Logs for ShadowRN and Associated Mailing Lists

From:	Chris Siebenmann <cks@********.UTCS.TORONTO.EDU>
Subject:	EMF and cyberware
Date:	Mon, 22 Feb 93 10:34:06 -0500

Message no. 1 You only get EMF is your cyberware is that old-fashioned wire stuff,
instead of the new optical/optical computer stuff.

- cks
[yet another case where cyberpunk is behind real world technology.]

From:	Todd Montgomery <tmont@****.WVU.WVNET.EDU>
Subject:	EMF and cyberware (fwd)
Date:	Mon, 22 Feb 93 18:42:26 CET

Message no. 2 Forwarded message:
> Reply-To: Chris Siebenmann <cks@********.UTCS.TORONTO.EDU>
>
> You only get EMF is your cyberware is that old-fashioned wire stuff,
> instead of the new optical/optical computer stuff.
>
> - cks
> [yet another case where cyberpunk is behind real world technology.]
>

What??? [Mild Confusion]

Yes, OF (Optic FIbers) do not induce EMF. BUT......

Check ShadowTech. Nanites implanting microprocessors directly to
nerves, tranmission lines implanted on nerve trunks. The stuff carries
current. If it don't carry current it don't work. To take signals
from living nerves a voltage potential must be present. This voltage
potential must induce a current. This is how cyber items MUST be
controlled. Optics could be used to carry these signals to processing
units, but the units themselves must carry some current. A full optic
computer well never be feasible, It takes transistors, caps,
resistors, etc. to make the logic work. Optical electronics are used
to make the transmissions of signals less interfered with and have
much less rise time. And optics have emitters and detectors. These
take a LOT of current.

My point, the EMF is there, maybe diminished, and a low level, but it
has to be there. There is no getting around it unless you get rid of
all the electronic components. What about a biological processor?
NOPE, still carries current (nerves carry current). Yes, the body does
give off an electric field. But the cyber items would induce more of a
field.

But if you don't like the above explanation, How about this.

OK, with OFs, EMF does not exist. Processors have no EMF.
How do you tell what a persons essence is?

X-Rays. Could work. Examine what he is really made up of and take a
calculated guess.

MRI. All right, This could fly. Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the
entire body. Same as X-Rays, but more detail.

etc.

The point? Street DOcs MUST have mundane equipment that allows them to
examine a patient and determine there essence. R&D Cyberware might be
a case were the impact is not known until the item is implanted and
tests are run. Animal implants first of course. Don't want Mr. Johnson
unhappy when his Mr. Studd Sexual Implant leaves him limp as pudding.

By 2054, if there is a need for it, it exists.
And Some way to monitor essence mundanely is a pretty strong need.

-- Quiktek
tmont@****.wvu.wvnet.edu

From:	Chris Siebenmann <cks@********.UTCS.TORONTO.EDU>
Subject:	Re: EMF and cyberware (fwd)
Date:	Mon, 22 Feb 93 20:55:04 -0500

Message no. 3 Fully optical computers are being worked on. Currently (ha ha ha) they need
interfaces to electronic ones for I/O, but it's easy to think of ways around
this. As for neural interfaces: signals jump from nerve to nerve via chemicals.
I see no fundamental reason why they couldn't trigger light emission instead
of electricity emission in a sensor designed to hook up with them; it might
even be easier to manage.

- cks
[i will pass on the topic of essence analyzers, although it would be quite
interesting if there were none and what you had to do was keep track of
your systems and tell each new doctor enough about them for him to work
it out. call it an exercise in paranoia if you want to. Good places can
look over your body and figure it out, but bad places ... well, take your
chances.]

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