Ghost Mind Emulation

"I know it's not her. I know that it's just a crystal matrix set in a custom robot wrapped in synthetic skin. But it looks like her, feels like her, laughs like her... kisses like her. It's... I can't help it. It's my wife, and I refuse to saddle her with a Cricket. I'll kill anyone that comes for her, or die trying."

— Overheard at a Jupiter Bar

Similar, but Fundamentally Different

It's tempting to think of a GME as just another sort of AI. Practically speaking, that's exactly what it is, but the difference is in the degradation. While a Ghost Mind Emulation is essentially an AI copy of a person's mind, there are two lesser versions as in AI but fundamentally different than RI and SI despite being held on the same devices. Unlike RI and SI, a Low-Res and Very-Low-Res GME are still fully sentient programs.
Low-Res: This is an imperfect copy. It can be deliberately made at +2 to skill and 50% of the normal time and cost, or it may be the result of an accident. A low-res mind-emulation (above) or mind download (below) will have only half as many points in skills. The subject may also suffer from Partial Amnesia [-10]. If so, the subject has a 50% chance of having the Flashbacks (Mild) [-5] disadvantage, representing partial memories. This fits on an SI slot.
Very-Low-Res: This is a badly degraded copy. If a mind emulation or download is made from it, the copy has -1 IQ [-20] and Total Amnesia [-25]. It has a personality, but only one-quarter its normal points in skills (round down). Advantages based on emotional sensitivity – e.g., Charisma, Empathy, Fashion Sense, Rapier Wit – are lost. The subject has a 50% chance of gaining Flashbacks (Mild) [-5] as above. This can fit on an RI slot.

Where to Get your Brain Scanned

Clinical Reanimation Pod

A Clinical Reanimation Pod can take and store a full brain scan that encodes a full physical, chemical, and energy map of the body, terrabytes of data. This is, of course, a snapshot of a mind as it was during the scan. This is obviously the best and most preferred way.

Mindripper

A Mindripper can create a low-res GME with a subroutine that makes the copied mind compliant. It's not perfect for interrogation as there is some memory loss, but it's also a horrifically unpleasant experience that eliminates a combatant for at least a few days, which makes it attractive for some commandoes, terrorists, intelligence agents, and criminals. If the original is captured, then this low-res GME can be edited and downloaded BACK into the body as a Personality Overlay (see below.) This is also a horrifically unpleasant experience.

Destructive Upload

With a skilled surgeon and computer engineer, it's possible to directly upload a human brian into a CCM. This erases the original, and the religious are of different minds as to whether the soul is transferred, with the Perfected Path standing at a solid no and the New Disciples of the Event Horizon of Man declaring a forceful yes. Seekers of Wisdom are split over the issue internally, and Covenant of Spacers don't believe in a soul anyway.
Destructive uploading requires the patient (or his preserved brain). The surgery is performed using a TL10+ surgical facility, chrysalis machine, or automed. Make a Physician roll at -5, and an Electronics Operation (Medical) roll at -5.
Success means the data was gained. If either roll fails by 1, it means only enough data for a low-res copy was gained; if either roll fails by 2, it means only enough data for a very-low-res copy is gained. If either roll fails by 3+, or is a critical failure, the upload fails. Only one try is possible; success or failure destroys the brain.
A bush robot can use its branching molecular arms and sensors to perform destructive uploading without any special equipment. It uses Surgery skill instead of Physician skill.
As long as the brain is intact, it is possible to upload a dead person’s mind and retrieve a mind emulation. Either Clinical Reanimation Pods or Destructive Upload methods can be used. Uploading is impossible when the brain suffers total destruction (-10xHP), exposure to 5,000+ rads, or death from a failed HT roll that resulted from damage to the skull or eye. Deep structures containing long-term memories may survive for hours after death, but not indefinitely. Use the usual success rolls, but apply a -2 penalty for working with a corpse, as well as an additional -1 penalty per hour past death unless the brain is preserved or in nanostasis.
Uploading a corpse preserved via freezing is at an extra -3 due to cell damage from freezing. Memories from the last 1d x 20 minutes before the person died will usually be lost in the uploading process. This means someone revived via uploading might have no memory of how he died.

What Can You Do With It?

You can mostly treat a GME as the equivalent Recursive-Logic sentient or semisentient programs. A hi-res GME is equivalent to an AI, a low-res GME is equivalent to an SI, and a very-low-res is equivalent to an RI. These can be slotted in the equivalent spaces in vehicles, weapons, armor, or as part of a Shackled AI Hunchback or Second Head system. This last is usually reserved for copies of the user's own brain, to maximize tandem work. Additionally, there are a few other options suited for GMEs that AI just isn't very good at.

Backup Storage

A mind emulation can simply be stored, unconscious, as data; for scans from CRPs, old backups may be regularly deleted and replaced by newer updates. A mind emulation requires about 100 TB. The location and security of one’s backups may be a paramount concern, with specialized facilities that are devoted to protecting them. Certain agencies and corporations maintain vast vaults of their agents' GMEs. Backups could be awakened, interrogated, enslaved, or worse if they fell into the wrong hands, and entire fortunes could be spent recovering one. Treat an accessible backup as the Extra Life (Copy) advantage.

Robot Bodies

A mind emulation can be run in a computer brain in a robot body. A person might want to return to a body that resembled his original form, a younger and healthier version, or a completely new shape. There can be an awkward learning curve for humanoid ghost mind programs in non-humanoid bodies, as the original mind isn't going to know what to do with four spiderlike legs, eight pincers and a power drill where his nipples should be.

Ghost Comp Communities

A mind emulation might reside in a computer rather than a robot. Mind emulations may travel by copying themselves, or move through expansive virtual realities. Entire communities of emulations and AIs may exist on a computer network, or a single gigantic computer system. The most prominent example of this is the Apogee of the Singularity, which serves as essentially a 'heaven' for New Disciples of the Event Horizon of Man to strive for.

Ghost in a Shell

A computer brain running a mind emulation may be implanted in a biological body – perhaps even the original body, or a clone of it, depending on its condition after the emulation was created. Use the rules for living flesh androids. The body may wear out, but the computer can always be removed or the data copied to a brain in anew body.

Wetware Download

This is the transfer of an uploaded mind into a living brain. For ethical (and possibly technical) reasons, downloading is normally performed on a “blank mind” – for example, a clone that was developed in a coma, with no memories or personality of its own. However, downloading into another person’s brain is also possible.
Downloading requires an Electronics Operation (Medical) roll. Success means the mind emulation replaces the original’s memories and personality (if it had any). Failure means that the transfer process fails and destroys the brain of the body that was going to receive the download. Critical failure, or any failure by 5 or more, means the transfer seems to work, but there’s a hidden flaw. The subject may suffer Partial Amnesia or a Split Personality, or more dangerous or insidious mental flaws.

The difficulty of downloading depends on how different the new body’s brain structure is from the mind emulation’s original body. This allows someone to become a person of a different sex, age, or species. Such downloads are useful for spies or students of alien cultures, or as punishment or torture (“work off your bad karma as a dog”). However, the GM is free to rule that two species are too dissimilar for a transformation to be possible. If downloading to the brain of another person of the same species, roll at -1 to skill. For transfer to a different species, apply physiology modifiers. The effects of successful downloading are covered under Mind Transfer. That is, the old racial template is replaced by that of the new body. The Mind vs. Brain rule applies; downloading an emulated human mind into a cat’s brain would result in a drop in IQ and data loss due to lack of space, for example. A failed download will result in a low-res copy.
A critical failure results in a very-low-res copy. It may take some time to realize this, however; the GM should roll secretly. Obviously, any alterations made to the GME remain after the download. For instance, any compliance subroutines or programmed triggers.
Clinical Mind Transference Equipment: The host body must be placed inside this coffin-sized unit. $800,000, 250 lbs., E/200 hr. LC 0.
Portable Mind Transference Equipment: This mind transference unit is suitcase-sized. It need only be attached to the host’s head. It can only slot Low-Res or worse GMEs into a human mind. $50,000, 25 lbs., D/20 hr. LC 0.
Downloading Nanosurgery: The new host body’s brain is restructured via surgical nanomachines, using the mind emulation data as a template. This requires a chrysalis machine worth $150,000,000 plus $100,000 worth of nanobots. LC 0

Personality Overlay

“Overdubbing” a conscious mind may either overwrite that mind (destroying it and creating the new person), resulting first in an unstable blend of both minds. The effect is a Split Personality with -10 to -30 additional points of different mental disadvantages for each personality. Flashbacks, Manic-Depressive, On the Edge, and Paranoia are all appropriate. Once a week, the GME and the host mind roll a contest of Will. If the GME wins, the host loses one point of Will. If the host's Will reaches half their IQ, they gain the Partial Amnesia Disadvantage. If the host's Will reaches 1/4 of their IQ, they gain the Amnesia and Slave Mind trait towards the GME. If the host's Will reaches 0, their personality is erased and replaced entirely by the GME. In cases where a previous scan is downloaded into the same brain, it still results in a creeping overwrite unless the two scans are identical.
This process can be stopped, ironically, by using the same technology to download a hunter-killer program into the host brain. The person performing the download must roll an Electronics Operation (Medicine) contested by the parasitic mind's Will. If the process is a success, then the parasitic mind is destroyed. If the process is a failure, the parasitic mind may choose to go 'dormant' for up to IQ-7 days.

Template - Ghost Mind Emulation (Hi-Res) 49 pts

Advantages 174 pts

Digital Mind 5 pts, Doesn't Breathe 20 pts, Doesn't Eat or Drink 10 pts, Doesn't Sleep 20 pts, Mind Probe (Cybernetic Only) 10 pts, Mind Reading (Cybernetic Only) 15 pts, Mind Shield (2, Cybernetic) 4 pts, Modular Abilities (1, Computer Brain) 10 pts, Possession (Digital) 60 pts, Unaging 15 pts, Vacuum Support 5 pts

Disadvantages -125 pts

Blindness -50 pts, Electrical -20 pts, No Manipulators -50 pts, No Legs -50 pts, No Sense of Smell/Taste -5 pts, Numb -20 pts, Unhealing (Total) -30 pts

Template - Ghost Mind Emulation (Low-Res) 34 pts

Advantages 174 pts

Digital Mind 5 pts, Doesn't Breathe 20 pts, Doesn't Eat or Drink 10 pts, Doesn't Sleep 20 pts, Mind Probe (Cybernetic Only) 10 pts, Mind Reading (Cybernetic Only) 15 pts, Mind Shield (2, Cybernetic) 4 pts, Modular Abilities (1, Computer Brain) 10 pts, Possession (Digital) 60 pts, Unaging 15 pts, Vacuum Support 5 pts

Disadvantages -140 pts

Blindness -50 pts, Electrical -20 pts, No Manipulators -50 pts, No Legs -50 pts, No Sense of Smell/Taste -5 pts, Numb -20 pts, Unhealing (Total) -30 pts, Partial Amneisa -10 pts, Flashbacks (Mild) -5 pts,

Template - Ghost Mind Emulation (Very-Low-Res) -1 pt

Attributes

IQ-1 -20 pts

Advantages 174 pts

Digital Mind 5 pts, Doesn't Breathe 20 pts, Doesn't Eat or Drink 10 pts, Doesn't Sleep 20 pts, Mind Probe (Cybernetic Only) 10 pts, Mind Reading (Cybernetic Only) 15 pts, Mind Shield (2, Cybernetic) 4 pts, Modular Abilities (1, Computer Brain) 10 pts, Possession (Digital) 60 pts, Unaging 15 pts, Vacuum Support 5 pts

Disadvantages -155 pts

Blindness -50 pts, Electrical -20 pts, No Manipulators -50 pts, No Legs -50 pts, No Sense of Smell/Taste -5 pts, Numb -20 pts, Unhealing (Total) -30 pts, Total Amnesia -25 pts, Flashbacks (Mild) -5 pts

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• A United Mankind
• Unshackled AI