From:	Tzeentch tzeentch666@*********.net
Subject:	The Crash of 2029 (was Re: The start of holographic neural nets?)
Date:	Fri, 23 Jun 2000 10:32:06 -0700

From: <dbuehrer@******.carl.org>
> > Simply put the Crash Virus makes almost no
> >sense in any way.
>
> It makes sense if people didn't have backups. Or at least not backups of
> data in the conventional sense. Everyone pretty much agrees that if they
> had backups then the Crash couldn't have happened. But it did. So,
people
> must not have had offline backups.

And that's the critical point. It's beyond unreasonable to come to that
assumption unless you first admit that the Crash is pure fantasy of the type
resulting from "Well we want a big computer problem at this date to justify
the funky tech and we don't care how it happens."

> Okay, so say computers technology utilizes neural nets. As with the human
> brain, data is stored in the net in a data/analog format. It isn't just
> simple 0s and 1s. Let's say the storage space on a neural computer is
> *huge*. And let's say the nature of the memory means that the size of the
> external storage is beyond *huge* (i.e., very, very expensive).

Then why use it at all? If it is expensive why is noone using insanely cheap
backups like tape or DVD-RAM? Even assuming the social chaos of the
Shadowrun history in the 1990s (food riots in New York et al) somehow causes
employment of this new technology (instead of the other way around!).

Now, we know that the Crash happens in 2029, after some big-ass disasters
worldwide. That to me would seem to be a case for slow deployment of new
technologies. I would go so far to say that the social problems of the
Shadowrun world place them several years behind our real-world progression
even before VITAS hits and the world really goes to crap.

Assuming the neural net technology or some holographic data storage is what
allowed the Crash to happen (why do I have bad flahbacks to the Virus from
Traveller: The New Era??) it does not adequately explain the effects it had
or how it infected so many systems so fast (including systems that in the
real-world are firmware controlled).

Man, see how you have to really think in some insane loops to explain the
Crash in a logical, plausible way? :) Shadowrun wisely just completely
ignores how it did what it did ;)

> Enough computer "experts" claim that neural computers are safe and stable,
> that they are hacker proof, and that computer data doesn't really have to
> be backed up, that people buy it. Those that do make back ups do so by
> backing up their data on a second computer. Most of these users fail to
> isolate the backup computer from the primary computer (i.e., people are
> stupid). Only a very few paranoid users (military, intelligence, MIB, the
> insane) made isolated backups of their data.

How is isolated backups on uncorrptable media insane? I would call anyone
who does not do backups of some sort to be insane. the key is that somehow
the Virus prevented backups from being used (which is REALLY ridiculous) or
somehow destroyed them, or the same mass insanity that resulted in the US
giving away most of the continent and corporations extraterritoriality hit
here as well.

> In my version a combination of technology and culture combined to create
> the environment that made the Crash of 29 possible. Enter the Virus of
29.

The culture part holds far more weight in my opinion given the decisions
already made by the leaders of the Shadowrun world. Pretty much anything
seems plausible given the events in the timeline.

> Because the Virus could take down neural computers, it wasn't a big leap
> for it to create biofeedback in human brains. Because it was a fully
> neural virus, assist technology was needed to give the anti-virus team the
> resources to defeat it.

Now that makes sense.

> That's another possibility. But the virus would have had to have been
> around a *long* time.

I estimated about 10-15 years for it to infiltrate most replacement firmware
systems.

> And just because something is fantasy, doesn't mean it can't be
explained...

Well sure you can explain it, it just doesn't mean it makes any sense.

Ken
---------------------------
There's a war out there, old friend, a world war. And it's not about who's
got the most bullets, it's about who controls the information. What we see
and hear, how we work, what we think, it's all about the information!
Cosmo, 'Sneakers'