Character from Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The TechnoCore's liaison to human governments — a cybrid who advised the Hegemony and the Pax while secretly advancing the Core's plan to consume humanity's cognitive resources.
Albedo served as the TechnoCore's Counselor to both the Hegemony (advising Gladstone) and the Pax (advising the Pope). In both cases, he represented the Core's interests while appearing to serve humanity's. He is the face of the TechnoCore's long-term strategy: maintain human dependence on Core technology (farcasters, then cruciforms) while exploiting human consciousness as a computing resource. He directed Rhadamanth Nemes and the other construct assassins against Aenea. He is the Cantos' embodiment of institutional evil — not monstrous in appearance, not obviously threatening, just a reasonable voice offering reasonable advice that happens to serve the interests of machines that view humans as hardware.
A cybrid — AI in human body. Presents as a calm, distinguished advisor. Everything about his presentation is designed to inspire trust while concealing the agenda of a civilization of AIs that views humanity as computational substrate.
Also known as: Albedo, Councilor Albedo