So, I was reading back thru part of the material on cybermancy from my SR2 books to get some background for an adventure I'm writing.

I have a shaman in the crew that I know will feel and see the badness of a cyberzombie. But then I starting thinking about what our Technomancer might experience. Which doesn't seem to have any precedent in any of the current SR material as far as I can tell.

Does anyone have any ideas on how technomancers would sense/experience/deal with a cyberzombie?

Actual Answer:
As far as I know, technomantic abilities are only affected by the technomancer's resonance (affected by essence). Unlike healing (and for some reason no other) magic, the essence of the target doesn't do anything. Technomancers also don't interact with auras in any way, because they don't (except for one echo in one book) go after living (or non-computer) targets.

The technomancer might see a pile of tags attached to the 400 different pieces of cyberware the CZ has, but otherwise wouldn't notice anything different between a CZ and any other samurai. The machine bits of the CZ are fine, it's only the mind and soul essence that are seriously screwed up.


Good Answer:
I bet the invoked memory simulator's interactions with the brain (reminding the CZ of who they are/were, in response to the brain's signals screaming that it's impossible) would be a trip for the technomancer. The fight between the mostly dead body, the living mind, and the computer telling them they're a perfectly normal person who isn't a terrible abomination made of a spirit forcibly trapped in their body by magic and science after more-or-less dying is pretty interesting cognitive dissonance to me. The mage would know that the aura is Wrong, the technomancer gets to see the edges of why.

That's before getting into the possibility that the memories are faked by the corporation in order to control the CZ.

But unless the zombie is livestreaming those torments via simsense, how would a TM "receive" it? Cybermancy generates a nasty vibe which even mundanes can feel, but apart from that I really don't see anything a techno would sense (apart from the boatload of cyber, but that tends to be obvious to everyone )

Because it's an entertaining result and the rules don't specify, I'd rule the Invoked Memory Stimulator works by receiving/monitoring the brain or at least parts of the brain. When it gets arguments that it is programmed to see as incorrect (for example: this body is dead/dying), it corrects those thoughts. To an outside viewer, this would appear as either an argument between the brain or the kid playing "telephone" that changed the message to something completely different.

Although to actually "see" that, the TM would have to be viewing signals in and out of the Invoked Memory Stimulator. Decking is more-or-less their version of assensing. A mundane decker would see the same thing if they looked the same place, except would probably have a different POV of the system as a whole.