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>Where is the term "ARASI" from?
The concept has two direct inspirations.
1. My love of Real Time Strategy Games
2. The Fact that "General AI" (An Artificial Intelligence as smart as a human) being invented would have one of 10 or so outcomes, all of which are very very bad. There are hundreds of experts and educated people, who have examined every single possibility and solution currently available.
>WTF is a General AI?
A General AI literally is projected to be a 'world-shaking' technology like nuclear weapons, tanks, or machine guns. There are hundreds of incentives for corporations and nations to all be spending lots of money trying to make a General AI and skipping the extremely expensive safety process to keep it from going "Skynet" on us.
The worst thing about AI technology, is we sometimes go decades making little progress, than make a ton of progress in just a year or few months. It's completely impossible to have any idea where we will be in the future. A general AI could be four decades from being possible, or it be constructed in about two years.
>Why have ARASI in the setting
The setting has a very cyberpunk tone for technological capability and function. With all the superpowers and corporations bigger than Amazon competing for power, logically they would want to all have General AIs.
But if any of them built one, the world would be enslaved or end. (Or 8 other things that are all very bad)
The ARASI as such, can not actually think or make decisions on its own. It can read lots of information and make complex topics into simple ones. It can be connected into thousands or millions of cameras or satellites at a time, scanning all for images and faces. It can transmit and protect hundreds of radio, IRC, or phone conversations.
At the same time, it can do lots of math and statistically warn you if what you are about to do (In 4chan's term) is "retarded".
>What function does it have as a GM/QM
Most players play characters that are more likable and smarter than they are, which requires them to be able to "roll" to know or think things the actual player can't know or think.
The ARASI amplifies this process and makes the super, hard, complicated process of commanding 400-40,000 soldiers/rebels at at time, and makes it very, very simple.
It allows players to always know where everyone is (Or have a decent idea), get instant feedback to commands, and quickly learn summaries of what units are or what is going on.
