Editing Mesh (section)

== Information Overload ==
The mesh contains massive amounts of personal and public information shared by users, a digital commons of news, media, discourse, knowledge, environmental data, business, and culture. Transhumans embrace the mesh as a tool for exchange, communication, and participation with other users, both local and far away. As such, the mesh is an up-to-date, authoritative source on all transhuman knowledge and activities. Not everything online is available for free, of course, except perhaps in the autonomist zones. Quite a bit of proprietary data is kept off the grid in secure storage or sequestered away in private networks. Some of this is for sale, and heavily encumbered with digital restrictions—software, media, nanofabrication blueprints, skillsofts, etc. A thriving open source movement offers free and open source alternatives to much proprietary data, however, and numerous digital piracy groups deal out cracked versions of proprietary material, despite pressure from some authorities. Other data is simply secured from competitive interests (hypercorp research projects) or is an extremely private affair, such as ego backups.

=== Spimes ===
Along with the accumulated data of transhuman affairs, the mesh is also cluttered with information derived from untold numbers of wireless-capable sensor-enabled devices that continuously update the mesh with their location, sensor recordings, and other data. Colloquially called “spimes,” these location-aware, environment-aware, self-logging, self-documenting objects broadcast their data to anyone who cares to listen. Since visual, auditory, and other sensors are absurdly tiny and inexpensive, they are ubiquitously incorporated into nearly every object or product a person might wear, apply, use, or internalize. This allows almost any user to reach out through the mesh and gather environmental data and ambient sensor recordings from a specific location (or at least public locales—private areas typically block such signals or slave them to a local AI that filters their output).

=== Surveillance, Privacy and Sousveillance ===
While spimes are easily trackable, they also contribute to an environment of universal surveillance. Between spimes, microsensors, ubiquitous security systems, and the recording capabilities of the mesh inserts used by almost everyone, just about everything is recorded. Factor in the availability of mesh-tracking, facial recognition, rep/social networks, and other data mining software, and it rapidly becomes clear that privacy is an outdated concept. Special considerations must be embraced by anyone that seeks to mask their identity or cover their movements.
Alternately, off-the-shelf looks common with some morphs (especially synthmorphs and pods) allow a user to blend in with the masses. Though in part this may seem an Orwellian surveillance nightmare, the abundance of recording tech actually works as “sousveillance” (watching from below), serving a role in making everything transparent and putting checks on abuses of power.
Authoritarian regimes tread carefully, as they are also universally monitored, despite their attempts to control information flow. Many people also willing participate in this open “participatory panopticon.” With nearly infinite storage capacity, dedicated lifeloggers record every moment of their lives and share it for others to experience.

=== Sidebar: Information at Your Fingertips ===
The following information is always available for most mesh users in a normal habitat:

==== '''Local Conditions''' ====

* Local maps showing your current location, annotated with local features of personal interest (according to your personal preferences and ﬁ lters) and your distance from them/directions to them. Details regarding private and restricted areas (government/hypercorp areas, maintenance/security infrastructure, etc.) are usually not included.
* Current habitat life support (climate) conditions including atmosphere composition, temperature.
* Current solar system and habitat orbit maps with trajectory plots, communication delays.
* Local businesses/services, directions, and details.

==== '''Local Mesh''' ====

* Public search engines, databases, mesh sites, blogs, forums, and archives, along with new content alerts.
* Syndicated public newsfeeds in a variety of formats, ﬁltered according to your preferences.
* Sensor/spime (mostly audio-visual) feeds from any public area of the habitat.
* Private network resources (including tactical nets).
* Automatic searches for new online references to your name and other subjects of interest.
* E-tags pertaining to local people, places, or things.
* Facial/image recognition searches of public mesh/archives to match a photo/vid still.

==== '''Personal Information''' ====

* Morph status indicators (medical and/or mechanical): blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, white cell count, nutrient levels, implant status and functionality, etc.
* Location, functionality, sensor feeds, and status reports of your possessions (via sensors and transmitters in these possessions).
* Access to one’s life-spanning personal audio-visual/XP archive.
* Access to one’s life-spanning personal ﬁle archive (music, software, media, documents, etc.).
* Credit account status and transactions.

==== '''Social Networks''' ====

* Communications account status: calls, messages, ﬁles, etc.
* Reputation score and feedback.
* Social network status, friend updates.
* Updated event calendar and alerts.
* The public social network proﬁles of those around you.
* The location and status of those nearby and involved in the same AR games as you.