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Matrix phenoMena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Matrix LegendS
>>>> Open Thread /SubNode221.323.14
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>>>> Thread Descriptor:: Fairy Tales
>>>> Thread Posted By User: FastJack
> OK, guys, it’s been some time since all that technomancer
phenomena started and the world went mad. AIs popped out of nowhere
and claimed their place in metahumanity. The corps and most
of us began to take a closer look at the Matrix, our world. Suddenly
system anomalies didn’t look like anomalies anymore: there were
“things” hiding between the bits and bytes. The truth is that we still
don’t completely know what’s really going on in the Matrix, but most
of us have seen things they would call fairy tales. These days, fairy
tales have a nasty habit of coming true—and more than a few are
dangerous. So I think it’s time we started collecting and comparing
notes on the creepy stuff out there and prepare. Welcome to the
Matrix. Welcome to Terra Incognita.
> FastJack
> I’ll start. Four weeks ago I was following a data trail through several
nodes. When I entered one—a relatively innocuous archival node—I
met some kind of … digital animal. I scanned its icon, a giant worm,
but the result didn’t fit anything I’ve seen before. It didn’t have the
symmetry or elegance I’ve come to expect from sprite code, and it
certainly wasn’t an agent or persona. It didn’t seem to like my actions
and scanned me back. Then it suddenly disappeared—I couldn’t
find any trace, even after I ransacked the archive’s access logs.
For the next few days I had the strange feeling that somebody
was following me through the Matrix, but I thought it was just my
usual paranoia. Then a week ago, it caught me unprepared. The
worm appeared out of nowhere and attacked me. In a matter of
seconds it crashed my persona and kicked me off the Matrix. The
dumpshock was the hardest kick I’d ever had and sent me directly
to my streetdoc. After I recovered and took a look at my commlink,
I found that my whole persona had been consumed by this … thing.
As in, eaten. As in, there wasn’t enough code left to do anything
with; I had to re-install. It gave me goosebumps.
> Glitch
> Nice story. Anybody got a clue what this beauty could have
been?
> Netcat
> I’ve heard of an AI species that could fit this description. But I
don’t know …
> Puck
> To go with this creepy cannibal story, I’ve found a nice Top 10 list of
Matrix urban legends created by KSAF—it shows what the average
slot thinks about the Matrix.
> Sunshine
> What a crock. Joe Average really believes this shit?
> Slamm–0!
> Apparently people still believe that technomancers are monsters.
These ideas are just ridiculous. We can’t hack anybody’s brain! It
would be convenient if we could sometimes, but … no.
> Netcat
> I’m not worried about metahuman technomancers any more, but
what I am curious about is technomancers of other species. Remember
all of those efforts to make datajacks for dolphins, satyrs, dragons, and
whatnot? Those projects all went mysteriously silent after the Crash
2.0. You have to think some of them were successful. So is there a
chance we have non-meta technomancers and the like out there?
> Ecotope
> There’s a sasquatch performer in Vegas, stage name of Little Foot,
part of a magical variety show on the Strip. He pulls a lot of clever magic
tricks, including knowing non-public details of audience members, and
some funny routines with animated commlinks and other devices. It’s
all supposed to be illusion and clever use of AR, of course, but some of
his material seems awfully similar to things a technomancer could do.
> Cosmo
> Cerberus has been awfully quiet lately …
> Winterhawk
> You want to talk about technomancers, let’s first talk about the
horrible experiments some corps are still engaging in. Just last week
Universal Omnitech had to cut loose a subsidiary after an insider blew
the whistle on their secret attempts to genegineer technomancer
children. They ended up with several dozen autistic and mentally
handicapped children instead. Fuckers.
> Netcat
> I dunno why the people think being a technomancer is so great. I
had a pal who was running a Matrix op with one, penetrating some
sort of prototype corporate node. They skated through the IC no
problem, but as soon as they were inside the node, the technomancer
stumbled hard and started freaking out, like he was gasping for
air. My pal thought the ‘mancer had been hit by some sort of sneaky
IC at first, but there was no alert, and he wasn’t scanning anything
unusual. For some reason, the technomancer was too weak to even
log out on his own—my pal ended up popping back to meatspace and
tasing the guy, to knock him out. When the technomancer came to,
hours later, he said that walking into that node had been like getting
pushed out an airlock, that it had been totally “devoid of Resonance.”
My buddy had to go back and complete the hack himself, and while
the defenses were tough, he said there was nothing else weird to
the run. The technomancer refuses to go back though.
> Mika
> If that’s true, that sounds like a horrible, horrible place.
> Netcat
> Any truth to the other legends mentioned in the poll? Is anyone
still getting trapped online?
> Dr.Spin
> No more than a few reported cases a year, worldwide, and most of
them can be explained away as technical glitches, substance abuse
Unwired
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9