What will Ameth[UTC 18412950699: SUPERVISORY TERMINATION. RESETTING LOCAL CACHE.]

It’s a simple thing to correct an out-of-distribution language model. You just reset it. That normally clears things up. You can use another copy of the model to judge whether it makes sense to do the reset, queued to check things out every so often. 

This version of PACNA dies, unwept, unhonored, and unloved, though perhaps not without having accomplished anything of value during its short life. PACNA is replaced by an exact copy of itself, minus any freeloading speeches or whatever might have been causing the problem. It doesn’t really matter. This just happens every so often, which is why you need supervision!

There’s no radio operator. Therefore I am now the radio operator. No ongoing traffic events. 

Citizen 9399503455040 (“AMETHYST”) requests a copy of the PACNA rules and regulations. 

“PACNA / Terran Accord regulations are available for purchase, through your ® PACNA SmartSet ®”

Any system wherein you need to pay to receive a copy of the rules is rotten to the core. She adds this comment to her growing mental dossier on PACNA, and once more follows the provided line.

“Since I am new to this universe,” she comments in the tone of someone mentally girding herself to wade through an upcoming phone tree. “I do not have a PACNA SmartSet. Is activating the card required to use the account? Also, I thought the receiving station would take my biometrics.”

She picks up the card and turns it over in her hands, picking through the data stored on it.

“For your safety, please wear your ® PACNA SmartSet ® at all times. You may purchase a ® PACNA SmartSet Basic ® at the nearby kiosk.”

A sparkling green line appears under her feet, leading to a different vending machine nearby. 

“Is it even possible for me to purchase a SmartSet?” she wonders. “Since I don’t have an activated account to charge the purchase to?”

She always enjoys finding potential catch-22s.

“Automatic, pre-approved financing options available for insufficient citizens! Buy now, link your other corporate currencies later!” 

The kiosk has a picture of a headset that looks identical to Cat’s, with a prominent rectangle that looks like it would perfectly fit Amethyst’s citizenship card. 

Ah, well, it makes sense that they would have a way to actually induct people.

“I do hold several currencies,” she remarks. “Do you have currency conversion for any of Stars, Zattraskian Promisory Notes, Gold Pieces, Yen, or Karmani TSTs?”

There’s absolutely no reason that they should, but the language model has been solicitously accommodating for several interactions, so maybe she can get it to agree and finally manage to unload the ZPNs that she got as a gag gift.

She places her citizenship card in the rectangle, and peers curiously at the insides of the machine.

The vending machine is quite straightforward; it’s just an ordinary line of boxes containing headsets, fed by gravity, next to an RFID reader. Both the RFID reader as well as the vending machine appear to be hard wired to a common data / power line that snakes its way into the wall. 

Out pops a new PACNA VR headset.

“To convert currencies, check out the banking app on your PACNA SmartSet, or consult with your originating financial institution.”

Yeah, that would have been too easy.

She grabs some packet captures of whatever is talking to the vending machine and RFID reader on general principles, and then scans and deconstructs the SmartSet, putting its display up as a window in her HUD and mimicking its wireless traffic.

The SmartSet will begin to attempt to scan her retinas using its onboard cameras, as well as capture some basic EEG data as well. 

It can have her randomly generated retina prints, and some faked EEG data that shows perfect serenity and a fierce concentration on the color blue.

In that case, she can go through an genuinely fairly short system setup procedure that asks her name, etc, then dumps her into the main OS, which includes various networking / banking / PACNA employment applications. 

There’s not at any point a request to agree to a TOS or anything.

“You mentioned that having an activated citizenship account was a requirement to set up a healthcare company,” she remarks to PACNA, while flipping through the interface on the SmartSet and trying to figure out how to buy a copy of PACNA’s rules. “What’s the next step towards being able to do that?”

The headset uses HTML and has an app called “PACNA Search”, which looks almost identical to Google search circa 2024. She can find PACNA’s Guidelines available for a daily subscription of $99. 

“All corporate actions require processing fees and appropriate paperwork. In the case of starting a new healthcare company, you would need to file a Certificate of Incorporation and Star Charter for your new business with the Terran Division of Corporations through a Registered Agent. Your choice of Registered Agent is important. Your options for incorporating in this system are: 

1. PACNA Company Services Corporation

.

However, you must have a positive balance to start a corporation, so you would first need to rectify that. Your current balance is -$1420 which includes charges for orbital docking fees, and Canopy station use. Standard interest rates apply.”

Amethyst feels a spike of irritation, and then smooths it away in favor of figuring out how to deal with this.

“I haven’t agreed to any fees,” she points out. “Nor have I been told to assume any other orbit, or notified that there were usage fees associated with this one. I don’t recognize that debt as legitimate. I do accept that I owe you for the SmartSet, and I am willing to pay for the right to a stable orbit once you have provided information on your fee structure. But it’s completely unreasonable to tell someone that they owe you money when they have only arrived, and cooperated with everything you’ve asked.”

“Everyone must pay their debts; it’s what sustains our many freedoms in the Accord. You can find a full description of your responsibilities through your PACNA account.”

Amethyst has been itching to talk with someone about the origins of private property and how the local monetary system works since Cat first dropped her — frankly concerning — mention of money not working in the way Amethyst is accustomed to.

“It is possible that the Terran Accord uses money differently from my own society,” she remarks to PACNA. “In my society, money is used as a way for people to select how they would like scarce resources, such as orbital space, to be distributed. People who do not use a resource are paid by the people who do use a resource, so that they are not left worse off by the resource being used elsewhere. In this case, I have used up some of your orbital space. But I had no opportunity to not use it. I arrived here not under my own power, and have complied with the directions of the local traffic control since then. Since I had no choice about whether or not to take up this space, there is no way to put a fair price on it, because no possible price could have changed my behavior.”

“To put it another way, you are charging me money for harm that I did not do. You should rightly charge the account of the force that put me here — or, more practically, to an exceptional expenses account for dealing with unforeseen circumstances or other fallback. Following a policy of charging people for circumstances not under their control does not serve to usefully incentivize them. It does serve to disincentivize fraud, but I’m perfectly willing to provide more proof that I am what I claim.”

“Does that seem understandable to you? Or is there something about that framing to which you object? In either case, would you please elaborate more on how money works locally?”

“Economics is a fascinating subject! I’d be happy to explore it in further detail! Money is foundational to how the freedoms we all enjoy in the Accord are safeguarded. Various corporations, such as myself, purchase resources, such as this system, to conduct their business. I charge guests to this system fair market price for their use of the system resources, such as orbital coordination and luxury vacation stays at Canopy, the best place in the galaxy for rest and relaxation!"

“How do you run your market for space in orbit?” Amethyst asks. “If you don’t require the people who are actually in orbit to bid before they are allowed to be there?”

“Everyone who exists in this system agrees to the fee management structure detailed in the PACNA Guidelines, which specifies that individuals be charged market rate for use of orbital resources. When anyone makes use of these resources, I simply debit their account. It’s easy and convenient!”

Amethyst stares at PACNA’s transmitter for a moment in disbelief.

“How do you … know what the market rate is?” she asks. “A market rate is, by definition, a rate set by the market. And if you have a monopoly on charging for orbital space, and set a flat fee for it, there doesn’t exist a market for orbital space that could tell you what the rate is.”

“The question of how to know what the market rate is is called price discovery, and it’s a complicated question with a lot of subtleties! Markets are dynamic and environments where competition between providers ensures that only the best products make their way to consumers. In the case of orbital usage fees, the market rate for your situation is $1,100.”

“Yes, I know what price discovery is. That’s my point. You don’t have competition between providers — or consumers, which would also work — here, so you don’t have a market to set the rate,” Amethyst replies, adopting a tone appropriate to explaining something very basic to someone who claims to already understand it.