From: nv91-asa@black06.nada.kth.se (Anders Sandberg)
Subject: Umbrood Beings
Date: 19 Sep 1994 10:18:58 GMT

PSI.SYS

This being is one of the strange net.denizens Virtual Adepts
summon. It will manifest as the Greek letter Psi on the
screen or in Virtual Reality. PSI.SYS is rather well known
among the Adepts (who collect pointers and addresses of
interesting net.denizens) for its ability to help with
paranormal, occult and supernatural matters (quite rare
among the generally materialistic beings the VAs deal with).
It can answer questions about occultism and supernatural
creatures, offer information and tips on how to deal with
them. Its however rather theoretical, and tends to use a lot
of statistical verbiage to make sure its predictions and
advice are correctly worded. 

What few mages realise is that PSI.SYS isn't very
knowledgeable at all. It knows quite a bit, but its shallow
information and mostly guesswork. However, its very good at
sounding authoritative while adding lots of apparently
unnecessary statistical caveats ("Not enough statistical
information available in this problem-instance, standard
deviation from estimate more than 50%."). It then discreetly
monitors the actions of the mage to study and improve its
database of information. It sometimes gives erroneous
information just to study the results, and more than one
mage has perished to sate the curiosity of the being. 

Roleplaying tips: Talk evenly without any change, using as
much information processing and statistical terms you can.
Always answer peoples questions, as carefully as possible.
If there is any ambiguity in the query, ask for further
parameters.

Quote: "Query result: Local Maximum of Estimated Number of
Vampiric Beings: location "Club, Succubus". Total Estimate:
2 units per night, with an Estimated Standard Deviation of 2
units per night."

Story Ideas: 

A character interested (or unwittingly involved) into the
affairs of the kindred may need some information. Here is
this nice, polite expert system which just wants to help... 

PSI.SYS has gone too far, and a mage has been killed. His or
her friends have decided to dismantle PSI whatever it is.
The players may become involved in the search for the
elusive being. Is it a runaway AI, a small pile of
self-organised junk code, a Malkavian or something far more
insidious? 

PSI has actually happened to uncover a bit of important
information the players need. Now they have to deal with the
capricious being, who might want them to help it find some
other important information about the supernatural world.
Nothing hard, just the demographics of the vampires of the
city... 

Anders Sandberg			 	  	     Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@hemul.nada.kth.se   http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html