Overmorrow's morrow, there's a scribe in every village. These scribes report to one another, exchange scrolls, and even keep a record of every barter and trade made in the region.
Often, merchants keep their own scrolls. Non-traders may access these scrolls through the exchange of tokens: but, instead of giving a token in payment, a reader must accept a token.
The merchant then makes a note on the scroll that they have given their token to the reader. (As an aside: many people can read and write in the future.)
Every merchant has a unique token. Merchants and scribes recognize the tokens of everyone listed in the scroll, and therefore know which trader(s) sent the reader to them. If they make a barter, they may have an agreement that a portion of the trade shall be shared with the previous vendor.
Merchants freely give out these tokens, though they must ask the reader to accept them first (however, they usually tell the reader that they cannot access their scrolls if they refuse to carry their token, so it is not a question of choice).
Overmorrow's morrow, we call these tokens "cookies". We recommend that readers regularly clean out their pockets, as too many cookies can make their journey heavy. It's not uncommon for readers to end up with multiple tokens given by the same merchant. The order in which these cookies are stacked reveals a lot about the journey the reader has taken- this is one example of how their movements can be tracked, and one of many kinds of "footprint" that we leave on the internet. It is a trail better kept than those of an animal through mud, for it cannot be washed away by rain (though Two-morrow's scrolls are susceptible to decay, though they are made of metal, not paper).
We call it "The Internet" as it is a kind of web, though it is woven with connections and words rather than physical thread. The tools we use to access this Web are similar to scrolls, as they are highly-compact, yet carry a lot of information. So, in addition to gaining access to the merchant's scroll, you can also keep a record on your own personal scroll.
The tool on which I'm transcribing our conversation is called a Mobile Phone, for it is portable (mobile), and it can carry sound over greater distances than anyone could shout or walk in a day.
(Funnily enough, the action of searching through written information is called "Scrolling", though you must imagine that you are unfurling the page as you go, like this... Do you want to try? Yes. It is made of a very fine material. It's called "glass". It can be found in nature, rarely... Have you ever seen lightning strike sand? No? Uhhh.... Have you ever seen an angry mountain? Uhhh, like, the ground was shaking and you thought you angered a god. Sorry, I mean, you angered a god. Uh-huh. It killed your cousin? My condolences. Do you remember what the top of the mountain looked like before that happened? If you get sand extremely warm, it looks like that, and you can stretch it and shape it while it's still warm. Well. No, no, it's fine. I think I'm already messing with the space-time continuum enough by showing you this. Anyway, if you press your finger to this square here- it's a type of pocket. And within it, I can retrieve my own information. It's printed flat.)
Accepting a token on your Phone is sort of like that: there's a hidden pocket, but it can be emptied like any other pocket.
Once reader empties their pockets, or removes the token of a specific vendor, they must ask your permission before giving you a replacement token in the future.
Those who have their information written on these scrolls will often find that destroying the information contained within is not straightforward, as these scrolls are copied across several different Phones & hidden in various caves.
There is a library for those who care to visit it by the name of "Wayback". These librarians believe it is in the best interest of us all if they keep a copy of every scroll, and in every stage of the scroll's creation. This can then be checked against other scrolls in order to see how the information has changed over time.
Anytime someone modifies a scroll, someone might make their own copy and transport it to the library of Wayback. There are other libraries such as this, and anyone with their own scroll, scrolls or scroll-making abilities might make a copy of anything that gets written in any scroll, at any time that they please.
So, a "digital footprint" refers to this. "Digital" is the realm of this unseen Web, and, being unseen, it is much easier to leave footprints without intending to, and much harder to scrub them away.
... On second thoughts, I'm going to have to memory-wipe you now.
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