A rigger is someone with a VCR, right? I mean, that's it. A decker is someone with a deck.

It's the name and the concept that matters. In many ways, a rigger is defined by what they do, not how they do it. And this is what I am frightened of losing.

I posted this in a different thread, but it seems appropriate here too, in relation to the difference between riggers and deckers and the change to making them all "hackers"

Jon Szeto had some pretty specific ideas in mind for the in-game science justifications for how the VCR works when he wrote the Rigger rules that have been with us in some form or another since Rigger 2. For whatever reason (space considerations, most likely) his descriptions behind the science of the 'Rig never got published into the sourcebooks, so he put them out in a TSS article called "The Man-Machine Interface".

In that article he explained how the purpose of the 'rig was to not just serve as an advanced form of Direct Neural Interface Control, converting muscle impulses the brain thinks it's sending to the body into control signals that drive the vehicle. The secondary function was to 'hijack' the portion of the brain that normally regulates the body's autonomic functions, turning it into a Process Control Biocomputer that regulates every last controllable variable of the vehicle's power train, controlling such things as fuel/air mixture, valve timings, gear ratios, suspension tuning and so on, with a biological level of regulation and precision The fact that the 'rig could tap the processing power of the brain to be able to squeeze every last drop of performance possible out of the vehicle was supposed to be the justification as why rigging was so much better than just a flat DNI control.

However, what I suspect has happened, is that by 2070, they've reached the point where the computers are finally powerful enough that you don't need to hijack someone's hindbrain for processing power, that the computers themselves can now process to a level that they can emulate all the effects a 'rig & living brain combo could produce. At that point, you really just need a full-immersion direct neural interface, which opens the door for the whole Rigger/Decker fusion thing.

Wouldn't that mean that in short, anyone who has whatever passes for a datajack in 2070, could do things previously only the Rigger was capable of? Perhaps, but supposedly, from what hints the playtesters have been able to toss out from behind their NDAs, your Vehicle-Specialist Hackers and your Drone-specialist Hackers are still the best at it. This suggests to me that there's a separate skillset involved, or some specialized hardware. One possibility in the specialized hardware department is that since they're supposedly dropping cyberdecks and control 'rigs, they'll incorporate some sort of initiative/reaction enhancement into the datajack itself (or what passes for a datajack in 2070).

Only problem with that concept of hindbrain hijacking is that someoen jacked into a car for extended perods, say, more than 40 seconds or so, would probably die. No more breathing as the part of the brain that controlled that is not regulating oxygen levels in your fuel air mixture. your heart would stop beating properly as that portion is now adjusting the timing sequuence in the spark-plugs

I still have in my head...

Rigger=Mechanic/Driver
Decker=Coder/Hacker

I have yet to see a programmer fix a car or a mechanic hack into network. As to cars of the future being just a computer on wheels when was the last time you had to mig-weld a printer.

You'd be suprised how much overlap there is in working on computers and machines, in mental attitude at least. I am a network monkey and my dad works on cars and manufacturing machinery (millwright.) The troubleshooting techniques and process are very similiar. Still, not the same actual skills.

Even if the technology changed where Cyberdecks were no longer required (which it obviously has), there is no reason that the cyberculture that we all love would stop calling us "Deckers." Even if they change it in the new books, it doesn't mean that the campaigns played will need to play that fact any heed. If all of this was real, then the fading of the actual Cyberdecks would not necessarily mean the dissapearance of the name Decker, especially to the name Hacker.

Some old coot around 2105 might tell some young codeslinger the story of how Decker's got their names from back when they used to have to use strange keyboards (or a tricked-out fiddle like I use) to work their magic in the Matrix.

I say "Obviously" because of Fanpro's Website Q&A. I hope the playtesters help to change this.

Q. Are deckers called hackers in SR4?
A. Yes. We’re eliminating the clunky old cyberdeck in SR4, and with no ‘deck, it doesn’t make much sense to call them deckers. So we’re back to calling them hackers, since that’s what they do. (And, yes, we are aware that some hackers out there don’t like having the term associated with illegal activities — and SR hackers will primarily be criminals, like other runners. Realistically, however, “hacking” is the term used for exploring, learning, and exploiting, whether it’s legal or not, so it fits.)

Where have any of the playtesters mentioned actual 'cyberdecks'? They've mentioned the existance of the word decker in the material they have access to, but the official blurb did specifically state that 'cyberdecks' are no more, and I have seen nothing that contradicts this. Computers or some other type of nterface almost definitely exist, but that is not necessarily a 'cyberdeck'.

but it's not like Jan 1 2070 all old gear will vanish and in it's place will be the shiny new whatever-ness that SR4 SOTA is. I figure that people will continue to use VCR's and decks for quite a while due to the cost, training etc.
And involuntary muscle functions such as breathing and heartbeat are controlled in the brain stem, not in any of the conscious parts of the brain. so using conscious thought for rigging/ decking would not be that hard as I understand.

I've mentioned more than once that the words "decker," "rigger," and "cyberdeck" continue to appear throughout the manuscript drafts I've seen. The key words in the blurbs and the FAQ, to me, are "clunky" and "old," not "cyberdeck." Haven't seen the draft of the gear list yet, though; that's still very much under construction.

I also don't totally agree with the change in terminology from "decker" and "rigger" to "hacker," especially in light of the continued use of the terms to denote different types of hackers, but it's not the religious issue with me that it is for many people here. I can live with it quite easily.

....Amen?

i don't think i can envision a way to get rid of cyberdecks completely--there's got to be some piece of gear that seperates the men from the turtles. but i don't necessarily think that the gear deckers use to hack systems will come in something that looks like a cyberdeck. with pure DNI and the miniaturization that's possible, i don't see why your deck should be larger than a palm pilot, even in SR3.

Hacker, Decker or Rigger its gonna be close enough to the "old" times that a lot of people will sill use the older definitions for them anyways methinks.

Hell, there are still times that I catch myself calling a military-grade armored low-altitude vector thrust vehicle a "panzer" even though they've officially been "thunderbirds" since the middle of first edition.

That or they keep some of the old stuff in storage, and dust it off when a target is specifically out-moded