Brainchild:Needs help, A character concept involving the merger of a AI and a man Options

[Lok1 :)]

Ok as a word of cation, I am suffering from a major dose of Si-Fi overdose, primarly a lot of Orson scott card and Isaac Asimov.
The idea came to me while thinking of a AI character, what about a character who for some reason or other needed a comlink implat to be able to function with other humans and the program that he had became sentient. By "fuction with other humans" I mean he was born with a brain defect so that the area of his brain that manages communication was dammaged to the point that his brain can not normally process human speech or other means of communication. Though much like autism with one part of the brain non-functioning the rest of his brain exelled giveing him a higher perseption and somewhat higher intellect than normal. He can understand intintions and body movement but nothing else.
Shortly after birth he was implanted with a special comlink that would compleatly interface almost totally with his mind to if not translate realy what others are saying and the information displayed in writeing. The nature of the connection would be so that the proccess would be slightly iffy, sometimes his brain would have trouble getting the full message, as a result the program with his parents programing helped his brain learn and explaned the world to him, in a way raising him.
Eventualy the pure creativity of his mind and the intimate level of wich he interfaced with the program it began to become more human to the point at wich it became a full AI.
Basicly I see him as protecting the AI with wich he shares the world and becomeing a runner becaus if it were ever found out the nature of their connection has never been heard of before and all kinds of tests and isolations would happen if it were discoverd. Mechanicly though my somewhat limited knowledge of SR (I've red through the corebook and the companion and a bit of some of the supplements) is inadequate to begin to know how to make it into a runnable character. I'm thinking the human himself as somewhere between a hacker and a bun bunny. Basicly a high logic "action hero" style runner. And the AI as a very complex hacker like character with probibly a little less focus on the breaking and intery and more on data gathering, though cracking would be nice as well.
As it is I don't know how to handle this and would greatly apperiate your help, sorry for the length of the post and any grammatical and spelling errors, I'm a bit dyslexic. Any rollplaying ideas for the character would be nice to, I kind of see the relationship between the character and the AI as a mixture of parent and child/ sister and brother/ man and wife. I know thats realy broad but its as close as I can get to explaneing how I would see it.
Thanks in advance
AllenT

[Jaid]

i would suggest you take the human as the character, and the AI as a high loyalty contact. probably a relatively low connection rating though.

[McAllister]

You could design the (meta)human and the AI separately using 400 BP for each, or you could take the AI as a Loyalty 6 contact. Taking the AI as a contact probably makes more sense; if you make the character pay for the AI's upkeep, programs and other such things, the mechanical advantage of the AI using its own skills probably wouldn't be very high.

Another fun character idea would be to have the AI pretend to be the character's virtual persona; maybe people who were very close with the character would notice something was different, but for the most part the AI would know enough about the character to impersonate him.

One interesting note; would the AI be able to notice magic? I guess if the commlink were implanted (so he had DNI) he could notice magic normally (which living being do better than sensors) and "think" the information to the AI, but I don't even know if it would work.

Do you have any specific questions?

[Rasumichin]

I wouldn't implant the link directly after birth.
Putting headware in someone's skull is something you should only do when said skull is fully grown instead of being a losely connected mess of several bone pieces who are only slightly denser than gristhle- in other words, at least wait till he's a fully grown teenager and use an external link and trodes until then, works pretty much the same way.
Not that it would matter much, as you're probably not going to play a kid, but an adult or at least adolescent character, just saying.

For the AI to emerge, the crucial factors seem to be raw processing power (so better make that one high end link) and program complexity.
Probably use a combination of an extensive top-notch linguasoft library and several social skill activesofts (if the character is so severely impaired, just take the entire Influence skill group plus Intimidation, each at the highest level available, plus appropriate software options from Unwired) to emulate a highly complex communications expert suite.
You could probably even take Restricted Gear to obtain at least one of the programs at the highest possible level and with as many options as possible.

Note that there seems to be considerable impact on the AIs personality depending on the kind of program it evolved from.
In this case, the AI may be either extremely chatty and outgoing if it is a metasapient.
It would be much more social and would appear more human than other AI.
Or, if it is a xenosapient, it could be obsessed with linguistics, grammar and archiving new vocabulary items, which would most likely lead to the archivist subtype of xenosapients.
Unless it has a habit of making up new languages- in this case, it could be a very unique kind of sculptor AI, which could require some houserules, as sculptors are usually concerned with designing hosts, not languages.
But then, it could just be a pastime of the AI, without conferring it to the sculptor subtype.
Note that there seem to be a lot of metasapient AIs who enjoy creative work.
If you go for a metasapient, it could either be a linguist, an aspiring author, a wannabe matrix talk show host or something even more bizarre than all of the above.


If you choose it to be a xenosapient instead, you have to either make it a connection or take the negative lifestyle Quality AI in Residence at the GMs discretion, because normally, the AI is supposed to sit around in a node in your home, not in your head.
I'd advise against the latter, it could become pretty uncomfortable if you have a slightly hostile or at least uncaring AI sitting next to your brain.
In any case, i'd strongly recommend the Synthetic Sympathy positive Quality form Unwired, it would be extremely helpful for your character, especially if the AI is a xenosapient.
In this case, you're in for some...interesting roleplay with it, anyway.
Xenosapients are about the most alien sentients in the 6th world, most likely even stranger than free spirits or dragons.

In general, i'd recommend to make the AI an NPC.
Even though it could be fun for another player to roleplay the AI, i don't like RCs AI rules much, preferring the rules for NPCs given in Unwired.
However, if it is an NPC, you should probably send you GM over to this thread as well.

[Lok1 :)]

I agree with the waiting untill the teen years for the implant(I plan to play him in his mid twentys), I realised this shortly after I made the post but you caught it before I did and came up with a good solotion. As for the AI I think a metasapient would be the best choice, moveing towards what program it was orignaly I think it would be somewhere between a high level lingasoft, education softwear, and a compleat personal comlink allowing that his parents were rich. It would have helped him run his finances, social calander, education, as well as teaching social skills. Given the fact that it would be his only link to the rest of the world it would have been special programed to adapt itself to his needs through self programing. As for its attitude quick witted from years of tutoring and debateing with the boy as well as a compleat devoition.
Also this is just an idea I got out of the blue, I don't yet have a GM or a gamefor him, but their may be a game I'm joining soon or I could just find a good online one.

A few quistions:
How would the AI take to him useing the money he stoll from his parents when he dispeared to have himself outfitted with wired reflexes (2 or 3 if the GM will let me)
Would he be able to speak or would the AI have to relay his thoughts via a voice simulator as a audio message to his companions.
What kind of cyberwear/biowear would make him more effective
What qualitys/ware would go well with this background
Are their any GMs with online games that have a spot and are willing to GM this character?
Any more rollplaying ideas

AllenT

[fistandantilus4....]

You could go an entirely different way. The character is an experiment, a brain dead human put together as a bio drone that a minor AI somehow got into. Make an AI character out of Unwired, and play it out that way. Could be fun, an offer a unique perspective.

[Lok1 :)]

No thanks, I specificy DID NOT want to head in that direction. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

[Rasumichin]

How would the AI take to him useing the money he stoll from his parents when he dispeared to have himself outfitted with wired reflexes (2 or 3 if the GM will let me)

Depends on the AI.
It could constantly moralize about his wrong decisions, it could view it as a way to make it's home node safer.

Would he be able to speak or would the AI have to relay his thoughts via a voice simulator as a audio message to his companions.

Whom do you mean?
Wether the metahuman character would be able to speak depends on the kind of his disability.
If his condition just impacts his social skills, he most likely could.
If his entire speech centre is defunct, he may or may not need a voice modulation implant.
Basically, it's your choice, as i don't see an appropriate quality in the books for your character's condition.

Regarding the AI, it of course has to rely on technical means to communicate with others.

What kind of cyberwear/biowear would make him more effective

Depends on what you want him to do.
Hackers benefit from Encephalon, PuSheD geneware and Simsense Accelerator.
If you want to do a lot of coding on your own, get a Sleep Regulator, Cerebral Booster and Neocortical Neural Stimulus Nanites.

A gunbunny basically needs at least 3 IPs and high Agility.
For the latter, you can use Muscle Toner or -if you use one-handed weapons- a customized cyberarm.
Synthacardium is also a top choice for combat roles, as it gives +3 to Athletics, including athletic dodge.
Perception-enhancing 'ware is also a premium choice.

What qualitys/ware would go well with this background

'ware :
Skillwires (also enormously useful), implanted commlink and probably a datajack are all a must given the backstory.
Besides that, we know too little about the character to tell what else would fit.

Some suggestions for Qualities :

Positive :
Intuitive Hacking
Codeslinger
Synthetic Sympathy
Analytical Mind
Trust Fund (if you decide he didn't steal his parent's money and ran away)
Probably stuff like Born Rich and Privileged Family Name
Erased (done by the AI)
Restricted Gear
Speed Reading (if you want to portray him like a kind of savant)
College or Tech School Education

Negative :
SINner/Criminal SIN
Data Shadow
Media Junkie
Reality Impaired
Virtual Personality
Records on File (medical history and probably also stuff regarding the AI)
Wanted (if he did steal large amounts of money from his parents and ran away)

Note that not all of these are compatible with each other.
Pick which ones suit your concept best.

As far as roleplay is concerned, i'd personally avoid the whole thing with running away from his parents, stealing their money and so on.
There's enough ways to pay for combat 'ware when you're a hacker and the other stuff was paid for by mom and dad and i'm tired of characters who have no contact with their family anymore, it comes up way too often for my tastes- but that's a personal preference.