Magic and the Matrix

I had an idea as to why magical beings have problems in the matrix. Take a gander at Awakenings. Remember the story about the Burnt-out mage, how for the first couple weeks after losing his magic, he felt like his head was wrapped in cotton? According to his doctors, it was the lack of information he usually got from astral space that was making him feel like that. It went away after a while.

Enter the Matrix, which has absolutely no input from astral space possible. For a mage (or, one suspects, an adept who has astral perception), this would be disorienting, like it is for me without my glasses when I have a cold. All of my senses are still there, but they are all muffled, not picking up what they usually do. Since the mage isn't picking up even the barest traces of astral sight and smell and sound, this would disorient mages much like I am in the morning (note that this theory assumes that anyone capable of astral perception is always doing it to some degree, but its more like peripheral vision... not really seen, but adding to the totality of your senses, anyway). For a dual being like a dragon (or a ghoul, or shapeshifter), this would be almost the equivalent of sensory deprivation, since their senses are almost continually in astral space (after all, dual beings suffer no penalty to pure physical actions while astrally perceiving [SR3, pg 260]), and even when they're not, they're going to be receiving a lot of information through their "peripheral vision".

Some people can handle sensory deprivation, especially if they know its coming and know they can stop it at any time. Some people, however, can't handle it to any degree, no matter the amount of preparation that they go through. And if they can't turn it off (say, got in combat with some Black IC), it drives them mad. I've heard (don't know personally, and can't give sources, 'cause I don't remember) that some become non-functional from the experience.

I think, perhaps, that this might be why dragons cannot handle the Matrix, save by piggybacking or tortoises.

---

Return to the main page.
Comments?