RPPR Illustrated: Soul Cards

A soul card is a data storage and transmission device designed to carry a pattern resembling a person’s personality and memories. It is not a copy of a person’s mind, but rather a sophisticated algorithm designed to emulate a specific person based on observational data gleaned from that person. They are approximately the size of a credit card, except slightly thicker, but have custom data ports to load into various machines for usage.

The design goal of the soul card is to create a tradeable physical asset for investors by digitizing knowledge and other intangible traits of a valuable person. Imagine being able to copy the skills of an engineer or other skilled worker into a soul card so it could be used long after the engineer quits or dies. The data is stored in a unique data storage device with strong security features to prevent piracy of the data. 

Making a soul card requires observational data from a target person. The quality of the soul card is based on the amount of data acquired. A low quality card could be used to imitate the target’s voice and superficial traits from a few minutes of observation, while a high quality card requires months of observation. The data is run through a high end AI program meant to interpret the data to emulate whatever trait is required. The accuracy of the emulation also depends on the hardware running the soul card software, so even a high end soul card is limited by a low power machine. 

Example Soul Cards and their usage

Sniper: Hundreds of hours of a sniper’s shooting at various ranges or combat footage and data. Fed into a sentry turret for improved accuracy. 

Persuasion: Sales calls and meetings from a salesperson to mimic their voice and personality. Can be asked to persuade others. Used in a computer that can make calls and text.

Torturer: A custom device designed to inflict pain and extract information or submission from captives. 

Mimic android: An infiltration machine. It may not pass as human in close quarters, but at a distance or through a video call could be mistaken for human. 

Art by Patsy McDowell