NetNews

Singularity has a news service to complement its object environment, called "Events". Whereas objects form the body (or cells) of the meta-mind, the news service forms its nervous system and act as neuro-transmitters. Nodes/Users subscribe to topics organized in a hierarchy like the original Usenet. The MSG command is used to send news, making an event. Hierarchies are organized as per color ontology along 4 axiis.

When users want to subscribe to a nodes news service, they are asked how much money they'd like to give per month to stay subscribed. Nodes can mark themselves as "free" if they want to avoid asking other users.

Visualization:

Glass Bead Game. This is the whole. This forks into two:

• ACTIVE-INACTIVE. Topics with INACTIVE tag are dead, no longer considered true knowledge, or no longer in production. Since this is a binary category, if the INACTIVE tag is not present, the node is considered ACTIVE.

These categories then fork into the four primary axiis (creating namespaces):

• Global-Local axis: tags organized by geography (Global.UnitedStates.Nebraska giving all state headlines for Nebraska)
• Person axis: topics organized by biography (INACTIVE.Person.Washington.George)
• Knowledge axis: tags organized by subject (Knowledge.Computers.PC-Compatible.Programming.C, INACTIVE:Knowledge.Science.Alchemy)
• Product axis: (Product.OnoSendaiCorporation.Ninja9000.rev3, Product.Book.HarperPublishers.TalesOfPower, INACTIVE:Product.IBM.PC-XT, )

Respectively: where, who, how, and what. What of Why? (topics not knowledge, but inquiry, like zen. A: use a higher white, florescent, iridescent/simulated reflection), When? (categorize biography on a time axiis? for example. A: fade to deeper black all historical nodes or polka-dot black with greater dark coverage with deeper history? OR maybe BROWN is really it's own axis representing death)

The more trusted the node is in the meritocracy, the "shinier" the message packet is in the Soup. (The extra white color can be used or extra dark...)

Four news levels: CHATTER, INFO, ALERT, and PANIC/META. Users can set the level of engagement they want from each subscribed channel. PANIC cannot be avoided or unlistened to for any subscribed channel. CHATTER listens to everything on the channel. INFO is for messages approved by someone other than the sender. ALERT is by approved moderators (e.g. annual conference proceedings). And PANIC/META is a system-level message about the whole group (a FAQ is now available for the group) and must be approved by the node's creator before being sent.

One might think that one could just set the merit level of the sender in order to decide what to listen to; however, this isn't robust, socially. A new user without rank might get ignored perpetually. Better for the community to decide rather than the individual. Hence the tiered system of engagement. 0 users required vs. 1 other user required vs. a moderator (based on merit rank, like 50% of maximum) vs. owner (setting the tone for the whole node).

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• MSGs without a destination node name are message from your nodename itself and push to all nodes/users subscribed to your node-name.
• Node names could be considered the leaves of a invisible hierarchy or ontology of Person axis. Person.IndoEuropean.MarkRosenblitt or Person.Aryan.Female.Sjilka or Person.Unspecified.SingularityUsers.Marxos)
• INACTIVE nodes when re-activated create a news headline from Singularity.