Words

Common Speech

Adhocracy
A non-bureaucratic networked organization.
Agent
A more or less independent piece of software that can do things on behalf of its owner. Sometimes equipped with some smarts.
BCBG
(adj.) "Bon Chic, Bon Gens", "prim and proper". Originally French slang, now used extensively in the EU to refer to bourgeois, upper middle-class, excessively formal and conservative. "He doesn't look BCBG enough to be a politician".
Bunk
A (youth) subculture based on direct bodily satisfaction, that turns its back on all higher goals.
Canton
An official PRC enclave, usually in proximity to some industrial project. The Cantons are standardized and usually tightly controlled.
Gerk
Short for gerontocrat. Derogatory word for an officious older person.
Globoboss
A cosmopolitan executive that has the ability to perform well across the globe. Used both for politicians and executives on the international level.
Infoglut
Information addiction; some people cannot resist being connected to the Net all the time, absorbing endless streams of apparently useful, educational or entertaining information.
Mediated Reality
A wearable where the computer processes what the user sees before showing it. This enables light amplification, image manipulation, information overlays and riding.
Meme
Self-reproducing idea or other information pattern which is propagated in ways similar to that of a gene.
Mouse potato
The online, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.
Mutual reality
Multi-user virtual reality.
Neoliberalism
A libertarian youth movement.
Non-ec
Non-ecological. Slang for anything that is not regarded as environmentally friendly, politically correct or decent. Used seriously by many greens, derogatorily by many others.
POTUS
Acronym for the President of the United States. Sometimes VPOTUS and FLOTUS are used for the Vice President of the United States and the First Lady of the United States. Originally secret service slang, but has become widespread. Slightly derogatory.
PLA
People's Liberation Army, the PRC army.
PRC
People's Republic of China. Includes Hong Kong, Macao and the former Republic of China (Taiwan).
Protection drink
A drink with chemoprotectants, vitamins, fruit and other healthy stuff, drunk before starting serious boozing. Usually mostly symbolic.
Smarts
Smart software. Software that can learn, make decisions or act on its own in somewhat intelligent ways.
Stress puppy
A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
Sun city
Small towns or communities built for the elderly and their needs; named after the original city outside Phoenix, Arizona.
Telepeon
Derogatory term for lower middle class telecommuters, doing routine work from home. A somewhat nicer term for telecommuters is telepeople; this is also used to denote people spending much time on the net or in virtuals.
Ubicomp
Small, very cheap computers found on desks everywhere forming a local area network.
Virtual
A virtual world on the net, usually some form of game, interactive entertainment or meeting place.
Virr
Someone completely addicted to virtuals.
Watcher
A small program left to watch over some data, reporting back if it is changed in some way.
Wearable
A computer embedded in the clothing or otherwise worn.
Wordrobe
A person's vocabulary.

Tech Jargon

Alife
Artificial life, self-evolving or lifelike complex systems in computer programs able to produce behaviors not contained within rules set by the programmers. Used by gardeners to develop new software.
Authentification
A digital signature proving that the originator of a message is who he or she claim it is. Unauthenticated messages can be forged.
Bug
See Gnatbot.
Blight
A computer virus that infiltrates systems and use their computing power to increase its own power.
C3I
Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence.
Cryp
Cryptographic currency, digital cash. Payment by electronic means where the seller is guaranteed payment, but the buyer can remain anonymous.
Droner
People who control drones, robot teams or teamware. The term suggests somebody sitting in a comfy chair, directing hordes of agents to do the real work.
Exoself
Systems linked to the self in a cooperative way, extending the mind and the body. A typical example would be a wearable, with agents and watchers on the Net.
Gardener
A programmer using genetic algorithms or alife to develop new software.
Gomi
(Japanese) Junk, garbage. Random data, or wandering net-packets that lower performance.
Gnatbot
A small robot, often insectlike, used for surveillance. Also called a bug.
Goo
Destructive nanites that replicate themselves using resources in the environment. The favorite nanotech disaster scenario.
Microbots
A very small robot, ranging from the micrometer scale up to the millimeter or centimeter scale (a "gnatbot")
Memory Palace
A secure datastore, a safe virtual place where sensitive information can be hidden. Some memory palaces have semi-autonomous functions allowing them to gather information from the net, possibly reacting if something happens to their owner.
Nym
Short for pseudonym. A persistent online identity, identified through a handle and a public key. A Nym is not traceable to the user's physical identity ("true name") and can develop its own reputation and history on the net.
Recipe
A program that is run on a matter compiler, instructing it to put together atoms into an object.
Social Engineering
To get information through impersonation or duping people rather than technological means. A common strategy for gaining access for cracking.
Stego
Steganographia, the art of sending secret messages hidden in apparently innocuous messages.
True name
The real identity of somebody, not just their nym. If you know the true name, then you have a certain amount of blackmail power over that person.
Borgware
Software which, once installed, requires the use of other products by the same company.
Nanite
Slang term for a nanomachine, esp. a machine able to survive and replicate itself on its own.
Nanofacture
The fabrication of goods using nanotechnology
Riding
To see through another's wearable computer; this allows friends to give advice or support to the one being ridden.
Smart bullet
"Smart drugs", psychoactive drugs with extremely specific and restrictive effects. Have very few side effects and can in principle be used to tailor mental states.
Squirt the Bird
To transmit a signal to a satellite.

InfoWar Jargon

Crypto Anarchy
The economic and political system after the deployment of encryption, untraceable e-mail, digital pseudonyms, cryptographic voting, and digital cash. A pun on "crypto," meaning "hidden," and as when Gore Vidal called William F. Buckley a "crypto fascist."
Cypherpunk
One interested in the uses of encryption using electronic cyphers for enhancing personal privacy and guarding against tyranny by centralized, authoritarian power structures, especially government.
Eurasia
After Orwell's 1984. The economic trading block consisting of the EU and Russia.
FOG
The Fascist OverGovernment. Slang term for the government-corporate complex. Began among the American branch of the TU (likely picked up from right-wing groups) and has since then spread. Members of the FOG are sometimes called foggies.
Hacker
Somebody developing a field beyond the conventions. Originally used mainly for computer hackers (today called infohackers), but now used for many other areas: nanohackers, biohackers, cryptohackers, polihackers.
Fourth World
Areas of total disaster and anarchy, such as sub-saharan Africa.
InfoWar
The secret conflict between the forces trying to prevent change and the forces trying to bring it about.
Interfacer
A person who acts as an interface between virtual corporations or other net-based organizations, and the physical world and its local economic rules.
Nanarchist
Someone who circumvents government control to use nanotechnology, or someone who advocates this.
Oceania
After Orwell's 1984. The economic trading block consisting of Japan, Korea, USA, Mexico and Canada.
Pavlov
Derogatory name for a scientist working for the Russian Underground.
Polihacker
Political hacker. Somebody able to hack politics or business.
Polwar
Political warfare, psychological attacks on civilian, military or political infrastructure.
Popaganda
Music that is popular with the general public, and has purpose or is trying promote particular ideas
Rolling out Mandela
A term in cynical Brussels circles for the method of bringing out some aged, well liked statesman to legitimize something people would not otherwise swallow.
Slork
A military junta of a third world country that isn't unstable, has ramifications in its society's structure and provides much of the infrastructure (e.g. airlines, banking, sometimes even the phone networks). Slorks are interesting in the InfoWar, since they provide both a threat and possibility - they can be dealt with, unlike the mad warlords. Make no mistake, they are fiercely against the Concordat and will gladly commit mass murder to protect their power. The name SLORK was originally the name for the Burmese junta in the early 90's, and the name sounded like a bad criminal organization in a James Bond movie, so it stuck.
South-East Asia
After Orwell's 1984. The economic trading block consisting of the PRC, south-east Asia and partially Australia.
TAZ
Temporary Autonomous Zone: A mobile or transient location free of economic and social interference by the state.
Transhumanist
Somebody who wants to use the new technologies to become more than human.
TU
Technological Underground. The groups fighting for the development of advanced technology against the anti-tech policies of the FOG and luddite groups.

Concordat Jargon

Acme
V. "to acme someone", defeating another in a subtle and non-orthodox way that doesn't involve violence. From Sun Tzu's The Art of War: "The acme of skill is to subdue an adversary without killing him."
Affil
One's affiliation, the organization or ideology one adheres to. "My affil is to the Atlanteans"
Algernon
Someone with enhancements with a price (such as side effects, being conspicuous or interference with other enhancements). Such enhancements are caller algernonic.
Alice and Bob
Nickname for the Cryptoanarchists (all of them, or individually: "Hey! Bob, take a look at this!"). From the standard characters in many cryptography thought-experiments (where there often is an enemy Eve who tries to eavesdrop; cypherpunks sometime refer to their enemies as "Eves").
Atlantean
Member of the TU who do not want to release the new technologies to the public for free.
Bat
Meddler, somebody who cannot resist intrigue for intrigue's sake or wants to get involved with everything. From the Cantonese word for 'eight', suggesting somebody nosing around in the eight directions (the original pronunciation has vanished from spreading in text).
Bisoraa!
From the Arab word of "quickly". Used when saying that something has to be done very quickly and recklessly.
Bootstrap
"To lift oneself in one's bootstraps". The process of using one's resources to gain more, the basis of many Concordat projects. "The barefoot teachers are bootstrapping India, each one is training several others".
Breaking the Monkey Tower
To overcome the biological limitations of humanity, to truly hack the brain. Corrupted by some infantile joker to "Spanking the Monkey Tower"
Bugor
"The boss". Originally a Russian prison term, now used for criminal (or criminal-like) bosses in the Russian Underground and elsewhere.
Cabal
Used to describe a person that uses the mental doublethink technique very often. He has become a confederation of different persons with different roles in society.
Convoy
A "virtual convoy" when very sensitive information is sent using extremely safe channels with the best available crypto.
Crucified Santa Claus
A big inter-cultural mistake, when someone trying to adapt to or imitate a culture really mess things up. A slightly joking term, named after an incident when a Japanese department store tried to make a "western" Christmas display, and placed a crucified santa claus in the middle.
Digs
Digital cash, especially the kind used on the Market that is backed by the "diggers" group.
Dilbertism
(Named after the cartoon 'Dilbert' before the turn of the century) The system of inefficiency, incompetence and rigidity that tends to paralyze large organizations that do not have to directly face the consequences of their incompetence. Endemic in the FOG.
Drex
Nanohacker. From K. Eric Drexler.
Fnord
(v) To fnord something means to make it hard to understand for outsiders or the public (e.g. by using jargon or messy reasoning). This is a technique used by FOG in certain press releases, making stuff official even if they don't want people to know about it.
Frazer's Cat
Concordat standing joke about new and little tested technologies: "Is it tested?" "Sure, on three rats and Frazer's cat."
Freeware
Member of the TU who think the new technologies should be spread freely to anybody interested in them.
Haram zadah
Illegal product/bastard (Hindi). Biohacker slang for pirated or modified organisms from the Indian gene pirates.
Hobby paranoia
Setting up better security "just in case".
IOU
I Owe You, the currency of services among participants on the Market.
Gargoyle
A Brinist using heavy wearable equipment to watch or spy on people.
Keybearer
Nickname for a cryptoanarchist or someone handling encryption information.
Knowledge laundering
The act of "laundering" information and knowledge that has been acquired through illegal means (such as reverse engineering or underground research) into what looks like legit results.
Latcho drom
Used to wish a safe journey (from Romany)
Lemming
Someone living an unconsidered life. Lemmings go to school, get a job, get a family, grow old and die, without ever changing the script.
Lingo
Code language used in plain sight to cover Concordat activities. For instance it can be used on a public BBS or virtual: the involved parties seem to discuss the plot in a role-playing game or soap opera, but they are using a predetermined code where concepts are related to other things in reality. Somewhat limited outside the net (on the net stego expert systems can write the lingo, after setting up a code through an initial heavily encrypted message) and cryptographically weak, but if handled well it doesn't arouse too much suspicion.
Market
The underground Market of the Concordat.
Noo
Nootropic, a cognition-enhancing drug.
Play money
The state-owned currencies. The term is based on the fact that it has nothing more than subjective value.
Red Queen Principle
"You have to run as fast as possible to stay in the same place". If you don't develop, you will loose.
Salarium
Payment in goods instead of IOUs or play-money. From the latin word, meaning payment in salt.
Sifu
Teacher in Mandarin Chinese. Used to describe a very active teacher with many students.
SOTA
State Of The Art. Often used to distinguish between real advances and the so called "hi-tech" used by most people. Many Concordat members use it as an adjective: "This is a sota device".
Specter
a Ghost commando
Street Performer Protocol
A way of funding public works (especially the release of new nano- or biorecipes into the public domain) in the Concordate. Someoune announce their willingness to do it and their price, and people place IOUs in eschrow in a certain Originally based on an idea by Kelsey and Schneier in the 90's.
SubNet
The distributed underground information network of the Concordat.
UA
The Underground Academy, the distributed academy for suppressed research supported by the Concordat.
Wakina Sisi
"People like us" in Swahili. Used by Concordat members to refer to one another.
Watson
Genehacker.
Wraith
Ghost specialized in Information technology warfare

Bunk Slang

Civ for priv
Roughly, "civilization is for prigs". Bunker slogan.
FFF
Feeding, Fighting and Fucking - the three fundamentals from a bunker perspective (even if boozing and shitting is sometimes included).
Glyk!
Bunker exclamation, can mean everything.
Razyoba
Common term used by Bunkers for themselves; from the Russian slang meaning "someone who fucks around" (slacker). Rather offensive, which is exactly what the bunkers want.
Priv
Bunker slang for ordinary, prim people; a priv would never consider having sex in public.

Activist Slang

Demo
Demonstration or other action (Global Autonomous Network)
Enlighten
Kill (Age of Mayhem)
ZOG
Zionist OverGovernment, the racist/right-wing "variant" of FOG.
InfoWar