From news.cc.ukans.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newspeer.monmouth.com!solomon.io.com!hiram.io.com!not-for-mail Fri Oct 22 23:26:34 1999 Path: news.cc.ukans.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newspeer.monmouth.com!solomon.io.com!hiram.io.com!not-for-mail From: zedd@fnord.io.com (Austin Loomis ) Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf Subject: Re: Vote Iteration X in 2000! Date: 22 Oct 1999 23:06:05 GMT Organization: Illuminati Online Lines: 63 Message-ID: <7uqqkt$vrm$1@hiram.io.com> References: <7um04e$l8h$1@news.cc.ukans.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: eris.io.com X-Trace: hiram.io.com 940633565 32630 199.170.88.11 (22 Oct 1999 23:06:05 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@io.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 22 Oct 1999 23:06:05 GMT X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test70 (17 January 1999) Xref: news.cc.ukans.edu alt.games.whitewolf:152231 From: 0110000000 (V. Grissom) To: 0000001101 (J. Watt) Re: Warwick chat The transcript of your conversation with Dr. Stephen Warwick happened to cross my desk on its way to Central, and I thought I'd offer a few comments on things I noticed. Even though I gather Warwick talked to the RDs first, I think we can combat the influence of their propaganda. Please pass these addenda along to him. 1) You didn't mention that we are, in fact, the oldest paradigm for "reality-alteration" still active on the planet. I can't really say I blame you, though. Given how far we've come since the first Artificers and their crude experiments with stone tools, back when most of (what passed for) the human race was still worrying about the ramifications of opposable thumbs, it's hard for the Masses to see the connections between the two types of Procedure. 2) Did you catch yourself, or did your DEI have to shut you up about the Bangladesh thing? Either way, while I'm given to understand that he's making these files chiefly for his own use, it's probably best that you didn't talk about that. If the world makes it through the Crisis, then once we win this war, we can declassify those files along with the rest, but right now, if the Masses found out how close they came to being some RD's morning cup of coffee, we'd have panic in the steets. 3) He didn't ask how we'd cure his lung cancer. Probably afraid we'd make him take the Next Step and upgrade to a cyborg body. But you and I know that's "bogus", as kids these days say. Remember, when the rep made the sales pitch to me in the hospital, I had to agree to the surgery before they'd even authorize it. And we'd only do that if his life was at stake, like mine was after the crash. For lesser cases, I've designed some nanites that could rebuild his lungs from the cellular level up, but they're still in the experimental stage, and they occasionally have side effects outside a controlled environment, so I'd rather pass him on to Johnny Dippel. (Maybe we can get Johann positioned to speak for his Convention? We'd better hurry -- I understand the Progenitors are the next up on Warwick's calendar.) 4) This probably should have come up first, since it was the first thing you had to get out of the way in your own defense, but when, exactly, did cyborgs become figures of fear in the media? I know I shouldn't take pride in Caidin's book *or* the TV show, but it still gives me a warm glow in what's left of my heart to think of a time when a man with both legs, an arm and an eye cyborged could be the good guy; if Hollywood did a "hip" 90s version of my fictive alter ego, they'd turn him into something like the Terminator or a Borg (or maybe a "boomer," which I thought was a nuke boat). I suspect the blame lies with the Virtual Adepts; the whole "cyberpunk" literary movement, which they backed as a way of luring people into their Digital Web, convinced the Masses that anyone who accepts advanced prosthetics has to give up a portion of his "soul" in the process. And too many of our younger Kamrads are falling into that trap, thinking they're now "above" human traits like common courtesy. With friends like them, who needs RDs? -- 10110111000110110000000 [OOC: Before anyone intervenes, I know what a buuma actually is, but Virgil doesn't. The conceit of his survival as a HIT Mark was inspired by a Cult of the Dead Cow piece. Johann Dippel von Frankenstein is real; his pioneering biological experiments helped inspire Dr. Waldman of the Electrodyne Engineers, though Mary Shelley exchanged the names of mentor and student.]