code_talker
Aug 6 2008, 07:59 PM
I was wondering, if AIs know about Resonance, feel it or use it? Maybe there are even some AI Technomancers? (or is that a story for a future book?)
Aaron
Aug 6 2008, 08:50 PM
To my understanding, no. The only connection between AIs and Resonance is that they both affect the Matrix.
I'm fairly certain that AIs are accidental creations of metahumankind, and the Resonance is an extra-dimensional phenomenon.
Pendaric
Aug 6 2008, 09:25 PM
I believe the connection is William Gibson.
hobgoblin
Aug 7 2008, 12:05 AM
after the god-ai's got wiped in crash 2.0, there is basically none. before it, those could grant something similar to what the resonance gave. but even then there was no direct connection, overt or hinted at...
Stahlseele
Aug 7 2008, 12:09 AM
not even the AI Mirage Creating Otaku while trying to kill itself due to some bugs in it's code?
hobgoblin
Aug 7 2008, 12:27 AM
hmm, must have missed that one. but then in no AH

so i cant say either way about the details as im not sure what situation your talking about there, Stahlseele.
Stahlseele
Aug 7 2008, 12:29 AM
if uncle ancient stumbles about that statement from me up there, he's probably gonna do something unpleasant to me. . .
it's happening in one of the shadowrun novels that got the title psychotrope in germany . .
hobgoblin
Aug 7 2008, 12:30 AM
Stahlseele
Aug 7 2008, 12:34 AM
*atlas shrugged*
dunno, somehow i allways have it in the back of my mind that certain novels got declared to actually be canon . .
but i get put into place shortly after most of ot the times i mention that particular delusion ^^
hobgoblin
Aug 7 2008, 12:38 AM
sadly, most writers of SR novels seems to have taken liberties with the abilities of different people and gear...
MYST1C
Aug 7 2008, 05:48 AM
QUOTE (Stahlseele @ Aug 7 2008, 02:34 AM)

dunno, somehow i allways have it in the back of my mind that certain novels got declared to actually be canon . .
I can think of only one -
Burning Bright. It's the official story how Bug City came to pass...
code_talker
Aug 7 2008, 08:49 AM
Okay, AIs are man-made entities that live in the matrix and use it like hackers do. There are no rules in Unwired, but I think it is not too farfetched to imagine an AI emerging into a TechnoAImancer entity. Are there any hints in Runners Companions AI-as-player-characters-chapter?
Heath Robinson
Aug 7 2008, 09:34 AM
QUOTE (code_talker @ Aug 7 2008, 09:49 AM)

Okay, AIs are man-made entities that live in the matrix and use it like hackers do. There are no rules in Unwired, but I think it is not too farfetched to imagine an AI emerging into a TechnoAImancer entity. Are there any hints in Runners Companions AI-as-player-characters-chapter?
Technomancy appears to be a biological only trait.
I personally see the Resonance as one big feat of Apophenia conjured up by people that cannot escape noticing every detail of the digital world around them. Their deus ex machina that they conceived to personalise or trivialise the interconnected dynamics of the network.
By this understanding, a metasapient AI might do the same thing if they had the same perspective as a technomancer. The metasapient AI probably sees the network more as normal people understand the complexities of living in a city; things are busy but it's not divinity at work.
Aaron
Aug 7 2008, 01:57 PM
QUOTE (code_talker @ Aug 7 2008, 03:49 AM)

Okay, AIs are man-made entities that live in the matrix and use it like hackers do. There are no rules in Unwired, but I think it is not too farfetched to imagine an AI emerging into a TechnoAImancer entity. Are there any hints in Runners Companions AI-as-player-characters-chapter?
Maybe. Isn't there a list of qualities that AIs are allowed to take?
Sir_Psycho
Aug 7 2008, 02:01 PM
The interesting thing is that AI exists in shadowrun, but as far as cannon is concerned, no human ever directly created an AI. Many advanced 2070 programs, agents, protocols etc. have the ability to adapt and "learn". This is not the way a child learns, through experience, but through analyzing code using incredibly complex programming and then self-updating to improve. This is the canvas on which an AI is created
Then something happens to the program, that causes it to self-actualize and become sentient. No longer just a learning machine, but aware of itself as a complete and individual entity. There is no definitive answers as to why this happens. It is believed (as it can never be certain) that Deus came about from the arcology expert system because Renraku restricted his access to within the SCIRE, and this decision, which was taken as an attack (a denial of service) sprung him into being through fear, and as he became self-aware, he felt betrayed.
So I do not believe AI's and the resonance are directly related, at least not in a cause and effect relationship.
My opinion and perception of the resonance is that it is not a single force or entity, but it is the entire matrix. Imagine a poem, that spells out the matrix. That poem is the matrix. However, the resonance is like if you could read the poem backwards, and it still made fundamental sense. You could read it as an acrostic down the page, and it still made sense.
I believe the resonance is an accident of random code forming throughout the entire matrix, and just by chance these chaotic threads and streams of data stopped being chaotic, and found an order. Also, the resonance isn't just code. The resonance is a product of all the brains plugged into the matrix. All the emotions conveyed through ASIST protocol that have no meaning to the matrix, but some-how this collective experience of a jacked in society created a collective subconscious that finds a place to exist within this disordered and chaotic matrix.
At least that's how I explain Sprites to myself. How else can they be real beings if they're not born of scraps of ASIST riding in code?
Of course, even more than magic, the resonance is something left to the paradigm of both the player and the characters.
So to bring this back to the question, perhaps the resonance can be this catalyst that begins the self-actualization of Artificial Intelligence, but it can also happen independently of the resonance. Personally I see AI as chaos in order, and the resonance as order in chaos.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please
click here.