Fandom Library, Wednesday, January 7th

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

It had taken Arden a few minutes to figure out what was off about the library when she'd walked in. Nothing seemed awry at first glance: the gremlins were there, but being an acceptable level of rowdy, the books were all in their shelves, save those she had to shelve, and there weren't any weird tableaux, weather patterns, or voices anywhere that she could spot.

So now Arden was twitchy for no good reason that she could spot. But she was definitely twitchy. Was this what going crazy felt like?

Comments

Re: Talk to the Aide

[not_a_haint]

Caleb had heard similar talk about the Great War, how the advanced weapons had allowed the killing of people from such a distance that you never had to see the other side. Mark muh words, it'll be th' end o' us ahll! one of the "old timers" in Baker's Gap had proclaimed.

It had tickled Caleb and his friends at the time (they were only ten or eleven) and they'd taken to randomly crying out "it'll be the end of us aaaaaaaaaalllll!"

"Yes please, if it's not too much trouble. I was too busy with the class activity to pay much attention to what he was actually doin'. I'm beginnin' to suspect I'll have a hard time distinguishin' between magic and technology for a while. And the sanctuary is greatly appreciated too."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"You know what they say," Arden declared as she pulled out her laptop. "Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Although, now that I think about it, you might not know that saying, I have no idea when it was coined. But you know what? That seems a great place to start."

She doubleclicked on the Microsoft Edge icon because I am role-playing, dammit,. "So, this is your web browser. There are a bunch of different ones, it doesn't really matter which one you pick, but you need one to access the internet. Basically, it acts as a translator for you. There are a bunch of different coding languages, all of which are putting letters and numbers and symbols in a particular order and none of which make any sense just looking at them, unless you speak the language."

Arden couldn't really even name the coding languages. One was Snake, maybe? Gemstone? C double plus? Who even knew? "You need the web browser to translate all the code that people use to build various websites into something we can see and interact with, the same way you'd need a translator to translate a speech in Javanese into English. With me so far?"

Re: Talk to the Aide

[not_a_haint]

Caleb hadn't heard that phrase, but it was catchy.

"I think so. The web browser translates the coding languages into somethin' we can understand."

His brain had latched onto the code concept because it was a common motif in the pulps. "It sounds somethin' like when a spy in a story needs a key t'decode a message." Though he had never really paid too much attention when authors tried to actually explain how that all worked.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Yeah, exactly that!" Arden said, excitedly. "Your browser is the key, perfect analogy." She beamed at him. Yes! She wasn't messing this up too much!

"Now, the internet is made up of--" porn and viruses "--websites. And websites are mostly made up of webpages. It's sorta like a book; a website is the entire book, and a webpage is the pages that make up that book. Different sites and pages do different things, but the most basic is providing information. Each page has its own unique URL - I don't know what that stands for - that can bring you to the exact thing you want, so long as you know it. Like, if you enter in the right web address - another way of saying URL - you can immediately pull up a single image from a specific webpage five layers deep on a website. But, if you don't know the URL, or don't even know if there's a website for what you're looking for, you run a search."

She typed 'google.com' into the address bar. "So, as you saw, I put in the URL and it brought me here. This is a what's known as a search engine. You put in a thing you want more information about, and it quickly scans the whole internet, and comes back to you with links - hyperlinks - to bring you to those pages. It goes in order of popularity, with the sites that the largest number of people go to most often. And since it's really, really good to have a lot of people choose your website, some companies will pay to have their names listed at the very top. But since what we're looking for isn't something anyone can sell us, that probably won't come into play."

Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic was typed into the search bar and mere fractions of a second later, they got their list of potential pages. "So these are our search results. See all these words in a larger blue font? Those are hyperlinks - we usually just call them links - that we can click on and they will bring us to a different webpage. So this top one here, Clarke's Three Laws" will bring us to the website Wikipedia, and the webpage devoted to explaining Clarke's three laws, which will, presumably give us the information we're looking for." She turned her laptop more fully towards Caleb. "You try using the link to get us there, okay?"

Re: Talk to the Aide

[not_a_haint]

"The internet is really really great!"
"For porn!"

Caleb had mostly been paying attention to the screen, but fortunately he'd glanced down at the keyboard as she went along so he'd seen roughly how to do that.

It took a moment for him to get the hang of manipulating the cursor, even losing it at one point. "Aw heck where'd it...oh there it is."

He successfully clicked the link and perused the bit of the page that was immediately visible. He chuckled at the first law. "Heh, yeah I think that one's come up a lot in the stories I've read."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Why you think the net was born?

"Great job!" Arden cheered. "Now, this webpage is on the website Wikipedia. A wiki is a collaborative website, where users are allowed to create and edit the information therein, and usually contain links to other pages for additional information. Like, the Arthur C. Clarke link goes to the page that's devoted to him, and adage goes to a page that will define the word adage and maybe give the etymology and list some popular or historical adages or something. Now, Wikipedia is a useful resource, because they've got people watching it like a hawk for misinformation and stuff, but also because it uses footnotes. A lot of those footnotes lead to other sites and pages, external from Wikipedia. Which means if you ever see something you can't believe, you should be able to check the footnote and read the source for yourself."

She swung her computer back to herself. "Two more stops on the internet tour and then you'll have enough know-how to explore it yourself. The first is email, which is short for electronic mail. It's just like mail from the postman, just way faster. Pretty much instantly." She walked him through the general gist of email, demonstrating on her account and then helping him set up an email through school if we have a school email account, gmail if we don't and sending him a quick, Hi! Welcome to Fandom, Caleb! You settling in all right? message.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[not_a_haint]

Caleb was grateful that typing had been one of the skills taught in the Cradle. He was also grateful that the computer's keyboard seemed to be laid out the same as on a typewriter. (He kind of missed the click clack of the typewriter though)

Aces! (which is Old Timer, for great) A lot to get used to, but everyone has been very helpful.

It was a lot to take in, but even in the 30's Granny Amburgey had done her best to instill in her charges the need to being open to new things. Because the world was ever changing, (she would sometimes then go on another gleeful rant about accepting the "horseless carriage"), because being closed minded led to cruelty, and because the things under the mountain were very creative and you had to be on the lookout for new bad, just as much as good.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"You're doing great," she said. "Now, this last one has to be treated kinda carefully." She pulled up Youtube. "So, this is a great resource for music and media and funny videos, you can end up wasting hours here, but that's not why it can be dangerous. On most social media sites - if this is, like, Internet 101, social media platforms are probably Internet 105 - there's this thing called an algorithm that basically exists to keep you there for longer, because the longer you're there, the more they can throw ads in your face and stuff. But what the algorithm does is monitor your activity to see what stuff you linger on, what links you click, what kind of content you like, what will keep you engaged the most. Like, you watch three videos about cats being adorable, suddenly it'll start suggesting more cat videos. But people have found that anger leads to more engagement than stuff you like, so at some point amidst your cat video suggestions, there will be a video called Why I Think All Cats Should Die Horribly, because one of the benefits and detriments to the internet is that anybody can post pretty much anything they want. But anyway, then you click on the cats dying horribly video because you're just like 'wtf bro, what?!!?' and you watch it. Maybe you even leave a comment that asks what's wrong with him. And the algorithm is like, 'Gotcha!' and starts suggesting more videos like that, and before you know it, you've got a ton of suggestions for awful videos that will upset you. Long story short: try to only watch stuff you think you'll like, if you find something you don't like, leave that video immediately and go click on something you do like, and don't fall for ragebait. Got it?"

Was she already planning to grab Caleb a couple of books about online safety and stuff? Yuuuup.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[not_a_haint]

“Double edged sword.” Caleb said again because it beared repeating. “I think I got the gist of it, even if only just.”

“And I’m gonna guess that video is like movin’ pictures?” He wondered if the word had any relation to radio. “I’m sorry if I’m comin’ across like some kinda primitive, I really appreciate your help an’ patience.”

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Man," Arden said with a laugh, "if I transported unexpectedly almost a hundred years in the future, I assure you I'd be the same way. Don't even worry about it. I'm gonna grab some books about cybersafety and stuff, hang on."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[not_a_haint]

"Can you recommend a good startin' point for modern history too?" his concerns about accidentally blowing up the dorms had him prioritizing technology somewhat but the events of the past many decades was what he'd initially come looking to resarch.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"What do you mean by modern history?" Arden asked. "Like, major historical events? The explosion of technology leading to cell phones and the internet? What're you looking for?"

Re: Talk to the Aide

[not_a_haint]

"Historical events, though if anyone's collected an omnibus of user manuals for modern appliances I wouldn't turn that down." He frowned thoughtfully. "What qualifies as modern history I wonder. I forgot we ain't even in the 20th century anymore."