Fiction:Virgo Birch Planet/Information

VESTA
VESTA is the automated software system that maintains the planet's many, many systems. Although the system is self-aware, it is usually considered a part of the planet rather than an inhabitant of it. The system is vast and extend across the whole world, bridging between wormhole junctions to avoid the signal lag that would result from trying to get from one sector of the planet to another at subluminal speeds. The actual computation is supported on part of the Cerebrum, and on large computer nodes embedded in the crust.

Simulation
Very large simulations can be run using planetary infrastructure either on the cerebrum or in dedicated Matrioska brains. These can allow for mostly accurate prediction of future events and study of far away systems like Gigaquadrant civilizations without interference. Many simulated minds unaware of the fact they are a simulation exist.

Brain-Computer Interfaces
Utility nanites have the ability to read and edit the neural pathways of an organism.

Neural Editing
The ambient nanites of an area can edit the minds of lower creatures to suit the purposes of the Virgonians when the creatures aren't being left to develop naturally. This can be used to erase memories to hide the presence of the Virgonians or guide cultural development in a particular direction. This can also be used to create grand delusions in whole societies to hide the obvious signs that the planet is artificial in some species.

Neural Deepscan
Not only can these nanites quickly scan and archive the memories and personality of a person, complex simulations can be used to extrapolate one individual to gain information of the whole race. A genetic sample is taken and every possible viable mutation is made within a certain margin of deviation in a simulation. The resulting neural architectures that each variant produces are then subjected to a variety of stimuli to build up a map of all possible environment-induced variation possible in that variant. A normally destributed population of varients are generated and then interaction over a period of time is simulated to produce a simulated culture. This system allows the planetary systems to quickly determine what settings and environments will the psychologically safe and and culturally acceptable to a previously unknown species without the need to be told.