Tag: Earth

G-Soft Computers

In the 23rd Century, G-Soft is mega. Massive. This corporation makes almost everything that drives the technology used for communication, collaboration and a whole host of domestic activities as well as for living and working in outer space. No 0ne really knows who owns G-Soft anymore. Its owner or owners are very private and quite mysterious individuals. The last known image of the G-Soft President is over 15o years old now. Presumably, that President has passed on but no one has a clue who the existing President is. They are just known as President G-Soft and he or she periodically makes audio-only aircast announcements about latest advances in their products. This, of course, drives various power mad Presidents of countries and other large corporations to periodically rant about the G-Soft President and blame him or her for all sorts of ‘ills’ that affect the World and indeed the wider Universe.

I remember when I earned my Digital Badge for the History of Digital technology I learned about G-Soft. If I remember correctly, in the early 21st Century the kind of service and software areas that G-Soft now monopolises were shared between 3 large companies. One I know was named after a fruit – it might have been the Banapple, one of the first hybrid fruits loved across the Earth. Then another big company definitely had ‘Soft’ in its title, might have been Gatesoft or Megasoft. The third big player at the time was called Dongle (but some friends have told me this used to be a device and that the real name of the company was Noodle). Wish I’d paid more attention when attending Junior Virtual.

Anyway, what I do remember is that all three of the big players, Banapple, Mega-Gatesoft (or whatever) and Noodle continually outdid each other with advances in their communication and collaboration tools. Then, one of them (and again not sure which one) patented ‘ThoughtPlay’ which revolutionised the way that users could interact with their communication devices. That company bought up the other two for mega-bucks and G-Soft was born.

Planet X

Planet X is a deeply mysterious place in the Universe. First discovered around 2085 by the Virgin Galaxy Deep Space Probe, no ‘being’ from Earth has ever actually been there. This is partly because Planet X keeps changing its celestial position quite markedly but primarily because it is shrouded in thick gaseous clouds. To this day even the composition of those clouds remains largely unknown and no space probe that has entered the planet’s upper atmosphere has ever returned intact. Planet X is now followed through the cosmos by Virgin Beacons that denote it as a ‘no-go’ area.

On occasion ships passing near to Planet X have received communication signals, strongly suggesting the existences of some advanced civilisation. Three manned missions have all ended in apparent disaster, with each ship disappearing and none of the astronauts ever being seen or heard of again.

The one exception was the Locator 27 space probe, that returned some biological matter to it’s orbiting mother ship. DNA subsequently extracted from this sample led to the birth of the now famous hybrid, Joosthava X Minot.

Faxons

The Faxons really were a quite charming people and were the other principal civilisation on the planet Zizzdum. They had a sense of smell that was many times more sensitive than domestic dogs on Earth. They had little else in common with dogs, however, walking on 2 legs as well as liking cats, keeping them as pets once the first Earth settlers introduced felines to Zizzdum.

The Faxon sense of smell was so great that they could detect rare minerals and elements in very small quantities. As a consequence, they could command significant salaries working for Earth-based mining companies. Whilst Faxons could speak to each other, and to humans, they often preferred to communicate silently among themselves through releasing odours from their com-gland, situated just behind their ears.

This method of communication, whilst very effective, could become very confusing at dinner parties where humans might unintentionally be releasing their own ‘gaseous’ signals. There was many an embarrassing moment at early official banquets on Zizzdum when Earth ambassadors inadvertently said something rude or on occasion, made a pass at a female Faxon through natural bodily functions that had been activated by the excellent though wind inducing Faxon cuisine.