[X] My Assistant

[renaissancefox]

So, hypothetically, at what age would you allow a child to get low-end cyberware? Say, something like a datajack?

[Shadowmeet]

Personally, I like 16... but that's me.

I waited untill I was 18 to get my body mods, such as tattoos, but I did get some piercings at 16, and I'd probably have gotten a datajack if one had been available.

[Eryk the Red]

I remember in some Shadowrun novel I never actually finished reading years ago, there was a situation where a pretty young kid, like 10 or so, maybe, (I could be wrong) was pressuring her mother to let her get a datajack (for games, of course). I assume that it'd be okay at pretty much any age, with parental consent, just like piercings. Problem is, of course, the body is growing, and the 'ware is not. So, it's probably not recommended to get any cyber before 18 or so, and it would require regular maintenance and adjustments.

[hyzmarca]

For datajacks I'd say about a week, although that may be too long. You don't want the little babies to become accustomed to the meat world, after all.

But really, it depends a lot on the kid. If its born premature you may want to hold off on cyberimplants for some time. If it is full term and healthy it shouldn't have to wait a single day.

[Shadowmeet]

Despite what people think, the body does not grow at the same rate for everyone. I was 6 foot tall in 6th grade. 6'2" in 9th, 6'5" by college(I started college at 17, and stayed the same height until I turned 23), and I grew to 6'6" at 24 years of age.

Some people stop growing young, and some people keep growing untill their late 20s

[Witness]

Stand back a bit would you? I'm getting a crick in my neck. ;)

[GB1]

The's an episode of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex that talks about a 6y old getting a heart transplant.

A nurse talks to Motoko about the stress of someone that young getting a cyber heart. (The tons of surgeries to keep up with the growth of the child).

I think the episode is called "The Blessed People"

[Squinky]

You would think they would have to go see the street doc to change up as they grew, but why not. Bone lacing might cause some issues though...heh.

You would think Orks would get stuff younger, since their life expectancy is so low, they probably mature a little faster.

[Lindt]

Yeah, Jr. high wouldent be abnormal for something like a datajack.
Though with all the sr4 skin link, and trode paste, I cant be sure anymore.

[Nasrudith]

I'd say early to mid puberty. Age gets changed up a bit with metatypes.
An elf ages slower then a troll after all. It's more a biological then maturity thing.

[eidolon]

Physical maturity would have a lot to do with it, I would think. You don't want to have to replace little Jimmy's cyberarm every time you buy him new shoes. (The exception possibly being in the case of accident or disease.)

That's how "norms" treat cyber in kids anyway. Accident or disease? Cyber to make the kid "normal". Just cause he likes the sam in the Karl Kombatmage movies? Hell no.

That's like a 10 year old asking for a cell phone.

[hyzmarca]

But if you wait untill the kid is 10 years old you'll have missed the chance to turn him into a super-hacker who is more at home in the matrix than in the meat world.

Yeah, there are some problems with adjusting the datajack for growth but most of these can be corrected by just cutting his brain out and suspending is in an oxygenated nutrient solution.

[knasser]

But we're forgetting the marketing departments that will push all these technologies. Shadowrun is dark to me, and I think if modern US society is so willing to pump its children full of drugs even now, then I dread to think what will be happening in the SR world of 2070. The same people who play their children Mozart today, will be itching to dope them up with whatever brain boosting technology is available in the future. I see the kids hooked up to simsense training programs, loaded with Psyche for exams (which are probably year round). Knowsofts will be ubiquitous as will numerous drugs to encourage height and muscular development. I see the following conversations recurring frequently in 2070.

"Now son, I don't want to hear anything more about it. You need to have your cerebal booster for college and I don't want to hear anything more about it, is that understood?
"But dad..."

...

"You'll never guess what our Jimmy told me. Apparently the Nelson family are refusing to put their child on study-aid drugs. The poor little thing can barely concentrate on his lessons, just keeps scribbling drawings and running around. Honestly, parents like that should have their child taken away from them. I've a good mind to report them."

...

But darling, he'll never make the team without muscle augs. It means so much to him, let's get them. We can call it a combined Christmas and birthday present.

...

"No, no and no! You're not getting your face re-modelled. When I was your age, I had silicone implants and anti-fat enzymes and had to be content... Maybe when you turn fifteen, dear.

[Aaron]

Would it make sense to wait until after puberty, just to make sure the kid isn't magically active?

[Edward]

There are tests for magical talent in preteens, they are moderately reliable.

Knowsofts in children would not be common, they would be cheating if you used them at school. In SR3 however there where ASIST teacher chips, effectively download knowledge into your head. Although they only made learning quicker, not les karma.

I played a mage that was given a cerebral booster and mnemonic enhancer in high school.

And remember, many sports ban performance enhancing implants. And parents don’t want there kids in the ones that do.

[fool]

waiting to see oif the kid is magically active would be a goood idea if you cared; some parents don't want a magically gifrted child.
As far as the datajack is concerned, there are references to children having them (jimmy gates the heir to the microdreck fortune in PR, full blown decks for children shich Slammo sanotaged in TM)
From a physiological point of view, there wouldn't really be much change needed for a datajack, the head is the part of the body that grows the least during development. Babies' heads are proportionally much closer to the size of an adults head than say their appendages or torsoes. And eyes are almost the same size at birth as full maturity. So depending on how you envision different cyberware working, you could get it very early in life. Eyes, probably shortly after birth (that's how they tx gongenitally blind people. DJs sure. Reflex enhancers.... depends do they go through the whole body or just the head? Reaction boosters, probably.Muscle replacement, bone lacing, dermal plating hell no.
Now, I'd say you can have bioware inserted at any age, after all, it is a bilogical part of the body and so would grow with the kid. Imagine a newborn with suprathyroid, the poor mother would be totally depleted.

[Brahm]

[hyzmarca]

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Problem is, any essence loss can destroy the talent before it develops, background-wise.

In SR4 this is especially true since magic start at 1.

[knasser]

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[hyzmarca]

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[ShadowDragon8685]

y'know... The primary, I mean the true, asshole part of learning... Is memorization.


Consider the following: With headware memory, which according to SR4 unless you're trying to memorize an entire fricking library, you have all the memory you need in a datajack. It's accessable to you in the way your grayware is accessable.

Maths SPUs are also cheap, as of SR3. As of SR4, they might be built into a datajack at what SR3 would consider Rating 3, at no extra charge. They might even be standard. All those long, dull, mind-bendingly painful math classes went the way of the dodo. With knowsofts and headware memory, you know everything you need to know. Even if you DO need to learn a friggin' huge amount of useless data, you can chip it. Or store it in your comlink via wireless. (or wire, if headware comm)......


School in 2070 must be a real bitch for those whose parents can't afford cyber, but are legit enough to send them to school.

[hyzmarca]

Still need math classes. You need to know what to put into the SPU, after all, and you'll need to know how to interpret the results. A $500 graphing calculator is quite useless to someone who doesn't actually understand college level mathematics.