In his novel _Blindsight_, Peter Watts proposes (among other things) that
what we currently call "Multiple Personality Disorder" is _not_, in fact, a
disorder, and people experiencing it can be fully and normally functional
in society. He refers to the condition as "Multi-core Complex" (MCC).

It's not entirely clear in the book how a personality switch is triggered,
or how the multiple personalities are created and developed. It's also not
clear whether _all_ the personalities are aware of the others or have
continuous memories; there is definitely at least one who does. It also
appears that each personality has its own attitudes and knowledge. I don't
recall anything suggesting 'career development' for the various
personalities; Watts followed the best world-building precept: "Don't
over-specify"; what he didn't specify wasn't needed to tell his story.

Questions for the consideration of the assembled: Suppose you want to
postulate a world in which MCC is common (if not universal). How do you
generate player-characters from this world? What special rules do you add
to accommodate the multiples? How should a player play a MCC character -
and how should a referee handle one as NPC?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

He also suggests that there are people (he calls them 'synthesists') who
don't really "internalize" 'normal human behavior'; instead, they 'emulate'
it from an analytical point of view. It's not clear whether this is
considered a disorder or not.

Questions for the consideration of the assembled: What would be the
implications of this? Does it require higher INT? Lower SOC? How detectable
might it be by 'normal' people, and what would be some of the signs? What
implications might it have for a character's skills (and which skills)?

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