From:	Geoff Skellams <geoff.skellams@*********.COM.AU>
Subject:	Re: Sick thing to do to a dead Runner.
Date:	Mon, 1 Jun 1998 12:36:04 +1000

On Shadowrun Discussion, Paul Gettle[SMTP:pgettle@********.NET] wrote:
> >Is it just me, or does this sound very much like "A Clockwork
> Orange?"
> <<Snip 1 line .sig>>
> >"Being an account of a young man who's primary interests are rape,
> ultra-
> >violence, and Beethoven."
>
> It's not just you, it's also the authors of Lone Star. Let me quote
> some of the shadowtalk from the Lone Star Book:
>
> ">>>>>(The Star's really doing this Clockwork Orange thing,
> conditioning people against violence? In Seattle? Chummer, that's
> frightening. Real Frightening.)<<<<<
> --Featherstone (13:45:56/9-19-54)"

This brings me to an interesting and quite nasty idea I had a month or
so back. I was rereading Tom Clancy's "Cardinal of the Kremelin" and
there is a section where the KGB are trying to break a young woman who
has been arrested for espionage. They put her in a sensory deprivation
flotation tank where there is no light, and the air and water are the
same temperature as her body. This means it doesn't matter whether she
is face up or face down she can't feel anything (she has an oxygen mask
on to make sure can she can breathe if she rolls over). They also bounce
all sound she makes back to her out of phase, so there is nothing but
silence. She lasts about 12 or so hours before losing it.
This led me to think of using an artificial simsense signal to
do the same thing. The simsense technology already disables the motor
functions of the body and removes all sensory information from the
outside world. If the signal sent down the wire was nothing but silent
blackness, it should break a subject in very short order. It would be a
lot safer physically for the subject and it would require a lot less
havy equipment (you wouldn't need a floatation tank for example).
It might not be something that a PC is subjected to (or would
use), but it might be an interesting thing for an NPC to have done to
them if they get caught doing something they shouldn't. It might also
make an interesting thing for a group of runners to find if they get
sent into a facility to recover someone.

cheers
Geoff


--
Geoff Skellams R&D - Tower Software
Email Address: geoff.skellams@*********.com.au
Homepage: http://www.towersoft.com.au/staff/geoff/
ICQ Number: 2815165

"That rates about a 9.5 on my weird-shit-o-meter"
- Will Smith in "Men in Black"