Technology of the Lunar Reckoning – The ap6

February 18, 2012 in Lunar Reckoning 69

When the first Jovian colonists left Earth, just before the Network Dismantlement, they took with them an archive of the Internet as it existed just before it was reorganized into the modern Global Communication System and related networks. Known as the “Earth Historical Record”, it was a file copied into numerous data servers on Jovian energy fleets. Compressed using the ‘ap6′ archival format, it is most commonly referred to as the ap6. Under ATLAS’ information control policies, most of the data in the ap6 was lost on Earth for decades before the Jovian Dominion reestablished communications with their home planet.

After the Lunar Revolution, ATLAS’ restrictions on communication with the Jovians were lifted. Because all the contents of the ap6 have long since passed out of copyright, the ap6 is in the public domain. Due to advances in data storage, the ap6 can be distributed on portable data storage devices in varying levels of completeness and quality. The original copies of the ap6 are kept in the Galileo Institute on Ganymede, where historians and private individuals may directly make their own copies – important, as other copies of the ap6 may be censored, corrupt, incomplete, or otherwise unverifiable.

To those within the asteroid belt, the ap6 is an invaluable portrait of the 21st century, containing data on early computer systems, historical events, and the development of culture – the ultimate primary source. However, to the Jovians, the ap6 represents something else entirely – as the only source of entertainment for a generation raised without communication with Earth, the ap6 continues to be a central component in Jovian culture. No doubt the many Jovians who gleefuly listen to centuries-old pop music have contributed to the general reputation of eccentricity for those who live beyond the bounds.