I have yet to hear of anything like Johnny even though it was very 80's cyberdroneish. Anyone hear anything about one or use one?

I always thought the GM Mr. Fixit would look a lot like Johnny Five (lasers and whatnot sold separately). If you had one of those with a piloting-origin meta-sapient AI inhabiting it... it could be a lot like that movie.

Which drone are you talking about?

It is a really bad and not in a good way movie reference.

http://www.johnny-five.com/

I loved the Short Circuit series, and I've built an AI with Piloting Origins inside a Renraku Manservant III. Mine was a little more combat oriented though.

I know who Jonny-5 is. Hell, I saw both of those movies in the theater as a child. I meant what is the GM-Fixit drone that was being referred to, I couldn't find it.

Runner's Companion, Advanced Lifestyles, Page 152

Thank you!

The reason I say the GM Mr. Fix-it is a better fit than the manservant, is that the manservant is explicitly a walker-drone, while the GM Mr. Fixit does not specify (and so MIGHT be tracked). Also, it is statisticly identical to the manservant except for having more armor, and no fluff about being designed to be inept at fighting back (defending itself).

Sorry both for the misunderstanding you and that Johnny Five was inflicted upon you as a child.

LOL

I was young enough it was really my own doing. No harm though, unless you count me playing games with robotic drones as a harmful affect.

Wouldn't an SR version of Johnny-Five be a Lynx drone with an AI with Pilot Origin quality?

- J.

Quite likely. In fact, having watched Short Circuit (relatively) recently it matches the SR "how AIs happen" philosophy. Number 5 shorted out and had a software malfunction, requested input. Took in so much input that he "woke up."

In-put. INPUT!

I want to disagree. From my understanding of Short Circuit, the lightning bolt was what gave him sentience, Frankenstein-style. The requests for input were not unlike a child's consistent urges to learn and understand.

There's a site that I found which has pictures of various drones, but I severely doubt it's canon, and I'm pretty certain it's not 4e. http://www.gods-inc.de/macavity/IsleOfShad...ne-crawler.html

They shorted things out. The bolt itself didn't actually give him sentience, it just caused a malfunction in his programming. Due to the malfunction it wandered off the army base because it was lost, all the while requesting input and unable to get any. In fact, in the first several minutes after getting hit by the lightning bolt Number 5 was running into walls, completely unable to navigate.

It was only after reading all of the books Stephanie had did Number 5 start having something resembling sentience (plus a conversation on Life and Death). At some point along the way Number 5 even re-wires / reprograms himself.

(FYI: I watched the movie relatively recently, last 6 months or so)