Digital Mind Question

[whswhs]

Most of my comments on this subject have not been about what the Digital Mind rules ought to be, but about what they are. I actually see three issues here: first, what do the rules literally say? second, what is their intent? and third, what is the proper way to approach this subject, based on the rules of GURPS as a whole? The first two are what I have been calling questions of "law"; the third is a question of "equity," or of what is fair and balanced.

In terms of literal meaning, I think it's necessary, in the first place, to look at the words of the actual rule, and to come up with an interpretation that makes sense of all of them. In the second place, since many of those words are used elsewhere, and indeed in some cases are defined elsewhere, I think it's necessary to examine other parts of the rules to be clear on what the words mean. In the third place, I think it's necessary to apply logic to the relations among different statements.

As for intent, I think the best way to discern what a rule means is to look at how it's applied. In this case, that means looking at templates and lenses that have Digital Mind. Those are to be found in Ultra-Tech, primarily, and if we want to understand what the rules mean, we should look first at how they're applied there.

Now, in the first place, Digital Mind is a trait included in machine intelligence lenses; in fact, in the majority of them. The two exceptions are Cyborg Brain, which is a living, biological brain housed inside a robot body, and thus would not be expected to be a digital entity; and Drone, which has IQ-10 and Taboo Trait (Fixed IQ), which together mean that it has IQ 0 and cannot increase it, and thus has no "mind" of any kind—it's purely an operating system for a mechanism, carrying out whatever program is imposed on it. All other machine intelligences have Digital Mind, either by explicit statement or included in the meta-trait AI.

In the second place, machine intelligence is a family of lenses. They don't define complete characters by themselves; rather, they are applied to robot bodies, and in fact it's usually mandatory to apply a machine intelligence lens to a robot template. So there's a split between the "body" and the "program." And that split isn't just a peculiarity of Ultra-Tech; it's inherent in the way Digital Mind works. It specifies that the mind is a program, and that the program can be taken offline and stored in a suitable medium; that allows separating the mind and the body.

In the third place, Digital Mind is characteristically accompanied by two other traits. One is the taboo trait Complexity-Limited IQ; the other is Accessory: Computer. All four machine intelligence lenses that include Digital Mind also include Complexity-Limited IQ, and of the robots whose templates call for choosing a machine intelligence lens, only the warbot lacks Accessory: Computer (and that makes sense; you wouldn't normally want a self-directed combat machine to carry out the kind of tasks that need a general purpose computer).

Digital Mind talks about the default case. I think the default case, as shown by Ultra-Tech, is clearly an entity that has all three of Accessory: Computer, Complexity-Limited IQ, and Digital Mind. These cost, respectively, 1 point, 0 points, and 5 points, for a total of 6 points.

From the designs in Ultra-Tech, Accessory: Computer is a feature of the robot body. And that makes sense: a computer is a physical system. The other two are features of the machine intelligence; if it's moved into a different robot body (as is often possible), they go with it.

What does Accessory: Computer do? It means that the body contains a computer that can be used to run ordinary programs (stated explicitly on p. 33 of UT). This meets the default requirement that the Digital Mind have a computer in the body it inhabits; but it also provides the ability to run general purpose software. Since this is paid for, it can't be considered as a freebie derived from Digital Mind; it's something extra. So a Digital Mind that, for some reason, lacks this perk can't run games, or go online, or compile databases, or typeset documents.

Complexity-Limited IQ is a taboo trait. The other example of such a trait is Fixed IQ, which forbids a "character" to buy an IQ different from what its template specifies (usually 0). Complexity-Limited IQ appears to forbid a character with Digital Mind to buy an IQ higher than 2x the Complexity of the computer its body contains. That is, even though Digital Mind as such doesn't restrict the purchase of IQ, the taboo trait does so restrict it; and the taboo trait looks to be part of the default option. Note that this is also one of two logically valid ways to read the definition in the Basic Set: If Digital Mind implies Complexity ≥ 2 x IQ, then Complexity ≤ N implies IQ ≤ 2N. If you don't take the taboo trait, you might buy any IQ you have points for; but that wouldn't be the "default" any more, and there would be no particular reason to suppose that your body contained a computer as an accessory—it might be any of a variety of exotic options. And Digital Mind appears to hint at some possibilities with its mention, for example, of biocomputers, which don't seem to be subject to the normal rules relating a computer's size, TL, and Complexity.

So that's my take on the meaning of the RAW. The default option is that your body contains a computer, which has a Complexity limited by size and TL; that your IQ is limited to 2x Complexity; and that you also can benefit from the ordinary programs that a computer with that Complexity can run, so long as they aren't advantages with their own separate point cost. That is, the default option is the way it's done in UT.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by whswhs

As for intent, I think the best way to discern what a rule means is to look at how it's applied. In this case, that means looking at templates and lenses that have Digital Mind. Those are to be found in Ultra-Tech, primarily, and if we want to understand what the rules mean, we should look first at how they're applied there.

It might also be wise to look to Transhuman Space: Changing Times. Not sure whether that would inform any of your conclusions differently, but it's got significant use of Digital Minds.

Originally Posted by whswhs

the warbot lacks Accessory: Computer (and that makes sense; you wouldn't normally want a self-directed combat machine to carry out the kind of tasks that need a general purpose computer).

That's a listed erratum, actually: "P. 167. Add "Perk: Accessory (Microframe computer) [1]" to the Warbot, raising its points to 290."

[whswhs]

As for what Digital Mind ought to cost, the question is, what does it get you? The thing that the Basic Set RAW provide are as follows:

* You can't be affected by telepathic powers, or by magic spells that specifically target humans, but you can be affected by abilities and skills that target Digital Minds

* You can be taken offline and even stored as data

The first trait seems to be roughly a 0 point feature, kind of like a machine's "neither has nor spends fatigue." On one hand, advantages such as Mind Reading can be bought in forms that affect Digital Minds, and in fact the forms that only affect Digital Minds are often cheaper; but on the other hand, they're likely not to be as common in a lot of campaign worlds. It could be debatable, but I don't think it's an obvious fail to say that this part is a wash.

What about being taken offline and stored as data?

If you've been turned into a file, and put into a thumb drive or onto a floppy disc or even onto punched cards, what does that get you? Or if you've transmitted yourself over a cable or WiFi, what does that get you?

* You don't get to insert yourself into a different body that contains a different computer, and start running yourself there. Likely enough the computer will have safeguards, and the ability to defeat them is Possession (Digltal, -40%) [60]. So if your body is destroyed, there's no guarantee that you can get a new body.

* You aren't guaranteed the ability to reinstantiate yourself, either from a prepared backup, or from a quickly prepared one. That's something like Extra Life (Copy, -20%; Requires Body, -20%) [15]. Without that, if you store yourself as data, that's not a copy or backup; that's you, in a passive, unaware form.

* You aren't Unkillable. If your body is destroyed, it won't recover; and it's perfectly possible that destroying your body would destroy the medium that contains your file, or that a foe could extract that medium—with no resistance from you!—and separately erase or destroy it.

What turning yourself into a file seems to do is three things. You can take yourself offline, and stop operating your body. If you store yourself in some external medium, it may be possible for other people to put you into a different body; you have no control of this process. You may also be able to send yourself via some form of telecommunication system, and if there's a different body waiting empty for you, to inhabit it—but you can't just take over any body, not unless you have Possession. All that seems fairly limited. On the other hand, it's a capability human beings don't have. I don't think 5 points is obviously wrong.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

That's a listed erratum, actually: "P. 167. Add "Perk: Accessory (Microframe computer) [1]" to the Warbot, raising its points to 290."

Oh, okay. That strengthens the link between Digital Mind and Accessory: Computer. But I think perhaps we can still stipulate that a non-default Digital Mind might inhabit a body that doesn't contain a computer, and that runs its machine intelligence on a different sort of substrate.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by whswhs

You may also be able to send yourself via some form of telecommunication system, and if there's a different body waiting empty for you, to inhabit it—but you can't just take over any body, not unless you have Possession. All that seems fairly limited. On the other hand, it's a capability human beings don't have. I don't think 5 points is obviously wrong.

I'd say that if you can send yourself over telecommunications and take over a body on arrival, that's a clear case of Possession (Digital), regardless of how empty the body may be. Someone else could transfer your data by whatever means and start you up at the destination, but you can't do it yourself - even if doing so would be as simple as a few lines of shell scripting.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Oh, okay. That strengthens the link between Digital Mind and Accessory: Computer. But I think perhaps we can still stipulate that a non-default Digital Mind might inhabit a body that doesn't contain a computer, and that runs its machine intelligence on a different sort of substrate.

Agreed, on both points.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I'd say that if you can send yourself over telecommunications and take over a body on arrival, that's a clear case of Possession (Digital), regardless of how empty the body may be. Someone else could transfer your data by whatever means and start you up at the destination, but you can't do it yourself - even if doing so would be as simple as a few lines of shell scripting.

That's sort of plausible, though I can think of possible borderline cases. But I agree that, in general, if you turn yourself into a file, and transmit yourself, what is transmitted is passive and cannot take any steps to instantiate itself. Normally you would need someone else to set things up for you to go live again; you would not then have agency—it would be a leap of faith.

Exception 1: What if you transmit yourself, via whatever medium, and encounter a computer that is looking for a machine intelligence to install?

Exception 2: What if, before you transmit yourself, you get in touch with the computer, and ask its permission to transmit yourself, and then receive permission, and only then send yourself? At that point you are still relying on its agency to get into it. . . .

It seems as if, in Transhuman Space at least, digital entities transmit themselves from place to place, and even from planet to planet. Do they all have the Possession ability? Or is "sending yourself into a space that's prepared for you" not Possession? It doesn't seem as if it requires a Quick Contest of IQ vs. Will.

[whswhs]

To get really whimsical, by the way, one might imagine a Digital Mind being transmitted in the form of a huge volume of code written in assembly language or the like. . . .

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by whswhs

That's sort of plausible, though I can think of possible borderline cases. But I agree that, in general, if you turn yourself into a file, and transmit yourself, what is transmitted is passive and cannot take any steps to instantiate itself. Normally you would need someone else to set things up for you to go live again; you would not then have agency—it would be a leap of faith.

Exception 1: What if you transmit yourself, via whatever medium, and encounter a computer that is looking for a machine intelligence to install?

Exception 2: What if, before you transmit yourself, you get in touch with the computer, and ask its permission to transmit yourself, and then receive permission, and only then send yourself? At that point you are still relying on its agency to get into it. . . .

I'm unsure whether transmitting yourself necessarily is allowed. I'd be inclined to at least so long as you've got Accessory (Computer) since it's something any normal user of that computer could do and doesn't quite cross the line into replicating Possession.

If you're sent to a place and an independent actor there starts you up, it seems like you're clean...

Originally Posted by whswhs

It seems as if, in Transhuman Space at least, digital entities transmit themselves from place to place, and even from planet to planet. Do they all have the Possession ability? Or is "sending yourself into a space that's prepared for you" not Possession? It doesn't seem as if it requires a Quick Contest of IQ vs. Will.

They do, in fact - Per THS:CT Possession is standard on all infomorph templates.

Digital Possession has the requirement of complete access to the target computer. I'm unsure whether you also have to make the contested roll. Since the rules don't remove that requirement, it would seem to follow that you do? On the other hand, if you've got complete access to the machine you could suspend any Digital Minds in residence, leaving it with a Will of 0.

[Tyneras]

I prefer to imagine a station wagon filled with punch cards.