So the group I'm running SR4 for consists of a technomancer, an AI, and a mundane(technically) hacker. All of them are fairly inquisitive out-of-character and interested in the lore, and this is reflected in-character as an introspective streak among all of them, along with a historical/scientific smattering of Knowledges concerning AIs, Matrix phenomena, and so forth, and they've begun asking relatively reasonable questions as to how the technomancer functions in the hopes of better integrating his abilities with the others.

Unfortunately, I'm not terribly well versed in SR4 Matrix lore, particularly on the two topics above. Thus I have to ask: Insofar as has been revealed, how do TMs have a commlink in their head that lets them make/summon sprites and enter Matrix-type spaces that aren't the Matrix?

The answer in universe: "We don't know. But we'll keep cutting into TM heads until we find out!"

The metagaming answer: "We don't know. Yet."

I put it down to "Tele-Pathetic Powers".

Magic.
Sorry, Resonance. The same handwavium applies though.

Read up on Emergence if you're interested in Technomancer (and AI) background outside of the core book. It's a great big 122 page fluff book on both subjects, and their coming out into the world from an unknown to a somewhat accepted part of society.

The short answer is..

Lets use the magic rules for technomancers so we don't have to think too hard.
But.. the matrix rules and magic rules aren't even on the same scale..
who cares!

The guys that can throw fireballs around are more accepted than the people who just surf the Matrix with their brains.

That kind of tells you the state of the Sixth World, eh?

The answer to the question posted is in Core, though, right at the very first sentence of the Technomancers subchapter.

And those scientists and magicians should know, they cut right into the head to look directly at those neural pathways and get access to the brain chemistry.

Hey, that was in the name of science! To further human understanding!
But luckily, now they can fall back to experimenting on animals - there's still a number of mysteries there, for example: why does the e-cockroaches' small size make them less noticeable in the Matrix, hmmmm?

"Quit screaming in agony, this is in the name of SCIENCE! MUH-HA-HA-HA!!! Now, does it hurt when I apply electricity to this part of your exposed brain?"

...

Or, as my group put it, "You know you've really hit the moral low ground when the Nazi-Wannabe is telling you it's too much."

No, there are no nerve centers capable of perceiving pain in the brain.

Nerve *endings*, I thought?

...endings. Connecting to centers. You know...

Oh, the confusion around pain. Partly correct.

Nerve ending sense a possibly damaging stimulus.
Nerve centers in the brain combine this with emotional input and a bunch of other things to end up in a feeling perceived as pain.
So in that way, yes, there are nerve centers in the brain that perceive pain, there just aren't nerve endings to pick up the potentially damaging stimulus and trasmit it to them.

Nitpicking? Yes. Important distinctions to make? To some.

Very important to the person whose brain is hanging out in the open air and being poked with electric probes.

Do note that while the brain itself may not have any open nerve endings, stimulation of the postcentral gyrus may well result in percieved pain in the rest of the body, while the precentral gyrus may well result in uncontrolable muscle contractions that will likely result in pain as well. Since both lie in the center, on top, are fairly large, and tend to draw attention, these are likely results of random jabbings with electrodes.

*whistle*

Been cutting up frogs again I see?

Naw. I never got to actually cut something up, beside a few chickens and a duck for dinner. Still on my to do list though.
Just helping out with some theoretical knowledge

I cut up frogs in school, but they stopped letting me play with electricity the third time I zapped myself.

I threw myself a few feet back and think I passed out while sitting up for a few minutes. It was certainly an interesting sensation.

Remember, Otaku were Deus's jailbreak plan. Alter some humans so that their brains can store and run extremely complex and unique computer programs and then distribute his massive artificial intellect amongst his specially modified followers and victims. It worked, too. Other AIs also made their own Otaku, for their own reasons.

Technomancer powers are just an evolution of those extreme neurological alterations, further exacerbated by The Crash 2.0. Deus may be dead, but his legacy does live on.

And it's just how much of that legacy is alive that has people worried. Who knows, Clockwork might just be right in his over-paranoia about TMs.

It's a lot like magic, some of the whats are known, but the why's are left to the individual traditions(or in this case streams). Techomancers just have a lot more whys then magic because there are no ancient legends dealing with it, but reason run from "It's computer magic", to "It's the natural evolution of metahumanity due to exposure to the matrix"

And just like magicians, most people care more about the what's than the whys

That's not quite the way evolution works, or we'd all have had chiptuned internal combustion engines, instead of hearts.

*whistle*

I REALLY don't like the logical flaws of the whole Technomancer-idea. I liked the Otakus, and i like the IDEA of the Technomancer-evolution. But the execution is AWFUL.

For example the way how magic works is based on one principle not yet (or never ) known to metahumanity: There is one rule somehow permeating all tradition, all ways of thinking, binding living people and the world together so that the magician can change the world with his will. Thje whole spirits and spells are fueled by funneled down energy from another world, which is a clear and visitable second one (and many mysteries and "other layers"). If the background count is higher, mana works in weird ways.

All is structured, even if based on unknown principles. There seem to be contradictions but they could be manifestations of the USER.

TECHNOMANCERs on this side clearly violate rules without ANY indication of how this might be possible.
Examples:
Skinlink Echo - CAN NOT WORK. You need to somehow project micromilimeter electric and/or light through casings/ boards and cables into multiple parts of a machine
the trode version even let you do it to a metahuman brain. Sure.. easy.

Sprites are fuled by a magical force clearly not based in the machine realm. Even on a isolated Toaster in a wifi-dead zone they can easily run with a higher power than a logic-boosted human. Where do they get the processing power for that?

I would LOVE to see the technomancer completely cleaned up and give them a clearly defined role as a counterpoint to the mages.

My take on them:

Either through genetic improvement or "magical" or unknown mutation they can send and receive wireless signals and can, if they have one implanted, use a datajack without any ASIST or other Simsense technology. They all develope a Matrix-addiction. They all are faster than hackers. They all can develope powers over their own neuroligy and can program and reprogram their own minds with relative ease. They all can program temporary constructs in their minds (programs /complex forms, and can even copy them, load them up and have them act autonomous (sprites).

All these powers should not violate ANY matrix rules and work just as the Hackers programs and Agents, but are easier and faster to generate and allow for a higher fluidity and customization on the fly.

In the matrix they are, measured against a Hacker with same "powerlevel", a tiny bit faster, sneakier and more perceptive. But more vulnerable.
In the real world they have intuitive knowledge of all wifi-machines around them, have a knack for spoofing/jamming outside of the normal hacking rules and have some mental powers. (They can rewire themselves for mental states, providing extra-dice for some mental tasks, concentration. Fear and interogation resist and even low levels of initiative and perception-enhancements- as well as temporary access to mental qualities) - all for a price: "Drain" - mental exhaustion and even physical effects like cerebral bleeding, fatigued neural structure, or simple "oh my god i crapped that up and rewired my ABILITY TO BREATH"- death.

Some of these enhancements work like cyber/bioware boosts and are hard to aquire and integrate (They need submersions), but are permanent. Cyberware is acceptable, but a lot of systems are reduntant with your own modifications and won't work properly. Headware and Senseware will impact your abilities. Other systems you are able to integrate flawlessly and operate on higher levels than the usual user, but this all needs karma/submersions etc.

Overall: You are the master of your own brain. (And get WIFI as an sweet add-on). Things like the "Streams" or "mystical entities" or the Resonance or Dissonance doesn't have to vanish. More like a VPN between like-minded Technomancers. Distributed programs permeat the whole matrix and help the attuned minds with tasks, fuel them, connect them. It can be mystical, or absolutely logical, depending on the user... like magic. No problem.

As a sidenote: I LOVE the AI's too... but they need some work too.

The human body has its own field of electromagnetism. This can be altered. If someone can somehow emit and receive electromagnetic radiation, he can use this radiation to alter his body's electric field. If a device is capable of dealing with this method of interfacing, it doesn't matter wether a device or a technomancer is generating the signal. Devices that aren't naturallly able to do this that still have any components able to conduct eletrical current could theoretically not just be communicated with, but even powered by this field. Anythingthat can conduct eletrical current will have electircal curent generated in it if it is subjected to a changing electromagnetic field.
If trodes and a simrig can induce full or partial sensory and motor override on a living being, so can another living being with the same interfacing capability as the trodes, and the ability to emulate the simrig's software to convert data into a DNI simsense format.
Suspension of disbelief over humans being able to mentally manipulate radio waves should logically include the possibility of skinlink and trode functionality. Said skinlink working on non-skinlink able devices is strange though, I agree, but theoretically possible, given the rest, and some other assumptions made for/about technomancers.

I don't really think technomancers are out of place. Sure, there are a lot of unknows, more so than with mages. Nothing is really contraditory though. And after all, unlike mages,m they've only been out and about for two years.Having unknowns makes sense. This Resonance realm, what is it? Whence does it come? How do Technomancers do what they do, and why are they able to? No one knows, or perhaps someone does. It might break out into the field of common knowledge, it might not. A lot of craniums have been opened. Something needs to have come out of all that applied grey matter.
Time will tell.

The deep, dark unexplored parts of the Matrix may have the answers...

But few come back from those places, and rarely sane.

just to comment on this real quick: to be fair, there have been myths and such about magic for a long time. When the Awakening happened, people saw it as the legends becoming true, and then Dunkelzahn stepped up and explained a lot of stuff, making it seem to be a natural cycle. Then a bunch of scientists sat down and quantified the shit out of the laws that govern magic and such.

Meanwhile, Technomancers arrived out of nowhere, with no explanation, to subvert devices that have been a trusted piece of human society for a (relatively) long time.

I'd still say mages would actually be more scary to the man on the street, but considering that stuff, I could see being afraid of technomancers as well.

There's also a PR bit going on as well... Magicians get the benefit of having shows like "Karl Kombatmage" and such where they're the hero and so on. You also have magical villains, but, hell, every group has bad seeds.

TMs started out public knowledge with a massive riot in Hong Kong and what appeared to be a cold blooded murder broadcast by a Corporation that is heavily invested in making sure that no one finds out what exactly they were doing. That kind of thing tends to stick in the minds of John Q. Wageslave, even suffering from Media Overdosing and Sheepish Forgetfulness...

Give it a generation, and "Tommy Techno" will join the ranks of "Karl Kombatmage" in making everyone misunderstand everything about Technomancy.

Actually, they started out with the SCIRE incident, the Second Crush, and then this Hong Kong deal.
So frankly, I'd say that Joe Average has every good reason to hate them and be afraid of them, and there is no real reason for them to be as accepted as they are portrayed to be.

Ah, right. Been awhile since I read that book.

Never forget how quickly people move on today. It gets even worse with Simsense to dull the senses.

Religion is the opiate of the masses. Television is morphine. Simsense is Heroin.

IIRC, there is no (proven) connection between otaku and Otaku 2.0, as they've been so lovingly dubbed. Not to say that Joe Average (who is Joe the Plumber ) cares about proof over what's in the media.

Still, I'm guessing there's bound to be some techno giving us a pito feed out of LA to ease opinion a bit. Just wait until he takes the Global Fame quality.

Otaku mostly were a rumor even in the shadows, Joe Wageslave never heard of that and much less did he hear about otaku turning to Deus or dissonant. Remember that not everything we take for granted OOC is known to even well-connected characters - as far as 99% of the Sixth World are concerned, the Azzies are the nice guys providing the majority of the world's food. Blood magic? Ah c'mon, did the tinfoil hatters get you?

So, how do technos do what they do? My "explaination" would be that the sheer size and complexity of the matrix has caused some sort of "undercurrent" which the TMs can tap into. Which also means their powers are not going to work in physically isolated systems...and Skinlink is right out

By members of the JackPoint, usually the old folks who actually knew Otaku IRL. Oh, and FastJack.

...

Which leads me to another thread.

Minding that there were wide-scale experiments to make otaku out of SCIRE population, and there were survivors to tell the story, I'm pretty sure otaku involvement is as widely known as the AI's. It is rumored at the very least.

It is known that Deus carved people open, hooked them to strange machines and did all other kinds of freaky stuff, but the ultimate goal behind all that? Matter of fact, even the authors of RA:Shutdown seemingly didn't know it, Demonseed Elite once mentioned that Brainscan was merely a pitch from him and not planned by the people who wrote RA:Shutdown.

Yet RA:S had fiction on new otaku being created.