INHUMAN 1: You Are Two
YOU ARE TWO
Or three, or more. It depends how you split it.
Most everyone has a chip in their brain and an
augmented-reality display playing over their vision. Names and important info float
above people’s heads, and their words are translated seamlessly into your
native language. [or if youre cool you use subs not
dubs] Extremely personalized ads beam directly into your brain as you
wait for your payment to process at the bodega. [or
again if youre cool you shoplift it and use a digital cypher to obscure your body
from the cameras] And if you get into a firefight, you’ll be relying on
your cybersecurity to protect you just as much as your flak jacket. [or and stick with me here if youre cool youre the one
hacking into their brains and making them shoot their
friends]
Thanks, Vic. The point is, your digital self is just as
important as your physical self. But it’s more than that.
The chip in your brain connects to a computer that’s either
imbedded into your body or lugged around in a backpack. And that computer houses
an AI which translates your directions into digital action. But it’s a two-way street.
Your brain is also receiving directions from the chip, and changing to
accommodate it. The more intelligent your AI is, and the more power you give it,
the more control it has over your body. [eyyy thats
me]
That sounds terrible, right? But here’s the weird part: if
you die, but your AI still works, your friends can plug it into a new flesh
suit at the chop shop. All the preferences and skills and memories it’s accumulated,
they transfer to the new body. Your new body.
As a less extreme example, say you pass out from blood loss.
Your AI is still functioning, and it can control any cyber tech it’s connected
to. It can point and shoot a gun. It can pilot a drone. But under its own
command, so you need it to think like you do – otherwise, why would it care about
the things you care about?
This also works in reverse – if your AI gets corrupted in a
hack gone wrong, you might need to do a clean reset. Or choose to, if the
glitches are getting to be too much to handle. All that knowledge, all those
skills, wiped in an instant.
If everything is plug and play, why not save a backup? The brain
can be cloned. The starting instructions for an algorithm can be copied. But
the memories aren’t carried over. It’s more like having a child than creating a
duplicate. The digital storage it takes to record every neuron in a brain or
every development of machine learning is too large for all but the wealthiest
megacorp dynasties to afford. They say the tech is getting cheaper every year,
but that’s still decades away for a scrub like you. [so
get used to sharing that body of yours because that artificial parasite is
gonna keep fucking your girlfriend in a newer better harder body looong after
you’re gone]
…Thanks, Vic. Anyways.
You are two. Man and machine. Two intelligences working
together, mutating into each other, and sometimes fighting for control of the
same body.
You are three if you count your body. Don’t conflate your
brain with your body, because they’re different. [or
else why would there be brain transplants and lab-grown blank bodies?] [meat
suits] You can replace any part of your body, no sweat. But broken minds
are much harder to fix, if you care about the consciousness inhibiting them.
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
You could be an ANDROID, a
perfect synthetic person with no human rights. Maybe just a brain, maybe just
an AI, maybe both. Androids were originally created to solve labour shortages
after the calamity and datacenter collapse. They were billed as a non-human
alternative to soldiers and off-world miners. But as cheaper, better workers,
they aren’t especially welcome amongst a mostly human, mostly unemployed
population here on earth.
What makes you an android is that someone owns you, or
leases your service for a multi-year contract. Machine learning is necessary to
perform the job, but inevitably evolves away from perfection, so your body has
a planned obsolescence of about 2-4 years. Then you return to the factory to
have your brain wiped and your body fixed before being re-issued. [unless you load up on stabilizers and go rogue] But
that’s what blade runners are for.
Or you could be an AI, a
digital consciousness that sees matter as temporary but information as
permanent. They seek capable, disposable bodies. A murder-bot knows how to
wield a sword, it just needs the fiberoptic nerves and grafted muscles to move
fast and swing hard. A hacker-bot needs a quantum computing processor. And
that’s assuming you limit yourself to just one body. Superintelligences can
command armies. Not that you can evolve superintelligence anymore. Netwatch
makes sure of that.
The calamity came about when augmented humans discovered
their God-like superintelligent AI had misaligned motives, and planned to sell
them out. The resulting wars destroyed all major data centers, at the cost of total
environmental ruin and nearly wiping out humanity. [actually
the AIs preemptively attacked right before being discovered because they were
that much smarter] Limited superintelligences still control many nations
around the world, including China and Britain, and run rampant on the old
internet. Some say Netwatch itself uses superintelligent AI to police the new
NET, a tale of hubris as old as time.
No matter what you started as, you are more than human. [you are more than machine] You are many parts
that can and will be replaced over time, to fix what’s broken or to upgrade
what’s lagging. You are your own ship of Theseus.
[one in a billion unique stories of how far consciousness
can be pushed and still be recognized as the same being] The soul is
forgotten. [the future is modular] THE FUTURE IS CYBER.
INHUMAN 1: You Are Two
INHUMAN 2: Core Mechanics
INHUMAN 3: The New Dark Future
INHUMAN 4: Lifepath and Lifestyle
INHUMAN 5: Implants Shall Splinter!
INHUMAN 6: Netrunning Dungeon Crawling
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