I doubt infomorphs can use skillsofts, actually. They don't have brains - not even cyberbrains, which are a kind of hardware. They're run in virtual brain emulators, is my understanding. Skillware, which is required to run skillsofts, can only be installed in morphs, be they bio, synth, or pod in nature. As a GM, I'd probably allow players to use emulatoion software that included a skillware mod, but I'd apply the 100 point limit, on the grounds that there's only so much junk you can do to an ego without resorting to drastic and experimental psychosurgery. Of course, the really strange thing is that AIs can run skillsofts as a standard feature, wheras AGIs can't. I guess you could justify it as AGIs being too comlicated and dynamic for that sort of thing, or as part of the programmed limits put on AGI self-improvement, but it still seems weird.

Of course they can -- as long as they're sleeved in a morph with the proper mods. The big question here being, is there an equivalent to these (nanoware) mods that can be installed in an infomorph? The difference with muses is that you can install a skillsoft directly into the muse itself, regardless of its morph or lack thereof.

startswithz wrote:

The description of the skillware states that the nanites reroute neurons to give you access to the active skills. For a brain which is virtualized in software (an informorph or someone with a cyberbrain) this should be something that can be achieved easily in software. Since the structure of your emulated neurons is just a set of variables stored in the system's RAM altering these states shouldn't be something that requires any serious hardware. I can see how the upper limit of loaded skillsofts would still apply (limits of transhuman understanding of psychosurgery), but I can't see why a hardware solution is really necessary for cyberbrain/infomorphs.

Strangely, the evidence points to cyberbrains being hardwere. After all, while synthmorphs have them, they're an optional extra in robots and most vehicles. Infomorphs can run on anything with as much processing power as a personal computer, which might be taken as evidence that the only difference between a shell with a cyberbrain and without is processing power - but on the other hand, the definitely-hardware augments included in cyberbrains (puppet socks, for example) indicate that they're more physical than you might think. Plus, there's that -30 penalty to attempts to hack into a cyberbrain that infomorphs don't benefit from. That said, this is dancing around the question, which was why specialised hardware should be necessary to run skillsofts on infomorphs and cyberbrains. To find the answer, look in the 'mindhacks' chapter. On page 232 you'll find the rules for skill imprints through psychosurgery - and the book notes that no matter how well the psychosurgeon rolls, they'll implanted skills will gradually decay. Given that Psychosurgery can create permanant changes in almost every other respect, this is an anomaly. My theory is that somthign about skills makes them hard to 'fix' in a changing mind - that somehow the ego will tend to reject anything that isn't part of its normal self over time. If this is true, it'd explain both why skillware is nanotech (because it requires constant maintenence to keep skills from decaying) and why AGIs can't use skillsofts but AIs can (because AIs, being unable to change, do not reject the skill upgrades with time). Of course, this is just me trying to find a justification that the rules support, and even if I'm right it might be possible for AGIs to have 'virtual skillware' that continually prevents skillsofts from decaying. Still, as always, rule interpretation is up to the GM.