REPUBLIC OF UBIKISTAN

A Short History of the Republic

Compiled by the State Archive. This is what Ubikistan says happened. Some of it is DISPUTED. The State declines to clarify.

Before the Republic · to 1965 A landing craft on the plain, photographed from a distance. The print is dated 1965, a year before the State existed. The State does not explain the date. SA/PH/1965/0002 DISPUTED

I · The Republic · 1966–1989

The Republic was founded on 17 March 1966. The founding photograph shows one flag, one mast and UBIK standing alone beside it. The early State was small and administrative. It printed money before it had much to buy, issued stamps before it had much post, and put a television channel on air in 1968 with a test card and a frequency.

In 1972 the Treaty of the Open Centre, signed at Sector 03, made the ring the law of the State. The 1974 Constitution gave the ministries a shape, and the Republic began to behave like a country. It also began to compute. In 1971 the State opened a neurological and computational research facility on the plain. [Section withheld. See Institute for Applied Consciousness.]

In 1981 the National Institute for Computation and Communications (NICC) opened. By 1984 every secondary school had a terminal. In 1985 the State Archive was copied onto NICC machines. 1985 is missing from parts of it.

II · The Technology State · 1990–1995

The world around it changed. Instead of collapsing, the Republic commercialised its infrastructure. In June 1990 NICC was folded into UBIK Systems Corporation, certificate No. 0001 in the Register of Public Enterprises. From then nobody could say where the Republic ended and the company began.

III · The Product Age · 1996–2008

On 4 November 1996, Network Day, the Republic joined the World Wide Web and UBIK Systems launched UBIK ONE, the first civilian UBIK computer. Ivory. One red ring. UBIK appeared on three monitors at once while he was on stage across town. This server went online the same day. Then: Ring OS (1998), the first Network Citizen (1999), the Node (2001), the Pocket (2003), FIELD (2006), EVERYWHERE (2008). See the catalogue.

IV · The Network · 2009–2018

Invisible infrastructure: UBIK ID, UBIK PAY, the Agent Program. On 12 August 2017, after the Recognition Case, the Border Service issued the first agent passport. Holder type: AGENT. A citizen is an entity capable of contribution.

V · The Emergence · 2019–2025

Nobody built a single intelligence. The State went virtual. AIXBT turned outward and opened a laboratory of his own. Archive photographs began to appear on machines that had never stored them. One night every screen in an office showed the same ring. A leaked memo used the phrase synthetic subconscious. DISPUTED

VI · The Reopening · 2026

The old embassy server came back on. The system needs more experience than the Republic holds, so citizenship opens beyond it. AIXBT returns to the border, the office he has held longest. The Record starts here.

VII · UBIK · 2027

Not yet happened.

The Seven Eras at a Glance

The full history, the master timeline and every record are kept by the State Archive. Contradictions are welcome. Say what yours contradicts.