Telies

Telies are a fictional class of autonomous software agents described in speculative fiction and theoretical discussions of decentralized digital systems. They are often depicted as distributed proxies that monitor, route, and regulate data flows across networks, operating with a light footprint and without a single controlling authority. In many renditions, telies coordinate through swarm-like communication to achieve common goals.

Origin and usage: The term telies is a neologism used in cyberpunk and near-future science fiction to describe these agents. It is not tied to a specific real technology, but the concept echoes themes of decentralization, emergent behavior, and digital governance.

Function and characteristics: Telies are typically portrayed as modular, self-verifying components that perform data integrity checks, routing, load balancing, and anomaly detection. They communicate with each other via encrypted, lightweight messages and adapt to changing conditions, sometimes forming larger coordinated structures without a central planner.

Agency and ethics: Telies vary in autonomy, sometimes acting as guardians of information, other times as regulators or enforcers. Narratives examine privacy, accountability, and the risk of unwanted amplification or control when many telies operate in concert.

In fiction, telies are used to explore questions of digital sovereignty, security, and how governance emerges in highly distributed computational ecosystems.