Normally Skaffen-Amtiskaw would be cagey about the nature of Culture tech, but there isn't as much room to hide in a place like this—and perhaps a few people knowing what the Culture are capable of is no terrible thing.

Neither. A knife missile has its own processors and memory—below the level of consciousness or sentience, but capable of highly complex commands. Furthermore, if needed, I can download myself into one—but for a task as simple as this, a few commands are more than sufficient.