Icosahedron
SOC-14 1K
How much does mail cost?
I figure the cheapest form of interstellar information transfer will be email. Small quantities may be carried aboard the ship's computer, but bulk email is more likely to be carried on portable storage media, the data from thousands or millions of clients being loaded onto 'disks' belonging to the Mail Service, and then physically carried in the mail lockers of ships.
The next cheapest will be 'letters', probably important legal documentation that for various reasons can't be sent electronically.
Then there will be 'packets', presumably items that are too sensitive, important or valuable to travel as freight and which will form perhaps the bulk of the mail delivery.
(If you have an alternative view of the mail locker contents, please discuss).
But how much does information transfer cost?
LBB 2 p8 tells us that ships are paid 5000Cr per dton, (so presumably the Mail Service charges the customer considerably more than this) and that private messages may be carried for a fee of 20-120Cr. (The only reason I would trust a total stranger to carry my important documents is if the official channels cost MUCH more - or didn't exist at all).
Any ideas?
I figure the cheapest form of interstellar information transfer will be email. Small quantities may be carried aboard the ship's computer, but bulk email is more likely to be carried on portable storage media, the data from thousands or millions of clients being loaded onto 'disks' belonging to the Mail Service, and then physically carried in the mail lockers of ships.
The next cheapest will be 'letters', probably important legal documentation that for various reasons can't be sent electronically.
Then there will be 'packets', presumably items that are too sensitive, important or valuable to travel as freight and which will form perhaps the bulk of the mail delivery.
(If you have an alternative view of the mail locker contents, please discuss).
But how much does information transfer cost?
LBB 2 p8 tells us that ships are paid 5000Cr per dton, (so presumably the Mail Service charges the customer considerably more than this) and that private messages may be carried for a fee of 20-120Cr. (The only reason I would trust a total stranger to carry my important documents is if the official channels cost MUCH more - or didn't exist at all).
Any ideas?