Will THIS make cyber mainstream?, In regards to a CNN article. Options

[nezumi]

There's always talk about this or that new piece of cyber and we all dream quietly to ourselves of a day when people really will have chromed arms and cool eyeballs that shoot out lasers and what not, but I think most of us honestly don't believe we'll ever live to see such mainstream acceptance of cyber. Well then I saw this article:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/11/26...reut/index.html

If this doesn't sell ware, I don't know what will... (I wonder if it comes standard with wired reflexes and reaction boosters?)

[Pistons]

Actually, I think the response (or lack of) that he's been receiving illustrates perfectly why so many people have been leery about what cyber-like devices we DO have: fear.

Part of a developing theory I have about the cyberpunk genre (which had very large help from an article I'd read somewhere; I could point those who're interested to it as soon as I find it) is that it's grown out of our fears, not hopes, for the future. This includes things like cyberware, which can be seen as fearing our growing loss of a sense of humanity. The kind of survival some are forced to pursue can also be put on that same shelf.

This is what makes cyberpunk a fairly unique genre in the science-fiction spectrum: where others focus on new cultures and alien races to discover and explore, or battling evil forces which threaten our future, or showing how improvements to humanity can make it not only better, but different in ways that can be unsettling, cyberpunk's future is bleak with little hope but what the folks in the trenches can scrabble for. Sometimes that can be pretty big, indeed (see the endings of Gibson's trilogies, for example), but they're otherwise swallowed by the general malaise.

Shadowrun is a little bit different, in that there's magic in the mix that can give at least the illusion of a bigger ray of hope in the gloom, but it's still not that much different.

[Grey]

[Zazen]

If they made one for men they'd be flooded with volunteers.

[Pistons]

Actually, they have: it's called Viagra. ;)

Anyway, I did some digging and I may have found an additional reason why he may be having such trouble finding female volunteers. You see, the device that he's probably using is the same, or a slight modification, as the neurostimulation device from Medtronic. This is implanted near the base of the spine, right above or where it meets the buttocks: the same, or nearly the same, place that you'd get a spinal block or epidural. (I've had both. The loss of sensation in the first case is scary as all hell. The second is great, because what it does is simply block the pain, but not sensation. These points will be important later.)

While the rewards (orgasms) are great, the risks (contraindications and particularly the warnings) may not be worth it enough to undergo the procedure. As there are quite a few security systems (including theft detection and airport security) around these days which could be hazardous to someone with an implanted neurostimulation device, I know I certainly wouldn't want my movement restricted just so I could get some happy-fun time now and then. The possibility of paralysis and loss of sensation is just not worth it to me, and probably isn't to many other women either.

[Grey]

I don't know about that. Guys can get off easily enough already, why bother getting some machine implant to make it that much easier?

edit: this was in reply to Zazen, I should have used quote.

[Dende]

Shit, closer than this orgasmatron is remote controlled rats, which we do have. The gov't(good ole Uncle Sam) has chips they put into rats, each time they want the rat to do something good and it does, they give it pleasure and a sense of happiness, fail and it gets a sad jolt...
They also have a version of the chip that gives impulses telling it directions and other such things...rat drones, how'd you riggers like that?

*If you wanna check it out, there have been many articles, New York Times a year ago, other papers, nuremous science magazines, like Popular Mechanics.

[Zazen]

[Fresno Bob]

I dunno, that'd be kind of messy. You'd need to wear like, absorbant underwear...

[Grey]

Gives new marketing options for Adult Diapers

[Fresno Bob]

I don't even wanna think about that...

[Siege]

Compare it to body piercing or tattoos -- personal enhancement would be relatively common among the younger set who tend to embrace new, different and relatively radical ideas.

If you keep the traditional SR pricing scheme, you wouldn't see a lot of practical cyber -- datajacks at 1k a go, not counting SI, would be limited to users serious about the job, or jacking or whathaveyou.

But I do see a pretty fast market for silly litte cybernetics and minor cosmetic surgery -- implanted metal to make skin art, animal features -- cat's eyes, some fur and so on.

I got into a major disagreement with someone on here about how common cybernetics would be in street gangs. When he started quoting "real life", I let the subject drop, but I still hold that there would be enough people embracing the low end of upgrades only because they couldn't afford the high-end stuff.

-Siege

[hobgoblin]

you have some nice fashionware in cyberpunk 2020, howabout a earring that is realy a mp3 player? or maybe a watch that will never get stolen (its udner your skin). add to that stuff like false fingernails that hide razorsharp blades (gives a new meaning to the phrase "hello kitten"). and i dont want to think about what effect the ability to see where a gun is aimed no mather how your holding it will have on law enforcement.

oint is that the only thing we need is a working 2-way neural hookup.

[Siege]

[Crusher Bob]

Yep and the characters could hopefully be creeped out by Mr. Psycho killer's big bag 'o slightly used style ware, as opposed to immediately thinking about its resale vaule. Sometimes I'm just temped to take a zero off the end of all SR ware prices, so that it's not such a big deal.

[Pistons]

There are pens and keychains (not much bigger than some earrings) now that are mp3 players. You might want something a bit more advanced by 2063. :)

[Arethusa]

Eh. For sake of argument, there is a limit to miniturization. Sure, in 60 years, we may be able to go smaller than an earing, but there is a limit to what is effectively usable and convenient for a human being simply for issues of relative size, aesthetics, and ease of use (pressing buttons on a watch today is annoying enough, though, to be fair, chances are the control unit would probably be a separate keychain, or something).

[mfb]

a working two-way neural connection already exists. i can't find the second article at the moment, but this guy was able to control a robotic hand halfway around the world through his link--including force-feedback sensation. apparently, he got quite a jolt when someone's pager went off and crossed signals with his link.

[Siege]

Limits are relative -- nobody invisioned nanotechnology.

I wonder what else we haven't thought of yet.

-Siege

[Sahandrian]

[mfb]

"i've got a few tricks mother nature never thought of." KAM, Shadowtech.