[Cranstonvm]

Is it possible, in SR, to record memories? It is possible to record emotions, that is what Simsense is right? With the right cybereyes and ears you can record sight and sounds, but can you record memories, transfer to a external device for recall later or transfer them to someone else?

If that is possible would it not be possible to hack those memories and change them? If you could do that couldn't you hack someone and make them your slave?

[Crimsondude]

Technomancers could isolate and upload their own memories to digital backups according to Puck. (Runner Havens, 58)

[Mirikon]

Technomancers can mimic the functionality of a Simrig, which allows them to record and store thoughts, emotions, and possibly memories to someplace. However, while that file can be hacked, the actual person's memories can't be hacked. We aren't to full on Ghost in the Shell levels yet. A better bet would be to zap them with psychotropic IC so that they believe what you want them to believe.

[Reaver]

Is it possible, in SR, to record memories? It is possible to record emotions, that is what Simsense is right? With the right cybereyes and ears you can record sight and sounds, but can you record memories, transfer to a external device for recall later or transfer them to someone else?

If that is possible would it not be possible to hack those memories and change them? If you could do that couldn't you hack someone and make them your slave?

Memories are complex things that we really don't understand today.... They are formed from all sorts of physical stimuli and personal persepective, moral centering, past experiences, and a host of other things. While you could use a heavily cybered individual and record all his sights/sounds/feelings... the end result for someone else viewing those recording would not necessarily have the same 'memory' of the evernts as the original person. Sure they would know what happened, can maybe give a detailed report on the events, but close examination would show small variances in details. This is because of different 'background' emotive stimuli.

IE: the original person might not bat an eye at bloodshed and gore, yet remembers seeing a pretty girl fleeing the scene, or his hatred of orks gives him a certian level of 'comfort/pleasure' as he watches an ork bleed out.
Then the viewer watches the events, and remembers the event, he is conflicted, he has no hatred of orks, but 'remembers' the pleasure of the ork dying. He has no explossure to violence so in his perpective, his memory focuses on the death and gore, and conflicts with his passive emotions to the events. and since he is not interested in women, this more a couriosity why he remembers her at all.
 
Technomancers seem to have the ability to download their memories like James says, but it is kinda unclear what anyone else would get out of them, or if they could even be viewed by someone else. Makes for interesting fiction that shoudl be explored (HINT HINT writers! )

Another sick use of 'memory manipulation" are Bunraku parlours that install heavy cyberware into their workers that override their ture personalities and "impose' those of famous celebrities onto them. It is memtioned that they rarely remember their actions while serving as meat puppets and they have a high instance of mental burnout and  psycosis.

As to actually "hacking' the wetware (living) part of someone's brain and controlling them through technological means, there is no data about it happening in SR that I am aware of. there has been no cases of, say, a TM hacking into someone's head in a matter of minutes and then controlling them like a drone. (this was one of the fears used to fuel the flames of hatred against TMs) So I would have to say "nope". There seems to be no way to hack a brain and conrtol someone, only subvert them.

IE: brainwashing through "mundane" means (VR overloading, chemical useage, and lots of other nasty tie-you-to-a-chair-and-submit-you-to-300-hours-of-barney-the-dinosaur-videos freaky things.)

[Crimsondude]

Technomancers seem to have the ability to download their memories like James says, but it is kinda unclear what anyone else would get out of them, or if they could even be viewed by someone else. Makes for interesting fiction that shoudl be explored (HINT HINT writers! )

The whole reason it was mentioned was the impetus behind the Bureau of Heaven and Earth section in RH's Hong Kong chapter. Puck found someone's stored memories, and what he and FastJack were able to recover and decrypt (or decrypt and recover. Whatever.) is what led to the discussion about weird technomancer activity, Buddhist monks, and The Captain.

Then Jay "retired" from Shadowrun and it fell to the wayside.

[Reaver]

Technomancers seem to have the ability to download their memories like James says, but it is kinda unclear what anyone else would get out of them, or if they could even be viewed by someone else. Makes for interesting fiction that shoudl be explored (HINT HINT writers! )

The whole reason it was mentioned was the impetus behind the Bureau of Heaven and Earth section in RH's Hong Kong chapter. Puck found someone's stored memories, and what he and FastJack were able to recover and decrypt (or decrypt and recover. Whatever.) is what led to the discussion about weird technomancer activity, Buddhist monks, and The Captain.

Then Jay "retired" from Shadowrun and it fell to the wayside.

I kinda remember that! have to go back and read that again. Thanks.

[TheNarrator]

You can't hack memories, Ghost in the Shell style (datajacks and internal commlinks are still far short of a full on cyberbrain where your memory is digital instead of an electrified meat lattice of neurons), but there is an Alter Memory spell that can achieve roughly the same effect.

[Reaver]

You can't hack memories, Ghost in the Shell style (datajacks and internal commlinks are still far short of a full on cyberbrain where your memory is digital instead of an electrified meat lattice of neurons), but there is an Alter Memory spell that can achieve roughly the same effect.

Very true, but it doesn't turn them into a slave, just alters there memories. The spell 'control thoughts' does however, give the caster virtually total control of the Target for while the spell in maintained. (and people were scared of TMs???)

[Cranstonvm]

You can't hack memories, Ghost in the Shell style (datajacks and internal commlinks are still far short of a full on cyberbrain where your memory is digital instead of an electrified meat lattice of neurons), but there is an Alter Memory spell that can achieve roughly the same effect.

Very true, but it doesn't turn them into a slave, just alters there memories. The spell 'control thoughts' does however, give the caster virtually total control of the Target for while the spell in maintained. (and people were scared of TMs???)

People are scared of things they don't know. The spells can be disrupted, no one knew how TMs do what they do. I also imagine their are laws against the magical manipulation. With TMs probably nothing on the law books about that type of control.

Erasing and tampering with someone's, IMO, is one of those primal fears people have and to be able to do it from a computer would be really scarey because almost everybody uses computers in SR.

[AJCarrington]

You might want to check out Eclipse Phase for ideas as to how this could be handled using RPG mechanics.

AJC

[Tsuzua]

Memories per se aren't normally transferable.  With a simrig, you can record pretty much everything a person perceives and feels which is arguable pretty similar.  However if someone wasn't wearing a simrig at the time, there isn't that much you can do about it.  Skillsofts are someone's skill/knowledge/language skills stored on a chip.  The oft-overlooked Flashback System stores and can upload a neural map so you can recall things even after brain injury.  However it explicitly says that neural maps aren't transferable between people.

On a related note, people have been uploaded to the matrix at least since the 2050's in the adventure Imago (please correct me if I got the adventure name wrong).  It's suppose to be a one time never repeatable thing there.  There's also all the e-ghosts roaming around the matrix in the 2070s and the JackBNimble program.  It's never been an especially effective process from what I understand.

As for brainwashing, there are Programmable ASIST Biofeedback (PAB) units from Unwired.  They allow you to alter memories and add/remove negative qualities*.  The process does take weeks though.

*- You still have to pay karma to really remove the negative quality.     

[ChromeZephyr]

Man, for a second I thought this might be talking about adding cortical stacks to Shadowrun.  I was both entertained and horrified, at the same time.

[Mirikon]

That's not unlike the level of cyborgization you see in Ghost in the Shell. While Cyborgs do exist in Shadowrun, the tech isn't anywhere near that level, however.

Not yet, anyway.




Hmm, Section 9, but toss in a couple Mages or Adepts...

[Cranstonvm]

That's not unlike the level of cyborgization you see in Ghost in the Shell. While Cyborgs do exist in Shadowrun, the tech isn't anywhere near that level, however.

Not yet, anyway.




Hmm, Section 9, but toss in a couple Mages or Adepts...

The cyberbrain would be very useful to a magic thrower, if it doesn't cost too much.