PERSONAs and Enhanced PERSONAs
The ComSpace person simulator - (Personal Exchange Role Systems Operation Network Avatar), also called Personas - utilized throughout Federacy space to conduct communication and transactional services.
Personas are legal extensions of the individual they represent and are used to access Workforce Data Systems.
Enhanced Personas (EP)
Are advanced personal sim projections which have two significant abilities: the ability to pilot robotic systems (RPS) and Limited Auto Response System (LARS) which allows them to legally respond to transactions without a direct, active connection to the person. Rarely will an Enhanced Persona have both features and even if it did, an LARS Enhanced Persona can not be used to pilot a robot.Robotic Pilot Systems (RPS)
These Enhanced Personas allow a person to interface with a properly provisioned robot anywhere within ComSpace range (they must have authorized access, and local system provisos will typically require much closer ranges) and to directly pilot and issue commands to it. RPS Personas are often called Pixies.Limited Auto Response Systems (LARS)
An Enhanced Persona can make a legally binding contract with someone, of course its scope of action must be within the normal responses of its person (essentially a 95% or higher likelihood that the person would normally respond in a given manner). The Limited Auto Response feature is to allow others to have access to the knowledge and actions of the person without their need to be there.Utility
Personas are useful for contacting others in a given Local ComSpace and operate similar to, but in far more advanced ways than, the Sims of old. Because of the very effective virtual technology of ComSpace, there isn't much that a Persona can't do or communicate that a real person can - and many people prefer operating in ComSpace.
Enhanced Personas, typically awarded as a PERC, allow elevated protocols to be used which use and manipulation of Complex and Expert Peripherals aka Robots - computer enabled machines which are programmed for various functions, and ability to handle restricted coding (such as an imbedded access key to restricted spaces), and so on. These are availalble and useable in TL 2 or higher ComSpaces.
Social Impact
PERSONAs are the equivalent of computer operating systems and are the key ways which people interact with Comm/Info systems - and each other. Primary socialization and coordination occurs through Personas, and given their range, many people have gone their entire lives within the same general locale or planetary system without having ever met physically. Utilization of personas are highly efficient and more resource responsible than traipsing over a planet to meet somebody physically.
Personas are good enough to substitute for an actual person, especially in the Comspace environment. Enhanced Personas take this a step further with their capability of utilizing peripherals and "limited response" system, which means that people can perform transactions with and through Personas.
It's encouraged that Personas "mirror" the user's actual appearance, and many people opt for the "Reality Integration" mode where the Persona is actually only mirroring what the person is doing and providing virtual controls and objects where necessary. In other words, when you are meeting someone in an office, they may actually be in an office, sitting in a chair talking to a projection of you sitting in an opposing chair. Modifications are made via the Persona system in order to compensante for meshing the environs, but the essentials are maintained.
The Federacy is rather adamant about how much access a computer based neural device has to a sentient mind with most backlash pointing towards the AI Before Dawn incident. Part of the Persona system's key components are anti-neural hacking technologies which are able to image and compare significant portions of a persons neurology and actual reactions to detemine if they are acting outside of their normal range of actions.
Parent Technologies
Access & Availability
Personas are ubiquitous and, by legality, unique. Every Federacy Citizen is required to have one; the requirement varies upon various Member Worlds.
Complexity
Personas are incredibly complex using the operating system inherent within ComSpace tech which allows for near-direct neural connection.
Connected:If you have a PERSONA and you're on a Federacy system which holds a PCDC (Population Center Data Clusters - essentially any T1+ area with more than 250+ people), the PERSONA is automatically plugged in, and information is constantly being updated on the PCDC, and (in the Federacy) it’s not optional. Happily, SmartSystems are well programmed and monitored to insure that information leakage is minimal. Even away from a PCDC, satellite systems are easily reachable. Though one can request to go Off The Grid, throughout the Federacy, the concept of OTG is a social faux paus, as connectivity is a seen as a practical necessity; in some locations OTG is an actual criminal offense. Being Connected is potentially more obtrusive than the T-1 smartphones, as ubiquitous as they were for human youth. At T1, computers are the sized of an earbud and highly effective because of their ability to transmit to Wide Area Networks or Satellites. Retinal imaging systems through "glasses," contacts, or actual cybernetic eye implants (one of the few cybernetic implants routinely done in the Federacy). It is not without its advantages, as it allows a lot of information to be quickly gleaned from a PERSONA or IDCwear provided that information is not Restricted (which would cause its own pieces of curiosity.)
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