Discussed this with K. originally. The idea is to build an AI around the concept of 'memes' -- those ideas we all have, and pass on from generation to generation, a sort of viral ecology, parasitic, attached to humans, co-evolving with us through the ages. Each AI instance would have memes 'competing' for dominance of the thought process; a sort of priority that can change as each meme does or does not help the AI survive or move up or whatever (also see the pyramid of needs/desires.) In the long run, the memes live or die based on entire populations of AIs living, dying, breeding, teaching each other.

Short list of example memes, in the form of 'sayings':

- Live to fight another day
- Life is too short, live every day fully
- Better a bird in the hand than two in the bush
- Better safe than sorry
- Don't bite the hand that feeds you
- Imitation is the highest flattery

... Surely we can find more. [Todo: get a list of sayings/aphorims/proverbs, and classify them by topics, try to convert into code.] Some would be about cost/benefit, others about what kinds of things you want (gold, love, fame, ...), others about how you go about it (morals), etc. Priority might help determine which of two 'related' memes, that both want to direct the AI in a given situation, will take over. This is as opposed to defining characters (PC or NPC) in terms of skills (lockpicking, building, shooting, ...), traits (stamina, intelligence, strength, ...), or whatever else has been used for video or table-top games -- instead you define them in terms of their thought processes, their inner core. Or so I think. We'll have to see how that turns out.