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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: markus.widmer@******.at (Markus Widmer)
Subject: science fiction (was: holoprojectors)
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 20:08:56 +0200
Gurth wrote:
>This is an excellent example of what I mentioned the other day: some
>people's SR world is a lot more science-fiction than others. Mine is
>pretty much like it is today, plus the obvious additions of
cyberware,
>magic, etc., whereas yours is obviously more advanced :)

I agree with Gurth here. Shadowrun is very low on typical science
fiction set-pieces such as androids, laser guns, cloning, aliens and
space travel. On the tech side, there is mainly the datajack and the
matrix, rigging and cyberware. Any other than that, the SR-world isn't
much different from our world. This, I think, is due to the fact that
magic has returned and it has changed a few things.

However, I think that robots and androids as well as gentech were
unduely overlooked by the designers of shadowrun. I don't think it's
logical that all the robots we have in 2063 are more or less advanced
drones. After all, we're much closer to developing a decent humanoid
robot today than to designing the datajack.

Opinions?

Markus
Message no. 2
From: pgrosse@********.com (Paul Grosse)
Subject: science fiction (was: holoprojectors)
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 13:57:14 -0500
> Gurth wrote:
> >This is an excellent example of what I mentioned the other day:
some
> >people's SR world is a lot more science-fiction than others. Mine
is
> >pretty much like it is today, plus the obvious additions of
> cyberware,
> >magic, etc., whereas yours is obviously more advanced :)
>
> I agree with Gurth here. Shadowrun is very low on typical science
> fiction set-pieces such as androids, laser guns, cloning, aliens and
> space travel. On the tech side, there is mainly the datajack and the
> matrix, rigging and cyberware. Any other than that, the SR-world
isn't
> much different from our world. This, I think, is due to the fact
that
> magic has returned and it has changed a few things.
>
> However, I think that robots and androids as well as gentech were
> unduely overlooked by the designers of shadowrun. I don't think it's
> logical that all the robots we have in 2063 are more or less
advanced
> drones. After all, we're much closer to developing a decent humanoid
> robot today than to designing the datajack.
>
> Opinions?
>
> Markus
>
>

Hmm, well the datajack isn't that far behind. I remember seeing post
about a doctor in UK that was maping nerve endings for use in
prosthetic devices. It's not that far a jump to hook it to the
touch/taste/sight/hearing nerves.

Paul Grosse
Head Draftsman
Royale Coach
1330 Wade Dr.
Elkhart, IN 46514
PH: (574) 262-9278
Fax: (574) 266-3658
Message no. 3
From: markus.widmer@******.at (Markus Widmer)
Subject: science fiction (was: holoprojectors)
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 21:21:59 +0200
Paul wrote:
> Hmm, well the datajack isn't that far behind. I remember seeing post
> about a doctor in UK that was maping nerve endings for use in
> prosthetic devices. It's not that far a jump to hook it to the
> touch/taste/sight/hearing nerves.

Yes. The difficulty is to do it the other way around, to enable
someone to actually programm a computer by thinking. Rigging is under
development, too. Some guy made a monkey move a robotic arm quite
precisely simply by thinking.
Here's the original reference:
http://www.nicolelislab.net/NLNet/Load/index.htm

Still, if you know what Honda is doing with Asimo...

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about science fiction (was: holoprojectors), you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

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!