McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Technomancy

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Lord Rae:
Instantly made me think of the movie Sky High from a few years ago. Fun little movie even if it was aimed at kids. Its about a superhero high school and one character is a Technopath... which isn't exactly the same but your post made me think of it. About the only example I can think of from a movie or tv show unless you want to count Myka (sp?) from the TV Show Heroes.

OZ:
Kate Griffin's Resurrection of Matthew Swift, Matthew would seem to use technomancy in some instances although it is not his only magic. It would be difficult for me to describe the magic in these books except to say that it is urban magic rather than rural.

DragonEyes:
In one story that I had done in the past, there was a class of magic user related to divination, who acted as a sort of information mage. In ancient days, they had the ability to instantly recall information presented to them, to feel for what kind of knowledge was in different books by touch, and for the most powerful, could erase or eliminate written knowledge in a book. Small abilities like that. All around one of the weakest magic users.

Come the 20th century and the information revolution meant that these information mages has become the most powerful, not because they could dive into the Internet like Tron or a character out of William Gibson, but because they could quickly decipher encryption without password hacks, knew where to find hidden information on the internet, and could cause widespread disruptions of information networks at will. They were the bad guys. Real technomancy probably woulnd't be flashy.

Lanodantheon:
Been going over the responses (which I really appreciate, thanks  ;D ) and doing some more brainstorming and I almost have nailed down what I think I'm going to try out.


[size=78%]BTW: [/size]The other phrase used in that old thread I found was, "Full-bore Technomancy"[size=78%] [/size]...whatever that means. I had read about that Ravirn series on Amazon that involves an Internet made by the Gods...but that's not quite what I was thinking of.


I've thought about some cool things I'd like to see, too.


The only things I have left to consider are 1) how Old School Magic and New School Technomancy interact and 2) what flavor(s) of Technomancy I'd like to play with besides the ones I've already decided on.


I don't think I'm going to consider going Full-Blown Tron, though I love the idea of using Magic to justify the classic incorrect perspective of what Hacking will look like in the future and bad movies written by screenwriters who don't know anything about how a computer actually works.

Haru:

--- Quote from: Lanodantheon on March 30, 2012, 10:19:57 PM ---I don't think I'm going to consider going Full-Blown Tron, though I love the idea of using Magic to justify the classic incorrect perspective of what Hacking will look like in the future and bad movies written by screenwriters who don't know anything about how a computer actually works.

--- End quote ---
Actually, that's what Shadowrun 4th has done a pretty good job at (despite the fact, that most of the rest is awful). Everything is connected wireless and most people use glasses or contact lenses to view interactive objects that are placed in an augmented reality. I've read a book a while ago, that called something like this a "shamanistic interface", because it is more like using magic, than actually using a computer.

If for example you wanted the feed from a camera you are passing, you could wave your hand at it (which is in an augmented reality glove or otherwise wired) to get it, if you have access. If not, you can hack your way into it to get it. Everything that is connected to this matrix has an icon, a representation in the augmented reality. A camera could simply be an image of a camera, or it can be a floating eye or something like that, depending on the programmer. Firewalls are giant locked doors or actual walls of fire, stuff like that. On the whole, using the matrix does by no means require you to know anything about how it works, you use it as a second reality rather than the internet today. A Technomancer simply doesn't need the interface that regular humans do, they can innately interact with the matrix.

So yes, it is pretty much like it is in any of the movies you describe, but here it actually works. 'Reality' mimicking fiction, so to speak.

Of course all of that highly depends on the techlevel you are playing at. If you have magic in your world, would computers actually have been invented? Maybe they are a mixture of magic and technology (magitech), so technomancers would only be a different type of the regular magic.


--- Quote from: Lanodantheon on March 30, 2012, 10:19:57 PM ---[size=78%]BTW: [/size]The other phrase used in that old thread I found was, "Full-bore Technomancy"[size=78%] [/size]...whatever that means.

--- End quote ---
If I had to guess, I'd say it is technomancy that gets too much into details and not enough into action. Imagine looking over a hackers shoulder while he is working his way through a firewall. You see some lines of code every now and then, if he is not simply running a program that does nothing visual, until it is finished. It is going to become boring really fast. Again, that's one of the great strength of the system above, you can actively hack into things while on the run. Put a "blackout spell" on a camera and cool stuff like that.

There's a shadowrun source book that deals exclusively with the matrix, if you are interested.

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