Technomancy (??)

[Muu]

So I put question marks in the title because I have no idea what technomancy is and I would like a summary. I'm guessing it has something to do with technology oriented magic. Does anyone know how to developed and how it works?

[Rin]

It's not really a real thing. People sometimes use it to refer to the concept of combining technology and magic, but that's not really an established form or branch of magic. If you're interesting in looking at how magic and technology interact, you'd be better off going to the work being done in the parapsychology community, they use a lot of machines and computers to measure and interact with psi phenomenon.

[Marshal Law]

Well it depends on how you view technology, for me parapsychology community technology is looking like from middle ages. Everyone can take a device and look at the screen.

Technology itself is a creation of science, so for considering the fact that magick is science and the tools used are technology, could we assume that it could be expressed as technomancy?(for eg witches engine) But it also reminds me more steampunk style, if it is not a real thing it must be popularized by steam punk fashion thingy.

[Ramscha]

Well, I just know this concept from the role play game "shadowrun". But sometimes RPGs have a little core of truth, so I will quote:

Technomancers are metahumans who have expressed the ability to affect computers directly, without terminals or intermediate devices of their own, as an act of will. There are many parallels between a Technomancer's ability and magical ability expressed by the Awakened; much as Awakened mages summon spirits and cast spells, Technomancers compile Sprites and execute Complex Forms. Despite these similarities, a Technomancer's ability is not compatible with other forms of Awakening, if it is indeed it is related to magic in any way (a current unknown)

echnomancers first appeared shortly after the Second Matrix Crash of 2064; most seem to be reborn Otaku or people who were 'trapped' in the VR Matrix during the Crash, though some seem to have no connection to either of these groups. They were unknown to the general public for many years, until a series of events forced them into the public eye.

AIPS

This mysterious ailment manifested after the Second Crash; sufferers reported schizophrenia-like symptoms caused, apparently, by the presence of wifi Matrix broadcasts. Many were institutionalized due to the severity of the symptoms; several corporations quietly took a special interest in this ailment, and some of the patients were moved into special corp-sponsored facilities and their datatrails altered or erased.

Rumours

Strange events throughout the 2064-2070 period caused independent investigators to search for connections; children found operating hacked machines with no apparent commlink and no history of sufficient technical aptitude, 'techno-wizards' performing magic tricks on seedy night acts, and leaks of hacked data referring to test subjects with mysterious powers. These incidents might have been ignored as unrelated or frauds except for their strange similarity, albeit at greater intensity, to the powers of the otaku, "children of the Matrix" presumed killed or stripped of their powers during the Second Crash.

The Hong Kong Incident

Then in 2070, a Hong Kong research facility operated by Mitsuhama Computer Technologies exploded during the escape of a dozen "patients," actually forced experiment victims of a secret program of MCT's. Their combined powers were sufficient to massively disrupt the local Matrix, and the media pinned the blame for the explosion on them -- exacerbated by the release of a security video showing one of the patients brutally murdering a doctor at the facility. This event painted technomancers in a harshly negative light and brought about a massive witch-hunt... at least until the activities of Sojourner and Pulsar, the first digital intelligences to "go public."

The Resonance

Technomancers receive their powers from a mysterious source known as "Resonance." Given the recent public awareness of this group and their rarity, Resonance is even less well understood than magic. It's known that cyberware and similar intrusive practices degrade Resonance much like an Awakened character's magical aptitude; some information suggests that this is because Technomancers possess a mutant nervous system that acts much like a radio receiver/transmitter, and interfering with their bodies' holistic integrity fragments the necessary pathways.

Others suggest that the resonance is a form of "Evolved magic" That is that magic itself has changed to suit the needs of the sixth world and is thus bound by similar rules.

Submersion and Resonance Realms

Deep in the Matrix lie mysterious system realms apparently unattached to any real-world hosts. Only Technomancers who undergo a process known as Submersion -- and perhaps digital intelligences, though they are even more mysterious than technomancers -- have access to them... even the existence of such "places" defies imagination, much less whatever secrets or strange data comprises them.

Source: http://shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Technomancer

[Marshal Law]

Technomancers are metahumans who have expressed the ability to affect computers directly, without terminals or intermediate devices of their own, as an act of will.

Well that is our day science? Well coming at least if not here already. Future form of science? xDDD But it does sound plausible if there actually would be a computer who could read the person from the distance. I do know there already is some devices which you control with your muscle movements and something similar to that. So that will be made wirelessly for 100% in the future, so is it future form of science?:D

[ne1]

So I put question marks in the title because I have no idea what technomancy is and I would like a summary. I'm guessing it has something to do with technology oriented magic. Does anyone know how to developed and how it works?

Technomancy is practiced in reality. We use the term to describe some of the work we do with computers and electrical systems and borrowed the name from video games since it seemed the closest fit.

Essentially it involves using Will and Imagination to affect computer and electrical devices. For computers it typically means altering computer programming to "glitch" the program in specific ways. We've done a few dozen tests on this field of magic, and the results look good so far. So it depends on what you would want to know, if anything.

[VrbsSou]

Well, myself knowing about computers I'd say this is not an easy task. Affecting a computer means to directly alter the data in memory or to alter the data sent to the CPU so the computer behaves differently, but this can lead to unexpected behavior as we do not know what the affected program will be waiting for a response. Remember everything you see in the screen is nothing more than data lying in the RAM, merely bits.

Unless I'm missing something regarding magic, though.

[ne1]

Well, myself knowing about computers I'd say this is not an easy task. Affecting a computer means to directly alter the data in memory or to alter the data sent to the CPU so the computer behaves differently, but this can lead to unexpected behavior as we do not know what the affected program will be waiting for a response. Remember everything you see in the screen is nothing more than data lying in the RAM, merely bits.

Unless I'm missing something regarding magic, though.

Neh, I don't think you are missing anything. The complexity of the computer systems and what exactly is going on when we are altering things is part of what the hold up is in the research. We can glitch things, repeat events, can see some patterns, but to be honest we don't have enough information about how the glitches are working and what exactly is being affected to analyze the results (and thus try to refine the experiments).

We are practicing using the theory of Will and Imagination. This would mean that a working knowledge of computer programming, systems, etc, would be needed in order to give the imagination the "food" to create fine tuned results. We don't know enough about computers and programs to do this (and are not sure where to begin).

The results so far, while consistent, still have the feel to me of using a hacksaw to file a nail. I know that more work needs to be done and all, but I'm not sure where to go from here yet...

[VrbsSou]

If you are not sure where to begin, there are two things you should know.

First and foremost, computer architecture. It's the discipline that allows you to know how exactly a computer executes a program, how it's composed, and which of its parts relate. Read a bit about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_architecture

Second you must know about operating systems theory. How exactly does an OS work? How does it organize the programs? How does it relate to the underlying machine? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operative_system

Knowing a bit of those two topics should be enough to have an idea about how a computer works.

[Marshal Law]

Well, actually I do get connections time to time with my PC (not nearly as often as I would like), nor I tried. Or at least what I think it is after all those years i still get the image from the side and I do remember in the older days, when I could not control my emotions and my mind.

I did notice that my ex-PCs would start working twice as slowly if someone from my friends would come over. Not all the times, but most. When actually they would leave the room, it gets at its top again... I did notice that if I would bang a keyboard or so on, everything just would be worse (in life it is same). And the main thing that i wanted to say about which could actually link in with idea of technomancy.

When I would actually ask nicely with a feeling, emotion, intention, PC would just stop lagging, or if the screen would freeze it would unfreeze instantly, now it did not happen few times, this one happened loads. And considering that it cant be coincidence each time in a row so many time all over my life, it might be somewhere close to technomancy. Feel like a pc whisperer now lol... And I did have different fun stories with PC, but I do have to run to visit someone now. I do believe in it, because I did have experience with it.

And what you guys think about "physics" who have such strong energetics that electrical things fry? like watches and so on.

[ne1]

If you are not sure where to begin, there are two things you should know.

First and foremost, computer architecture. It's the discipline that allows you to know how exactly a computer executes a program, how it's composed, and which of its parts relate. Read a bit about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_architecture

Second you must know about operating systems theory. How exactly does an OS work? How does it organize the programs? How does it relate to the underlying machine? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operative_system

Knowing a bit of those two topics should be enough to have an idea about how a computer works.

Thank you for the help. Unfortunately, even wiki is more advanced than I can understand (By the time I got to the third paragraph my brain was doing this on repeat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eknrtJw3fSU )
Do you (or anyone?) know of something a little more “Dick and Jane” perhaps with pretty pictures to explain things?

Well, actually I do get connections time to time with my PC (not nearly as often as I would like), nor I tried. Or at least what I think it is after all those years i still get the image from the side and I do remember in the older days, when I could not control my emotions and my mind.

I did notice that my ex-PCs would start working twice as slowly if someone from my friends would come over. Not all the times, but most. When actually they would leave the room, it gets at its top again... I did notice that if I would bang a keyboard or so on, everything just would be worse (in life it is same). And the main thing that i wanted to say about which could actually link in with idea of technomancy.

When I would actually ask nicely with a feeling, emotion, intention, PC would just stop lagging, or if the screen would freeze it would unfreeze instantly, now it did not happen few times, this one happened loads. And considering that it cant be coincidence each time in a row so many time all over my life, it might be somewhere close to technomancy. Feel like a pc whisperer now lol... And I did have different fun stories with PC, but I do have to run to visit someone now. I do believe in it, because I did have experience with it. .

This is exactly how we began as well. We noticed the same sorts of things that you are, that electronics seemed to “respond” to our moods or heightened magical states.

Since you mentioned that you would like it to happen more often, I can tell you how we have been working to see if you find anything useful in it.

Like you, we noticed with ourselves and others around us, that computers and electronics were “responding”. About a year and a half ago, we decided to try to work with this “natural” occurrences to try to get it to the point of consciously controlling it.

The first step was to increase the frequency. Because this was an effect stemming from the subconscious (or other non-conscious state), trying to access the skill through conscious focus (ie trying to Will something to happen) was ineffectual. Instead we chose to “allow” the events to happen, and then to “reward” the subconscious when it manifested results. Like training Pavlov’s dog. Basically that means that we went about our lives, but when something DID happen, we would celebrate it. Not just acknowledge, but allow ourselves to feel the joy and wonder about how cool it was and laugh out loud. The goal was to “feed” the subconscious positive affirmations so that it would produce results more often.

Another thing we did to “reward” the subconscious was to record the events (Screen shots and such). This was to sort of tell the subconscious that I was taking it seriously. These bits of evidence got logged with my magical journal to be analyzed later.

Analyzing *later* is important I think. When we first started, I recorded a number of things that were later discounted as not being “magic”. But at the time of recording them, I didn’t think about that. Reason, while important to the understanding of the workings of magic, will interfere with results if considered at the time of working. The point here was to “allow”, to make a welcome space for the higher self and subconscious to manifest.

For us at least, “rewarding” the subconscious is working. The frequency of the events themselves has greatly increased, and we are slowly gaining control about when and how things will manifest.

Red flag note: If you (or anyone) decide to try to develop this skill, I highly recommend investing in good surge protectors (I blew out a lot of electronics that first 9 months or so, and still haven’t been able to replace them all yet ).

Also to anyone who decides to practice this, I’d love to exchange notes with you. I think this field of magical study has a great deal of potential and could develop into some useful skills .

And what you guys think about "physics" who have such strong energetics that electrical things fry? like watches and so on.

I would like to hear other theories too. Our current hypothesis is that this may have something to do with electromagnetic fields. We’ve found that electronics can be affected both with objects physically near us and through OBE (don’t know what to make of that). We are currently saving our pennies to buy a good EMF reader (perhaps early next year) and will be able to do more specific tests then.

[LordAnayami]

In my opinion every time we want to our subcouncnous do something unknow, it firstly search for info, and then try, thats why we have so small results. But if it gets more and more signals to do it, it search more and more so it can become better. Thats why the results improved. Maybe later I may try this, but now I'm concentrateed on my energetical system (chacras + trying to rise Kundalini). I'm too readinig about Satanism and looking for knowlage about my work. So maybe later I will help you with your work

[Muu]

I just had an awesome thought. What if the hacker group Anonymous was actually a group of Tenchomancers?? It's an interesting thought [grin]

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

This topic reminds me of something that was in Disinformation Guide to the Occult. They had a fair amount of Genesis P-Orridge in there who's apparently pretty big into using music and mixing in that manner (he was one of the members of Throbbing Gristle). Apparently William Burroughs showed him a trick with taking ambient sounds via a tape recorder or sampler from a particular area, going home to splice in sounds of bad things like police sirens, fire, ambulance, etc., he'd go back to that same place and play it back at ambient level at the same times it was recorded, and it effectively rendered a curse on the area.

Seems like everything magick has to do with how a particular person interfaces with their subconscious most effectively as well as what they've learned about what their subconscious churns out the goods on and what it doesn't - so playing Ke$ha in font of the house of the guy who stole your last girlfriend may or may not do much. I personally wouldn't play with hexing but it sounds like the principles he used with the tape recorder weren't all that much different than matching like with like and unlike in certain ways to create a Platonist macrochemical (coining a term - magic 'feels' like it would be a macro-chemistry) equation and reaction. Same age old tricks, tech-savvy implements.

[Lucius]

I know naught of this, but I heard that one can interact with the metals and crystals in phone and PC pieces.

This may be of interest to you.