Sunday, May 31, 2015

151. The Gestalt Albia

Albia is a brinker habitat located in the Uranian trojans. To an ignorant observer it is uninteresting, a cluster hab run along autonomist lines. When the mutualism demanded by isolated space life is insufficient, they govern themselves as a direct democracy.

Albia is also a gestalt consciousness occasionally formed from the citizens of the station. Linking together the minds of all citizens results in their subsuming into Albia, a discrete consciousness emerging from the network of citizens in the same way the AGIs may emerge from other complex systems. While Albia is awake, the egos of citizens are totally consumed, but when Albia withdraws they awaken as if from a deep sleep.

Albia (the gestalt) appears to be thoroughly invested in the well-being of Albia (the habitat), with particular interest over the habitat's long-term strategies. The last act of each instance of Albia are its instructions on when it is next to be awakened.

Plot Hook: Albia is smart, but not beyond what is possible for a transhuman ego with a savant or hyperbright morph. Their real advantage is in access to the skills and memories of all gestalt members. Firewall suspects that this is why Albia has avoided the exsurgent virus thus far. They are therefore greatly concerned by exsurgent activity seeking to smuggle supercomputers on to Albia, and task the players with intercepting them.

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