Using the mesh is an everyday, intuitive affair for most transhumans. This section details some of the more common uses and any considerations when it comes to security or hacking.
Augmented Reality [AR]
AR overlays data and sensory input from the mesh onto your physical senses. This allows you to experience images and video, text, sounds, physical sensations, and even tastes and smells as you go about your day. AR sensory input is high-resolution and seemingly real, though usually tinged with a ghostly quality so as not to be confused with real-world interactions. AR data can be customized, filtered, and layered as you see fit.
Most habitats and businesses transmit data on public AR channels. Directories, signs, maps, help guides, tourist information, available services, and public alerts are easily toggled and perceived. Corporations and private groups also offer their own AR channels to authenticated users, ranging from streaming music and networked games to underground night life and black-market services.
AR also has its downsides: if you are hacked, it can be used against you. (AR sensory input is also a potential vector for so-called basilisk mind hacks)
AR Mist and Filters
Online advertising is still a major business in the inner system. Modern adverts, political screeds, scams, and porn are experienced as entoptics and other AR sensory input. These are often transmitted on public channels and highly intrusive or distracting. It's hard to ignore ads that cite your name (pulled from your public profile) at high-volume, bombard you with tickles and NSFW visuals, assault you with savory smells for desserts, or trigger the sensation of bugs crawling on your skin to sell insecticides. Though these can be filtered out, unfortunately, advertisers seem to be winning the ongoing war between adverts and blockers, and many are not above using malware techniques to bypass your security or even permanently infect your devices.
In some locations, AR adverts can be so overwhelming, they are referred to as "mist." This fog of data can inflict an impairment modifier of -10 to -30, though this can be overcome with a successful Interface Test (with mist modifiers applied). Alternatively, you can turn off AR inputs entirely, but this may impeded you in more significant ways.
Skinning
Since reality can be overlaid with hyper-real entoptics, you can "skin" your environment by modifying your perceptual input to fit your particular tastes or mood. Need your spirits boosted? Pull up a skin that makes it seem like you're outdoors, with the sun shining down, the sounds of gentle surf in the background, and butterflies drifting lazily overhead. Pissed off? Be comforted as flames engulf the walls and thunder grumbles ominously in the distance. You can go about your day accompanies by your own personal soundtrack or the smell of roses, the ocean air, or freshly baked pastries. Tired of listening to your co-worker's babble? A simple filter can block them out, replacing them with a gray-shaded outline and the pleasant sounds of birds. Entire libraries of skins may be freely downloaded for the express purpose of making the cheaply fabricated less distasteful and countering the space-induced cabin fever of cramped environments.
Virtual Reality [VR]
Only servers have the bandwidth and processing requirements to run full VR simulspaces, especially ones with multiple users. For extra stability, most VR services are offered in locations with hardwired physical networks. Comfortable enclosed couches are provided for users, as their physical sense are cut off. See Virtual Reality for more information.
Backups, Forking, Egocasting
Most people have backups taken and forks created at reputable body banks. The sanctity of egos is highly valued, so mesh security tends to be top notch. Even black-market body banks and darkcasters have reputations to protect. If you have a cyberbrain or access to an ego bridge, you can make backups and forks at any time, but are reliant on your own security. Inactive backups/forks/egos are simply large files that can be stored on any device. Activated Infomorphs, however, can only be run on hosts or servers.
Banking
Physical currency is a thing of the past. Polities that still use money deploy various types of blockchain-based crypto-currencies. Transactions are electronic, heavily encrypted, and archived in a public ledger. This means payments and transfers are linked to a mesh ID and may be tracked, though many use anonymized accounts or proxies to hide their trail. Electronic currencies are either stored in an encrypted wallet on your personal device or entrusted to the security of an online service.
Communications
Messaging, video calls (using avatars), and emails remain dominant forms of communication, though these are sometimes hampered by distance lag. For discussions across great distances or that require face-to-face privacy, forks are deployed. Non-encrypted comms can be sniffed by hostile parties.
Experience Playback [XP]
Every morph with mesh inserts has the capability to transmit or record their experiences in the form of XP. Sharing with friends, social networks, or with the public at large is popular. Short clips are common, but some x-casters post an ongoing lifelog for subscribers.
The depth of these experiences depends on how much of the recorded sensory perception is kept when the clip is made. Full XP includes exteroceptive, interoceptive, and emotive tracks.
- Exteroceptive tracks include senses originating within the body, such as balance, a sense of motion, pain, hunger, thirst, and a general sense of the location of one's own body parts.
- Emotive tracks include the whole spectrum of emotions that can be aroused in a transhuman. Hardcore XP aficionados deem only the experience of the actual neuronal and endocrine systems of biomorphs as the real deal; the cyberbrain systems of synthmorphs are not on par.
Due to the prevalence of x-casting, live XP feeds are an integral part of the coveillance paradigm.
Gaming
Along with AR and VR console games, multiplayer interactive alternate-reality games (so-called MARGs) are popular. Many players are involved with one or more in-game "coteries" in various settings. Here are a few examples:
- Cloak & Dagger (espionage)
- War of Wizards (high fantasy)
- Innsmouth Nights (horror)
- All My Forks (romance)
- Starfleet Command (sci-fi)
These games present stories and plots experienced through skinned AR environments and interactions with other players (and paid NPCs) both online and in-person, with more detailed VR immersion scenarios available as well.
MARGs function as VPNs. Much like social networks, they treat their customers as products and heavily monitor their activities. Hacked game accounts can reveal a treasure trove of tracking data.
Location Services or Mapping
You can almost always pinpoint your location on an inhabited world or in a habitat by measuring signals either from orbiting GPS satellites or nearby mesh nodes. Finding your way is easy with AR cues such as visual trails or arrows or audio directions. Location services can tell you where to find the nearest local autocook, give you review on nearby cafes, and tell you who in the area matches your dating profile, personal interests, or is looking for a game match.
A side effect of location services is that your movements are logged by every nearby mesh node due to automated pings and your physical activity can be correlated with your online activity and mesh ID. This feature is considered an advantage by parents watching over their kids, businesses monitoring their employees, and friends seeking out other friends, but can be a detriment to those seeking a low profile.
Media & News
Recorded and streamed VR, XP, 3D video, music spoken word, podcasts, and even old-fashioned flat vids and audiobooks are offered by a variety of services. The sheer amount of media available is dauting -- most people carry personal libraries in their head that contain far more than they will ever consume. Entertainment for even niche interests is never farther than a few mental menus away. News and media feeds are highly personalized and curated to your tastes by your muse.
Many venues transmit their own local AR media channels, to keep social groupings focused on the same vibe. When you can stream a live performance from a DJ on Mars directly into your head almost anywhere, most club-goers prefer getting on the same channel so they can all dance to the same beat, experience the same visuals, and share the energy.
Mobile Offices
Online collaboration tools, remote networking, and ALI assistants mean that work is rarely tied to a physical location -- most people carry their jobs with them. For security purposes, VPNs are mandatory. Encrypted data module implants are often mandatory for employees that carry sensitive company data in their heads, possibly protected by a dedicated corporate security AI. Many hypercorps retain remote access privileges to their workers' mesh inserts and implants.
Coveillance
Public sensor feeds are available to everyone on the mesh -- everyone is watched by everyone else. These sensors provide real-time coverage of most public areas within a habitat, though they are subject to vandalism and sabotage. Many private networks are also available, some of which are accessible for a fee or if you know the right people. Sensors and coveillance are covered in detail in Surveillance Hacking.
Social Networks
Social networks are the fabric of the mesh, weaving people together. They are the means by which most people keep in contact with their friends, colleagues, and allies, as well as current events, the latest trends, new memes, and other shared interests. They are an exceptionally useful tool for online research, getting favors, and meeting new people. In some cases, they are useful for reaching or mobilizing masses of people (as often illustrated by anarchists and pranksters). There are thousands of social networks, each serving different cultural and professional interests and niches. Most social networks allow users to feature a public profile to the entire mesh and a private profile that only those close to them can access.
Reputation also plays a vital part in social networks, serving as a measure of each person's social capital. Each person's reputation score is available for lookup, along with any commentary posted by people who favored or disfavored them and rebuttals by the user. Many people automate their reputation interactions instructing their muse to automatically ping someone with a good review after a positive action and to likewise provide negative feedback to people with whom the interaction went poorly.
The drawback to some social networks is that you are the product. CivicNet, eXploreNet, Fame, and similar networks all rack their users' mesh activity and build expansive profiles for advertising purposes. This data is readily available to certain hypercorps and political entities, or anyone that manages to hack heavily protected social network servers.
If you are hacked, your social network accounts may also be at risk. Your profile could be altered, history viewed, and fake posts, pings, and dings made in your name.
Tagging
Entoptic tags are a way for people to "tag" a physical person, place or object with virtual data. These e-tags are stored in networks local to the tagged item and move with the item if it changes location. E-tags are viewable in AR and can hold almost any type of data, though short notes and pictures are the most common. E-tags are often linked to particular social networks or circles within that network so that people can leave notes, reviews, memorabilia, media, and similar things for friends and colleagues.
Finding hidden tags in an area requires an Interface Test at -30 at best or may be impossible without access to the right networks/devices (GM discretion). Even when found, they may require decryption.