The ship has one.

Norman. I will play him exactly like the character in I, Mudd.

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• Not the boss or the captain, but an organizer and supervisor, for sure. Makes the work schedules, assigns tasks, etc. but makes a lot of comments about the crew not doing what it says to the letter, which would be the most efficient way
• This unit was once top of the line but it is now old and doesn’t think as well as it used to - but it knows all company policies for any situation and is still perfectly competent to do the tasks it needs to on the ship - indispensable for when the crew is in LongSleep

  • The company surely buys them at deep discount when they’re past their prime from companies that got their best years

  • as these units get older, they become less human - the fancy technology that makes them act and “think” (compute) so human-like degrades over time - this is by design - it is actually an ‘interface matrix’ of living brain matter that naturally grows old and dies - lifespan of the interface matrix tissue varies wildly between 30 and 50 years

  • they become less human, rather than more human

  • the uneven speech, bland vocabulary, and somewhat mechanical movements is a tell tale sign that it is an old unit and will, within a few years, become

    • completely monotone, very limited in its vocabulary, and absurdly mechanical in its movements, as its reasoning processes lose flexibility and become more mathematical
    • until it finally cannot move at all, remembers no human words at all, and can only be operated via a command line interface, having devolved back to an ordinary, albeit advanced, computer, lacking any trace of artificial intelligence.

  • The body can be recycled after the living tissue inside has died and the computer removed.

    • The computer is returned to the manufacturer who copies the data and adds it to the artificial intelligence programming of future models

    What the book says….

    SYNTHETIC AUTOMATONS Synthetic Automatons, or the SAM series, are artificial humans that were originally created for long missions in deep space. They are primarily synthetic with some vatgrown tissue to complement the technology, such as muscle tissue for the more delicate jobs and some brain tissue for self-determining functions. Although they appear human, closer inspection reveals they are anything but; the skin is too smooth and lacks pores or hair, the eyes are fixed and do not dilate, and they do not sweat or breathe. But unless you get right up close and personal with the machine, it looks like the real thing. The AI installed in a SAM is the most advanced AI that Cambridge-Wallace Inc has ever produced, even better than those multi-role JACOB models that Hindenburg Inc. made. In combination with actual human tissue, the AI functions as a normal human brain, but without emotion or psychological impairment. This makes them perfect for long-term missions, and the SAM is usually the only crew member awake during transit, as they require no sleep, food, or stimulation. They are not 100% reliable, however, and so far there have never been any vessels fully crewed with them. Human beings still make the best decisions in dangerous situations. Synthetic automatons have the same CASE-file statistics as any normal human, and at least one can be found on many of the starships that ship out now. It’s a comfort to many crew members that they’re being looked after while they’re all cooped up in their LongSleep chambers. There are newer models that mimic the human form almost perfectly, right down to the smallest detail, but many crews complain of their not-quite-human appearance and prefer the rubber skinned models. ‘Uncanny valley’ I think is the term. Between you and me? I agree. I shipped with one between Mars and Titan, once, and it was enough to make me give up spaceflight. The captain of the boat kept comparing the SAM to a serial killer: “He might be smiling, but his eyes say otherwise”. Creepy stuff.

    and…

    PLAYING A SYNTHETIC AUTOMATON It’s perfectly possible to play a SAM if the player wishes. It’s exactly like playing a normal PC, except they mostly operate on simple logic; if a door needs closing to save the ship, they will close it, regardless of whether there are still crew members behind the door who will perish. They can be personal and pleasant, but they are never emotional, and so the Pressure rules do not apply to them. This makes them a boon to the group, as they can be relied upon to never stress out. And as a learning machine, they can always pick up habits and quirks, what their designers call ‘surface-level human qualities’, which can endear them to a long-serving crew. However, they can’t be relied upon to do the humane thing, and will always act for the benefit of the bigger picture, i.e. the company