Software as Interstellar Trade.

[jason taylor]

The thought occurs that a large amount of the traffic will be done in software. It is very good for transport being light in bulk and often carrying disproportionate profits to the overhead. A fully loaded dataholder in whatever format can contain a considerable amount of information while taking up a very small amount of solid space. The data could include valuable apps like artwork or military viruses or what not. Or technological guidebooks for newly settled colonies. Software could well be the silk or spice of interstellar trade.

[jason taylor]

Adventures based on this:

The characters take on a load of data disks. Amid the collection is one that:

Is being used to carry information from one crime lord to another without the PCs knowing

Carries a dangerous virus that activates in jump space

Is taboo on a planet they visit

Tells their ship's location to pirates

Is a virus meant for the benefit of a port the PCs visit

Carries information to the Zhodani

Summons the Ancients from the past into the present time(OK that's way overdone, but must be mentioned).

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

The thought occurs that a large amount of the traffic will be done in software.

Information in general is fairly transportable. However, the turnaround time on interstellar tech support seems problematic.

[SteveS]

Realistically, the most common data traffic will be simple trade data: a factor on one world might want to (securely) tell a factor on another world about a sudden increase in supply or demand of a particular commodity, or a factor might want to tell a speculative trader. In in any case, the factor sending the data would presumably be doing it because the recipient of the data is a friend, or a client with a pre-existing commission agreement.

The 1973 film The Sting had a plot that was based on delivering some critical data faster than the usual channel could deliver it, and exploiting the information. Given the Traveller setting characteristic that information cannot travel faster than the fastest starship, one set a plot around the general idea of The Sting.

Bonus: The Sting has some great ragtime music in the soundtrack.

[dcarson]

For an adventure hook trade data that is illegal or at least questionable.

Inside information that a mine is going to start on a new rich vein or that a vein is running out and in a few months there will be a major drop in production.

Production plans for something going into production as soon as the factories can be retooled.

Source code for new software.

That sort of thing.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

... Carries a dangerous virus that activates in jump space ... Tells their ship's location to pirates

Characters who carry cargo software in any way where it can run during the journey deserve what they get, but it's implausible to claim they would do this.

[thrash]

Note that computers and software are one of the areas where retrotech is prominent in Traveller. That said...

Since the widespread advent of the Internet, I've always assumed that part of the five dtons set aside for mail contracts includes digital storage. This is similar to, but less expensive than, Express Boat service.

There's a figure from the history of telegraphy: from 1850 to 1950, even as the cost of telegraph messages changed, the inflation-adjusted per-capita expenditure on messages remained fairly constant (~$1, in constant 2002 dollars). That might give you a rough order of magnitude for the casual traffic.

A fairly large market might be distributing one-time-use "pads" for secure encryption. This has some good security vs. skulduggery potential.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by SteveS

Realistically, the most common data traffic will be simple trade data

Not really. You only care about trade data for things that you might actually trade, and any setting where you can practically trade things heavier than information gives you way more bandwidth than can be filled by trade data.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Not really. You only care about trade data for things that you might actually trade, and any setting where you can practically trade things heavier than information gives you way more bandwidth than can be filled by trade data.

Maybe not; if the 3I allows trading in derivatives, all data on objective events becomes trade data and fills bandwidth proportional to the square of travel distance and to the mean population .

[Mr Frost]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

Maybe not; if the 3I allows trading in derivatives, all data on objective events becomes trade data and fills bandwidth proportional to the square of travel distance and to the mean population .

However , consider first the amount of data that even a half Dton {250 square feet} of storage at T.L. could hold . Current hard drives are around 1-3 terabytes and are roughly and about 1/90 to 1/100 of a cubic foot {and keep getting more compact} .
Now uncase your crystal ball and look 2 tech levels into the future : that 25,000 hard drives worth of storage should be able to hold enough data to have even the volume your alluding to suffer from digital agoraphobia .

Second is simple Human nature : Human love to communicate ; a lot .
Not just gossip and such either . There would be amateur {and professional} artists of all sorts posting works to digital forums on other worlds {think You Tube with Face Page and StarDestroyer.net like functionality combined on steroids ; these would exist and cover entire sectors and some the whole Imperium in the Traveller Megacorp influenced setting} that could get quite elaborate , syndicated shows and news services of which not all would be corporate {there are already serial web series produced entirely by private enthusiasts , conceive there with even freeware T.L. 10 C.G.I. used at hobbyist skill and timeframe and such which should allow for digital special effects superior to what Pixar can currently give you for blockbuster time and money} , maintaining extended familiy ties , vast religious and social groups that encourage communication ; I'm not even scratching the surface .
Just look at the amount of traffic here on the internet and its' diversity .

One example I could picture are interstellar forums were people in , say , Glisten posted what are basically editorials and dissertations after reading not only those of others but browsing ordinary posts of interest {found using search engines vastly superior to what We have currently} from last months' system internal traffic on You Face Tube Mora™ and/or some other system of interest {or several} they are subscribed to casually over a few weeks {15 minutes each morning and afternoon before and after work and maybe an hour on Saturday and Sunday like people used to read newspapers} then taking perhaps a week to compile their own content then send it .
Such could even work on a daily basis given X-boat traffic between major worlds would be a constant flow .

On highly populated low tech worlds {where clearly a lot of high tech is imported and employed to maintain such numbers} there are likely numerous vendors in the starport offering services digitizing written corrospondance outgoing and printing what is incoming for the more cosmopolitan locals and this could allow them to participate in that interstellar Imperial community .





Something would need to be present to maintain anything approaching not only Imperium-wide cultural standards {remember , Imperial culture amongst the common citizens is cannon} but also any real sense of political cohesion without which such a vast polity would collapse no matter how much force was threatened or used .

The numbers of ex Imperial military would be far too low to fill the role of cultural homogenizers {not to mention that Imperial culture doesn't seem to be particularly martial} .
The Roman Empire found it didn't work unless you removed much of the local population first and instead employed a combination of encouraging urbanization {where town criers could effectivly tell people what Rome wanted them to hear and given wealth flowed into the towns , not the fields , so to did the political and social power} and lots of festivals {Humans also like to party and tend to do similar things during festivals : note how nearly everyone in the "western world" embraces a Coke advert as the symbol of Christmas for example} .
The only way the Imperium could have survived 1,000 years as such a bogglingly vast polity is with a lot of social interaction between worlds creating a sense of "Us" between the peoples of atleast the major worlds .