Cellular Civilization/CrystalCarbon

Stefiz al-Arabid was recovering from a great weekend. The main task at hand was completing a neglected homework assignment due at her 8:00 Science, Society and Technology class. She typed on her keyboard, "Wiki technology creates virtual communities where alternative social structures can be explored. While this new technology may seem alien to some, even conventional segments of society such as the medical research community are starting to explore the advantages of the types of information exchanges made possible by hypertext pages that the entire world can edit. In this paper, I have attempted to map possible courses of development for wiki technology. I have centered my speculations on the cellular nature of existing wikis and the need to-"

Stefiz had the odd sensation that typing "cellular" had caused her cell phone to ring. The ring sound (a fragment of Charlie Monroe singing "Who's Calling You Sweetheart?") indicated that the caller's phone number was not in her list of friends. She almost ignored the call, but out of the corner of her eye she could see her cell phone and the displayed number of the caller indicated that it was a long distance call. She scooped up her phone and puzzled briefly at the area code....it was not one she recognized. "Hello, who is calling?" Desperate to complete her assignment, she plugged a hands-free headset into the phone and continued typing on her keyboard.

There was a pause at the other end of the phone connection and a set of barely audibly tones. Then a man's voice said, "This is P. Albert."

Stefiz got as far as, "I have centered my speculations on the cellular nature of existing wikis and the need to find ways to link all wiki communities into a coherent online representation of the human thought-space." She pulled her hands back from the keyboard and tried to place the name "P. Albert". She did not recognize the man’s voice, but he seemed to expect Stefiz to recognize the name. Something like recognition began to each at the edge of her conscious mind and she lamely muttered, "Uh..."

After a long pause, the man provided another hint, "Well, maybe I have the wrong number. I've been reviewing your article at the Academia wiki. You are CrystalCarbon, right?"

Stefiz was surprised, but now the name made sense. "Oh, you're PAlbert! Wow! How did you find my phone number?" Stefiz had recently been involved in an intense online argument with the Wikicity user PAlbert. Unwelcome thoughts of being stalked by some internet lunatic flashed through her mind.

The man apologized for intruding on Stefiz from the depths of cyberspace, "Well, I assumed you were publishing under your real name and I could guess that you are a college student. It was not that hard to find your name on some webpages for a student organization at your college. I called your campus operator and got this number for you."

Stefiz was irked. How would a campus operator know her phone number? She was sure that she had never given the college permission to release her personal information to the world. She opened a browser window and searched the internet for her name. She easily found the webpages for the Computing Club that had her name on them. She remembered having made those webpages herself about a half year earlier. She asked, "So what's your real name?"

The man responded with a chuckle. "You know, I could make up a name that might satisfy you, but to be honest, I do not want to tell you my real name."

Stefiz was now fully in defense mode. "Then I think this conversation is over, and do not call again."

"Wait! Let me explain! Don't hang up! Listen to me..." He sounded seriously panicked at the idea that she would break the connection.

Stefiz cut him of, "No, you listen to me. If you really want to talk to me, send me an email with your real name and explain what you want to talk about. If I decide I want to talk to you, I'll call you back." She broke the connection and suspecting he might call again, she shut off her phone. She just had to get the assignment done.

She completed the assignment and emailed it to her professor, just three minutes before the deadline. Then she was out of her dorm running to class. It was not until later that afternoon that she had time to check her email.