Infomorphs

Infomorphs are virtual mind-states, the software upon which egos are run. Each is a complex assortment of packages that together emulate a neural structure. They serve as the digital “body” for an ego, whether that be an AI or the emulation of a biological mind. Whereas a backup is just an inactive file, infomorphs are software executables, active programs that bring the ego to electronic life.

For millions of infugees, a digital form is their only choice. Some are locked away in virtual realities, effectively imprisoned and separated from the mesh. Others are stored as deactivated files, forgotten by habitats that don’t have the resources to accommodate them. Others sell themselves into indentured service, performing digital labor for hypercorps or criminal syndicates for a pittance, desperately hoping to eventually hoard enough credits to buy their freedom and a cheap sleeve. Quite a few freely roam the mesh, interacting with the physical world via AR and bots. A few find companions to bring them along in a ghostrider module, becoming an integral part of their lives, much like a muse.

Many transhumans willingly choose the infomorph lifestyle, either for hedonism (custom simulspace and VR games until the end of time), escapism (misfortune leads them to write off physical concerns), freedom (going anywhere the mesh takes them — some have even beamed copies of themselves to distant star systems, hoping someone or something will receive their signal when they arrive), or experimentation (forking and merging, running simulations, and weirder things). Naturally, most infolife AGIs tend to prefer a digital existence over the banalities of the physical world.

Though disembodied, infomorphs can interact with the physical world via the mesh, viewing through sensors, streaming XP feeds, communicating with characters, commanding puppeted devices, and teleoperating bots.

Home Device

Every infomorph must be run on a specific host or server — your home device. The privileged choose secure systems upon which they have admin access, but most simply rent a private partition on a major server. Others reside in the mesh inserts or ghostrider modules of friends, relatives, or hired “taxis.” Your home device stores your mind-state files and handles the processing needs of your mind-emulation suite. You can access other devices through the mesh, but you reside on your home device. Infomorphs act as their own account shells on their home devices.

The safety of your home device is important. If it is shut down, you shut down with it, rebooting along with the device later. If the device is destroyed, you are killed, though your data may be recoverable from salvaged components (perhaps resulting in a vapor).

A host can be home to only one infomorph at a time; servers may run multiple infomorphs. Most motes do not have the processing power to run infomorphs.

Inadequate Devices

Some devices lack the full processing power required to run an infomorph. This includes outdated systems, devices that have suffered extensive damage, partially functioning servers running in long-abandoned outposts, ad-hoc cobbled-together systems, and some motes from which the resident ALI has been deleted. Infomorphs may still run these devices, but suffer the same modifiers as for an overloaded device. Infomorphs find running on sub-par hardware to be a deeply unpleasant and frustrating experience.

Distributed Infomorphs

Rather than residing on a single home device, an infomorph can run itself as a distributed neural net using multiple devices at once. Mesh networks make this easy, as devices set aside a portion of their capabilities for public access and meshed devices share processing loads with each other. An infomorph can even run itself as a distributed process using only motes, though this requires 5 at minimum. Meshed together, these motes can handle the mind-state’s storage and processing requirements.

Running as a distributed infomorph has its advantages. Attempts to track you via mesh ID suffer a −10 modifier. You also acquire a degree of invulnerability in mesh combat, as you must be crashed on each device to be completely taken out. You must split your Durability evenly between devices but your Wound Threshold remains the same. However, your attack surface also increases: you can be targeted for hacking and brainhacking on multiple devices. Each device you are distributed upon counts as a home device. If your presence on a device (or the device itself) crashes, you suffer a wound.

Properly distributing yourself takes 1 action turn per device; re-integrating onto a single device takes the same time. If you are ever running on less than 5 motes alone, apply modifiers as if operating on an overloaded device. If you stretch yourself between too many devices (more than 10), you incur a −10 modifier to all actions per increment of 10 devices as your distributed mind suffers communication lag.

Digital Speeds

All infomorphs have the Digital Speed trait, reducing the timeframe for all mesh-based task actions by 25% (cumulative with reductions for superior successes).

Moving Between Devices

As an infomorph, you can move to a new device to which you have access. This simply requires copying to the new device, activating your mind-state, linking your active processes, and erasing yourself from the old device. This takes a full action turn once initiated; you cannot take any other actions, even by spending pool, until it completes. The new device then become your home device. All ongoing actions are suspended (or possibly disrupted; GM discretion) for the duration of the move. You do not lose continuity during the process, nor does this count as resleeving.

Egocasting is a long-distance version of this process, with a longer timeframe.

Do not confuse moving between devices with accessing devices.

You may access multiple devices at the same time like other users, but you are only running on one home device at a time.

Copying

As a digital being, you may also copy yourself. This takes a full action turn and creates an alpha fork. Copied infomorphs do not lose continuity. If you are copied to a different type of infomorph, this counts as resleeving. Your copy includes your digital code along with a cryptographically signed incremental number indicating which copy it is.

Infomorphs acquired from commercal code studios (i.e., most agents, ikons, and operators) have built-in digital restrictions that prevent you from running more than one copy of that morph at a time. Instead, the copy instantiates in a standard digimorph. This copy restriction may be cracked in the same manner as digital blueprints (Cracking Blueprints). Code houses offer bounties for reports of people using cracked infomorph code.

In many jurisdictions, copying oneself is frowned upon or flat-out illegal. Some polities require infomorphs to be encoded with copylock and auto-erase meshware to prevent unauthorized copying and delete the fork upon reaching a legally mandated time limit.

Deletion

You may delete yourself (unless you somehow lack the privileges or are imprisoned in a lockbox). Virtual suicide takes one full action turn.

Evacuating Cyberbrains

Any ego within a cyberbrain may move or copy itself as an infomorph to another device. Egos default to a digimorph, unless you have another type of infomorph available.

Sleeving Morphs

It is a simple matter for an infomorph to sleeve into a morph equipped with a cyberbrain. Infomorphs may also download into biological brains, just like any other ego. See Resleeving.

Backing Up

Infomorphs do not have cortical stacks, but they are automatically backed up as changes to their memories and code are written to their files as they occur. A deactivated infomorph remembers everything up to the point it was shut down. For security, infomorphs arrange regular backups of their ego files to a secure site other than their home device.

Infomorphs and Muses

Many infomorphs have a muse, just like other characters. Lacking cranial implants, however, the muse must either run on the same server or on a separate device. Muses are treated as a separate infomorph.

Infomorph Riders

Active infomorphs can be carried by embodied PCs in a ghostrider module, in mesh inserts in place of a muse, or in any physically carried host or server. This is useful for PC infomorphs that wish to stick with the team or for any PCs that were egocasted or killed and haven’t yet resleeved. It is also a useful option for having forks on hand.

Infomorph riders may remain active even when their host morph is sleeping or incapacitated (Damage and Infomorph Riders).

Infomorph Rumors

//Accessing New Forum Threads//

Anon: OK, everyone, hit me with your latest infomorph scariness mesh rumors. Let’s hear about all of the virtual bogeymen.

Anon: There’s gossip going around Mars’s mesh communities about a private server in Martian orbit that has the best simulspaces anyone has ever seen. It’s like heaven for infomorphs. Allegedly, there’s a secretive group that controls access, and to get in they make you do all sorts of illegal things.

Anon: I heard that the VR was top-notch because a TITAN fork was running it. It was an open debate whether the TITAN was imprisoned there or whether it was luring new infomorphs in to corrupt them and turn them into pawns.

Anon: I've heard better hidden simulspace tales. Like the one about the gerontocrat that gathered up all of the backups of his political rivals back on Earth during the Fall, just so he could run them in a private server to torture, play with, or do as he pleases. It’s said he has the entire Senate of Poland on that drive. They're probably adding new egos to the menagerie all of the time.

Anon: Let’s talk about the Factor infomorphs that are running free on our mesh. Why isn't anyone doing anything about this alien menace?

Anon: It’s not Factors, it’s some other alien entity brought back in an artifact via the gates. No telling how old it is.

Anon: Let’s talk about something with an actual basis in reality. Multiple gatecrashers have testified they were somehow forked when they passed through a gate. According to these claims, their forks were instantiated as infomorphs in some alien system, where they were subjected to various puzzles and tests. They claim that their forks were then re-integrated when they passed back through the gates. According to someone I know at Pathfinder, these accounts included matching details that weren't public.

Anon: Sounds like someone is using the gates to try and figure out how to make contact with us. Or how best to wipe us out.

Anon: We have AGIs in our midst, right now, copying en masse in preparation for a war. A hostile takeover. Open your eyes, people! Fall 2.0 is coming!

Anon: I dunno, maybe stop treating AGIs like inferior nobodies and they won't be so interested in killing us all.

Anon: I've heard of AGIs that are researching ways to reproduce themselves, not by coding, but in a process that replicates biological reproduction.

Anon: Psht,we're fine with copying and modifying code, just as we've already been doing with codelines. We're the future, not you bio meat sacks.