Aliens in shadowrun. Options

[KCKitsune]

That is an irrelevant argument. Whether or not psychic abilities and magical abilities use the same source of energy is not of concern. In most systems or beliefs, magical power and psychic power are interchangeable, with only the fewest abilities making each unique.

In Shadowrun, Magic is tied to the Mana Sphere. Period. End of Sentence. If you take a mage to geosync orbit and he tries to cast a spell then he is screwed. A technomancer is on the same shuttle and he uses his abilities... no problem. THAT is the difference. Nothing more, nothing less.

So Neraph, how is the Technomancer powering his abilities? How can an unaugmented human brain generate enough radio waves to communicate with the Matrix? We know it's not magic because it works in Mana voids and Mana warps without any modification. When you can answer that in a manner that is logical for the game universe, then I'll drop my belief that Technomancers are psionic.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

I'd say that the key reason to deny that TMs are psychics is the lack of what are generally considered the most basic, core abilities of a psychic, according to TV and popular culture:

Clairvoyance
Mind-reading
Precognition

And a little less common,
Psychometry
Communing with dead people.

Cyberpathy and cyberkinesis are way off on the fringe, such that most folks wouldn't even associate them with the word "psychic".
Magic really works better as a model than technomancy.

And yet, when you mention the Words "CyberKinesis" and "CyberPathy" the FIRST thing I think of is Psionic/Psychic Ability, not Magic. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Neraph]

So Neraph, how is the Technomancer powering his abilities? How can an unaugmented human brain generate enough radio waves to communicate with the Matrix? We know it's not magic because it works in Mana voids and Mana warps without any modification. When you can answer that in a manner that is logical for the game universe, then I'll drop my belief that Technomancers are psionic.

Unfortunately, not magic does not equal psionic, and that is the premise that you're basing a large section of your logic off of. Like I said, it doesn't matter what it isn't, it matters what it is, and technomancy is not psionics.

Let me list the reasons why it isn't:
1) The inability to use the vast majority of psionic powers.
2) Although psion-to-psion telepathy is known (although itself a niche view of telepathy), psion-to-cellphone telepathy is not.
3) Regardless of the powers originating in the brain, they operate using a known method (radio waves). Arguably you can state something akin to "technology so advanced it is magic," and substitute psionics; however, the commonly accepted forms of psionic power are not radio waves.
4) Most importantly, page 45 of Street Magic.

These are only a handful of reasons, but each of them are high-impact. The very game you talk about has declared in no-uncertain terms that psionics is simply a "quaint and outdated paradigm by the wider magical community; a flawed understanding of magic being gradually eroded by its own inability to explain many of the everyday realities and accept the fundamental conventions of modern thaumaturgy."

EDIT: What "cyberkinesis?" Moving machines with their mind? You mean Commanding a drone? That's hardly a psychic event - simply a program doing what it is supposed to do.

[Lionhearted]

Hm, I vaguely recall reading about "research" ( I use the term loosely most of the stuff people came up with when this was a hot button topic was pretty... loose) about the possible interaction between psychics and electronic devices/radio waves... One of the things they looked into was "Calls from the other side" supposedly someone calling the spirit realm or whatever with an actual phone...

Something way more recent is this whole debacle with people supposedly disturbing street lights in their vicinity or making electronic devices go haywire...
Was called something to do with streetlight interference syndrome or something similarly "legit"

Totally wanna write up a matrix religion now... the machine spirit calls to us!

[Sengir]

Sight is one of our senses its not extrasensory if it enhances an existing sense

So if perceiving EM radiation in different spectrum than regular humans is not ESP, what exactly qualifies TMs for ESP?

So Neraph, how is the Technomancer powering his abilities? How can an unaugmented human brain generate enough radio waves to communicate with the Matrix?

"Enough radio waves"? Standard WiFi operates at 0.1 W, the human body easily generates 100 W heat over the course of a day. The only difference is that TMs can produce radio waves and not just heat, but again, producing radio waves is hardly a psionic ability.