comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough

tHe aUgMented worLd
The augmented world has been designed to appeal to consumers’
desire for instant gratification, simplicity, and ease of use.
Most wireless users adapted quickly to having multiple screens of
data displayed, allowing us to satisfy our short-attention spans and
need for instantaneous news, music, entertainment, whatever we
desire. Global AR coverage means you can talk to anyone, anywhere,
anytime. AR-enhanced products like clothing, makeup,
and body augmentations mean we never have to make due with
the boring, mundane world. Virtual clubs, societies, and communities
ensure that you’ll meet like-minded folks around the globe,
even if you never meet in the flesh. For many users, the virtual
world has become more real—and certainly more interesting and
fulfilling—than the unaugmented world.
Daily life is constantly augmented. People view the world
through their AR glasses or cybereyes, using the AROs that guide
them through the streets, enjoying or ignoring the constant barrage
of advertisements, and watching streaming news or gossip
feeds. Look at other people crowding around you and you’ll see
their augmented appearance—perhaps they are wearing clothes
embedded with AR functionality, changing a plain bodysuit into
a swirling mass of colors and textures when viewed through AR.
Makeup and hair/skin products do similar things. Cover your face
with AR-enhanced makeup and your features will change into
anything you can imagine. Hair can be transformed into writhing
masses of snakes or colors never seen in nature.
Socially, more and more people are turning to the virtual
world to find companionship and romance. Dating networks (and
the spam they inundate us with) are more common than fish in the
sea. In the last few years, many countries including the UCAS have
granted legal status to virtual marriages (and virtual divorces).
Which means, of course, that you can meet your true love online,
run off to virtual Las Vegas, get hitched in a virtual Church of Elvis
ceremony, and then enjoy a virtual honeymoon.
> And then be virtually surprised when your cute 25-year-old hot
blonde woman turns out to be a hairy 38-year-old man.
> Snopes
> Been burned with some online dating, eh?
> Netcat
> What happens in VR stays in VR. Heh.
> Slamm-0!
knowLedge at YoUr fingertipS
Perhaps the most useful benefit of the augmented world is the
ability to instantaneously access information. Someone references
an obscure speech by a 1960’s civil rights leader at a meeting? Send
out a search with a few keywords, and within seconds you can have
the entire speech, a Cliff ’s Quickie version, several relevant commentaries
on the social and economic impact, a life history for
the speaker … you get the point. Interested in purchasing a new
vehicle? Send a search out and get nearby dealerships, competitive
price quotes, consumer ratings, safety test-ratings, reliability
guides, and blogs of recent owners detailing their experiences with
the same make and model. Curious about that cute guy across the
Unwired
Matrix UrBan LegendS (cont.)
refuses to start with his biometric key. Then his
SIN disappears from the UCAS registry… eventually
the cops find him, wandering the streets,
wearing apparently “stolen” clothes. When they
run his prints, they find a long criminal history
with several outstanding warrants. As the man is
roughly pushed into the cop car, he catches sight
of the scrawny kid watching. The kid looks him in
the eye and flips him the bird.
Brain cancer: Wireless signals cause brain
cancer. Luckily, you can download your memories
and soul onto a chip, and then upload them again
into a healthy clone brain. No foul, no harm.
the exchange: This mysterious social network
links shadowrunners across the globe via untraceable
commlinks that they generally find among their
possessions without any warning. The links are always
marked with a distinctive red X. Runners who
obey the requests issued by the link (anything from
a major run to giving a squatter a ride somewhere,
or even more inane things like leaving a flashlight
on a park bench at a certain time) find themselves
rewarded; those who disobey, punished. The legend
says the Exchange is really run by an AI, but what no
one knows is what its agenda is.
mall? Read his profile, see he loves combat biking, and search for
recent biking news while you walk over. By the time you’re next to
him, you can have a perfect opening line.
Searching for information is intuitive, simple, and (generally)
low-cost. Anyone can do a basic search—the commlink and
software do all the work. There’s really no reason to be ignorant.
And it isn’t simply “book” knowledge stored on the Matrix. You
can search for information on cultures, customs, proper etiquette,
slang, even current bribe rates. You can hear native speakers giving
courteous (or rude) greetings, watch examples of gang handlanguage,
or see step-by-step instructions on proper Japanese tea
ceremony etiquette (with live instruction, in case you’re at a meeting
and don’t want to offend with your lack of manners).
Matrix coMMUnitieS/cULtUre
The Matrix is a vibrant environment created by us metahumans,
so where better to meet and socialize with others of our kind?
Whatever your tastes, from sharing information to perusing porn,
from gathering with intellectuals to bashing someone’s virtual brains
out in the latest Neil the Ork Barbarian game, you can find it on
the Matrix. Everyone can find a place to fit in. Which may be why
the Matrix is the fastest growing community out there—is, in fact,
perhaps the only community for many sprawl citizens.
SociaL networkS
Folks have been using the Matrix to socialize for longer than
even FastJack’s been alive. With AR, social networks have taken
the next step, allowing you to meet people, virtually or in person,
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9
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Matrix overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .