VermillionStar

I can hit the main campus with a rock from the end of my street.

I'd certainly be interested in hooking up.  Are they veteran players?  They play CP2020 of course...

My jacket size is a 48R...   LOL

You can be sure that there will be people that use technology as a weapon, but as for that being that... I don't think we'll extinct ourselves.  That's not to say some truly horrible things won't happen either though.

I don't see the same number of people surviving after the fact, as existed before it but there are many things that I feel we are beginning to outgrow.  The greatest limitation of our minds, is our bodies.  Once we can get over that hurdle (in a manner of speaking) then the sky is no longer the limit - there is no more limit.

...hmmm, that's a little deeper then I wanted it to sound, but there it is.  I think you see what I'm saying.

From their website:

You can look at their website yourself for further information.  There are some very informative slide shows in the "About Us" section that you should look at.

I wonder when they will make CHOOH2 ?

That's right RockWolf!  And anyone else who doesn't like it, well I've got a nice bag of pointy ears for you next to my kid sister's tea set.

Tell it sister!

LOL, you can say that again.  Everything would change... EVERYTHING.  Unimaginable to me; yet I desire it.  

I want a sentient vacuum cleaner.

This is completely valid and I don't blame them one bit.  While, after the fact, it may be seen that these people were "unintentionally" involved and not meant to be part of this terrorist action (someone mentioned about not wanting to piss off the international community) I have a couple observations concerning their release from the point of view of the Russian authorities.

The first is that if the Russians negotiated to let all the non-Russian hostages be released, the people left inside would feel abandoned (naturally) by their leaders and it would be viewed as the Russian hostages not being as important as the others who were released.  Regardless of this being the case or not, it is how it would be viewed.

Secondly, the terrorists would know from the start that it would be counter-productive to kill foreigners and they would stamp out the sympathy they were trying to generate in the first place; the Russians knew that as well.  That being said, I think the Russians were helping to protect the lives of their own people by declining the offer to let the other hostages go.  How?  Because, if there are no international hostages in the picture then the terrorists will have much less compunction about carrying out their threats.  Any other country worth its salt would do the same to protect its citizens.

Hound, as in The BlackHammer Cyberpunk Project Hound?

Paging Dr. Hound...

Granted not all, but these people weren't going after squaddies like the IRA usually do (at least from what I hear of them they (used to) do).  They kidnapped regular people and started executing them.  You would have to assume then went into the whole thing knowing that there was a more then fair chance that they wouldn't live through it.

It wasn't a smash and run job; it wasn't a car bomb - there's no reason to think they wouldn't have gone through with it.

I created a monkey variant with Pascal, but that was a collaborative effort back in high school.  The best I could manage now would be an ATM program or a couple of tight scripts to automate network tasks.

Anyways, I see what you mean by "calling" program functions now.  It's like being able to backdoor a system.  I'm anxious to see how it's written in your concept document.  

Maybe I'm strange, but I've never (and nor have my players expressed the need) felt the urge to play a child in CP2020.  I mean, we've played "low-level" punks between 17 - 20 who had absolutely nothing but their trailer and a handful of kibble but it doesn't strike me as being any fun to play a child.

What's the appeal?

Well, if we use Joe Q. Public's definition of:

then I think that makes us Posers - after all, one of the pasttimes we find most enjoyable is pretending to be someone else...  ack depressing when put in that light.

I always wanted to be a booster but I have this distinct lack of anything cybernetic so...  

Or, what seems the more likely situation to me, they were speaking with him even after they had given up hope of any sort of "peaceful" solution and kept him on the phone to help increase their element of surprise.

Terrorists will blow themselves up to further their cause - proven fact.  To speculate that these ones would be different; well I don't see the point of that.

The Russians had every reason to believe that a) the hostages would be killed a couple at a time till all demands were met, and if they tried to go in there with anything other then complete surprise the terrorists would blow the place (or the hostages) up.

Negotiations with real terrorists is generally useless.  They are not gonna hold 700 people hostage and then compromise on their demands.  Some people can be reached on the basic, humane level and that is what negotiators try to do.  But these people were motivated and very switched on.  Once a terrorist shows that they won't compromise and that they are willing to kill innocent people to get what they want then you have two options - give them what they want or "neutralize" the threat.

IMHO of course...

LOL, I guess my city is old-fashioned.  

While we have our share of complete weirdos, all that normally happens here is people kicking the crap outa each other.  We are only about the 15th largest city in the country by we have the highest assault rate in the country!  Ahh, I love being in 1st place...

I feel it could happen, but it won't be like we expect.  Kinda like how around the beginning of the last century they expected us all to be tooling around in flying cars, living in cities in the clouds by 1985 or so.

Things like Moore's Law while not scientific fact, still hold true.  Many of these emerging technologies were talked about during the latter half of the 90s.  People forgot about them for a while I think because not many people pay attention to the 3 - 5 year window that it takes from concept to development.

The thing that I'm excited about most is nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing - unreal that stuff is.

The that that I'm most afraid of is AI.  Not that I think we'll create a computer the screws us ala The Terminator, but on a more emotional level.  Scientists take regular things and create new kinds of bacteria and microbes and the whole bit but when we create something that we can interact with on a level that is the same (or more likely, superior) as us ...I dunno.  Just freaks me out.

I believe that within the span of my regular lifetime (I'm 26) that humanity will cross a threshold.  What is that threshold you ask?

The Singularity

I'm very curious to know how many of you would think that the solution to this ordeal could be considered

"acceptable losses, considering the tactical situation".

I mean seriously, I myself think they took the option that would save the most lives.  Some HAD to die, so the rest could be saved.

Now, would it have been better if they could have used a gas that would have incapacitated as quickly and been non-lethal - for sure?  Does such a thing exist - I dunno, it's been 8 years since I did my NCBW training, I suppose something like that may exist though.

Well, I'm not sure how that could be worked.  I think this would become too involved, and I don't know that it makes sense that people would code things (like a protection program) that could be 'hijacked' by an intruder.

Where this would make more sense to me is if you get past the regular programs and protections, you could gain 'root' access then have the duel of the century with the sysop or AI - if it was an AI you would lose.   Would that work?

Take a look at this link.  Things like this are beginning to creep up all over the place.  For instance:

take a look at this one

and also this one

and lastly, this link

Welcome to a bold new world.

The Police

Madness

The Clash

The 80's didn't get any better then these groups.

Is there anyone even close by that reads this board?

Erm, well they did catch him, and they did reveal how he was able to conceal himself so I suppose it's all academic now.

I'm actually not really that surprised by this.  I'd be surprised if there were copycats already.  From my post above, I feel that this wasn't accomplished by luck alone; they thought this one through.

This is a very public thing right now and the overall public thought has always been "if I get ahold of this guy, I'll tear off his arms and rape him with them" ... or something.  Even mentally disturbed people are careful planners that's why serial killers can go on for some time while copycats get nabbed while sleeping in the getaway car the day after.

I'm getting the idea, from watching media and speaking to others, that vigilantism is on people's mind, more and more as issues escalate.  People aren't as afraid as they used to be and I think it's getting more difficult to be a criminal (and bravo to that!).

Edit:  Typos