"Edward M. Lerner - Part I of IV - A New Order of Things" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lerner Edward M)

Keizo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Public domain is an elastic concept. Knowledge could be public for
the local citizens but commercial for export."

Munching on a banapple, Art shook his head. "Commercial dealings require privacy, whether for a
Centaur bidding on the latest proprietary refinements in fusion technology or me charging flowers on
Mother's Day. Every ET info-sphere has encryption services and anonymizer relays.

"So an ET agent can as freely surf the 'net as you or I, and we can't see, unless it lets us, what information
it has gathered. And it's tapping not only public-domain knowledge, but every commercially available
database and reference work. Purchases made over InterstellarNet are trade secrets or other intellectual
property successfully kept under wraps by their owners."

"I've lost the thread." Eva's forehead furrowed. "You found a primer. ET trade reps surf the infosphere.
What's the connection?"

"I've generally found only a primer. I'd expect to find much more." Maybe a demo would better illustrate
Art's suspicions. "Keizo, what basic data do you work with? We don't need an exhaustive list, just
something representative."

The sociologist tipped back his chair. He was perfectly safe; the table that almost filled the room
prevented him from tilting far. "Well, the composition of their society in terms of significant organizations
and institutions, certainly to include the major clans. How those institutions and organizations arose. Class
and gender roles, and how they've evolved. I'd want to know the differences between major clans, and
between major and lesser clans. Of course I want quantitative specifics, like population and resource
distribution among the various groups."

"Hardly my field, but that sounds like a good sample," Art said. "Okay, formulate that as two library
queries. Run the first search against everything we know about the Snakes, which we're assured is in the
onboard library. Run the second, substituting 'nation' for 'clan,' against a single, basic, public reference
source about humans: the Internetopedia."

"Why?" Both colleagues were puzzled.

"Humor me."

Keizo prepared his queries, letting them kibitz and fine-tune by implant over the ship's 'net. Each search
returned an abundance of data, but the Internetopedia provided by far the most. He frowned. "An
interesting experiment. From what you said, Earth's agent on K'vith regularly samples their libraries and
other publicly accessible sources. If so, the answer to my first query includes almost everything
sociological on the Snake's public infosphere.

"If that's true, the comparison between the materials the Snakes freely publish and what humans do
certainly suggests a degree of what we would call secretiveness in their society."
****
CHAPTER 3

Metaphors, allegories, figures of speech, euphemisms ... humans had endless double-speak for their
misdirections. Take sandbox: a safe area for children's play. "Sandbox" was the benign label humans
applied to the containment of every interstellar trade representative.