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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: "Jason Carter, Nightstalker" <CARTER@***.EDU>
Subject: Is the Matrix real? Yes and no.
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1993 10:24:02 -0700
Rat & Quiktek:

You guys are both right an wrong. The basis of Matrixrunning (or netrunning or
decking if you perfer) is realistic. To increase the decker's speed and ability
to manipulate computers over a world-wide network (the Matrix) a Virtual Reality
interface was developed to allow the decker to "be in" the computer as opposed
to just use a computer.

The problem comes in how Shadowrun says it works. They say everything is kept
in the native system and that the decker and his deck go to the system and get
the information of how everything looks from there and he sees and reacts to it.
Your correct to say that takes way too much processing power and transmission
time, no matter how fast the computer is supposed to be.

However if you look at it the way Cyberpunk 2020 (or even, I hate to admit,
GRUPS Cyberpunk) the problem is solved. In both of these games the VR interface
in housed completely inside the cyberdeck. It creates the images and translates
the decker's actions into simple computer commands. Your cyberdeck does all the
work instead of every system in the world doing the work. This is the basis of
Reality Filters. Unlike in Shadowrun, these two games require the decker to
have a reality filter because it decides what everything looks like.

See Ya in Shadows,
Jason J Carter
The Nightstalker
Message no. 2
From: Richard Pieri <ratinox@***.NEU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Is the Matrix real? Yes and no.
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1993 15:49:16 EDT
>>>>> "Jason" == Jason Carter, Nightstalker
<CARTER@***.EDU> writes:

Jason> You guys are both right an wrong. The basis of Matrixrunning (or
Jason> netrunning or decking if you perfer) is realistic. To increase the
Jason> decker's speed and ability to manipulate computers over a world-wide
Jason> network (the Matrix) a Virtual Reality interface was developed to
Jason> allow the decker to "be in" the computer as opposed to just use a
Jason> computer.

I'm not saying that the Matrix is "wrong", just that given how computers
work today it can't exist. From personal experience back in the days I
hacked around on my ole Apple ][+, I *know* that the best (ie, most
reliable) way to defeat computer security is to deal with the hardware
directly, bypassing the operating system almost entirely. It's also a slow,
methodical approach--it took weeks of work to deprotect even simple games
the first time around.

The Matrix exists because of how William Gibson envisioned the "consensual
hallucination" of cyberspace. Gibson has admitted that he knows little
about computers, and that his cyberspace is not meant to reflect how he
thinks they should work. But it reads well--much better than trying to
caputure all the ignominy of someone pouring through reams and reams of hex
dumps over the course of weeks :-).

Jason> However if you look at it the way Cyberpunk 2020 (or even, I hate to
Jason> admit, GRUPS Cyberpunk) the problem is solved. In both of these
Jason> games the VR interface in housed completely inside the cyberdeck.

GURPS is not one of my preferred games. But GURPS Cyberpunk has *the* best
description of computers and networks, given in layman's terms, that's out
there--including the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet.

CP2020 has a lot of good ideas, but it suffers from really *pathetic*
implementaion.

--Rat <ratinox@***.neu.edu> Northeastern's Stainless Steel Rat
PGP Public Key Block available upon request Ask about rat-pgp.el v1.5
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No Zooanoids were injured in the making of this message.

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These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!