>NAS stands for Neural Attenuation Syndrome, a fictional disease from
>Johnny Mnemonic. Quoting from the Wikipedia article on the
>movie, NAS is "a plague ravaging mankind due to the over-reliance on
>technology and causing political strife."

Indeed, though while the Johnny Mnemonic screenplay sort of vaguely blames it on RF saturation, the UF version is in the constellation of what one early researcher's notes term the "Probably Autoimmune, Maybe Linked to Extrasolar Colonization??" disorders. My conception of it (perhaps unsurprisingly) is as a sort of super outer-space MS, possibly involving damage to the grey matter as well as the white. In the early 25th century it's the kind of affliction there's a highly visible established research charity and associated funding drives for (again, like MS and a whole host of other high-profile real-world disorders).

As Harley's dialogue implies, there's an established treatment for it by 2405, but it's quite expensive and mainly just addresses the symptoms. She's pursuing the possibility that one of the active ingredients in Joker Venom (not to be confused with... um... Venom Venom, the temporary super-strength drug) may actually address the root cause, and the first one to make a "laughter is the best medicine" joke gets a punch in the ouchy parts.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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