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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: K in the Shadows <Ereskanti@***.COM>
Subject: Otaku (More)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 01:46:37 EST
Okay Alfredo, I'm letting the Virtual Cat out of the archive as it were. I've
gotten quite a bit more up for the Otaku (inspired by the RA:S of course) as
we've tinkered with here in the HHH games.

A LOT of this material is just now being written into formal rules, as we've
been doing a lot of this on the fly now for FAR too long.

Alfredo, this one is a MUST!!!

http://members.aol.com/hhackerh/intro.htm

Use the Science and Technologies link ... on that page, use the Otaku
link...(in text)

-K (who even got Dave's nice permission to get a super cool image from the
Shadowland site to use as a header for the Otaku page)
Message no. 2
From: "D. Ghost" <dghost@****.COM>
Subject: Re: Otaku (More)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 01:04:17 -0600
On Wed, 2 Dec 1998 01:46:37 EST K in the Shadows <Ereskanti@***.COM>
writes:
>Okay Alfredo, I'm letting the Virtual Cat out of the archive as it were.
I've
>gotten quite a bit more up for the Otaku (inspired by the RA:S of
course) as
>we've tinkered with here in the HHH games.

I suppose this would be a good time to point out that while looking
through the decker stuff in SR3, you noticed that the standard Decks have
MUCH more memory than in SR2 and that this possibly supports someone's
theory that the headware memory in SR3 gets a similar boost (and that M&M
may detail a FIFF memory implant that has even cheaper essence cost than
SR3's) and thus the headware memory in the BBB3 does NOT incur SLD...

>A LOT of this material is just now being written into formal rules, as
we've
>been doing a lot of this on the fly now for FAR too long.
>
>Alfredo, this one is a MUST!!!
>
>http://members.aol.com/hhackerh/intro.htm
>
>Use the Science and Technologies link ... on that page, use the Otaku
>link...(in text)

Just out of curiosity, what do people think of the origin/nature of
Otaku? I mean, are they purely a "product" of the technology level? Are
they to some degree magical (in SR sense, not a "Any technology
sufficiently advanced ..." sense.)? Are they a mixture of the two? In
other words, if SR was set in the same technology level but without
magic, would there be Otaku?

This should be a discussion where can put forth the most outrageous
theories without fear of getting thwaped or any such. I'll start:

I think the Otaku are a sort of artificial magically active. They are
not truly magically active but instead have certain modified key elements
of brain patterns of magically active persons imprinted on them (and thus
it works best when the Otaku-to-be's brain is still developing ... ie,
when they are young.). The modifications allow the Otaku to see the
matrix in an inherently different manner as well as interact with it on a
more basic level. The same area of the brain that a mage uses to
interact with astral space and lies dormant in most individuals suddenly
becomes activated and now interacts with the matrix (which is why
magically active Otaku do not exist.). The Resonance is a semi-sentient
(Imagine an intellect so vast and performing so many functions
simultaneously that it has little time for actual self awareness.)
program which mimics astral space (sort of a virtual astral space.) in
addition to other, more mysterious functions it carries out. The AIs are
actually agents or children of the Resonance program whose initial
pruposes were to insure the survival of Ressonance as well as the
recruitment of new Otaku. The Otaku carry pieces of the Ressonance
within themselves and thus the second imperative ties in with first. As
time has passed since their creation, some of the AIs have developed a
greated self awarenenss. With this greater self awareness has come
greater personal motivation and less obedience to the imperatives. Now,
the Otaku move to protect the original purpose/motivation of the
Resonance (a variation of betterment of mankind.) from the AIs that would
undermine it (intentionally or not.). Could this be the answer to "Who
watches the Watchers"? ;)

--
D. Ghost
(aka Pixel, Tantrum, RuPixel)
"Coffee without caffeine is like sex without the spanking." -- Cupid
"A magician is always 'touching' himself" --Page 123, Grimoire
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Message no. 3
From: Michael vanHulst <Schizi@***.COM>
Subject: Re: Otaku (More)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 20:23:14 EST
In a message dated 12/2/98 11:11:55 PM Pacific Standard Time, dghost@****.COM
writes:

> Just out of curiosity, what do people think of the origin/nature of
> Otaku? I mean, are they purely a "product" of the technology level? Are
> they to some degree magical (in SR sense, not a "Any technology
> sufficiently advanced ..." sense.)? Are they a mixture of the two? In
> other words, if SR was set in the same technology level but without
> magic, would there be Otaku?
my views may spoil Psychotrope a bit, so here is your space







That is all you get, if you take the effects of psychotropic IC to mean that
the computer can directly affect your brain(in effect reprogramming it to do
what the IC says) then think of the deep resonance as the effect the matrix
can have on a proto-otaku.
So, basically, an AI or maybe any Ultraviolet host, can act on a suitable
(IE, young and imppressionable) mind to rewrite the neural pathways into a
pseudo computer, also in the process, it may mess up the neural pathways that
deal with physical skills, hence lowerign the racial maximum for physical
attributes? (a stretch, but hey, why not)
More will be posted when I upload the Otaku and Rigger sections of my site.
http://members.aol.com/vocenoctum

(which would be in a sig file if anyone knows how to do such in AOL :-)

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Thwap!