From:	grahamdrew grahamdrew@*********.com
Subject:	Androids
Date:	Tue, 09 Feb 1999 03:59:15 -0500

Slipspeed wrote:
>
> >One of my players brought up something the other night. He wanted to know
> >if there were androids in SR.. or anything close..like replicants from BR.
> >
> >I did notice some things that could be in the same family while flipping
> >through RA:S but I don't know if they are considered androids.
> >
> >I almost think it would be cool to have someone play a character that is
> >like DATA from ST:TNG who is a decker.
>
> Definition time; Android as in human-like synthetic creation of man,
> intelligent, capable of learning, independent etc...
>
> To my knowledge, there are none. The closest are either the cybermancy
> created people (though they're closer to cyborg) or the (rumoured) super AIs
> in the matrix. The AIs sort of count, as if they found a cybernetic body
> out of the matrix, they could control it, but would not be independent, as
> they wouldn't be able to download their intelligence to it and leave the
> matrix.
>
> Slipspeed
<sniped sig>

Ok, to expand on that a little, what if an AI got trapped in a drone or
something. Basing it on the rules for SKs in VR 2.0 what if the AI were
on a closed system, and it's only node were the remote control interface
for an anthropod? It sounds a tad corny, and the AI eould probly
eventually figure out some way to get into the rest of the matrix, but
it just could work.

If it were just an AI controling an anthro;pod, I wouldn't really see it
as an AI (myself, probly under definition it would fit but...) unless it
were confined to existance as one form. Doesn't really count if you can
switch bodys ever few nanoseconds...