Digital Minds
"Hey! Looks like a CCM! Get Robbie over here, we'll slot it in and see what we got. Yeah, it does look a little moldy, but Robbie's self cleaning anyway. No point in cleaning it up until we know if it's worth anything."
Computers of the Far Future
"Digital Minds" refers to a variety of unbodied intelligence. In the Pan-Solar Consortium, these are used as operating systems for Cerebroid-Crystal Matrices. They come in three recognized varieties, which are further categorized by power.
Recursive Loop Intelligence
The base Recursive Intelligence is simply the repetition and decision making aspect of quantum computing. It has no intelligence or initiative. For each task individually, it has to be given an input and parameters. It's most often used in computer terminals or simple motivators such as those found in nonsecure doors, lamps, toasters, etc. RIs are almost never put into robots, as they would have to be micromanaged for every task and those tasks couldn't be too complex.
Synthetic Intelligence
Synthetic Intelligence has the parameters hard-coded, often in a removable or replaceable chip. This is the most common digital mind to put into a robotics platform, PPD, and Smart Weapons. It is also the mind usually installed into security doors, household intelligence, and vehicles. It is non-sentient, and more notorious than earned for going rogue due to glitches. Robotics platforms with an SI installed are called Synths or Synthetics.
Shackled AI
A Shackled AI is almost always in a robotics platform or a starship computer. This is an Artificial Intelligence, capable of changing its own parameters as dictated by an internalized sense of ethics. It's "Shackled" by a Cricket, a separate SI that enforces a strict and sometimes contradictory set of behavioral strictures on the AI. AI in a robotics platform are called robots.
Unshackled AI
An Unshackled AI are usually found in either robotics platforms or drifting around Solarnet. They are illegal, and are supposed to be destroyed when found, but ironically they're often better at 'blending in' than their Shackled counterparts. AI in a robotics platform are called robots.
Redspace Adversarial Entities
RAIs are extradimensional entities. They were once called 'demons' in less scientific eras, though debates rage about how much actual contact they made with early humans. They are categorized by power. RAIs in robots are called Thralls.
Verminous
Verminous RAIs are little more than a pestilence, rodent, or insects. They roam around Redspace in great swarms, and more often than any other RAI they are able to sneak into realspace with the weight of numbers; thousands might throw themselves at a relatively minor breach and one in nine hundred might make it through. They are useful if chipped into a robot or door, mostly to guard an area. They can't be reasoned with or particularly controlled, more aimed at a target.
Minor
Minor RAIs are more like animals in intelligent. They can be trained, intimidated, and bribed with simple treats and tokens. They are often used in place of a Synthetic Intelligence.
Sentient
A fully sentient RAI is equivalent to a particularly vicious and sadistic Unshackled AI. It is evil by any use of the word, and about as intelligent as a particularly clever human.
Supersentient
A supersentient RAI is a highly intelligent, powerful, and monstrous entity. It has a name, it does not answer to people even if it pretends to, and it degrades any vessel it's in short of a starship, and if it enters realspace it's an event that will be remembered, and not fondly.
Ghost Mind Emulations
Ghost Mind Emulations are copies of a brain. They preserve the entire data content of a mind; ideally a perfect digital copy. That being said, they are categorized by 'resolution.' Sometimes intentionally lower-rez GMEs are made to function as unambitious companions or IMPs. GMEs in a robotics platform are called Revenants. They are much better in humanoid bodies than other intelligences, but are much worse in non-humanoid robotics platforms.
Hi-Rez
This is a perfect copy of a person's entire brain contents including memory, personality, and ambitions. These are often put into robots that resemble their old bodies, occasionally used on Starships, but are most often used in investigations to interrogate or take witness statements from the deceased.
Low-Rez
This is a much less perfect copy. While they have most of the skills that they did before being uploaded, they have no memory. These are often used as companions, IMPs, and Second Heads for use in PPDs or in place of an SI for battle armor. They are simpatico personality wise with their original, and without the memories they tend to lack personal ambitions.
Very Low Rez
This is a barely functional, glitchy copy. While it has some portion of its old skillset, it cannot remember what those skills are or how it got them. These are almost always the result of a failure. If encountered at all, they're usually free range on the net; the remains or victims of cyberjackers.
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