Shifter Society is the general name for the human society in the world they share with the ler. Its emblem is a cube with a staring brown eye on each visible face. It emerged at the end of the first human Population Crisis, as a way of minimizing wasted space. All humans are divided into four shifts, which are staggered so that at any given time one shift is always working. The schedule is invariably five evenings, one day off, five midnights, one day off, five days, and then five days off. The hierarchy which runs the society mostly consists of day-shifters, mostly with programmed names.