Robots and Total Cyborgs
Robots and Total Cyborgs
A robot is a computer-controlled machine capable of perceiving and manipulating its environment. Robots may be built to serve their creators, or be considered people in their own right.
Various robots are described in GURPS Ultra-Tech, from common household robots to shape-shifting nanomorphs. They can be found in the chapters relevant to their function, e.g., combat robots in the Weaponry chapter. Racial templates are provided for machines that are suitable as player characters or associated NPCs. Other robots are described as animals or equipment.
Robots are also characterized by the type of intelligence inhabiting them. Any given robot body can have different types of intelligence depending on its software, or the replacement of its directing computer with a cyborg brain.
Digital Intelligences
The most typical robot is a machine controlled by a digital intelligence: a sapient self-aware computer program.
The complexity of the computer hardware and the software will set a maximum limit on the robot's IQ. In general, robots with human intelligence require large mainframe systems at TL9, but fit into computers built into man-sized robots at TL10.
Most digital intelligences are Artificial Intelligences, or AIs. For robots that do only what you tell them to do, install a non-volitional AI. For robots that have free will, install a volitional AI.
Digital intelligences can also be mind emulations created from uploading human (or other) brains as detailed in Chapter 8. See Uploading and Mind Emulation ("Ghost") Programs.
For traits associated with different digital intelligences, see Machine Intelligence Lenses.
Drones
A robotic drone is a remotely-controlled machine that is not sentient: it is IQ 0. It usually has a computer onboard that handles some autonomic functions, such as helping to stabilize a walking or flying drone, but a drone isn't self-aware. Drones are also known as remotely-piloted vehicles (RPVs) or teleoperated robots. Most robots are drones at TL7 and TL8.
Renting Robots
Sapient robots with volitional AI are usually rented for about one-fifth the cost of a person hired to do the same job. Those with non-volitional AI are usually cheaper (as they'll need supervision) and rent for about 1/20th the cost of a live hireling. These prices may rise to match human labor costs if robots are free citizens. The low cost of robot labor may also drive down human labor costs!
Rent-a-robot establishments make sure that their customers leave sizable deposits, or have credit cards (or the equivalent) that can be charged in the event of damage or loss.
Superhuman Minds and the Singularity
Volitional AIs with intelligence equivalent to a human genius are possible at TL10+. If created, they build better hardware or software for themselves, resulting in the evolution of AIs whose intellects make humans look like dumb animals or insects. These beings might be able to advance science and engineering to a point human minds can no longer comprehend – a technological "singularity."
In such a society, super-intelligent "AI gods" may rule civilization – or they may remain aloof from lesser intelligences. Their works may be used to justify the existence of superscience technologies (e.g., FTL drives or wormhole networks) that people can use, but do not understand. Such entities can serve as a posthuman alternative to the ancient, wise, and long-vanished "precursor" races that appear in many space opera settings.
Of course, this scenario is by no means predestined! It's just as likely that superhuman AI is difficult or impossible to achieve, or that sapient AIs would be built with strict restrictions to prevent their evolution.Drones are commonly used at TL9 due to the high expense of AI programs. Even at higher TLs, they may be popular as a more physical form of telepresence than virtual reality allows. Some homes or businesses may have drone bodies that are left "open" for guests or customers to borrow. A person might even leave an android duplicate of himself with a loved one if he's going to be away ... and some parents might check in on distant children by paying regular visits in a drone body. With the correct command codes, any robot body – even one housing an AI or cyborg – can be teleoperated as a drone. Even the lowest-IQ non-volitional might suddenly be "possessed" by a greater intelligence!
A drone's computer runs a simple software program (Complexity 3) that controls its body and communication systems. A robot body that is only being used as a drone has the drone lens – see Machine Intelligence Lenses.
Cyborgs
A cyborg is a fusion of biological and machine parts. There are two classes of cyborg: Partial Cyborgs are living creatures whose bodies contain mechanical or electronic parts. They do not qualify for the Machine meta-trait. Someone with an artificial heart, bionic leg, or a neural interface implant is a partial cyborg. See Cybernetics and Uploading.
Total Cyborgs are robot bodies that house an living brain and (sometimes) parts of the spinal cord. Aside from this, they are machines. A total cyborg has a computer that controls many of its functions, but the guiding intelligence is the biological brain. In the case of a total cyborg, the robot's computer is reduced one size (e.g., a personal computer becomes a small computer) and a cyborg brain case inserted.