 Behavior Control Device, Brain washing, slaves, and implants |
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 Jul 22 2006, 02:58 AM
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#1
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 984 Joined: 15-June 06 Member No.: 8,717  |
I've been playing with the idea of using a combination of internal-commlink, cranial bomb, and agents to make an implant suite that can control what actions a person takes indirectly. By implanting an internal-comm (implant-user access denied) with a smart agent, the patient's actions could be monitored and her actions guided either by a Virtual Person program or other, more subtle, simsense.
The first and most radical example would be the Threat of Death effect. This was my initial idea spawned by the description of Red Wraith in Target:Matrix (I think it was Wraith). Red Wraith was some kind of former covert-ops or government agent that ran away. Eventually his superiors found his implanted cranial bomb signal and tried getting rid of him permanently. He survived, however. It made sense that the governement had to track down old Wraith to trigger his bomb, but I soon tried thinking of ways around having to have your Cranial Bomb patient detectable to control the bomb. I figured that an Agent monitoring the Cranial bomb and the actions of its recipient could be able to trigger the bomb if the patient gets out of line. Hardware for the Agent to monitor brain activity, thoughts, and the patient's sensory input would have to be implanted. Of course the Agent would have to be given a place to reside as well. When the Agent's charge acted in a manner not acceptable according to the Agent's pre-programmed list of patient-taboos, the Cranial bomb would be triggered. This would eliminate the need for a physical "triggerman" to keep the patient in line. The triggerman would always be with the patient and always be watching. Whether or not the patient knows of the bomb is, of course, optional. Warnings to prevent detestable behavior could be given especially if the patient's life is valuable. In this case it is coersion, hence "Threat of Death", that is key, not the actual termination of the subject. But termination is always a viable plan B. The next example would be the "Conscience" setup. Spawned for my previous example, I decided the Cranial Bomb was effective but rather curde and a little uninspired. With a "Conscience" the patient would have similar implants. An Agent programs would monitor the patient from within the body like before but would be given a more proactive role in guiding the patient. Guidelines and goals would be given to the Agent to be forced upon the patient. For example, a VERY controlling mother might decide she doesn't trust her daughter to make decisions about drugs, sex and maybe even religion by herself. The "Conscience" would be programmed to reinforce the mother's moral on the daugther through positive and negative reinforcement. Simsense would be utilized to administer shocks or bolts of pain everytime the daugther partook in illegal substances or went a little too far with her boyfriend in the back seat of his car. Simsense would also be used to augment reactions to her mother's chosen religion. An over-controlling Christian mother used used this setup would most likely ask for euphoria, joy, or peaceful feelings to be given to her daughter when in a Christian environment (in a Christian church, during prayer, etc.). Opposing religious views might even be negatively reinforced. If her this mother's daughter ever walked into a mosque or temple she might feel anything from apathy to disgust depending on how radical the mother is. This setup can be covert, a form of brainwashing, or overt, quite literally little angels and devils floating around your head pushing you to make certain decisions. Direct emotional simsense is the key here. THis makes the patient believe that certain preprogrammed guidelines are valid or beneficial. Depending on how effective the "treatment" is the implant could even be removed at a later time with lasting effects. The third and final example I could think up is the "Split-personality" setup. Just like above the implant would consist of simsense-ware and hardware for Agent-housing. The connection between implant and patient would not allow the patient to command the implant and may even be so descrete that the patient does not know she has been implanted at all. In this setup the Agent uses a Virtual Person program to be the patient's 'imaginary friend'. The Agent may choose to inform the patient that she has been implanted and that it is merely a program monitoring her behavior. Unlike the other examples, however, the patient beileves that she is crazy or is otherwise seeing things that others simply cannot (Sixth World folks. Mages see weird crap ALL the time.) The Agent guide the patient's behavoir with overt pychological control. THe Virtual Person may suggest that the patient not call close friends and implant doubts in the patient's mind about those friend's loyalty or motivations. Agents in this setup use appropriate knowsofts and activesofts to convince the patient of predetermined 'truths'. A wife may be implanted to sow distrust between her and her husband or taunt endlessly her for cheating on her husband. The use of persona-fix BTL recordings may even be used and adminstered by the Agent. The use of VR can emulate pychogenic fugues and Hot-Sim + Blackhammer/out to stop the patient dead in his tracks if needed. VR could also be effective for inducing guided 'hallucinations'. So, what do you think? It would be a very powerful and no doubt expensive way to influence targets on missions (Make sure Senator Delay resigns) or even keep some loyal sevants on hand. Afterall, a runner can trust no one unless that person is appropriately brainwashed :D |
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Jul 22 2006, 03:09 AM
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#2
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Target Group: Members Posts: 67 Joined: 30-May 06 Member No.: 8,621 |
the first one is old and tried, but the next two are...well, not half bad.
I seem to remember from some other time that, perhaps in a different system, the second option was something some parents had done to their children with the tagline of getting their kids addicted to studying my controlling the release of endorphines. The idea of the imaginary friend... that could go both ways. Just think, some kid with a artificial persona might have a real friend watching over them, maybe even one who's close to the matrix than anyone might guess |
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Jul 22 2006, 03:14 AM
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#3
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 984 Joined: 15-June 06 Member No.: 8,717 |
If my parents ever did this to me I would ZAPZAPZAP
....love them unconditionally and study hard to become a doctor so I can take care of them in their golden years. |
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Jul 22 2006, 04:56 PM
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#4
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 324 Joined: 18-July 06 From: Charleston, SC Member No.: 8,911 |
sick man.
Why not upload the agent in a datalock attached to the cranial bomb. The wearer couldn't affect it, encryption to get it out. A whole inspired line of "Morality Programs" by Everyman Inc. OF course, there would be serious rioting and other extreme measures taken by the public at large to stop such "mind controlling". Said corporation could be behind a plot to use left over AI code from the crash to create a legion of consumer zombies. Who will stop them. This board is a well of ideas. sick twisted crazy ideas, but even better for it. |
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Jul 22 2006, 05:55 PM
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#5
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 984 Joined: 15-June 06 Member No.: 8,717 |
Such behavior control systems would not likely be mass-produced in any sense of the term. The implant-suites would all be custom made by master cyber-craftsmen. I bet even those competent in cybertechnology could made a rudimentary one or assemble pre-made components. I do have a few questions for those of you who have an opinion.
What exsisting ware do you think would be neccesary to assemble such a device? Is it possible to do what I've detailed above with cyber right out of the book? What details have I left vague above that need more clairfication? What do you think the possible uses of this kind of system in the shadows might be? There are quite a few obvious ones but I'm looking for very creative ones. I've got a few of my own but would love other people's input. Thanks in advance. |
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Jul 22 2006, 07:02 PM
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#6
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Target Group: Members Posts: 95 Joined: 28-June 06 Member No.: 8,800 |
Such applications are only a question of software (good agent and personafix-BTL softs), not hardware, a simple implanted commlink w/ simlink will do the job (of course set up in a way that does not allow the victum to issue commands, and with appropriate precautions for tampering ...), and if you want a potential beneficial side-effect (or a sleeper-assasin) add some skillwires. That's it. You're done. Too simple to do any of those things in 2070.
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Jul 22 2006, 07:53 PM
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#7
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 984 Joined: 15-June 06 Member No.: 8,717 |
ooooo! Sleeper agents! That's an awesome idea. Thanks.
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Jul 23 2006, 03:09 PM
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#8
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Shadow Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 3,737 Joined: 2-June 06 From: Secret Tunnels under the UK (South West) Member No.: 8,636 |
Oh, it would be nice to think so... but are you sure? Obviously you don't suddenly hit the market with a "mind control device" but maybe a more softly softly approach would work. Look at the world now. Across the USA there are millions who self-medicate with anti-depressants in order to control their natural responses. Now they can put up with more shit than they ever could before. There are office workers who pop Modafinil to stay awake and put in even more hours and body-builders that take drugs to increase their muscles. Now which of these groups would slot a small persona-fix to make them less-stressed / harder-working / more fanatical about exercise? By self-medicating, people would be begging to amend their personalities. Everytime you ever said to yourself, I wish I was more 'x', that's a potential sale. And even if you're not inclined to do so, it's going to be hard when everyone else is enthsuistic or self-disciplined or whatever, and you can't match it. And once people are doing it to themselves, they'll get used to the idea of doing it to others. Consider the following: "Honey, our son is just too lazy to study hard. Let's just fit him with this study-fix. It's for his own good because if you don't get a good start in life..." "Junior, you're just too shy and introverted. The psychologist thinks you need this." "You beat up that other child. The school's not going to let you back in unless we fit you with this violent tendency damper. It's only until you're 16." It sounds a little unlikely, but currently the USA has the most drugged up kids in the World. Pumped full of ritalin for being too hyper, anti-depressents for being too teenage. And every parent in the last few years seemed convinced that their baby had mild autism. If there were a chip to save their child, these parents are all the sort who would take it. And then there are more severe types. Those who would slot their kids to prevent them from wanting sex (especially their daughters in some parts of the world), or using obscene language or voting Democrat or Rebublican or whatever. Or being gay. This sort of behaviour modification of children would be a boom business. And then there is the other section of society that is unable to defend itself - prisoners. Right now, prisons are the next goldmine for the pharmaceuticals industry. (Anti-depressents was the last). They're queing up to sell anti-high vaccines (prevents crack from giving you a hit), sexual-appetite suppressants (lose all interest, sometimes irreversibly), and if they can perfect something and somehow pass it through the FDA, drugs to keep you calm and docile. Persona-fixes are just the next step. Given how useful that would be, it would make imprisonment a growth industry (like it isn't already). So the technology, if possible, would already be both available and familiar to the people of 2070. Heck. I could easily see the Dept. of Homeland Security fitting these to people who were suspected of being terrorists or terrorist sympathisers. When you pledge allegiance to that flag, you're gonna [i]meanp/i] it. The police would very likely use to instill temporary cowardice in interrorgation suspects. After all, where is the lasting harm? |
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Jul 24 2006, 01:34 AM
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#9
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The Dragon Never Sleeps Group: Admin Posts: 6,924 Joined: 1-September 05 Member No.: 7,667 |
In one of our games we had a character who had cyber eyes and ears and a sleep regulator setup where while he was 'running' he got visual and audio cues that so that he was playing an online game. e.g. Health monitors, points displays and other information like we see in a PC first person shooter game. When he wanted to "log out" or sleep, he went to his home and the "sleep regulator" kicked in and he "saw" a normal existence as an idle gamer boy.
The "sleep regulator" was actually a sim sense rig which ran real life scenarios while the character was parked in a coffin hotel bunk. The visual overlay on his cyber input during his "running" which was actually the real life was part of his psychological conditioning to treat his shadowruns as a game, relieving him of some ethical concerns. One highlight was when the character went and shot some street bums to test his pistol... thinking they were just computer AI mobs in his game. We had to then tell him not to do that because there was a secret score modifier where shooting bums lowered his bonus points. |
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Jul 24 2006, 07:52 AM
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#10
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Target Group: Members Posts: 33 Joined: 16-July 06 Member No.: 8,902 |
DireRadiant, that is TERRIFYING and AWESOME. Kudos.
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Jul 24 2006, 01:10 PM
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#11
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The Dragon Never Sleeps Group: Admin Posts: 6,924 Joined: 1-September 05 Member No.: 7,667 |
All credit to the player, not me, I'm just reporting the facts. The setup even included details such as a pain editor so that he would never actually feel his characters pain himself, just like a video game! |
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Jul 24 2006, 07:50 PM
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#12
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 633 Joined: 30-May 06 From: Leesburg, Florida Member No.: 8,623 |
Try a hardwired P-fix BTL one that's command activated. Instant sleeper agent. It's in the cannon companion (i know, so third edition)
See life is better with technology. -Twitchy Tom, BTL addict (as he died) |
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Jul 24 2006, 09:46 PM
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#13
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 749 Joined: 28-July 05 Member No.: 7,526 |
That's awesome. I'm sure some parents wouldn't hesitate to get their children chipped, especially parents of orks and trolls who can be a real threat to other children. I'm sure it'd be far more reliable than drug treatment, too. This culture has been improving their bodies through technology for decades, and going to simsense for total escapist entertainment. If body enhancements can be trendy, I don't see why personalities couldn't be too. Jaded is the new sarcastic! Table manners are the hottest thing in politeness this fall! Psychotropic IC is out there, this should be too. |
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Jul 24 2006, 11:03 PM
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#14
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 511 Joined: 24-March 05 From: On a ledge between Heaven and Hell Member No.: 7,226 |
A company doesn't really need to insert a cortex bomb, to control people.
It just needs to make them think it has. A countdown timer on the image link, or warning messages comming across the subjects comm should be enough and would cost a lot less. There are Persona-chips out there and other mood and mind altering chips that implanting one so that the subject wants to do what the nice company man says would be an option. Hardwired chip glued in place, or with a program line that would cause the subject want to not remove said program. Better yet if the program was addictive, so that he could remove it but would regret it later until he reinstalled the program. "Our employees work 70 hours a week and enjoy it now, thanks to our new chip implants. Productivity has never been better." |
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Jul 25 2006, 11:52 PM
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#15
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 349 Joined: 16-January 05 Member No.: 6,984 |
The most evil thing about that is how the player reacts when investigations fail to find the cranial bomb? Is it not there, or is it really well hidden. |
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Jul 26 2006, 02:13 AM
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#16
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 984 Joined: 15-June 06 Member No.: 8,717 |
They'll spend so much money on high-grade cyberware scanners and professional psychics to assense for it. Worth a GM laugh or two.
I did mention that the bomb doesn't have to active or even there, right? Also, what do you think about brainwashing with intense simsense signals. What kind of active skill would have to be used? Would one need to be made? Using Persona-chips are great and all, but that means that you're constantly exposing your employees to Hot-sim, right? I mean, BTLs can't be used w/o a hot-mod'd sim module. I wouldn't want a work-force of DID patients. Stick with the caffefiene and peer-pressure. |
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Jul 26 2006, 04:37 AM
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#17
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 984 Joined: 15-June 06 Member No.: 8,717 |
Why not upload the agent in a datalock attached to the cranial bomb. The wearer couldn't affect it, encryption to get it out.
The datalock would be visable and doesn't connect to the brain and isn't usually associated with any other gear. I don't know whether or not the datalock would be able to even communicate with the bomb. The same encyrption scheme could possibly be appilied to a hidden datajack, but that still allows for a possibility of interference with the project by outside sources. While DireRadiant's idea for "real life" gaming is great I don't think a runner would last long in such a setup. After the first few nights of waking up with gunshot wounds after playing a "game" I would have to take up a different hobby. I decker who thinks its all a game would be more plausible. |
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Jul 26 2006, 12:55 PM
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#18
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Target Group: Members Posts: 64 Joined: 4-October 05 Member No.: 7,812 |
A modified pain editor would work so much better than a crainial bomb. Have the software give the PC a migrain for bad behavior, up to and including black outs, and give "feel good" emotions for good behavior. The software could even make it so the PC could be addicted to these "feel good" emotions. A much more suble yet effective idea.
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Jul 26 2006, 02:16 PM
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#19
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The Dragon Never Sleeps Group: Admin Posts: 6,924 Joined: 1-September 05 Member No.: 7,667 |
When the player "woke up or logged out" they were really restrained and sedated and experiencing a simsense recording of "Real Life". Real wounds and pain were handled by having a pain editor always on. So the character only saw the wounds when examining them "in video game" and never felt the pain of them, thus maintaining the illusion. This led to some amusing scenes with other characters, like one poking his wounds and asking, "So this doesn't hurt?", "Oh that's why the my condition monitor is flashing yellow!" |
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Jul 26 2006, 07:28 PM
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#20
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 984 Joined: 15-June 06 Member No.: 8,717 |
That's what the simsense and internal comm are for in the two other examples. The first example just leads up to the next two. I'm not really all that fond of the first one (the one with the cranial bomb) because it lacks imagination. Simsense can achieve all the things your mod'd paineditor can do and more. |
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Jul 26 2006, 07:39 PM
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#21
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 502 Joined: 14-May 03 From: Detroit, Michigan Member No.: 4,583 |
SR3 had a piece of cyberware called the "Jolt Alert" so that characters could go instantly from asleep to fully awake.
Imagine what an evil brainwasher could do to someone with that cyberware in them. |
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Jul 26 2006, 07:50 PM
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#22
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 749 Joined: 28-July 05 Member No.: 7,526 |
yeah, the low-tech brainwashing methods are probably still viable... sleep deprivation and psychoactive drugs come to mind!
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Jul 26 2006, 07:55 PM
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#23
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
Brainwashing via sleep deprivation and psychoactive drugs. aka College. :D
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