[hobgoblin]

My feeling of that was some sort of Cthulhu-esque entity that lives in the EM band.

Sounds like a good description of the dissonance side of things to me.

The way i see it, they are a continuation of Otaku. Basically, as ASIST got more and more realistic their minds where able to recognize the signal as neural without translation (tho the flipflop between SR2 otaku just needing a jack, and SR3 requiring a small ASIST translator is not exactly helping). Then as the wireless matrix kicked into gear, some of the more sensitive people started picking up the radiated energy on a subconscious level. This then resulted in some learning to read the signal, and over time even respond to it (the most basic RFIDs basically feed on the radiated energy to compute a response).

[Valashar]

Ok, I follow you on the wired/wireless distinction inside the SCIRE, Crimson.

Regarding Mirage, one thing else that could've given it an advantage in creating its otaku would be its experiences with the Echo Mirage team. Its core program was beneficial psychological and physiological feedback to support the team and it would've had its own extensive log files of the the time the team was active, which was a long time. Its core program, more or less benevolent nature, and of course access to the full resources of the matrix... together I think the reasoning's as good as any for its success *shrug*.

[Sengir]

Just a tidbit on the Deus connection, System Failure p.16:
On a different track, Transys-Neuronet has successfully captured at least one Node (of the Network) and, though they have not been able to get much of value from the Node’s code fragment, they have shown strong interest in the technology implanted in the Nodes.

And later on TN became part of NeoNET, who were instrumental in creating the new matrix [X-Files theme here]

[Ethan]

My feeling of that was some sort of Cthulhu-esque entity that lives in the EM band.

Sounds like a good description of the dissonance side of things to me.

Actually, I was picturing something a bit more alien. Aware of metahuman life of course, and the greater world, but fully of its own. A great, deep, being formed by the Earth's magnetosphere perhaps and the gestalt electrical sparks of living brains.

If I were to name it, I'd call it "The Sonant". Resonance and Dissonance are just the ebb and flow of its electro-magnetic tides. The yin and yang. It cares not. But it yearns.

[hobgoblin]

My feeling of that was some sort of Cthulhu-esque entity that lives in the EM band.

Sounds like a good description of the dissonance side of things to me.

Actually, I was picturing something a bit more alien. Aware of metahuman life of course, and the greater world, but fully of its own. A great, deep, being formed by the Earth's magnetosphere perhaps and the gestalt electrical sparks of living brains.

If I were to name it, I'd call it "The Sonant". Resonance and Dissonance are just the ebb and flow of its electro-magnetic tides. The yin and yang. It cares not. But it yearns.

Sounds like the Science victory of Alpha Centauri.

[Valashar]

Just a tidbit on the Deus connection, System Failure p.16:
On a different track, Transys-Neuronet has successfully captured at least one Node (of the Network) and, though they have not been able to get much of value from the Node’s code fragment, they have shown strong interest in the technology implanted in the Nodes.

And later on TN became part of NeoNET, who were instrumental in creating the new matrix [X-Files theme here]

Well, just how did you think control rig implants have become so much less intrusive? A good one used to be 2-3 essence IIRC and now it's fractional. Could've had a lot to do with various R&D folks reverse engineering arcology implants.

[Sengir]

Well, just how did you think control rig implants have become so much less intrusive? A good one used to be 2-3 essence IIRC and now it's fractional.

It also does a lot less than before

[theKernel]

I've been working on a theory, and am integrating it into an adventure I'm creating. In essence, it makes no sense for Technomancers to have recently evolved - technology moves too quickly for evolution to keep up (in just two generations of humans the Matrix has been reinvented - twice!). So the only sensible thing is that technology is moving the other way.

In other words, the otaku and the technomancers haven't Emerged to deal with the Matrix, the Matrix has been changing and (possibly intentionally, possibly as a side effect) is becoming easier for humans to access. The otaku started appearing sometime after the first Crash (and rebuild of the Matrix), and when they rebuilt the Matrix again, what do you know? Technomancers.

My hypothesis (and the heart of my adventure) is this: That technomancers have existed all along, and that some entities, likely NeoNET's precursors, have been experimenting on them since long before we knew they existed. The research led them to discover a new way to build Wifi devices, but there wasn't much of a market for an already Matrix-saturated world. What's a megacorp to do?

Via Shadowrunners, engineer the Crash 2.0, that's what. I'm not saying that Deus and all of them weren't involved, but they were pawns of Transys and/or Erika. So the new wifi technology, developed from the minds of technomancers-to-be, spread like wildfire as the megacorp rebuilt the Matrix. And so now technomancers, who had previously had little to no powers, were suddenly able to access all of this technology. The Crash didn't change them, the Crash changed the Matrix, and now they could see it.

Well, the Crash DID change some of them, of course. AIPS was a real thing. But I don't think it gave them the Resonance; it just made them more susceptible to it or more likely to notice it.

----
So, the reason I'm posting this on the forums is this: is there hard evidence in any of the sourcebooks to counter this theory? I've read the core book, Unwired (specifically its section on technomancers), and most of the Emergence adventure, and it all seems consistent with this theory to me so far. And what a story uncovering this conspiracy could turn out to be!

(Edit: oops, put the wrong company for the pre-NeoNET conspiring)

I'm not gunna lie this gave me chills. I think that is exactly how it happened. Plus one to you.

[StarManta]

I seem to remember reading in Emergence (I think) where one Jackpointer was hypothesizing that TMs were the first "mind readers" since they don't even need the Matrix to speak with each other.

I was reading further into Emergence today and stumbled across this

And still no word on where technomancers come from. What could have inflicted these changes on people?
-Glasswalker

I don’t know if it’s a matter of being “changed.” Sure, a lot of ’mancers link their abilities back to the Crash, but there are oth- ers who weren’t caught online during the Crash at all—they sim- ply woke up one day and discovered they were technomancers. In some cases, it seems like they were always technomancers, they were just waiting for technology to catch up to the point where they could use those abilities.
-Netcat

I don’t buy that. It’s not like we could have just missed techno- mancers being around all this time.
-Glasswalker

Who says we did? There are technomancers who can duplicate the feats of pre-Awakening psychics and savants. If you get two technomancers within range of each other, they can talk to each other with their minds. It’s like telepathy. Maybe we just didn’t know how to explain it before.
-Ethernaut

(Dunno if it's kosher to post quotes from the sourcebooks on the forums, or if so, how much is ok. Will not be offended or annoyed in the least if a mod wants to remove the above. Either way, it's on the left side of p.113 of Emergence if anyone would like to look it up.)

So it appears that Netcat had the same idea. Sans the Crash-2.0-conspiracy-theory, at least.

[Crimsondude]

It gets even crazier in Augmentation of all books. (Well, no. Arsenal would be the most awkward.)

And the quote's fine. I figure common sense would dictate when a quote seems excessive.

[Red Canti]

I blame the bugs.

[CanRay]

I blame the bugs.

The Insect Spirits or the faults in AI Code?

[bigity]

Wait, don't you know they are one and the same?

[Lacynth40]

Faults in AI... What are you talking about? Those aren't bugs... Those are features.

[CanRay]

Wait wait wait...

MICRODECK built AIs?