I know nanites have been around a while and I will look like a complete dork but beyond saying they are injected micro machines with a limited life span, can someone please tell me, in game terms, what they can do?
Healing? Repair work? Boosting abilities? Supply nutrients or oxygen to go without food/rest/air?
How? What are the game terms?
I know they can kill from the Archology shut down drones.
Could they be used to control someone either through pain pleasure centers or just turn someone into a remote control minion like Trek’s Borg?

They do the impossible!

They build AKs that are better than the ones currently out there!

I am afraid this is not helping. Indeed it is answers liek that in the books that motivated me to post the thread here.

Well, from a manufacturing point of view, Nanites are just really tiny industrial drones (You know, like the type that build that Ford Americar you just stole), that can work on nearly a molecular level. They can be factories that fit inside of a truck. For small items, that would be a pick-up truck. For really small items, there are desktop nano-factories. Good quality control at a cheap price, just feed in the raw materials and keep the electricity on. The part that the Corporates nail you on is designs, which they keep a tight reign on and have insane DMR on. Seriously, I think AIs wrote the bloody code.

From a medical point of view, you have everything from simple Nano-Tattoos (Which you can change at a whim) all the way up to brain surgery. Augmentation without surgery or biological modification, or even time in the nutrient tank to recover while your flesh heals around that new cybernetic mount or the stitches around your new bioware heal the flesh between the two and disintegrate.

The details can be found in Augmentation, starting on page 95, taking up a whole chapter.

Does that help better than my usual smart ass comments?

No because that stuff I knew. I am hoping for a little more downand dirty than the sales brochure.

They're really small machines that work on a molecular level to do whatever you program them to. That's about all there is to Nanites. They're industrial robots built small, Waldos ("Remote Manipulators") on the nano-scale of things for doctors.

They do all the things you mentioned and more. Sorry if I can't give you more than that, because the only crunch we have on them is from Augmentation, with the occasional mention of Nanofaxes in other books.

As for down and dirty, the "Worst Case Scenario" (Grey Goo) is about as dirty as you get. Nanites reproducing themselves for the purpose of reproducing themselves using whatever available materials are in the immediate area, and then spread from there.

Other than that, I'm not sure I understand the question you're asking, and will just shut up now, proving my own stupidity done.

Have you read Augmentation? It's pretty comprehensive on what the current gen nanites can do. Has a whole chapter on them.

So THAT'S why they're called Waldos. Man, I've been wondering that for a while now.

Simple: Magic little robots which paddle around in defiance of Brownian Movement and provide handwaving services for just about everything. Building houses, turning houses into dust, reinforcing neural functions, destroying stuff inside your body, you name it.

Do you have any idea how improbale that is?

What the Baron said. Nanotech as a term is just a thing. It's a tool. You can do an awful lot of awful stuff with it though. For game terms and specific examples, you really do need the books.

I tried and got lost, that was why I was looking for translations.
All I got from the books seemed to be written by the marketing division of the Sirus Cybernetics Corporation.

Its Applied Phlebotinum.

Nanotech as a concept encompasses far more than most people think. Conceptually, nanotech simply refers to technology being engineered on a nanometer scale. Nothing more, nothing less. This is shit we're using NOW, IRL. So let's keep the term "nanotech" out of the discussion, and focus only on nanites, since they're the applied phelbotinum at hand.

There are two types of nanites in Shadowrun: wet and dry.

Dry nanites are the "tiny robots" variety that many people are referencing. They appear to make up the bulk of the nanites within the game, though not all of them. This includes things like Smart Acids, which dissolve only certain substances, or any of the nanotech cyberware listed in Augmentation - they can enhance brain functions, be the mechanical equivalent of Carcerands, heal wounds, repair cyberware... all that kind of stuff.
Wet nanites are biological nanites: tailored organisms used for particular purposes. They've been in use in Shadowrun since at least 2053, and I suspect earlier, and form an integral part of the Delta and Betaware installation process. They're also the key behind a lot of biologicals, such as broad-spectrum immunization, Binder, AntiBac, and manufactured diseases such as Doom. They're just very rarely referred to as wet nanites, since they probably didn't want to confuse players with seemingly contradictory terms. However, Shadowtech and Cybertechnology both go into how they're used in medical practices.

Neither of these are necessarily the "molecular robots" of transhumanism - they can simply be very, very small. I suspect most nanotech in Shadowrun is definitely NOT molecular scale, because while things can be manufactured using nanites, you can't (for instance) use desktop manufacturing to make diamonds or other raw elements, which should be possible with molecular nanites. While nanites can act at a very small level, they can't apparently act at a molecular or atomic level, at least as *machines*. Nanotech materials can, but that's basically just applied chemisty.

I'm confused.

Did you want to know what they are and what they do (as has been told several times, but thrown away because you 'already knew that'), or are you just looking to bicker about them and are trying to be coy about it?

Nanotechnology exists in RL right now. It's still at the scientific, "Let's see what we can play with" stage, but it exists.

I think it was, eight years ago, ten? Anyhow, Australian Scientists made a automobile smaller than a Dime that worked on an Internal Combustion Engine.

I just woke up and am not that cognitive at the moment, but here's something from five years ago.

So, no, it's not that improbable.

And Draco, who just found out about Waldos and why they're named that, you're welcome.

I think DLN is commenting on how improbably dry molecular nanites are, not nanomaterials. Small machines built to a molecular scale are great. Machines that manipulate molecules and can be programmed, well. That's something else.

OK, different thing altogether. I really am confused on the question and really should just shut my damned fool mouth...

I was responding to the above quopte which had the description :" Simple: Magic little robots which paddle around in defiance of Brownian Movement "
This is drifting into Douglas adams territory.

Its Applied Phlebotinum.

With a touch of Handwavium. Using Unobtainium as a building material.

But if you can work out exactly how improbably it is, you can invent the Heart of Gold out of nothing.

More to the point I'm looking for game uses and rules. Cyberware and bioware is well laid out and for the sake of 'grab tech-grunt- run it is just info/ cargo but I am wondering what could be done. And how likely it is to program people with it.

Not. You can barely program some nanites, and they have very specific and limited uses. You can't brainwash people with then.

or use them to create/build a controling device.

Such a device (it's a cyber implant called a Stirrup) doesn't work on people.

Game uses and rules are in Augmentation. Frankly, I don't understand your problem with it - it's a comprehensive list of the nanite types in existence, nano equipment and whatever else nano-related exists in the Sixth World. And the Game Info part is not some IC ad pamphlet. It's in the standard SR4E format: descriptions, prices, stats.
Do you want us to retell you the whole thing? To offer our alternatives to it? Or what? What exactly don't you understand?

Oh, and no, you need a PAB unit to program people. No nanite-based ones I am aware of. Can always blackmail them to do your will with cancerands full of Surtr, of course.

Well, I'd say that fine-tuned brainwashing is out of the question with nanites. If a collection of nanites worked their way to your brain, a skilled cybersurgeon could use them to modify your brain, in crude manners--cut out your long term memory, make your fight/flight system turn on or off. There aren't any specific rules for these things, but it's possible to do with the applied technology level.

DLN -- Skip pages 95-104 in Augmentation, it's all fluff and will just confuse some of the issues. The "Wet Nanites" mentioned above are labeled as Soft nanites. Soft Nanites are created for a single purpose, and they do that. Hard Nanites are the little machines, and they can be reprogrammed--so a hard nanite could start it's job as a "Cutter" and be reprogrammed to work with a Savior medkit.

Nanoware systems as Nanites are injected into the person, have a limited lifespan and don't cost Essence. What each one specifically does is listed on Augmentation 108-111.

To have a permanent nanite system, you need to implant a Nanohive--basically a nanite factory to make nanites.

There is also a middle gronud between Nanites and Cyberware called Nanocybernetics. These items are specifically covered on p. 112-113.

Nanotech (113-115) is personal use nanotechnology--it's ultra-futuristic technology to fix armor, change skin color, etc. Starting at page 115, is where we cover some old ground and new ground. If you remember the Savior Medkit from SR3, that is applied nanotechnology and is listed here, same with monowire--the monofilament whip and monowire are made using nanotechnology.

Weapons made from Nanites, like Cutters or Surtr (the stuff used by Winternight in System Failure) is covered on 116-117.

Hope that helps clear some stuff up. If you need more specifics, let me know.

Uh, wha... *goes to find the book*... oh, at reduced rating, -2 to -4. It's not that effective.

At the risk of derailing this thread, I can't think of any good reason a Stirrup interface wouldn't work on a person.

Not to mention there was a way to rig up a stirrup in prior editions. I don't remember the full process off hand, but there was definitely a way to do it.

You can still rig the stirrup interface.

There isn't a reason. Just that the book implies that it doesn't.

In any case, using nanites to build one into a person while they walk around at their job would not work. They'd go "what's this metal thing growing out of my neck?" and get it looked at.

Agreed. It's a rather invasive implant, there's no way nanites are constructing it unnoticed.

I wasn't implying that you could build it into someone without anyone noticing, just that a meta-human biodrone might be a pretty cool concept. If it was a clone of one's self, whats to keep them employing all of their relevant skills at full capacity? I should probably make an individual thread about this. More germaine to this thread, nanites could be used to alter someone's behavior by chewing up various parts of cerebral cortex, albeit in very unpredictable ways. Targeted neurological damage can have all sorts of fun effects.

Would you really want to be a drone that anyone could take over with ease? (Hacking is stupid powerful.)

People complain enough about Control Mind.

No, no, no. You don't want to BE said drone, you want to OWN said drone.

Same idea applies to them. Anyway, the last time I recall the topic coming up, the main desire was to "rig yourself."

There's a slight problem with the clone : since it's well, a clone, it will lack th muscle memory built in training - the sort of instant response you build up with martial art katas are an example of that sort of things.

Back on the nanites, the programable ones aren't exactly smart - you need a lot of external computer support to tell them what to do. Think of each individual nanite as smehting like ant. He can't do much beyond noticing he's next to it's designated target and perform th single action it's programed to do. But in hte same way an ant colony can work wonders, the batch of nanites with the master computer whipsering in their ear can do a lot of things.

Well, if you're a drone rigger, your drones can already be "Easily stolen" unless you take the appropriate precautions, so you're already sailing that ship.

One of the ones already in Shadowrun, you could probably get them to "Quietly" install it inside an unsuspecting person if you can get the components somehow near them with the nanites...

That's actually a scary thought... Hire a Lesbian Elf Stripper Ninja to sneak into someone's squat with the equipment needed for a set of Nanites to install a Cranial Bomb. Or, even worse, a Data Filter... The character just starts suddenly blacking out for no reason whatsoever... I'd rule it couldn't be done overnight, maybe a few days when you have a weird headache, but considering the lifestyle most 'Runners live, that's not unusual. (Or, maybe they stuffer from migraines like I do. Actually, that'd be a good negative quality.).

Just get your "Whenever I Can Afford It" check up at your local Street Doc and have him go, "Hey, that's weird, when did you get this installed... And there's no signs of surgery."

I think the best you can hope for is to screw around with someone's Skillwires, Move-By-Wire or Wired Reflexes. Won't control them, but the puppets strings have been cut...

That might be where she's going.

That's probably what she needed most. That first 9 pages of fluff is tricky. Though to be fair her oldest, my god daughter, is already playing with dice.