5 Minutes to Midnight
The Lingo of Interface‑Zero
American Congregation for the Doctrine of
Faith: The ACDF or the North American Inquisition is
an official ecclesiastical secret police agency operating
in the United Coalition States of America.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Programs that appear
to be or actually are self-aware. AIs can be either subsentient,
meaning they are adaptive, but not actually
sentient, or fully sentient and therefore self-aware.
Aspect: A subsentient AI trained to mimic one or
more skills or facets of a sentient being (usually its
Atlantica: A nation created out of the former traditionally
liberal Northeastern United States. Atlantica is
at the forefront of the transhumanist movement.
Augmented Reality Game (ARG): A game or
metagame that takes place both in a real and virtual
Avatar: A person’s interactive digital self.
Baja Mexico: Formerly the territories of Baja,
Northwestern Mexico, Southern California, and most
of Nevada. Much of Baja is uninhabitable desert with
a few major cities. Baja is a major robotics manufacturing
power rivaling Japan.
Banger: A violent person.
Black Hat: A hacker who uses his computer skills
for criminal, destructive or selfish purposes.
Blit: To travel virtually between two points without
traveling along the intervening distance.
Blue Plater: Working class citizens (i.e. poor people).
Box: An external amplification unit often used in
conjunction with TAP. Restricted in some jurisdictions.
Brainer: A technically proficient or intelligent person,
in particular one who works on computers.
Bountyheads: Wanted suspects and criminals with
bounties placed on them.
Caribbean Economic League: The CEL is a nation
made up of former island territories in the Caribbean
Sea that ultimately joined the US and later abandoned
it when the Union’s economic forecast grew increasingly
Chimera: A person or animal that has undergone
drastic genesplicing without concern for their final
Crashing: A violent attack on a computer system
designed to disrupt operations.
Cutter: An anti-security program, often takes the
form of a VR weapon.
Cyberform: A completely artificial shell used to
house an AI. Many are humanoid in shape.
Deep, The: Another name for the Net, or MediaWeb.
The virtual world. There are many metaphorical
uses of the word comparing the network to the ocean.
One can: dive into the deep, surf the net, swim through
media, create waves, etc…
Derezz: The act of disrupting or severing a person’s
or object’s virtual interface with hyper reality (typically
Digital Entity: A general term used to describe
deep fauna including: AIs, aspects, avatars, and viruses.
See Ideoform below.
Divers: Those who plumb the Deep for information.
Dry Spot: A geographic location without much in
the way of passive external processing power.
Dubbing: The process of digitalizing a person’s
consciousness. Currently dubbing is fatal to the person
undergoing the operation. The process uses nano
devices to replace the patient’s brain (cell for cell) in
order to generate a hi-definition master copy for later
uploading. The process is still experimental and has a
high rate of failure the most common of which results
in the production of an aspect-like subsapient consciousness.
Emancipated AI: An artificial intelligence that has
been granted official government recognition as a
sentient being. This status generally comes with official
citizenship and some or all of the rights afforded
humans within regions that offers such recognition.
Gangland: A lawless section of sprawland dominated
by street gangs.
Ganglander: A person (usually a member of gang)
who lives in section of gang controlled urban sprawl.
Also known as gangers.
Gaucho: A cowboy or other slick, handsome or
Genesplicing: The act and science of splicing the
genetic code of humans and animals.
Golemmech: Cybernetic power armor, or robots,
usually vehicle size or larger. Golemmechs are used
extensively for construction, rescue, and military purposes.
Gray Hat: A hacker who uses his computer skills for
morally gray or non-moral related purposes.
Great Lakes Union: The GLU is made up of former
US States, City States, and Canadian Providences bordering
the Great Lakes. The GLU (occasionally known
as the Rust Belt League) is a pragmatic socialist nation
governed by former water barons and industrial powers.
Gun Santo: Also know as a gun saint, gun-fu artist
or gun kensei. A martial adept who specializes in gunplay.
Hack: Short form of hacker, alternatively the process
Hacker: A person skilled in computer use.
Headframe: A precursor to the TAP.
Human 2.0: Humans who have undergone embryonic
genetic upgrades to the point that they are considered
a different species of human. In general they
are more intelligent and physically enduring than basic
humans. Most members of the New Mandarinate
are Human 2.0.
Hyper Reality (HR): Also called augmented reality
or hyper-linked reality.
Hybrid: A person who has undergone genesplicing
therapies involving animal DNA. The term refers to any
human who has undergone such therapy, but in practice
it is used most often to describe those individuals
who still appear passably human. Hybrids that cannot
pass for unaltered humans are most often referred to
Icon: A media star.
Ideoform: A general term used to describe Deep
fauna including: AIs, aspects, avatars, and viruses. See
Digital Entity above.
IDSMC: Incredibly Dense Self-Modifying Code. Also
called Id Smack for short.
Ism: A philosophy, cause, or religion; usually a radical
Ismist: A radical. One who follows an “ism.” Also
anyone who follows an ideal.
Martial Adept: A person who is extensively trained
in one of many stylized martial arts forms including
mental discipline and bio-feedback techniques.
Maze: Another name for the sprawl or any highly
congested urban area.
MediaWeb: Another name for the Net or the Deep.
The interactive virtual world.
Megaconglomeration: Also called Congloms,
Corps, MegaCons, and MegaCorps. They are large
multinational companies that often wield many of the
same powers granted to sovereign nations, including:
sovereignty over their own domains (usually defined
as corporate offices, and any territory real or virtual
that they own), the right to make and sign treaties, the
right to pass laws and enforce them within their borders,
and the right to raise armies to protect the integrity
of their company and its trademarks.
Meme: A discrete pack of cultural information.
Memes, like viral agents can be infectious.
Nano Assembler: A device used to reconfigure
matter from one form into another.
Negotiator: One who “negotiates the sprawl.” Any
person makes their living on the fringe of law abiding
society. Most often used to refer to: bounty hunters,
fences, fixers, mediators, operators, and private investigators.
Neko: A person who has undergone cosmetic surgery
or superficial genesplicing for purely aesthetic
reasons, in order to look more like an anthropomorphic
animal. Alternately known as either a furry or an
anthro. Often confused with so-called true hybrids or
OOL: Omniversal Object Locator. A small piece of
data that indicates the location of a place, person, or
file. Serves the same function as an email address, PO
Box, and phone number all in one.
Parker: Someone who practices Parkur, the sport of
treating the urban landscape like an obstacle course.
Pipe: A channel of communication from any one
hyper reality point to any other.
Personal Reality: The reality a person experiences
through their Hyper Reality filter preferences.
Phansigar (“Noose Operator”): A member of the
Phreak: Someone who practices the skill of phone
phreaking, the manipulation old analog and T1 telephone
Power Suit: Power armor.
Raider: Short for “corporate raider.” Anyone who
plans or performs clandestine operations against a
corporation or conglomeration.
Republic of Cascadia, The: The former American
Northwest and British Columbia.
Rover: A person who makes their permanent residence
aboard a ship, or other artificial habitat at sea
(in particular the Pacific, Indian, and Southern Oceans).
Most rovers hail from Oceania, Indian, or the Far East,
with a significant minority coming from western coast
of the Americas.
Scavenger: A person who combs old ruins, wastes
and junk heaps for salvageable technology.
Script Kiddie: A newbie hacker or wannabe without
any real knowledge of programming who uses
code written by someone else to hack with.
Simulacrum: Also known as androids, puppets, replicants,
or bioforms. Artificial life forms used as tools by
Singularity: A point in the near future when dramatic
advances in technology or AI out pace human
understanding possibly leading to the extinction of
the species or some dramatic evolutionary leap. By its
very nature the ultimate form and effect of the singularity
Spindoctor: A publicist or public relations expert.
Sprawl: A heavily urbanized area. Often used to refer
to “bad” or dangerous neighborhoods.
Sprawlander: A person who lives in the urban
sprawl. Also known as Sprawlers.
Sword Sage: A martial adept who specializes in
Sylph: Also called arm candy. An attractive woman.
TAP: Or Tendril Access Processor (so named for its
three component parts tendril like brain filaments, the
access chip, and processor/Wi-Fi signal processor and
booster), is a brain mounted nano device that allows a
user to interface with the hyper real world.
Triad Society: An Asian (primarily Chinese) secret
criminal society akin to the Mafia.
United Coalition States of America: The UCSA
makes up the bulk of the former United States and
Canada. The UCSA (also known as the Coalition of Willing
Christian States), is a theocratic plutocracy, ruling
over a puppet government.
Unplugged: A person without a media TAP.
Virtual Reality (VR): computer generated interactive
Wasteland: A geographic region that is hostile to
human life. This includes, deserts, barrens, radiation
zones, former toxic landfills, bomb sites, Arctic regions,
and ruins located in such areas.
Wastelander: A person who lives in the in a wasteland
or ruin. Also known as Wasters.
Weapon Master: A martial adept who specializes
in armed melee combat but does not use a sword.
White Hat: A hacker who uses his computer skills
for good or altruistic purposes.