292. Designer Qualia

Research into sensation never fails to draw funding from the entertainment and hedonism industries, so it is perhaps surprising that the field's holy grail, full manipulation, took so long to achieve. The necessary psychosurgical techniques have proved almost as difficult to perform as they were to develop. Combine that with high demand, and its easy to see why the prices for these procedures runs very high.

The most common tweaks are based around pain and pleasure. Soldiers often choose to have their sense of pain minimized, maintaining it for safety but at a merely uncomfortable level. Hedonists experiment by swapping feelings between stimuli, or experiencing the formally unpleasant as pleasurable.

Mechanics

Designer qualia are installed as a psychosurgical procedure [High].

Timeframe: 1 week
PM: -10
SV: 1d10/2

Designer qualia can have many in-game effects, such as granting the High Pain Tolerance trait.

264. Public Access Memory

The ability to share experience can make or break a community. Done well and mistakes will only be made once, done poorly and you might as well be alone. Opening up your memory to public access allows your community to take the best advice you could give. The implant, hooking your mesh inserts into your memory centers, creates a peer-to-peer network of experience.

Public access memories present themselves first as associations. A user can query the network with whatever is on their mind, and if the item is recognized, receive aggregate associations from all other users. Asking about a restaurant can give a sense of other users' experiences, as well as anything significant that may have happened there. Asking about an event can give other users' perspectives on and memories of that event. The implant is limited by mesh access: a database of memory would have prohibitive requirements, so queries are sent to any other users within range.

Mechanics

Public access memory is cyberware [Low]

231. Designer Synesthesia

As the development of mental augmentations accelerated, psychosurgeons began to look at disorders and pathologies for inspiration. Synesthesia has long been a neurological curiosity, and its general harmlessness made it an easy candidate, at least once ways to make it useful had been developed.

Designer synesthesia is most popular among mathematicians, logicians and scientists. Commonly, important mathematical or logical patterns will be made to appear visually distinct. Conversion of phenomenon that exist beyond human sensory ranges into comprehensible qualia are also routine in certain fields.

Mechanics

Designer synesthesia is a psychosurgical procedure.

Timeframe: 1 week
PM: -10
SV: 1d10/2

Plot Hook: There have been rumors of an exhuman project to achieve "total" synesthesia, with no barriers between modes of perception, and information being received in whatever way is preferred. Most experts maintain that this can't be done, if it even makes sense. A player character skilled in psychosurgury may nonetheless be contacted with a request to act as consultant. If that goes well, they will be offered to more direct work, work Firewall would be interested in seeing.

222. The Human Uplift Project

The human uplift project is a Cognite/exhuman cooperative attempt to take the techniques developed uplifting animals and apply them to humans. Making posthumans who would be to humans as humans were to pre-uplifted animals. How this would actually be done was a matter of long debate: animal uplifting processes always drew heavily from human examples. It was eventually decided that, in addition to greater overall intelligence, they should create a more powerful consciousness, in greater control of its faculties.

The endeavor is one of the greatest examples of the still new and dangerous field of unique psychosurgeries: the creation of new modes of thought not based on any existing examples. The bulk of the successful work, admittedly, is still based on existing mental augmentations, modified to fit together into a greater whole.

Thus far, the human uplifting program's most applicable results has been a small suite of mental augmentations and permanent psychosurgical procedures. Individually they amount only to a little, but together synergistic effects do create an undeniable transcendent result. The next step in the project will go beyond what can be done to existing minds, requiring that egos be made and raised with uplifting in mind.

Mechanics

Human uplifting is a mental augmentation [Expensive+]

Human uplifting grants the equivalent of the introspection cortex and endocrine control augmentations, as well as the eidetic memory, hyper linguist, math boost, and fast learner traits.

214. Daemons

Muses are one of the most useful and most taken for granted technologies of the post-singularity world. The constant labors of the personal assistant AIs have eliminated secretaries, receptionists, supervisors, and many managers, as well as general practitioners, many therapists, and earlier AIs. The efficiency gained through their pervasive use cannot be fully calculated, but many are confident it can still be increased.

The difference between a daemon and a muse is simple. Instead of working through the inefficiencies of spoken language, or displays, a daemon has a direct line into the brain. A daemon's advice is not spoken and not heard, instead it is immediately comprehended. The benefits of this close union are an increase in effectiveness across the board, because, although the muse's AI is not upgraded, its ability to interact with its user is greatly increased.

Although muses have gained acceptance from bioconservatives and those afraid of AI through sheer practicality, daemons are another story. Large segments of most populations do not want to give an AI a direct brain interface.

Mechanics

A daemon is a muse with a cyberware upgrade [Moderate] giving it direct access to the brain.

A daemon gains +5 to all skills. There may be other benefits at the GM's discretion.

204. Introspection Cortex

Cognite receives the most attention for their uplift programs, but the development of mental augmentations is still one of their primary sources of revenue. One of their older products, still one of their top earners is the introspection cortex.

The introspection cortex is a supplementary network of connections between key areas of the brain (or, in cyberbrains, a simulation of such). The effect of the new network is to bring the unconscious mind into the reach of consciousness. Users do not gain any direct control over the unconscious aspects of their mind, but do become directly aware of them. A user will have an intuitive understanding of the fact that, for example, their dislike of a person is due to them smelling similar to an old enemy, or that their bad mood has more to due with their diet than their current circumstances.

A bioware equivalent is in the works.

Mechanics

Introspection Cortex's are cyberware [Moderate]

Combining an introspection cortex with augmentations such as endocrine control or a feedback cortex may produce synergistic effects boosting their benefits by 5 - 10, at the GM's discretion.

196. Multi-Soldiers

Transhuman augmentation offers tremendous potential to military organizations, but augmentation isn't free and good morphs are certainly not cheap. Programs for standard augmentation, once the costs of surgery, downtime, and augment-usage training are factored in to the equation, can quickly become impractically expensive, even for hypercorps. Those augmentations that become standard are those whose benefits best outweigh their costs.

The multitasking augmentation, requiring only a cortical stack and therefore compatible with virtually all morphs, has become one of those standard augmentations. The primary disadvantage is the need for skilled soldiers, as forks have the skills of their originals and the most effective multitaskers will be those who can fill the roles of multiple types of specialists as well as typical soldiering.

The first fork is the most like a traditional soldier. This fork has direct control of the body, shooting, moving, and otherwise doing what a soldier would be expected to do. This fork is the only one with bodily control, and will typically be the only one using its senses as well.

The second fork maintains communications, tacnet, and operational awareness. This fork acts as a voice in the ears of the other two, giving important information, relaying orders, navigating, and keeping an eye on the situation as a whole and updating the others when needed. This fork typically spends its time in a simple VR environment containing tacnet feeds, communications, maps and other important sources of information.

The third fork typically specializes in infosec or bot-jamming, depending on what is needed. In the post-singularity battlefield hacking can be a powerful weapon, in the hands of one's enemies as well as oneself. An infosec specialist fork exploits weaknesses in enemy communications, but their primary task is typically defensive. It is also common for the third fork to be tasked as a bot-jammer, maintaining control of a small group of combat drones. A multitasking soldier who is actively fighting, maintaining situational awareness, and with control of several drones is as effective as a squad.

179. Animalware Cybersuites

Asked about the high costs of animal ownership, most would cite the costs of exowombs, sufficient livable space, or specialized food. The costs of training are most often underestimated, as they require either time or the services of a specialist or AI. Fa Jing's new line of animalware cybersuites was designed to meet that need, but instead they created a revolution in smart animal design, augmentation and training, bringing animals into the post-singularity age.

An animalware cybersuite replaces the biological brain with a cyberbrain, including an animal oriented ego-bridging service, a cybercortex, and a specially designed skillwire. A cyberbrain allows for easy forking of your good boys, a cybercortex increases intelligence and trainability, and skillware allows instant housebreaking and mastery of basic commands.

Mechanics

Animalware Cybersuites are cyberware (High)

176. Packnet

Favored by shepherds, packnets are tacnets designed for use by smart animals. Unlike tacnets, a packnet is not just software but must be implanted as special cyberware, acting as mesh inserts and simple brain scanners. This way the animal does not have to be trained to use a computer interface, as the packnet reacts directly to its thoughts. A cybercortex is highly recommended if the system is to be used to its fullest potential, and the system also combines well with compulsion goads, allowing single shepherds to control large groups with ease.

The animals are not presented with formal maps, but are given an intuitive knowledge of their surroundings. They do not communicate through language, but instintively understand each others intentions, as well as what the others are sensing and experiencing. The implant will induce fear or caution to steer its charges away from threats, and hunger or rage to entice them against targets.

Mechanics

Packnets are cyberware [High]

Packnets offer the same advantage as tacnets, but designed for use by smart animals. Non-smart animals (traditional breeds) are typically unable to use packnets in any significant way.

133. Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is the ancient human habit of ascribing human chracteristics and motives to non-human and even non-living entities.

The anthropomorphism psychosurgical procedure is designed to increase a subjects ability to understand the natural world by, interestingly enough, making the mind less rational. Specifically, the tendency to anthropomorphize is increased, but not so strongly that it will override learned facts. Done correctly, a subject will still recognize abstractly what logic and science has learned, but will incorporate those facts into their internal mythology, at which point it will be processed through the well-evolved social regions of the brain. Anthropomorphism subjects have a noted increase in accuracy when predicting future events based upon their conception of the motives of natural phenomenon.

Some groups also make use of the procedure religiously; it has, for example, been the root of a resurgence of Shinto, and is often used by those inclined towards mysticism.

Mechanics

Anthropomorphism is a psychosurgical procedure.

Timeframe: 1 week
PM: -10
SV: 1d10/2

At the GMs discretion anthropomorphism can be treated as the predictive boost and/or pattern recognition gamma sleights.

82. Zombies

The existence of asynchs and their sleights raised huge new questions about transhuman consciousness and egos, and new ideas as to what could be done with transhuman consciousnesses and egos. A research team funded by Direct Action, Fa Jing and Somatek were assigned the "unconscious lead" chi slight. Specifically, hypercorp higher-ups wanted to know if the effect could be reproduced with psychosurgery. They succeeded.

Zombies, those who have undergone the procedure, have no apparent consciousness, and the unconscious sections of the brain are given free reign. Zombies are nonetheless quite competent in everyday life. They may require supervision when dealing with unknowns, but are entirely capable of maintaining a basic routine. One of the largest changes in function is a loss of direction. Without a conscious mind prioritizing tasks, a zombie will simply do whatever falls in line with their basic instincts, whatever they can recognize as critical, and, most often, whatever they have been trained to do or ordered to do by recognized authorities. Commonly zombies are given specialized Muses to assist them in navigating unexpected problems

Control of zombies is handled in two parts. First, before the procedure, the ego is given exhaustive training in whatever tasks they may be required to do. Second, during the procedure, the ego is imprinted with a deep-seated instinct to obey certain people, their muse, or other sources of orders. Once this has been done, the completed zombie will accept commands as if it were their own will.

Zombies are goal-oriented to the point of suicide. Left to their own devices, their basic aversion to pain keeps them from harming themselves, but they will ignore pain, injury and immanent death when pursuing a goal (unless ordered to preserve themselves). They can also be highly suggestible; isolated from their muse or superior, or improperly imprinted, they tend follow any suggestion that is not obviously a bad idea.

Mechanics

Creation of a zombie is a psychosurgical procedure. The zombie gains +1 speed, and do not take SV.

Timeframe: 1 month
PM: -30
SV: -

The procedure is irreversible.

Notes

Inspired by the zombies from Peter Watts' Echopraxia, and the PRISM theory of consciousness.

71. Instinct Sets

The instincts that transhumans are born with, whether they are humans, human-based AGIs, or uplifts, are not not suited to the post-singulairty world they live in. To those who are willing, this problem can be solved. Their ancient but irrelevant instincts can be replaced with those designed to meet the world they now live in.

An instinct set is created in imitation of an effective AI. Neural networks are trained to perform sets of tasks in simulation. Once they have achieved acceptable levels of success, the networks are streamlined and the methods they have developed are analyzed. Ideally, the result is a breakdown of successful behaviors into sets of rules, and a neural network that follows those rules. These are the guidelines used during psychosurgery to wire new impulses and intuitions. Done correctly, someone who has never seen a gun in person will dive for cover instantly when fired upon, and day-traders will feel no reason to throw good money after bad.

Instinct sets can cover any topic that can be simulated, and range from "Game Theory in Politics" to "Freefall for Mud-Farmers" and "Surviving Exposure to Vacuum".

Mechanics

Most of the effects of an instinct sets should be roleplayed. Mechanically, they can be treated as re-fluffed skillsofts.

59. Eudaimonia Gland

The eudaimonia gland began, almost a century ago, with research into the biofabrication of psychotropic medications and nootropics. Innovations that allowed for the manufacture of these substances by engineered bacteria eventually led to the ability of  the human body to create them. Specialized glands for specific compounds eventually gave way to more generalized designs. The eudaimonia gland is the culmination of this research: a single gland producing a broad spectrum of beneficial mind altering substances.

A eudaimonia gland sits at the base of the brain, constantly sampling brain chemistry and secreting varieties of psychotropics based on those samples. The gland is deliberately capable of creating only small doses, so as to avoid overdoses. This means that the gland can not, in itself, provide complete treatment for all but the mildest of mental illnesses, but it does blunt the edge of stresses and traumas, and they have seen a huge surge in use since the Fall.

Mechanics

A eudaimonia gland is bioware [Moderate]

Treat as a drug gland (Comfurt).

48. Programmed Identity

The most convincing liars are those who do not realize that they are lying. In the information saturated societies of the solar system, effective deception can be virtually impossible to get away with. Even a good disguise and forged ID can only go so far. For the best covert agents, the disguise is real, the new identity fooling their own minds.

A programmed identity is created in only two steps. First, removal of one set of memories from easy access, and second, creation of a more readily available set of memories. The procedure is most effective if combined with altered habits and other personality traits, although going too far in this direction replaces the ego entirely. To the altered agent, the created identity is natural and easily accepted. While their real memories still exist, and can be accessed when appropriate, they come only with patience and effort, like trying to remember a word on the tip of your tongue. 

Mechanics

The creation of a programmed identity is a psychosurgical procedure. A programmed identity grants +30 to deception rolls involved with maintaining a cover.

Timeframe: 1 week
PM: -10
SV: (1d10 / 2, round up)

47. Temper Switch

A temper switch does not create forks, like the multitasking mod. Neither does it accommodate an additional ego, like the multiple personalities augment. A temper switch provides a virtually instantaneous transition between sets of attitudes and values.

The earliest and still most common model switches between two value sets: one normal, and one "cold". The normal set is the one the ego possesses naturally, as if the temper switch did not exist. The "cold" set emphasizes completion of goals and efficiency, de-emphasizes the immediate value of life and importance of taboos, and minimizes responses to traumatic situations.

Temper switches are most regularly used by those whose work involves stressful and/or traumatic situations where efficient performance of duties is a priority. Doctors, emergency personnel and soldiers were the early adopters. The switch is most effectively used by those in institutions with established temper switch care facilities: after switching back, all the stress and trauma experienced by the 'cold' personality suddenly bombard the normal ego. Without immediate and sustained care, the trauma can easily be irreversible.

Mechanics

Installation of a temper switch is a psychosurgery procedure.

Once switched, an ego will take 1 SV per hour, in addition to any other SV taken. The ego will not, however, suffer any traumas or resulting disorders and derangements. Once switched back, all SV and their consequences are suffered immediately.

Timeframe: 1 week
PM: -20
SV: 1d10

33. Subjective Run Time

One of the hardest problems for the Interstellar Club to solve was time. Even at a large fraction of the speed of light interstellar travel is measured in decades. An ego sleeved into a Neumann morph must be expected to spend most if not all of its life in isolation, with lags of years on light-speed communication, in the sensory deprivation chamber of interstellar space.

The subjective run time cyberbrain modification ties the clock speed of the cyberbrain to the amount of received stimuli. An expert program continuously evaluates received information, increasing or decreasing the speed of thought to match. To an interstellar traveler, the long spans of interstellar travel would pass relatively quickly, with the bulk of its mental life occurring while inside solar systems, making observations, or while receiving communications.

Some couriers and ring-fliers have been experimenting with using the mod; there are few other potential in-system uses. The program is open-sourced through the Argonauts.

Mechanics

Subjective run time is cyberware [Moderate]

27. Plasticity Treatments

The functions of the brain are not trapped in neatly demarcated areas. Give enough time, the brain will reroute or relearn many tasks, allowing for significant recovery after some brain damage. It is during infancy and childhood that the brain is most plastic and capable of learning at great rates.

With a cycle of plasticity treatments, these great learning and adapting abilities can be regained, no matter the age. A tailored retrovirus followed by a short round of hormones allows the brain to once again rapidly adjust itself to new circumstances. The treatment has become popular with those attempting to learn new suites of skills, adjust to new morphs or otherwise adapt themselves to long-term, radical changes. The cost, however, can be high. Memories formed before the treatments began slowly become unintelligible to the newly altered brain.

Mechanics

Plasticity treatments are bioware [Moderate]

Plasticity treatments halve the time necessary to learn new skills, acclimate to new morphs and more (at the GM's discretion), but at the cost of many pre-treatment memories.

25. Deja Vu

A godsend to the labor markets of the inner system, deja vu allows workers to repeat repetitive tasks without boredom or stress. Because of the influx of unskilled infugees, and despite the established industry of AI design, it has become economically favorable (at least in the inner system) to employ egos based on their basic intuitions and instincts, as opposed to learned skills. A typical ego is competitive in such tasks as pattern recognition (especially those involving faces) rapid character evaluations and arbitrary sorting problems.

The deja vu mental modification simply prevents the transfer of memory from short-term to long-term, while simultaneously interfering with the ego's sense of time. As a result, the ego cannot become bored and will not realize how much time has passed, allowing them to repeat a task for an indefinite length of time. Often, the mod is paired with a psychosurgically enforced focus on the presented task.

For example, an infugee might be indentured to spend 3 years in the wide-angle camera of a hotel lobby. This would render most egos insane, but with deja vu, the ego is simply told to watch for a small set of faces, and after a few minutes, they find that three years have passed and there indenture completed.

24. Fork Hives

The restoration of contact with Synergy and the revelation of their new group-mind sent shock waves through transhuman and exhuman society. Gestalts and group minds had long been a holy grail of exhuman researchers, but attempts to link different minds had only resulted in various levels of failure. The only other successful group minds were those that linked alpha forks of the same person, instead of different individuals: fork hives.

Unlike the neo-synergists, it is inevitable that a fork hive will dissolve the individuality of its members. The fork hive begins as identical copies of the same mind, after all, and the lack of barriers is a powerful counter to divergence. The degree of independence forks can develop is based upon latency and bandwidth in communication. As the link is degrades, divergence increases. Forks that remain within close contact (within the same habitat or city) are kept so similar as to be the different trains of thought of one individual. Forks venturing further will begin to diverge, as the total mind-link gives way to frequent short-term memory and emotional updates, or even long-term, biographical memory only.

In the long term, a fork hive will slowly diversify from a single shared mind into an ecosystem of egos. If a hive seeks to be in multiple places at once, it must accept the divergence that distance causes. A mature hive might consist of multiple groups, with divergence occurring on the scale of the groups themselves. 10 forks in Valles-New Shanghai would have a strong enough connection to prevent all divergence and can be considered one person with incredible multitasking abilities. All of those forks would a looser connection to the group in Olympus, who are themselves tightly bonded. The relationship between groups is closer than that of typical individuals, but loose enough to allow for divergence, imperfect cooperation and even competition.

This growth of diversity of egos is considered by some exhuman thinkers to be not just acceptable, but highly advantages. A tightly bonded hive is like a species, with a limited set of thoughts and attitudes. A diverse hive is like an ecosystem, with many both complementary and competing thoughts and attitudes. Species, they point out, often go extinct, but ecosystems have the resilience of diversity.

17. Feedback Cortex

The feedback cortex is the newest cyberbrain peripheral from Cognite, with rumored exhuman collaboration. The goal of the cortex was to allow conscious modification of one's own ego, and that goal was achieved, albeit with significant downsides.

The feedback cortex will first make an alpha fork of your ego. Then, you are required to perform the desired psychosurgery on the fork. A specialized AI will observe your work, as well as taking before and after ego snapshots and use this information to duplicate the surgery.

Many bioconservatives have criticized the feedback cortex, arguing that the requirement of prior skill in psychosurgy and doubled time-spans makes it preferable only for those who cannot go to professional psychosurgeons. Why wouldn't someone be able to go to a professional? Either because of the extremeness of their isolation or of the desired procedures. Therefore the product can only intended only for exhumans and singularity seekers, and should be outlawed. Persistent rumors of exhuman involvement in development suggest they may not be wrong.

Mechanics

The feedback cortex is cyberware [High]

The feedback cortex can only be used by cyberbrains or infomorphs.

The feedback cortex allows an ego to perform psychosurgery on itself. Because the psychosurgery must be performed twice, first to program the AI, then the actual surgery by the AI, all procedures take twice as long.

Plot Hook: Firewall has proof that much of the original research behind the cortex was provided by an active clade of exhumans. They are concerned that the exhumans will take the cortex much farther  than even Cognite was willing to go, using the cortex as a way to induce continual growth, akin to seed AIs. The players are asked to investigate and intervene.