In the days when the Bright Way controlled interplanetary communication, farspeakers were responsible for maintaining that infrastructure, much like hearthkeepers maintained the power grid. Unlike hearthkeepers, farspeakers were not descendants of the old shamans and thus were not considered clergy, meaning both males and females could become farspeakers.

Farspeakers approach the task of network engineering with a similar degree of reverence and sacramentality as hearthkeepers do electrical engineering. In the farspeakers' case, they regard the network as the “body” to the “soul” of the noosphere. The secular inheritors of the interplanetary network are more prosaic about their work, but farspeaekrs on Hearthside and other pious enclaves like Wayfarers' Haven are more traditional. This includes the missionaries, Stormlight among them.

Since the Bright Way's goal is to unite the yinrih's noosphere with those of other species, and since the farspeakers view networks (including the human Internet) as a kind of physical incarnation of the noosphere, the act of bridging the Internet with the yinrih's ansible network is approached with much solemnity and celebration.

Other corners of the Bright Way have different ideas about what exactly it looks like to fulfill the Great Commandment. As the saying goes, “Ask two Wayfarers about the Great Commandment, and you'll get three opinions.”