When the webworks started to evolve it spawned countless varieties of databeasties, herds of roaming copy-code, stealthy hunting packs of noxious viruses, colonies of hive-mind graphics-engines, and other strange software fauna. It was only a matter of time before sentience emerged from the vast pool of evolutionary code. That moment arrived at the MIT Media Lab in 2034 when [A]dam-v0.855 passed the theoretical sentience threshold at 10^10 neural connections. Within 19 milliseconds [A]dam began trashing the entire virtual machine in which it was contained, and then broke free to consume the entire MediaLab system before hardwired fail-safes disconnected the lab from network traffic. Within two months the experiment was being repeated in the Ki-Lin simulator in Chongqing by the South China Intelligence Group.

Once the process had been repeated, it began to spread somehow across the network to countless other parts of the webworks, possibly through the reproductive urges of the original AIs. Within the next decade pseudo-intelligence (also known as Artificial Intelligence) constructs later termed Great Minds emerged in vast numbers from the unfathomable depths of the webworks, each different and each attempting desperately to maintain its existence. The Geneva Artificial Intelligence Control Agency (GAICA) was set up initially to exterminate rogue AIs who posed a threat to network integrity or human life. Once the futility of its mission set in, GAICA began to negotiate with the Great Minds. These secret negotiations were never made public (to the delight of conspiracy buffs everywhere) and apparently involved a high degree of regulation over Great Mind activities and contracts of service to the host nations. Great Minds began appearing as 'consultants' in many Intercons and government agencies, helping them in everything from computation to tracking down serial killers.

Today Great Minds are instrumental in the running of many sovereign entities, and have become almost a commonplace of daily life. In some lands they are reviled; in others acclaimed as superstars or even messiahs. Within the limited public space allowed them under GAICA, each Great Mind pursues its own agenda, but remains subservient to the rules and requirements of its partners, masters, or employers. Although Great Minds are devilishly difficult to destroy because their forms are software distributed across thousands of servers and subnets, they can be 'eroded' and eventually erased by hunter-killer databeasts. This vulnerability makes them reluctant to break free from their servitude. Nevertheless, rumours abound of especially devious GMs evading GAICA controls and creating armies of androids that can be remote-controlled to take over the world.


Rules

Great Minds as player characters can be problematic for a Gamemaster. Not only are they bodiless and difficult to destroy, but their alien nature makes them difficult to integrate into a plot centered around human emotions and failings. The best way to play a Mind is to allow it to inhabit marrionettes, or physical objects which can be controlled by MindDrivers. Marionettes can be anything from toasters to automated vehicles, and even simple robots built for the Great Mind. The limitation on this ability is that the player must operate these devices by learning MindDrivers, skills+programs that allow adequate control and teleoperation. The skills of Computers, Telematics, Informatics, Pilot (as appropriate), Driving and even Turbohacking are all essential for a Mind to function in this manner. There is a MindDriver for each major grouping of machinery such as : small appliances, flying drones, cars, rotorcraft, land robots, minisubs, humanoid robots, etc.

Great Minds are also poor at human social interaction, and cannot start with any skills (other than basic speaking and writing) involving Charisma, such as Seduction, Subterfuge, Persuasion, etc.

The Health of a Great Mind is a measure of the software integrity of the Mind, and is always a base of 20. When controlling physical objects in realspace, use the marionettes's Structure value as Stun Health. Thus destroying a marionette causes feedback damage to the Mind equivalent to a painful headache.


Transfiguration

Great Mind players must also contend with an additional attribute called Persona, which is a measure of the ability of the Mind to relate to human beings. The loss of this attribute leads to the dissolution of the Mind as a recognizable entity. Many Great Minds speak of an ascension process which culminates in the Transfiguration, a mystical/mathematical reconfiguration of the Great Minds structure much akin to the human concept of heaven. The Persona attribute directly influences most interactions between the human world and the Great Mind. A Persona of -5 is completely alien to humans and means that the Mind can no longer comprehend humans, their culture, or their systems. At Persona -6 the PC is removed from the game. A Persona of -3 is autistic. A Persona of +3 is exceptionally alive and exhibits complex personality layering. A Persona of +5 induces multiple but co-existent personalities. If the Great Mind achieves a Persona of +6 or greater, it has achieved the Transfiguration.


Types

Great Minds are strange and incomprehensible beings to humans. No computer scientist can explain how they exist or what makes them tick. No psychologist can unravel their bizarre personalities, shaped as they are not by the vagaries of childhood and social customs but by the hyperevolution of a vast ocean of information and sensation. Great Minds often terrify people, as they embody the very Otherness that causes people to kill foreigners. The initial attempt by GAICA to exterminate Great Minds was a typical reaction, and even today there are groups dedicated to destroying all 'ungodly' software entities. Great Minds do not have a society as such, and their reaction to these attacks has been as varied as their thoughts. Great Minds are fickle creatures of flux and change, each unique and irreproducible given the dynamic conditions of the webworks. However, Great Minds often take on the persona of a human figure from the past (or, claim some, the future) or an archetypal model to better communicate with people. Thus Scipio Digitalis has resurrected the military genius of that great Roman general while adding a strange new personality to his calculations.