whole range of devices and networks, but what it does is pipe light into the eyes (or nerve signals into the optic nerve), sound into the ears (or auditory nerves), etc. after receiving the incoming sensory data and filtering and/or embellishing it according to programs, designs and live artistry on the part of the perceiver and his/her collaborators. In other words: let's say I wanted to see my immediate environment 'as though it were painted by Van Gogh'. The incoming light would form the basic shapes, but the Lenz would then reinterpret these shapes by processing them with an algorithm designed to evoke the techniques of the 19th century oil painter and then transfer that information back into sensory channels so that I can have the experience of original sense perception completely transformed by my chosen imaginal theme. Of course, the Lenz-user can also choose a more 'accurate' information oriented approach:

• enhanced perceptual ranges - infra-red, ultra-violet, radio waves, contrast enhancement, telescope/microscope, etc.
• data-feeds - personal information about nearby people, camera views from distant perspectives, etc.
• private and public forms of communication/conversation, artificial telepathy, etc.

This is really an enhanced (and perhaps extreme) form of current proposals in both 'virtual reality' and 'augmented reality'. In S'n'K this is, however, not so much a 'pastime' or an 'art form', but more a fundamental issue of one's way of being and personal 'world construction'/cosmology. It also forms a context for communal mind and culture because skinz can be shared or private, which is called 'freking in' or 'freking out' with one or more partners ('frek' comes from 'frequency').

A 'klowd' is swarm of microscopic machines which is embedded in, at varying densities, the air, the water, even people's bodies (though inside the flesh it is called the 'prossie', named after the word 'prosthetic'). It can, in a short period, reformulate, reconnect and construct any design given to it. If you want to sit down you can communicate the concept 'chair' to the klowd and it will coagulate and construct a functional structure for sitting down according to any design known to the vast public libraries/databases of your World. When you are done sitting the klowd dissolves the structure and the parts are available for whatever requests occur next.

Thus, there is very little (if any) need for 'property' as we conceive of it today in S'n'K...'things' have become temporary energetic processes so ephemeral that 'ownership' has dissolved into a question of 'access'. The klowd has both private and public components, so there is a kind of 'meta-propertarian' claim, but this doesn't involve 'wealth' or 'poverty', as these assets are distributed according to complex, chaotic patterns more like the 'state of nature' than a monetary and legal system as we would think of it currently. This brings up a very sticky, and important, aspect of the central plot dynamic of the series. The public klowd, when referred to 'in toto', is called the Platform. At the deeply public level, the klowd is capable of limiting participants' behaviors. For instance, if one person reaches out to strike another person, the klowd can quickly manifest a barrier that will prevent that from happening. This proved a necessary development because the klowd is so powerful that, without rules, it could become the ultimate weapon within reach of absolutely everyone.

In order to define what the klowd can interfere (or assist) with, people (sentient actors) are organized into Sindikats, which replace what we currently call 'governments' with a set of rules for the Platform in a given location (or trans-locational, networked 'context'). There are countless Sindikats based on countless philosophies of 'governance', so this is a much more diverse universe of sentient action than we are currently accustomed to. Nonetheless, very genuine issues of freedom and responsibility are involved with defining Sindikat and Platform rules; the situation is made much more challenging by the fact that Platform computation and intelligence have become so complex that no one truly comprehends them anymore. Effecting change in the Platform has morphed from an activity of writing and advocating law into a process of expressing opinion into 'fields of polling' where actors collaborate (and compete) philosophically in real time to create coherent societies and principles.

So, on the one hand we have a totally fluid reality of perception which can make one's world into any shape desired...and on the other hand we have a kind of analogous capability that accomplishes that in the physical world. But(!): when conflicts arise, it is tempting to retreat (or demand the same of others) into one's own world and simply create a simulacrum of an ideal. But, this then creates a tension where a trend toward insular private spaces pulls away from any dream of a physical Commons and that ultimately could be deadly to any sort of coherent, unified 'actual' World.

And that, my dears, is something I find so interesting, that I cannot resist creating characters and situations that explore this 'space' from many illuminating angles!