[Basic] Advantage of the Week (#36): Digital Mind

[KarlKost]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I meant specifically the 'biocomputer/bio-brain' kind of Digital Mind. Though I suppose heavily hardwared droids like in Star Wars come pretty close too.


Well, that's the thing.
#1 would be an advantage, but (a) this can be done to analogue minds too, converting them to digital, depending on the tech in the campaign and (b) rebooting seems to be a matter of other hardware - e.g. an Indogene will still irrebootably die in case of heart failure.
#2 is definitely a benefit, but I'd argue that it is counterbalanced by the hacking and virus vulnerability; if anything, it seems to be a swap that GURPS likes to call a Feature (such as spirits not being affected by Empathy but being affected by Spirit Empathy).
On #3: Whether or not having Brainwashing (Brain Hacking) work faster than against normal humans should be bundled with hacking vulnerability is not quite clear to me.
Finally, #4 seems to be an Unusual Background whose value may vary. E.g. in THS, ETS is available to meat-people with some tricks.

So I'm somewhat suspicious of Digital Mind's price. I do totally agree that as a [meta?]trait of some sort, Digital Mind should exist.

Ok, so lets try to clarify

1. The Bioroids from Westworld can be killed (they can in fact be shot down and cutted to pieces - and they are, all the time). They bleed, they have sex, and even eat. Yet, they can be killed, but their memories can be stored and retrived even after "death".
2. An AI without that trait would have to be in constant connection with the internet (or similar network), because if it is shot down, it dies (this could even be the weakness of its Unkillable trait).

[KarlKost]

Originally Posted by Anthony

You said "copies aren't counted as the same PC". Storage is copying.

Cloning with memory copy too, a common theme on many sci fi games (like Paranoia). And yet, you don't pay points of Unkillable for it (and if someone makes a doppleganger of you, you WONT control it)

Originally Posted by Anthony

It's Unkillable 3, No Unkillable 1 (???), Achilles Heel (damage to backup storage), Trigger (needs a new body), and possibly an additional limitation if activating the backup needs to be done by a third party rather than happening automatically. A backup is a spirit form.

Yes, and Vampiric Bite is Leech with blood agent. There are many advantages that can be used to generate similar effects on GURPS, thats not unusual

Originally Posted by Anthony

Yes. If something is an unusual background, it should be called that, and it should, like all unusual backgrounds, have setting-dependent cost.

Omnilingual, High TL... There are several UBs that have special names

[KarlKost]

Well, the way it is written it really looks like as a very limited kind of Unkillable... Which makes this trait a wounderful bargain (that is, if you wanna play a freaking robot instead of a psi alien or magic-wielder plant)

[sir_pudding]

I think it got missed because it was an edit, but the ability to store and retrieve your current instance isn't Unkillable 3 because if your primary storage is destroyed you can't be revived if you lack external backups.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I think it got missed because it was an edit, but the ability to store and retrieve your current instance isn't Unkillable 3 because if your primary storage is destroyed you can't be revived if you lack external backups.

That seems to make it pointless, because you'll never need to retrieve your instance unless the current version is destroyed or corrupted.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

That seems to make it pointless, because you'll never need to retrieve your instance unless the current version is destroyed or corrupted.

• Suspended animation.
• Reconstruction from a destroyed shell with intact storage.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

• Suspended animation.
• Reconstruction from a destroyed shell with intact storage.

If the body is capable of suspended animation, it's capable of doing so without putting the brain in storage. The second is Unkillable (Achilles Heel: Storage Component).

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

If the body is capable of suspended animation, it's capable of doing so without putting the brain in storage.

Digital Mind doesn't mean immunity to boredom or loneliness.

The second is Unkillable (Achilles Heel: Storage Component).

Which again basically has none of the mechanical effects of the advantage: no effect on death checks, no indestructible core, no resurrection at an external location.

[KarlKost]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Digital Mind doesn't mean immunity to boredom or loneliness. Which again basically has none of the mechanical effects of the advantage: no effect on death checks, no indestructible core, no resurrection at an external location.

Unkillable 2 has an indestrubtable core; not the case. Unkillable 3 for a machine would be like becoming a software inside the cyberspace while it waits the new body to be manufactured in a factory. Not the case either. Achiles Heel has many HT rolls for death. So, no, it does indeed looks like Achiles Heel, Reincarnation and Trigger, but it isn't Unkillable. A minor form of Unkillable, but not Unkillable itself.

[KarlKost]

Besides, it isn't Achiles Heel, because you can be killed by the destruction of your memory center (positronic brain, whatever). ANY damage to your "brain" will kill you. Achiles Heel only kills you on a very specific way - for example, silver; you wouldn't die in a lake of fire. With Digital Mind, however, a lake of fire, liquid nitrogem, nuclear explosions, high pressure... Anything can kill you, nothing like Achiles Heel - at all

Actually, if you are "killed" without being able to storage your memory, you're dead. Thats not Unkillable.

So, yeah, Digital Mind could be seeing as a very minor and very restricted kind of "Unkillable"