Of Spacetime relay-network

Relay Network — FTL Communication

> Tiered FTL signal carriage. Real, bandwidth-limited, latency-variable.

Two tiers

Tier	Carries	Access
Authenticated (SMA)	Coordination traffic, financial settlement, identity	SMA registration
Unauthenticated	Personal, commercial, entertainment	Open

Exclusion from the authenticated tier ≈ exclusion from civilization-speed processes — fab scheduling, corridor booking, Credit settlement.

Physical constraints

Constraint	Reality
Bandwidth	Finite per link. Shared. Peak-period prioritized.
Latency	Variable. Sol–LMC: minutes to hours, link-condition dependent.
Synchronization	Eventually consistent across galactic distances. Intergalactic sync drift minutes to hours.

Real-time intergalactic conversation is possible but expensive. Most comms is store-and-forward — closer to email than to voice, closer to postal mail at worst cases.

Node anatomy

A node = signal processing + thermal management + antenna arrays + power infrastructure.

Sited at gravitationally stable points (Lagrange, resonance orbits, free-floating deep space).

Form is thermodynamic. FTL signal processing generates waste heat proportional to bandwidth → radiator arrays sized to that heat → node looks like a radiator array with a signal processor attached. Because that's what it is.

Class	Size	Function
Primary	Hundreds of meters	Long-haul backbone
Secondary	Tens of meters	Backbone-to-local relay
Tertiary	Small	Local destination feed

Total ∝tens of thousands of nodes across settled space.

Decoherence

Signal degrades per relay hop. For data with error correction → handled. For high-bandwidth low-latency signals (remote embodiment, mind transfer) → catastrophic over multi-hop chains.

This is why remote operation fails at scale. The relay carries directives, instructions, commands. Not enough fidelity to run a biosphere, fab complex, or settled population remotely. You can supervise the LMC from Sol. You cannot run it.

A version of yourself sent across the network would accumulate compression artifacts at each hop. The arriving version shares your memories and capabilities but is not you in any sense that matters to the person deciding to send it. Travel still requires travel.

Authentication mechanics

A node verifies that signals originate from a registered identity and routes accordingly. Unauthenticated identities use unauthenticated tier without restriction — they cannot schedule fab priority, book corridor slots, or settle in Credits.

Not because they're prohibited. Because those functions require authentication, and authentication requires SMA registration.

A squatter on an unregistered body in M82 is not arrested. They are not authenticated, which over time amounts to the same thing. The network is the enforcement layer. The penalty is effective because participation in it is necessary for civilization-scale activity.

→ solar-monetary-authority.md, logistics-layers.md, yatraem-corridors.md