The reason why Cormaunt Hempkamp built up a problematic track record was not only due to his unusual design philosophy, but also the fervor in which he pursued it. His ideas on neural interfaces and how they related to chs could potentially provide a lot of value, but needed to be utilized in real situations in order to supply him with the data he needed to iterate on his work!
It was this requirent that Mr. Hempkamp fell in trouble so many tis. His neural interface designs were considerably less standard than usual and that produced a lot of uncertainty.
The problem with new neural interfaces was that there was no good way to test them without connecting them to a real ch pilot or potentate.
While there were many ways to minimize the risk of harm, the neural interfacing field suffered from a fundantal problem.
There was no substitute for human ch pilots.
This was rather strange as convergent evolution caused a lot of alien races to resemble each other. They evolved similar organs and perform in similar ways when exposed to the sa environnt because their ho planets possessed highly similar attributes.
Yet even if ch designers attempted to trial their new and supposedly improved neural interface designs on these alien races, the results were vastly different!
No matter what, an intelligent alien specin whose species evolved on a different planet developed a substantially different brain and nervous system.
Since neural interfaces were highly specific towards a specific subset of humans, they simply did not work at all when connected to any alien minds!
After undertaking a lot of trial and error, neural interface specialists eventually concluded that their distinctive works could only be tested on humans or individuals whose genetic makeup was still close to humans.
That latter seed to give a way out for the ch designers in question. There had been cases in the past where they bred half-alien hybrids that were relatively weird and unusual aside from their brain and nervous system.
As long as the organs that directly connected to the neural interface systems were human enough, then it was still possible to forge a man-machine connection!
While a few of these experints produced successful results, the MTA shut these experints down with extre prejudice once it found out about the macabre research!
It did not take much imagination for Ves to figure out why the MTA and plenty of other people beca extrely concerned about these experints!
After the MTA tightened the rules and implented a strict regi on neural interface developnt, it beca a lot harder for specialists in this field to trial their new designs.
They needed to take a lot of additional steps, from writing extrely detailed logs to submitting any of their designs to the MTA in order to receive preliminary approval to trial their work on real ch pilots.
Though the ch Trade Association had a vested interest in speeding up the universal developnt of chs as fast as possible, it also had a responsibility to protect the public from unsafe machines.
Since many innovations tended to be dangerous to the user, the MTA ended up in the unenviable position to find a balance between two contradictory goals.
On the whole, the MTA's regi was fairly liberal to general technology. As long as the inventions of ch designers weren't too weird, didn't violate any taboos or happened to be directly derived from alien technology, the chers generally adopted a tolerant attitude towards new technology.
After all, if the ch industry and tech industry did not possess an atmosphere that actively encouraged engineers and other inventors to realize their promising ideas, there was no way that chs could catch up to starships in terms of power and practicality!
The huge amount of ch designers that spent their entire lives on improving chs played a large role in accelerating the progress of this field!
Yet wary of any tech or developnt that could make the public acquire a sense of distrust towards chs, it was important to temper this progress with sufficient control and prudence.
It was obvious that neural interfacing technology suffered more than any other technological branch due to how much harm it could inflict on friendly ch pilots!
Since the preservation and developnt of ch pilots were key priorities to the MTA, the chers accepted the need to slow down the improvent of neural interfacing in order to keep the pilot class happy.
Cormaunt Hempkamp felt this was a counterproduce developnt.
"Out of all of the core tech that makes up a ch, neural interfaces have experienced the least amount of improvent from generation to generation." He complained. "This is not a coincidence. The strict rules and the abundant suppression of our work has scared away a lot of promising ch designers who could have done a lot of good in my field. The MTA's overreactions have also stifled innovation because people like myself get subjected to newer prohibitions because one of my colleagues happened to botch an implentation."
Ves looked intrigued. "If the MTA is so overbearing towards the people that work on neural interfaces, why did you still choose to go into this field?"
Hempkamp helplessly shrugged. "I originally didn't think it would be this bad. I heard the stories and my professors at school gave nurous warnings, but I thought that the chers would appreciate or at least tolerate the fresh ideas that I wanted to introduce to the ch industry. To be honest, I also did not set out to revolutionize neural interfacing technology at the start. It was only after I began to learn the true state of my new specialty that I figured out that I could do so much more for ch pilots!"
"And what is that, exactly?"
"Let turn this conversation around if I may." Hempkamp said as he beca more active. "What do neural interfaces an to you, patriarch?"
"Hmmm. They are a ans to an end to . While they play a vital role in making chs work, I do not know enough about them to really think about what they do any further. They are black boxes to that I just put into my chs so that I can move on to more interesting stuff."
Cormaunt Hempkamp nodded in understanding. "Many ch designers have given similar answers. To , neural interfaces represent so much more. It starts from the beginning. Even before chs ca to prominence, neural interface technology had already been developed. While the early pioneers of this tech never imagined it would enable the explosive rise of chs, these researchers and engineers developed the early form of neural interfaces for several different purposes. So of them are peaceful but even then they already had a military purpose in mind. Do you know what kind of war weapons they were originally designed for in the past?"
"From what I have read and studied, they were first developed to replace the tactical control systems of old-fashioned aerospace fighters and starfighters." Gloriana answered. "Back when these fighting vehicles still posed a significant threat against the rudintary warships of humanity, they beca increasingly more bloated with features. It beca too difficult for pilots to control them. While automation helped with simplifying the control sches, leaning too much in this direction produced greater problems that negated any improvent."
"You know your history well." Hempkamp said with respect. "Back then, neural interface developers encountered the sa problem as we did. The tech was too dangerous or did not work for most pilots. They discovered later on that they were hampered by a factor that we know today as genetic aptitude. That spelled the deathknell to the military usage of this tech. Soon after that, neural interfaces beca a lot rarer and they were more often employed on animals and exobeasts than humans."
Ves raised his hand. "Can we speed up this history lesson a bit and co to the point that you are trying to make? As much as I enjoy the origins of this tech, I am a busy man with a lot of design projects on my mind."
"Ah. I apologize, sir. Let try to summarize my story as much as possible. After neural interfaces no longer beca relevant to the military, the biotechnology industry was the only sector where they remained for a long ti. Neural interface engineers spent thousands of years iterating on the technology for several purposes. You can generally split these purposes into three broad categories."
"The first category is to connect a human mind to another human mind. This quickly proved to be dangerous, so it was outlawed in quite a few star nations at the ti. That didn't stop certain researchers from experinting on this anyway."
"The second category is to connect the mind of one beast or exobeast to the mind of another creature. Suffice to say, these experints yielded extrely inconsistent results. In so cases, beasts beca a lot stronger or more versatile. In other cases, they grew extrely violent or outright went crazy. Since there were many star nations that did not enact any laws that granted rights to exobeasts, there were many neural interface engineers that conducted extre and unrestricted experints against creatures."
The experints in question were so grueso that a small sample of them ended up in the textbooks that every ch design student had to learn.
It was one of the many ways the MTA and the ch community reinforced everyone's fears towards neural interfaces.
No one was allowed to take them lightly! Even the stupidest and most incompetent ch designer knew better than to alter the design of neural interfaces!
"The third category is to connect the minds of humans with the minds of beasts. These produced interesting results to say the least. This is perhaps the research that is most directly related to the neural interfaces that you are familiar with. This was because neural interface engineers successfully adapted these devices so that they could connect humans to machines."
Ves grew impatient. "Why is this relevant?"
"Can't you see, sir? While neural interfaces were only paired with chs for less than five centuries, thousands of years had gone by while they were used to conduct all kinds of biotechnical applications! Ever since chs entered the mainstream, neural interface developnt has split in half. One branch has grown increasingly more specific to chs, so much so that it has beco the dominant version of neural interface technology. Another branch had faded into the background as it continued to be employed in the biotech industry."
It was at this point that Ves started to connect the dots.
"Wait a minute… are you trying to transpose the neural interfaces used in the biotech industry to the ch industry?!"
Mr. Hempkamp grinned. "You can say that. chs and exobeasts have a lot more in common than people think, you see. This is also why I have grown eager to work with you. Out of all of the chs in existence, the living chs that you are known for possess additional parallels to exobeasts! They share so many similarities that it has beco a lot more viable to borrow tech that is developed exclusively to enable data exchange between two living subjects!"
"That… that's crazy!" Ves gasped. "It's a brilliant idea, I admit, but it can easily go wrong if your assumptions are wrong!"
Gloriana smirked. "Do you see, Ves? I knew that Mr. Hempkamp would be of interest to you. His design philosophy potentially synergizes a lot more with your work than others!"
When it ca to their work, Gloriana was always serious. She knowingly extended an invitation to Cormaunt Hempkamp even though his conduct and his attitude offended her sensibilities.
As long as Hempkamp's work and contributions ultimately pushed the Larkinson Clan's living chs to the next level, then that more than compensated for his eccentricities!
In any case, Gloriana was already accustod to dealing with Ves' antics. The inclusion of another lunatic hardly sounded like a big deal.
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