Sensies

Sensies

Sensies are recordings or transmissions of another person's sensory experiences. They are sensory telepathy, transmitted through total virtual reality media. Users require direct neural interfaces and experience full sensory input as if they were really there.

Transmitting or recording a sensie requires a specialized device that picks up the subject's sensory experiences. If it's recorded, a sensie can be replayed by anyone with a direct neural interface; they'll see and feel everything the original subject did.

Sensies don't have to be made from humans. Recording a nonhuman allows a user to "become" a cat, a bird, or an alien. (Commercial sensies of very simple creatures like butterflies or worms usually have more understandable virtual reality experiences dubbed over the simple-minded experience of the actual creature).

Sensies operate at real-time speed. That is, one second experienced in a sensie is a second in the real world. Some edited sensie programs come with multiple viewpoints, so that you can try out the show or story line from the perspective of more than one character in it. Most such programs limit the user to a choice of the male or female lead characters.

Sensie Uses

Sensies may be a new form of entertainment media (see below). But they're also useful for surveillance and control. Although they can't read thoughts, an implanted sensie recorder can monitor exactly what a person sees, hears, smells, etc. – see Braintaps. Those seeking to keep tight control of subordinates, children, prisoners, slaves – or entire populations – may require the use of sensies.

Sensie Mass Media

Sensies could rival total virtual reality as a future media, since they offer the added realism of experiencing what a person actually felt. This may make them popular for news reporting and various forms of live "reality" programming. Ordinary people may also distribute their experiences, much as bloggers write about their daily lives online.

Commercial sensies may come in many varieties. Pornography, drama, and travel and sports shows are all very popular. The most popular programs treat the user to sunbathing, eating exotic food, scuba diving, skiing, skydiving, zero-gee free-fall, and so on.

Many sensies are edited to remove any unpleasant sensations the viewpoint character may experience, such as sunburn, pain, hunger, or cold. However, black-market sensies may feature injuries, painful deaths, rape, or torture. These find a market with jaded masochists, or as torture devices. Normally these are illegal, since the person making the sensie was harmed or killed. (Violence against other actors in the sensie can be simulated, but what the viewpoint character experiences must be real.) A sensie of this sort will impose one or more Fright Checks on the user, at a penalty determined by the GM.

Sensie Stars

Anyone using a sensory uplink can make a sensie transmission, but some people have a gift for recording a satisfying sensory experience. These individuals make good "sensie stars." High HT attributes and Acute Senses are valuable traits to have.

Experiencing a Sensie

A sensie is experienced from a live or recorded transmission of another individual's sensory experiences. Someone accessing a sensie experiences all the sensory data of the original subject: seeing through his eyes, hearing what he hears, sharing tactile sensations, etc.

There are two ways to experience a sensie:

In immersion mode, the user is unable to use his own senses and is submerged in the transmission. If the transmission includes pain or physical afflictions, the user also feels pain and suffers shock effects, but takes no damage. The GM should require Fright Checks if the experience includes terrifying events, severe injury, torture, or death. Since the user's own senses are immersed, and he might miss almost anything that didn't wreck the headset or media player, a common safety measure is to make sure the computer is programmed to turn off the sensie in the event of a fire or burglar alarm!

In surface mode, the receiver experiences the transmitted sensory perceptions, but they are muted. The receiver can still function, but he will be distracted. This imposes a -3 on other activities, unless the task is one that would benefit from intimate knowledge of what the subject is feeling; e.g., attempting to interrogate or seduce him. The user suffers only half the transmitter's shock penalties, and makes any required HT, Will rolls or Fright Checks at a +4 bonus. Most commercial sensory interface experiences are transmitted in surface mode.

Experiencing a real-time sensie in immersion mode requires a transmission speed of at least one gigabyte per second; surface mode requires at least 0.1 gigabyte per second. This generally means that one has to "jack in" to experience a sensie.

Sensie Equipment

Creating or experiencing sensies require a neural interface and appropriate software.

Sensie Player (TL9): This software lets someone experience sensie media. They must use a direct neural interface to connect their mind to a computer running this program. This lets them access recorded or live sensie feeds stored on their computer, or transmitted over networks or via communicator. Complexity 6, standard software cost. LC4.

Sensie Uplink (TL9): This software lets someone transmit or record his sensory experiences as sensie media. The link requires a direct neural interface that is in communication with a computer running this program. The data is then sent to a recorder, or broadcast using a communicator or net connection. Complexity 7, standard software cost. LC4.

Braintaps (TL9): These specialized cybernetic implants only record and transmit sensies; see Braintap. Anything with a digital mind – AIs and mind emulations – can record its experiences without the need for any kind of sensie player, since it experiences everything in digital form already.

A typical sensie program occupies about 100 GB/hour, recorded in standard digital media. Cost is about $10 per hour for mass-market entertainment sensies, but may be considerably more for specialized ones such as tutorials. Sensie-rental fees are usually about 20% of the purchase price.

Sensie Editor (TL9)

This is a software suite that someone who can play sensies (see Sensie Hardware, above) can use to edit raw sensory recordings. The user can wipe portions of a recorded sensie, compress time with smooth jumps, fadeouts or transitions, tone down sensory experiences, or splice several recordings together. It also can be used to analyze a sensie recording to tell whether it is "raw" or edited, what kind of equipment was used, etc.

Sensie editors are necessary to make commercial-quality sensies from raw recordings. For instance, if sensie superstar Selena Usagi records her latest travel sim "Beautiful in Bali," and takes an hour-long walk down a moonlit beach before skinny-dipping in the warm tropical ocean with her co-star, the editor might condense it to the most stimulating 10 minutes. The quality of the sensie-editing job matters as much as the actual experience that generated the sensie; experiencing a poorly edited sensie can be disorienting and unpleasant! Electronics Operation (Media) skill is used to operate a sensie editor. Complexity 6 program; $5,000. LC4.