Superstores I imagine continuing to exist, in fact I imagine they would be the main form of physical store, all owned by a single corp most likely, with space for other corps available to be purchased so they can move their stuff.

Supermarkets however are massive stores dedicated to the sale of food, and with soy packets being the main form of food, I can't see having such large buildings. There will certainly still be food markets, but not the massive affairs we are used to I think. That said though I wouldn't be surprised if old supermarkets were repurposed to continue using the freezer/cold section and an isle or two to sell food while the rest of the store is filled with other kinds of consumer goods.

Well, Security and Stealth tags can be implanted at no Essence cost and are used for access control, so... it's not "at birth", but it is normal for Joe Average.

True. No trouble believing that Joe Average lights up like a christmas tree to most every company thanks to all the RFIDs in him, but a smart runner won't have all that on them. Or rather a runner that gets past their first mission.

I imagine a smart runner will have a selection of RFIDs he can activate at will to blend in with the masses. After all, being the only tree to not light up makes you stand out almost as much as being the only source of light for miles...

How so?

Which has been fairly large and diverse since 2nd ed. Not every locale in the Sixth World is identical in tone to Seattle or Neo-Tokyo.

tag erasers and cyberdocs (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

activate an RFID at will... you realise RFIDs are basically just innert pieces of metal right?

Old school people still exist. I would like to point that mage with certain tradition will strictly use paper and different type of ink. University will have history book in paper. Paper must be still around and handwriting also.

Again I'm talking average Joe wageslave. I'm sure that people in the Barrens use paper too, I'm just saying it is not a staple of modern life.

Besides in our world the trees don't have a chance to come to life and EAT the loggers.

They've already disappeared, really. The "big box stores" stock mostly "big box store" brand items. And more and more shelf space is being diverted to their brand. So its mostly large so they can stock enough for 1 days worth of shoppers.

Has a corpo I would have a printed news paper to let my wageslave read it in the metro.

I don't think academia would have gone in 2070's they'll still be universities maybe even joint sponsored by rival corps as to keep them free of ideology. These unis would still act as recruiting grounds however for corp researches. This alone would stop free education for dissaparing and the same with Literacy. However the lower classes woudn't get this and god forbid the sinless.

Well, formal education for lower classes might become harder to access, but home schooling with AR/VR assistance might take off. We have Wikipedia and Wiktionary available today, so I can only imagine the kind of online information databases that'll be available in the future.

I don't think restaurants and supermarkets will go away that easily, either. Selling pre-packaged or pre-prepared food is too big a business to just disappear. Even if a "soy processing unit" can prepare lots of different dishes starting from little protein packets, I imagine they can't just make anything a user would want, or at least are not made to be portable. So you can't just rely on your home SPU when you're an hour away from your home.

It's funny that the Sixth World seems to have less people in it than we do today, and yet it uses the cyberpunk trope of "the world is overpopulated, so everyone eats soy because nothing else can be produced in the necessary amount".

In my imagination, yeah, lotsa people die, but the rest didn't stop breeding. In typical third-world fashion, the reaction to adversity is to procreate, make sure you have kids to take care of you later, make sure the species doesn't die out etc.

It actually makes a lot nastier world when you have both mass death AND overpopulation like crazy.

My take on it is that the urban areas are a LOT more crowded do to all the dangers and general lack of people in the outlying areas. In my games the areas between sprawls is a hostile nightmare with wild spirits, paracritters, go-gangs and all sort of other stuff.

Basically the places that used to produce food were ravaged by paracritters and spirits. Also the farming industry was practically destroyed because large industrial farms were overrun after the wakening by Hell Cows, Cockatrices and other Awakened livestock (I tend to use the 1% rule across all species). People are now just learning how to deal with them, and even turn a larger profit off of these animals, but it was a sharp learning curve.

And I was jsut talking about supermarkets. I think there are even more restaurants and convenience stores then before. More little noodle stands and such.

the more basic store alarm type may be, but the more advanced ones have built in batteries and such.

heck, in SR, even the lowliest of RFID tags is a node, but one that one usually interacts with using data requests.

on the topic of restaurants, i suspect they will thrive, especially those that can be picky about its customers.

the people there is in a given area, there more up front the whole ladder of status becomes...

!Warning!: Wall of text incoming.

While there is definatly a great deal of change in the way people live their lives in the 6th world, you cant just shrug off a couple thousand years of tradition, culture, custom, and habit. Humans are creatures of habit and like to stick to what they are use to, some are just more flexible in regards to alternatives. While some things will surely change, just as many will remain basically the same; simply altered.

1. I wouldn't say gone, but surely uncommon for the lower classes; and that would just be the modern ones. "high quality" versions of older models from the past are likely now available to people who wouldn't be able to do so in our time. This is also true for other things, just as someone mentioned prior.
2. Another thing that isn't gone, just less common. It would probably be less common than a fridge, but still around. However pre-made self cooking food packages are likely available.
3. Why would these go out? Just because there are comlinks, it doesn't mean that the desk will disappear; Desks are used for more than just computers. They are work spaces, organizational spaces, and surfaces to do countless things on. Yes you can use a table as a desk, but the opposite is true. AR doesn't automatically replace everything.
4. Again, Comlinks wont necessarily erase the videogame console. Why would a Corp wana get rid of something else they can make money off of? plus Not everyone has a comlink. Many parents likely dont allow their kids to have a real comlink until they are older, giving them cheap pseudo com links. (I will expand at the end).
5. Again, another thing that won't ever really be removed from homes. Many homes, specifically prefab/cubical apartments will probably have shrunken them down so they are much smaller, though again it depends on the area and class.
6. sometimes it is best to write things down rather than just enter it into a digital database. Paper trails are useful sometimes and by extension pens and pencils. Though they are likely recycled.(see comlink comment at bottom)
7.See above
8. Yet again something that wont entirely go away. Shrink, maybe. But not disappear. Maybe they would just become like larger versions of the stuffer shak.
9.Like others have said, it probably has simply become faster, not vanished. Seeing as there are more ways to steal, even with RFID tags and such, having people still walk by someone in the meat is still a viable (albeit fallible). Plus people still use hard currency in the form of cred sticks (they haven't been fazed out).


TV- I doubt it will go away. Some times people just wana look at a normal physical screen, plus there are still purist type folks who don't wana give up such a thing as TV over AR.
Playgrounds- This one could have some merit, but I still think us unlikely. Public parks still exist and playground likely can be found there. The question regarding it is whether it is still Public, and not just reserved for those with Sins. Plus there are still likely old dilapidated play grounds in the slums and such.
Radio- One could argue that it is gone, though some might just say that it has changed form, ie radio through Comlink rather than old fashion radio. Though you can still find radios i bet.
Free public Education: We have that now? Though i wouldn't be surprised if Corps did sponsor schools and uses them as tools or something.
Literacy- Even now we still have such a problem. There are still a good number of people who are illiterate. It would probably be more accurate to say that Literacy rates are lower than they are now in 2070, though it depends on the demographic being examined.
Freedom- Yes and No. I feel no particular desire to expand on this one.

Comlinks (and AR): While this is a personal opinion, allow me to say that the existence of the Comlink does not mean that so many countless physical things and activities have disappeared or been replaced by it. Granted the comlink can do a boat load of things, it strikes me as less of a full blown replacement of things as it is a PDA/multi-tool used as an alternative means of interacting with something else wireless-ly; thus allowing us to do other things. Cell phones for example in modern times; we still have hard line phones despite cell phones. Cell phones allow us to not be anchored to one point in the house. We also have cordless phones as well. TV remotes have not replaced the manual method of changing the channel on the TV. Thus in SR the Comlink is in the same vain; it allows you to interact with other things without touching them and since virtually everything is wireless and has a computer running it, the comlink is just like a remote is to the TV. Granted it is a very advanced remote. Plus, while it is a computer in multiple respects, even if it has enough space to store everything you have on it, it would be very unwise to do so since you run the risks that is inherent to the digital medium: hackers, permanent loss if to badly damage, and so on.

I can see the commlink replacing TVs and Phones. Why have a TV when you can use a commlink with a SIM module to "watch" TV on a big screen.

Cell phones and land lines would be replaced with commlinks. Heck, we're seeing this today with people not having a regular land line. They only have a cell phone.

Now what I don't see going away... Radio. Normal broadcast radio would not go away because of the money to be made, and the signal range used by radio is not good for high speed data transmission (small bandwidth)*. HAM Radio would most certainly not go away. I do see the functionality of a Radio receiver being rolled into a commlink though.



* == I believe this to be correct. I do not know for certain

Broadcast radio wouldn't go away, but it would be delivered via the Matrix rather than via antiquated analog radio waves. That spectrum is probably used by wireless connections in 2070.

Supermarkets will thrive. They are the corp distribution point. They will crush out the mom and pop stores, which is what they do already.

I think kitchens will still be there but, as someone said, they will be the Japanese style, very compact and utilitarian. People will still want a cooking area but it might be induction coils. Turned off it is a counter top, turned on and you are boiling water.

There will still be pens and paper. People like the feel of things and jotting down a to-do list, even if their com link can do it to.

Clothes will not disappear. To much money to be made by corps making them.

Have you been to a college recently? Many, many students don't use pens and paper unless you ban bringing laptops. The last time I took a creative writing course for fun it turned out a rather large number of young students can't really write in cursive anymore; I got a lot of compliments on my handwriting as well as a couple puzzled looks. With SR4 fluff/tech being what it is, I would rather suspect that pens, pencils and paper would be relegated to little more than art supplies or a way to add a more personal touch to certain types of correspondence. In other words, stuff your average wage slave will hardly have time for.

My youngest cannot read or write yet uses an iPhone better then her mother....

Paper... I look at my bookcases full of books and then look at my iPhone and laptop and the prospective large format ereaders and just laugh.

Books are an iffy one. Personally, I think production will be largely over with. The tricky part is that reading is already a somewhat divisive activity. I know people who don't own any books. Hell, I donated away most of mine and pretty much exclusively use libraries these days. I just don't want to give up that space anymore, despite the fact that I am rather fond of reading. I also seem to remember a fairly recent poll indicating that one in four Americans didn't read a book in the last year. On the other hand, those who do read are often voracious. My grandmother would go through two dozen large books a year, minimum. Text will remain, of course, since it is cheaper to produce than other forms of entertainment, but hard bound books I have doubts about. The big thing is that 60 years isn't really -that- far away.