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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (BD)
Subject: Old Tech
Date: Sun Jun 3 14:00:00 2001
I've been putting together a character (for fiction, not a game) who got
his start running back in... oh, 2030 or so. I've tried to imagine what
sort of cybertechnology might have been available back then and what are
more recent inventions. In the ever-reliable "And So It Came To Pass..."
section of SR3, it's said that the first cyberlimb replacement was done in
2019, and by 2025, the NFL had the first cybered sports players. It also
mentions that by 2031, there were datajacks or something like 'em (Echo
Mirage needed some way to use their decks... I guess they could have used
'trode nets, but that's so gauche). That's pretty much it for
cyber-history (I don't have Cybertechnology, so if there's stuff in there,
I don't know about it... I think Hatchetman's discourse might be useful).
Man & Machine has a blurb about batteries, but nothing useful.

So I've had to guess at what might have been available 'back in the day.'
I'm pretty sure that since cyberlimbs were an option back then, cybereyes
would have been soon to follow (though the battery issue might have stopped
them being feasible for a while). I'm thinking some sort of chemical
treatment for relexes might have been there; I don't really subscribe to
the theory that Boosted Reflexes came after Wired Reflexes... seems to me
they would have been developed first. I could see body weapons like spurs,
too; they're less invasive than maost things. I've made guesses as to the
rest of it, but I'd like the list's input as to what tech might have
logically come first.

I'm also interested in whether you all think that the Essence costs for
all this pre-cyber might have been higher than what it is now. I'm tempted
to say double the cost for most things (except for brutally simple affairs
like Dermal Plating and Boosted Reflexes, things that need no neural
hookups). I could even see it being higher.

Anyway, whatcha think?

====-Boondocker

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Message no. 2
From: shadowrn@*********.com (John E Pederson)
Subject: Old Tech
Date: Sun Jun 3 19:50:01 2001
On Sun, 3 Jun 2001, BD wrote:
> So I've had to guess at what might have been available 'back in the day.'
> I'm pretty sure that since cyberlimbs were an option back then, cybereyes
> would have been soon to follow (though the battery issue might have stopped
> them being feasible for a while). I'm thinking some sort of chemical
> treatment for relexes might have been there; I don't really subscribe to
> the theory that Boosted Reflexes came after Wired Reflexes... seems to me
> they would have been developed first. I could see body weapons like spurs,
> too; they're less invasive than maost things. I've made guesses as to the
> rest of it, but I'd like the list's input as to what tech might have
> logically come first.

I agree for the most part, but I've viewed Boosted Relfexes as being
more like nanotechnology than a true chemical treatment. As a result,
I'm more inclined to believe that the technology isn't quite as close
on the horizon. Additionally, Boosted Reflexes strikes me as being a
lower impact form of reflex enhancement (less twitchiness, more
natural movement and behavior).

> I'm also interested in whether you all think that the Essence costs for
> all this pre-cyber might have been higher than what it is now. I'm tempted
> to say double the cost for most things (except for brutally simple affairs
> like Dermal Plating and Boosted Reflexes, things that need no neural
> hookups). I could even see it being higher.

I'd also be inclined to reduce the effectiveness or maximum level of
some forms of cybertech. If that's late enough to allow things like
skillwires, that would strike me as the sort of thing that is
somewhat more likely to have reduced effectiveness (ASIST being very
new tech at that point, I *think*).

> Anyway, whatcha think?

Well, my thoughts are included. Good luck!

--
John Pederson

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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!