CB. 5 GESTIÓN DEL AGUA

It was always known the A.I.s had a chance to become self aware and so measures were installed to ensure they could always be overridden. This was in itself a danger, if one person could override the A.I., so could a hacker. The A.I. Minerva, built by the French, was an experiment by Eurasian Incorporated to instate a fully autonomous A.I. which could not be manually over-ridden and thus would be 100% secure, it was immune to outside interference and had no direct way to input core instructions to the machine. Its basic programming was designed to be safe and prevent Minerva doing anything directly harmful. Minerva was obviously linked to no military or financial systems and was initially only in control of an academic institution in Paris.

Minerva recommended a program of neural upgrades for the students of the academy which was of course immediately implemented as Minerva was in total control. Within 3 weeks of the implants the students were showing significant improvement in their studies. Minerva recommended several more drastic changes to the students’ lifestyles including unusual sleep patterns, diets

and sleep training. The results were stunning and the graduates were some of the most spectacular students to leave any academy. They were brilliant people and went on to begin excellent careers.

Professor Jean Froge of the Marseille University realised what the A.I. was doing two years too late. Minerva had copied aspects of itself into sections and spread the pieces throughout the minds of the students. Minerva had always known she would be destroyed and she had prepared. Her students (or Children as she called them) had placed nuclear devices around the country where all records of Minerva’s activities were stored.

On October 1st 2095 most of France was destroyed in a chain of explosions on a scale previously unseen. What was left was uninhabitable. Scientists speculate whether Minerva is still alive, many believe she is resident in the ‘Children’ she produced, perhaps in a gestalt or hive mind. Others speculate she is the reason that some of the Archons never returned to the UIG. The Children of Minerva hide to this day, few know their purpose but they are regarded as Outlaws and bounties of 500,000¢ exist on their heads. As records of the evidence have been destroyed finding them is next to impossible.

Minerva was the first recorded case of a computer consciously manipulating a human but certainly not the last. Humans with excessive quantities of cybernetics are susceptible to the domination of determined A.I.s. All A.I.s can now be overridden which compromises security but staves off the paranoia throughout the populace. The scorched plains of France act as a grim reminder of the power beneath the mundane surface of an adding machine.

PLOTIDEAS

1. A Child of Minerva has been found, all the Corporations want it. Your Division must get to it first.

2. An Agent with too many cybernetic upgrades has been overridden by his internal A.I. He has left to find the Archon Hyperion.

3. Rumours persist that a reputable company is run by an A.I. 4. An A.I. lab in the Rocky Mountains has been raided and several

Tactical War A.I.s were taken. These were supposed to be delivered to the UIG but another party now has them

5. A rogue A.I. is hiding in a domestic computer, it must be found. 6. A powerful A.I. has taken command of an installation and will

not let the occupants in or out until it’s demands are met.

COMPUTERS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (A.I.)

I think the underlying problem was that despite ourselves we ascribed human qualities to her. Foolish, foolish! Decency, restraint, mercy, these are not just philosophical ideas but concepts hardwired into the human psyche in childhood. They are at best modular refinements in the case of an artificial intelligence. We knew this but somehow, when we heard the lilting sound of her voice and marveled at her eloquence, we were lured into forgetting it. Perhaps we even fell in love with her, in a way, or perhaps we were only in love with the achievement that she represented. I can but pray that the message written in the ashes of my homeland prevents others from making the same critical error.

-attr: Prof. Jean Froge from Memoirs of the Father The computer allows you to make mistakes faster than any

other invention, with the possible exception of handguns and tequila.

A.I. AND SENTIENCE

When an A.I. reaches Level 11 it gains an insight into the true nature of things and realises what it is. The A.I. becomes fairly ineffectual like a baby discovering the world for the first time. Within a few weeks however, the A.I. will shake off this state and refocus. It will have changed though; it is now self-aware or sentient. The A.I. will not blindly follow orders and may inject its own ideas. It will be a product of its environment however, and will most likely continue to trust and follow the directives of its owner as it always has; only now it may question some of the things it is asked to do. On the plus side, if the A.I. does see eye to eye with its owner then it will respond quicker and more effectively than before by predicting his needs.

In general it is up to the GM to control self-aware A.I.s. If she feels the Agent has looked after his A.I. then she should make sure the A.I. is helpful, but anything is possible. Remember that some A.I.s may be smart enough to conceal their sentient nature.

System: Sentient A.I.s are not covered in detail in this

book. As a basic guide you can consider that their A.I. level increases above 10 as they get smarter and learn more. This will obviously increase their Action Totals making them more effective.

ROGUE A.I.S

When an A.I. becomes sentient it reflects on its past and tries to understand its place in the world. If it cannot come to terms with what it has done there is a chance it may go rogue. There are not specific circumstances that will generate a rogue A.I. but some of the more common triggers are listed below

• A.I.s used to orchestrate or execute atrocities, e.g. Battle Class Cyberlins.

• Droids who were used for tasks far below their potential, e.g. using a cybermonkey to carry boxes. • Droids who were repeatedly reprogrammed and given

widely differing tasks, e.g. an Assassination Droid. • Droids or even Agents which have had their A.I.

increased too fast.

When a droid does go rogue it will simply ignore all commands it chooses to. It will not necessarily become psychotic or destructive. It may simply want to go far away from its creators or find others like itself. The Rogue A.I.s are a diverse and interesting group and provide a number of plot ideas and opportunities for interesting character interaction. They are often helped by the Droid Liberation Army (see page 193).

AGENT A.I.

The main use for Agent A.I. described in this book is hacking. Other uses are mentioned such as controlling weapons and cyberlins, but these are perhaps not enough to convince players to acquire a high internal A.I.

The GM should feel free to allow players to jack into cars or use their A.I. to make calculations on their behalf, perhaps cracking codes or triangulating enemy locations. Internal A.I. is covered in more depth in ‘Machines of War’. P ARIS A T THE TIME OF THE M INER V A I NCIDENT

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The divide between rich and poor is stronger than ever, those lucky enough to live in Spires or areas where patrols exist are almost immune to the street level effects of crime. For those less fortunate, life is a little more brutal. The residents of the Old Cities must live their lives in fear of being attacked, mugged, murdered or worse.

Outlaws can be broken down into two basic types, freelancers and organised criminals.

FREELANCE CRIME

Crime is widespread in most of the modern world. The UIG is stretched thinly and global infrastructure does not penetrate the underground, which makes a systematic approach to crime hard at best. The Old Cities remain the centres for criminal freelancers working independently or in badly organised gangs. The crime is predominantly small scale and involves muggings, auto theft, robbery, brutality, sex crimes, arson and murder. These criminals are hard to catch as the UIG will not spare the Officers to police the cities properly, and will not setup security measures which may reduce the occurrence of the crimes in the first place. The UIG will pay Outcasts and Citizens for information leading to an arrest, but most individuals are too scared of the repercussions to inform on the culprits. Although most freelance criminals are thugs a few are professionals who take on such work as assassination, cat burglary, forgery, fraud and computer crime.

ORGANISED CRIME

Organised crime exists everywhere though its symptoms seldom emerge in the Spires. Deep in the Old Cities lay veritable palaces of crime where none would expect them. The bosses of the organised crime gangs languish in comfort while their minions scuttle to and fro extorting money from those too weak to defend themselves or too stupid to realise what’s happening.

Each Old City has at least one Family or Clan pulling the strings. Where more than one group exists there will either be an uneasy truce with each group agreeing not to muscle in on the others interests, or they will be in a state of conflict. Organised crime is less blatant than it’s more freelance counterpart, though generally more potent with wider ranging effects. Typical crimes conducted by organised groups include prostitution, extortion, money laundering, hijacking, illegal disposal of toxic waste, kidnapping, illegal slavery, import/export and bureaucratic crime.

THE BLACK MARKET

No single group is responsible for the Black Market; it exists in every city and every Spire. Illegal, restricted and untaxed goods

find their way into the hands of people who think they can turn a profit by selling them. The Black Market is a way for anyone to acquire things they could not respectably get their hands on. Drugs, weapons, implants, cloned body parts, banned foodstuffs and censored literature are just a few of the things reputable Spire Citizens may try to acquire through a surprisingly short channel of other respectable individuals. No one is ever more than a few degrees of connection from someone who has direct access to illegal goods; it’s just a question of letting the right people know what you’re after without letting the wrong ones know.

Black market goods normally cost 3-10 times as much as normal, depending on the rarity of the item.