Signal strength and health, or How I fried myself with a commlink Options

[apollo124]

I was in the Navy for a number of years, and one of the things we had to do was to make sure all radiating electronic equipment was offline when we had to go up near the antennas. This was so we wouldn't microwave our stomachs while stringing up the Christmas lights.

I realize in SR (and real life) those would count as level 6 Naval grade sensors. But it did bring to mind a question...

People in SR now have implanted in their bodies, or carry around in their pockets, high powered transceivers. What effect does all that EM radiation have on them? Is there a higher rate of cancers around higher power fields? Since it is so close to them, literally inside, I would imagine that it would have detectable effects at lower power levels than what you would see in external transceivers. And how about technomancers? Their minds apparently generate a powerful EM field by themselves. Are they more or less resistant to the effects of living inside such power fields?

Maybe this is going to be covered in Unwired, I hope so. But this occurred to me and so I thought it might make an interesting topic.

[l33tpenguin]

This was my biggest beef against the whole 'wireless matrix' (besides missing the old days of having to track down a hard-line and tap into the matrix).

No matter how you cut it, to transmit the amount of information the matrix uses wirelessly you are going to be generating some massive signals. I'm serving in the AF right now and have also seen first hand the effects a transceiver can cause. I worked in one building where there was an almost perfect circle of in the tree line next to the building where everything was dead. I've heard stories of birds dropping dead mid flight from flying in front of them when the signal was turned up some.

And somehow we are to believe that our commlinks can transfer terabytes of information wireless without setting things on fire?

edit: Please note, however, I simply accept this new form of internet, as implausible as it is. I miss the old wired matrix, but play in the new one... although, ironically, Ive yet to make a dec..er hacker, in 4th... Wireless matrix working is just like magic working or people being trolls.

[prionic6]

Not everything is implausible just because we don't know how to do it, yet. And with UWB is certainly possible to do very impressive high datarate transfers with a sufficient low signal strength:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-wideband

Of course it may have other unknown side-effects...

Also there could have been massive advances in data compression technology.

[Blade]

There's a time where you have to draw the line between realism and game.
What good would it make to add rules for dealing with cancers due to EM fields?
The wireless Matrix can add a lot of fun to the game, and issues such as this one or the ability to connect to the other side of the world without any lag aren't, in my opinion, that critical.

Knowledge of EM effects on human beings isn't intuitive. So stating that there's no such problem in Shadowrun's world is ok: you accept it, and have fun with the consequences (a wireless Matrix for example).

On the other hand, if you don't like the wireless Matrix and prefer a wired network, you can use this argument to say "the Matrix is still wired because wireless is bad for health."

Fun first, realism second. (the line being where the lack of realism removes the fun from the game)

[Ryu]

I do indeed have that problem with radar sensor cyberware. A very good friend of my father has likely contracted leukemia when he was in the military three decades ago - and he only served on the airport, not on the radar station itself.

Nevertheless the wireless matrix will not cause such problems, as increasing processor power enables compression technologies far beyond anything we can imagine now. Just think about the potential of non-binary systems.

[The Jopp]

[Odsh]

[Demonseed Elite]

Shannon Entropy is mostly critical in lossless compression. Most compression is not lossless and wireless ASIST compression is not lossless either.

[Blade]

Shannon Entropy is the limit for bit encoding, but there's a lot you can get before that, even with lossless compression.

[Moon-Hawk]

Nerve Attenuation Syndrome: The Black Shakes. :-D

[Kyoto Kid]

[Odsh]

[Kerris]

[Buster]

The Corporate Court has ruled that there is no compelling evidence that commlinks or wireless communications of any kind cause cancer. Anyone who suggests otherwise is a terrorist. Move along citizen.

[Moon-Hawk]

Yeah, cancer would be bad if your health insurance didn't cover a quick shot of cancer-killer-nanites. You do have health insurance, don't you citizen? I'd better check your SIN.

;-)

[Kyoto Kid]

...all the more reason to have a Docwagon™ or CareLine™ (UK) policy for they also provide routine medical services as well.

[Demonseed Elite]