Legality of Forks

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Automata Automata's picture
Legality of Forks

Hey all. Just wondering if there is any overview of where Forking is accepted, and where it isn't (other than in Jovian space). I know that some places have brief mentions, but they're scattered around and I can't find them when I look for them. Page 292 of the 2e rules preview says most Planetary Consortium places treat them like property, and the Morningstar Constellation at least allows alphas for 48 hours, and becoming people after a week plus other stuff. The LLA has that legal ruling that you can sell a fork into an indenture contract before the fork is even made, so I assume they're not very permissive of forks.

I'm specifically interested in Titan, anything else about Venus, around Uranus (and thus the Fissure Gate), and other autonomist habs, regarding both long and short term forks. I recognise that the laws likely change between habitats, but at least a general 'people around Mars only do the 4 hour forks and beyond that is illegal' or otherwise would be super helpful. I basically want to know the baselines for those polities that can then be played around with in different habitats.

While I'm asking about repeated Forking, are there any augmentations or similar that can help avoid the stress of being a Fork, since someone who does so often would likely acrue a lot of stress from the constant Integration and Resleeving tests. Actually, would Adaptability work for that? It doesn't seem like it would work thematically but it does address the check you need to make.

Tallcastle Tallcastle's picture
Use your judgement

I don't think there are any big listing of that anywhere. In this case, your best bet is to pick up a copy of 'Rimward' and 'Sunward' the general social dynamics of any major hab that is already part of the lore should be in either of those depending on where you are. I think the Titanian commonwealth is more or less on the over-liberal side about forks. The Ying to the Yang of the consortium.

As far as making forking easier ...

Yes, the 'Adaptability' trait specifically helps with 'Integration' and 'Alienation' tests. the example it gives deals with fitting into new morphs, but the words of the rule do not limit it to only that scenario.

I would also direct you to the trait 'Ego Plasticity' (p.83 - Transhuman) it has up to 3 levels, each one giving you a +10 modifier on all merging tests, and a -1SV when merging forks.

other traits I would recommend would be
'Hardening' (p.84 - Transhuman) - not as usefull for forking but good for keeping your stress down
'Malleable Mind' (p.85 - Transhuman) - VERY useful for forking
'Phoenix' (p.85 - Transhuman) - helps with continuity tests.

We tinker with metal, to give it life, and suffer those who scoff at our efforts. But who's to say that, if intelligence evolved in other forms, the ancestors of these beings would not scoff at the idea of intelligence residing within meat?

Xagroth Xagroth's picture
Ok first:

Ok first:

There are two types of forking: the "legal spawn of Betas" for miscelaneous processes that won't include any integration in the future, and the "duplication of egos", which implies the generation of alphas with the intent of integration in the future or release of a copy of the ego to fend for himself.

So for the use of Betas, it is wildly extended but for the Jovian Republic. I't far easier to grab a copy from yourself, apply a canned Psychosurgery program and see if the produced Beta is viable as a helper of some kind, than to program an AGI from scratch; this is the reason criminal groups like 9 Lives are so profitable. Some use them as muses, but the most extended use you will find is as infosec experts, drone jammers, and menial workers.

Alphas are a big can of worms. They are more regulated the more you go to a "scarcity-based" society, and the main problems are egonapping, fled Alphas, and egos declared legally dead (meaning the "fork" that was activated from a backup is the legal alpha, and the guy who just came back from a year and half of gatecrashing without contact with humanity is the illegal one).

This is the most usual game-appearances of forks. At best, they are considered refugees, at worst they are "enslaved smart software" in a worst place tha most AGIs.

The weird use is the "life multiplier" that implies not being in two places at once but forget about one, but truly being in several places at once and then reintegrate such experiences into a single ego. Here, we go into a place that 1st Ed was not ready, rulewise, to implement, while 2nd Ed gives a framework that assumes it will be done (also facilitating ego integrations, at least for people who switch bodies a lot).

Wanting to live more in less time, however, can be achieved by VR with time acceleration (thus producing more results in less "real time").

As for the stress of being a fork, little can be done to reduce the stress unless the original ego was quite open to the possibility of dying in less than 48 hours or being re-merged with another version of himself. Or, of course, using the simplest method of not knowing to be a fork.