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Rental Bodies |
A Rental Body is a bot or biobot body that is used to temporarily house the mind of a patient, invalid or other inconvenienced sophont, or as a general lifestyle choice, via upload or DNI to act as a surrogate for an individual. Rental bodies use a utility fog facemask to simulate the head of the operator and provide for easy identification. Many firms will rent bodies to those who are incapable of being at a location personally, but require the physical interaction. Similar to renting vehicles, Rental Bodies are often customized to fit the requirements of the tasks needed to be accomplished by the renter. Sapient rights to the bot body are treated as proxy rights to the controlling sophont.
Rental Bodies can, in some worlds, be used as a great temporary transport vehicle for aioids, or vecs who are being repaired. Even some bionts use them to take "vacations" without ever leaving home, or to engage in risky lifestyle choices such as rock climbing or skydiving. Criminals often like to use rental bodies; they hack the identification software and change their appearance to commit crimes. Although this is difficult, it does occur with enough frequency to be noteworthy.
Rental Bodies were developed in the early Interplanetary Era, in an effort to return functionality to those who were injured and could not be healed by the medical technology of the time. Often it was also considered a substitute for uploading, or a tool to allow agoraphobics to continue with normal lives. Today, rental bodies have achieved such acceptance as to gain some social as well as business and therapeutic uses. The bodies can be modified with a staggering degree of options. Some militaries have used them as replacements for foot soldiers, allowing their troops to be operators, safely out of enemy range.
