Re: [HOE] Cyborg question

[Robert Holland <robert@macauley.com>]

>I'm hoping, as they find out more about Cyborgs, that she'll begin to look
>at it as a way to free herself from the influence of the manitou, and only
>realise after she has chosen to become a borg that she is now trapped in a
>three way struggle for control. <evil laugh to fade>
>
>-- Tim
>
>*(Yes, yes, I know they don't do that any more, but given the engineering
>skills of one of the PCs, the spare parts from a cyborg that they killed,
>and the help of an NPC, it should be possible...)

Junkers with the proper powers can make cyborgs. Junker-built 'borgs won't have
any AIs, either, unless the junker in question chooses to build one in. If
you're talking about installing the AI and spirit fetter from a killed
cyborg...hm. AIs are supposed to be customized to the individual soldier's psych
profile, so putting someone else's AI in your head could be really, really bad
for your brain. (On the other hand, it might mean that the AI has less control
over you because it hasn't been designed specifically to exploit your
psychological weaknesses.) But, mainly, why would they even install the AI when
they put the spirit fetter in? And how would you do it? Installing a spirit
fetter is one thing, but an AI is wired all through the different parts of the
brain. You'd need major surgical facilities to have any chance of avoiding major
brain damage.

Dammit, now you've got me thinking about how this would work. Maybe the posse
stumbles across an old cyborg research facility, one of the early ones that was
hidden, far from any major cities. It's got an prototype automated operating
table, but it'll only build cyborgs to military spec, so they've got to have
AI--and none of the AI units available are labelled...luck of the draw whether
you get a friendly model designed for volunteer infiltrators or a heavy can's
personality lockdown. Or, instead of the automated installer, it could be
inhabited by a mad surgeon who agrees to do the makeover but secretly programs
the AI to suit his own twisted desires. Yikes...

--Robert Holland