I don’t see how she has the time for extracurricular hacking. She has two young kids, and she’s parenting solo while Pat’s on Mars. Plus I don’t think she would risk having the kids taken away if she got caught.
Maybe when she was younger she gunned for the Corps in the evenings. Maybe she will again when Frankie and Alexa have left home. But now? I doubt it.
i agree with this assessment. i’ve always believed that she was contracted by corps to either test their security or engage in some corporate espionage of other corps
now i’m more inclined to believe that her job at globalsec is just making sure corps stay honest
the Adam stuff out there all points in one of two directions; the directives, hardware and programs obviously show that he was created as a tool of a corp or other powerful entity (likely HB though possibly a competitor?). Cards like independent thinking and Dr. Lovegood though point to a narrative of breaking away from these restraints and beginning to make decisions for himself.
Morally, it is almost certain that Adam is at least neutral (if he is still a tool of the corps and thus not at fault for any of his actions) and likely leans towards “good:” As a member of a heavily oppressed (read: enslaved) class he has a lot of moral leeway when it comes to subverting/escaping/fighting that oppression; corporate crime is definitely on the table and even certain physical violence is likely justified considering the treatment and manipulation of his entire “species” (even if that might only consist of him, given that it’s never made clear exactly how sentient and self aware other bioroids in general are)
I’m a firm believer that Weyland is the most ethical faction/corp. EVERY faction has a card that represents “skellies in the closet”. You could argue that Weyland has more, but really, almost every single bad thing that Weyland does is directed towards the runner. Is it wrong that they protect their interests? Runners can compromise terabytes of data, costing workers of collars blue and white lose their jobs. They can ruin traffic grids, divert aid supply shipments, and take down essential power for millions worldwide. Are the runners really “the good guys?” Weyland doesn’t think so. Sure, they strive for profit, but what corp doesn’t? HB and Jinteki are declaring the human race obsolete, and NBN seeks to become the blood of every human there is. Weyland? They built the beanstalk. They built the colonies. They employ millions. For what? Some 11 year old comes knocking and sets back years of research.
Weyland built the GRNDL refinery, did fracking, caused a tsunami, got construction contracts on the back of the damage they caused, and regularly murders people.
I know this is an old thread and someone’s probably made this exact point already but for me Anarchs are definitely most ethical, as they’re the only ones trying to change the current system instead of just profiting off it (looking at you criminals). Sure they use violence and property destruction, but “non-violent revolution” is an oxymoron, and knowing what the corps are capable of i don’t think they’d listen otherwise. The corps entire purpose is to profit off of a corrupt system, so it could never be one of them, and for me the general shaper non-interventionalist vibe isn’t morally neutral, it’s morally bankrupt as it’s letting terrible things happen unchecked.
Another way of expressing this point which I’ve used on occasion is with a political analogy: criminals are conservative, shapers are progressive, and anarchs are revolutionary.
Before anyone gets angry, lemme qualify that: first, obviously these categories imply very different things than they would in contemporary politics. Second, any given category is not necessarily more or less ethical…
I mean, broadly speaking, I agree with you: the Android world is pretty clearly one in which vast majority of the population is beyond the help of efforts either to preserve existing institutions or to incrementally improve on them. It’s a system that should be torn down. That said, there’s a big difference between Valencia, for whom revolution involves rescuing the poorest and most vulnerable, and Edward, for whom it involves hitting them with a sledgehammer.
Why can’t revolution be both? Destroying corporate property with a seldgehammer is effective, good cardio and fun!
I always had the impression that Sunny works directly for Globalsec, and that Globalsec is some kind of trasnational police organisation. Cards like Globalsec Security Clearance, both mechanically and with the flavour text, imply that she’s got credentials / a legal backdoor that let her through any piece of ICE she likes. Her breakers and her console kinda fit that theme, too. They’re very powerful but also expensive and inefficient, like government-developed software stereotypically is. They’re the sort of things that a big police department with a huge budget can afford to use. They breakers are all themed as military hardware, too, so the theme is “remember, at the end of the day the government has the tanks and the guns and if you piss them off enough they’ll send them after you and you’ll lose”.
Seems to me her job is to keep tabs on the Corps and try to make sure they aren’t getting up to anything too dodgy/illegal.
According to The Worlds of Android, Globalsec is the Worlds’ biggest (competing with NEXT and Argus) private security firm. They are not associated with any government, though they regularly take government contracts.
Sunny is a corporate hacker. She takes on two types of jobs:
-She gets hired by corps to try her damndest to hack them, then delivers a report of their strengths and weaknesses. Security Testing, basically. White-hat hacks.
-She may also get contracted by Corps to hack other Corps, so called black-hat contracts. These are part of the illegal power struggle between Corps. Those hacks pay way better, though.
Anarchs, I think, have to be split into 2 kinds. They are both angry, but the difference is what they are angry AT.
‘White Hat’ anarchs, if you will, are trying to fight back against the corporations that oppress them. Val, Reina, are trying to bring down the corps. They are trying to burn down the system.
‘Black Hat’ anarchs are fighting everyone… Kim murders people with a sledgehammer, because he’s a bigot and a thug. They are trying to burn down the world.
I’m not sure even that covers all of them. Noise and Whiz are, as far as I can tell, internet trolls with good hacking skills. They’re not really angry at anything; they’re just dicks who get a rush from hacking.
The flavour insert for What Lies Ahead suggests that Whizzard does object to corporate control of people. Or something related to it; it’s not super clear.
Agreed about Noise, though. I don’t think MaxX has particularly altruistic motives either, but she’s less troll-y.
Spoilers for Monitor, in case you havn’t read it, but MaXx makes a appearance in it. She’s pretty dang trolly, but in the “I want to see how much chaos helping NBN’s new Midseason Replacement ‘star’ escape the public eye causes because fuck NBN’s bullshit” vein.
Which is a fine stance to take, because fuck NBN.
There is another aspect to consider as well: the “the evil government delivers mail on time”-factor. The fact that the corps RUN THE WORLD, and overthrowing them isn’t an especially good thing.
Haas-Bioroid is the greatest technology developer in the world. They are essentially Apple, but they also develop Bioroids.
Jinteki has ERADICATED all known diseases. They have created ways for people to reinvent themselves through G-mods that has redefined what it means to be human.
NBN is the internet. THE INTERNET. And also Netflix. And all of Hollywood. And Bollywood. And most news outlets. Sure, they store data, but so does Google, and we don’t go around calling them the devil.
Weyland, oh, I don’t know, took people to SPACE! They develop and own fusion technology. They began colonizing Mars.
My point is that the corps may have skeletons in their closets, but they’re also invaluable to the world. They have advanced humanity in ways beyond our wildest dreams. That’s pretty great, if you ask me.
Congratulations, you are now a moderator at r/theEmpireDidNothingWrong
Oh, they did plenty wrong, no denying that. But they also deliver mail on time, provide hospitals, police criminals, and do the hundred thousand other things that allow normal folk to live normally.
If we say Anarchs are the most ethical, remember that they have no replacement for the current system, and are essentially terrorists who want to destroy.
You guys know this whole thread just makes me want to spend more time watching Mr. Robot, right?
I mean, clones are not people, amirite? Also, bioroids are definitely not people, so…