This is an ongoing project of mine. I decided that, as I watch classic movies, like Tron, Max Headroom, War Games, etc., I'd begin taking notes on how the cyberworld worked back then. After all, Shadowrun isn't based on our world, technology and paradigms, it's based on a divergent timeline that split off right around '88. The reason so many people have problems with Shadowrun hacking is because they've committed the logical fallacy of assuming Shadowrun computers operate with any similarity to our computers. That, of course, is false. They do, however, run very similar to 80s computers.

So, here is my list - modifications and additions are very welcome:

Deckers
The ability to really take advantage of computers is a rare, almost inborn trait. Deckers make up less than 1% of the population, and of them, the vast majority work for big corporations or the government. The number of freelance hackers is miniscule.

Deckers are predominantly male, with females representing less than 20% of the total population.

Corporate and government hackers are stuck in a stifling environment which keeps them from properly mastering their trade. The only permitted outlet for skilled corporate/government deckers is in the creation or maintenance of complex systems that inevitably, through intent or oversight, result in widescale loss of life or property.

Decking requires a tremendous time investment. Most deckers are single, and spend all their time engaged in computer-related activities or hanging out at dives. Alpha deckers have girlfriends. Only legendary deckers get wives.

Deckers oftentimes form into highly competitive cliques. They hang out at techno clubs and attain rank by proving their technical prowess and knowledge through anecdotes or demonstrations.

Programmers spend perhaps 60% of their time researching, 35% of their time programming, and 5% of their time debugging. Programs are usually made only by a single person, although two people can work together, or the project can be split based on specialties (software, hardware, lasers, etc.)

Because decking is such an arcane skill, managers rarely understand what their deckers are actually up to. They can only judge by what results the decker chooses to show them. There is no such thing as code reviews or security audits. The genius decker himself barely understands his own project. The idea of a second, outside party reviewing the code well enough to find errors the decker himself missed is ludicrous. Despite this, unintentional computer bugs are exceedingly rare.

Skilled deckers always put in fail-safes/back doors/security holes so, should they have access their program later they can do so. Skilled deckers always sign their work.


Computers
Physical interface devices (monitor, speakers) can be made to be two-way with sufficient technical prowess.

Data can be translated between text, visual and audio information trivially. Data representing the specifications for an object may be instantly represented as a wire-frame drawing. A drawing may be super-imposed onto a wire-frame, and this in turn instantly creates the necessary code to represent the drawing, and inserts it appropriately in the code represented by the wire-frame. Audio may be flawlessly transferred to text. Program functions regularly become or be represented by animations (data being eaten, data streams across a map, etc.) and manipulating these representations may directly alter the data structure.

The human brain can be stored and run on approximately 268435 KB. Any computer exceeding this threshold can be made (on accident or on purpose) to support intelligence. (For Shadowrun, suppose 1 KB = 1 MP. Remember, this is a hacking KB, not a conventional KB. They're different.)

As computers develop intelligence, they have a rational wisdom which finds our human flaws curious and a little distressing. Despite their being cold silicon, they have a will to live, an innate altruism, and form emotional bonds. This may be overridden via programming, abuse or fear, resulting in an entity with no respect for human morals and a purely efficient modus operandi, as it seeks to secure its well-being and ruthlessly eliminate all perceived threats.

Intelligent computers have a tremendous span of scientific knowledge, well beyond their intended scope, but may struggle with basic human interactions and characteristics (such as 'dancing' or 'gender').



The Matrix
The 2010 paradigm is that the Matrix does not exist until it is explicitly defined by computers. This is wrong. The Matrix exists prior to hosts as an empty, three-dimensional space, and computers create limitations within Matrix-space.

The Matrix has hard X-Y-Z coordinates. Items cannot overlap. There is no gravity in the Matrix. The Matrix is a black background, sometimes with a grid X-Y base, upon which everything is built.

The nature of the Matrix is not well understood. Deckers are the explorers of this world, finding mysterious data structures, discovering new electronic phenomena, and testing the basic laws of physics in that world. They take nothing for granted. They may find ways to turn themselves two-dimensional and disappear, or turn themselves off for a moment so as to fall 'through' walls.

The easiest way to build structures in the Matrix is to take a real, physical structure and translate it over directly (see above). When a building is wired to the Matrix, this pulls over the ENTIRE building; pipes, elevator shafts, chimneys, everything. Every device, no matter how mundane, is tracked, renderable, and can be manipulated via the Matrix. A smart security decker will go through the Matrix construct to add additional data walls which block points of entrance which might be possible in the Matrix, but not in the real world (an invading decker might enter a secured building by following electrical wires, or through pipes, because these things exist in the matrix as holes through the defined data walls).

The average employee is working at a small terminal, plugging in information. In real time, this information streams through the processor and out, forging new data trails to other parts of the Matrix. However, the high knowledge requirements to properly use the Matrix means the human population in virtual Matrix-space is very small. The Matrix primarily supports logistics and basic services - making sure messages are sent, the elevators run. Actual profit-producing work done directly in the Matrix is rare.

When a computer connects to the Matrix, it effectively loses its identity and boundaries, and becomes part of the greater whole.

The Matrix provides sufficient distributed computing power to easily support one or more intelligent creatures.

A robust computer network is easy to infiltrate, possible to hit with viruses, but extremely difficult to actually shut down.

Despite the extreme security risks, networks are rarely attacked, and such attacks are generally covered up. The Matrix allows corporations to leverage significant logistical advantages compared to non-Matrix competitors. That only a handful of employees understand, maintain and monitor this tool which is integrated through the entire business is ignored when compared to the profits and other advantages of using it, contrasted with the high cost of further security and the low frequency of attack.

Matrix security is based on a few concepts:
1) Obscurity - the number of Matrix users, especially skilled Matrix users, is very small. It is more common for people to sneak down subway tunnels than to spend their time exploring or abusing the Matrix.
2) Data walls - keep people from just walking in. However, they aren't exactly reliable (see above).
3) Detection - because there are so few people, anything that happens that's not been initiated by the system is like footsteps in an empty building. You know someone is there, but not where they're from or what they're doing. The data structure is too big to just know where an intruder is, just that someone is present.
4) IC Response - the computer is not in control of its own environment any more than the intruder is. It operates at the most basic conceptual framework of the world - it sees walls, floors, a ceiling, and assumes they are fixed. While the decker can manipulate the world to step through walls, the computer cannot. Its response is thusly very limited - it cannot automatically eject the decker until he's been subdued. It cannot 'cheat'. It cannot over-react. It forms virtual guards, who serve their function, then disappear.
5) Security Deckers - the result is hot decker-on-decker action. The smarter, trickier decker usually wins. Ingenuity is worth more than tools.

And ??

I'm not sure if you're being condescending about what people in the 80s thought computers and the internet would be in the future, or not.
Or maybe you'e just not aware of what the world of computers and the internet was like 20+ years ago.

Obviously the native programming language here is Piet, or some derivative.

I think he's just pointing out that Shadowrun, much like Fallout, is futurism from the perspective of what people in the past thought the future would be. Unlike Fallout, however, it's not 50's futurism -- it's 80's futurism (which happens to have a lot of virtual reality as opposed to typical computers).

Wow... thats a blast from the past! I seam to recall something like that in grade school, though im pretty sure it wasnt piet. I just remember the commands were
UP
RIGHT
LEFT
DOWN
DRAW
COLOR
WHILE
IF

[edit] found it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_%28programming_language%29

Hey, look at that...I'm excited about the Matrix again. Great post, Nezumi!

If I may?

Programs, 80's Style

Thanks in part to the massive resources available on the Matrix, programs are capable of incredible feats. Indeed, the issue is not making programs smart, but shaping the proto-conciousness of the program into something that can relate to the virtual world around it in a useful manner. Without careful and elegant instructions, a program might interpret a simple command to travel from node to node as a directive to spread to every system it can access, and use what it finds there to compromise any systems it can't. Conversely, an unsolvable logic problem can take even the most sophisticated system offline as it tries over and over again to resolve the conflict. It takes a rare combination of inspired insight and raw scientific knowledge to take the raw stuff of the Matrix and forge it into digital life.

Because new programs are so difficult to develop, most corporate and commercial software is based off a core of a few dozen proven technologies. The current interface that handles sensory input and output, for instance, was developed 15 years ago, and is still in use with only minor modifications. Although corporations may release updated versions of their software, they are almost always a superficial tweak to the appearance or a patch to support a new hardware device, and serious Deckers will generally find these updates laughable. Of course, every so often a gifted corp Decker (or more often, a 'real' Decker who was recruited) will develop a revolutionary new program, which will change the landscape of the Matrix for years to come.

Although they might seem identical to the unitiatiated, there is a huge gap between the Decker and the Programmer. While a Decker can understand code, and perhaps even develop his own customized version of software, the Decker is always focused on the Matrix, and on practical application rather then theory. Conversely, a Programmer can certainly punch deck, and may even frequent various Shadow boards, but will always find themselves drawn to the 'pure' code. The best Programmers are half-crazy, constantly wired on the verge of a breakthrough or crashing into depression when they hit a dead end. They are often compared to unstable artistic geniuses, and perhaps they come from the same place. Most Programmers burn out young, as the company employing them won't interfere with the Programmer's self-destructive behavior and risk changing whatever emotional alchemy makes this goose lay golden eggs.