5761 Complete Neural Interfaces
Ves had never heard of the existence of true chs.
Neither did Jovy Armalon and Vector Loban.
From the expressions of the ch designers and other people in the grand hall of the Dragon King's Palace, it appeared that no one else in the area knew anything more!
This was remarkable, because it showed that the Red Association managed to protect this secret extrely well!
Perhaps the old-tirs who lived during the transition from the Age of Conquest to the Age of chs had been aware of them, but they collectively agreed to keep their mouths shut and let its awareness fade as the years continued to pass.
By limiting chs to the castrated versions of neural interfaces, the ones that held the more complete versions simply went into hiding or got dismantled in order to prevent them from exposing any clues.
Ves had so many questions now that he learned about the existence of this newer and arguably superior variation of chs.
What made true chs different from ordinary chs?
How much did the chers advance the developnt of the complete neural interface since its inception?
What sort of additional requirents did ch pilots had to satisfy in order to pilot these true chs?
How much greater were the risks and dangers of piloting a true ch greater than piloting an ordinary ch?
What was the cost and technical complexity of complete neural interfaces? Were they confined to first-class chs, or could they be applied to lesser chs as well?
Did ch pilots have a greater or lower chance to break through when piloting true chs?
What was needed to develop and build a complete neural interface?
Why exactly did the Red Association insist on keeping these complete neural interfaces a secret?
Ves had over a hundred different questions that he deeply wanted to be answered.
He was not alone.
Every ch pilot and ch designer in the venue looked hungrily at Master Alice Cantor. The old woman had beco the only source to a hidden piece of tech that held great promise!
Her words ignited the entire ch community!
If people hadn't already been tuning into the broadcast after Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jason's shocking exposure of cultivation, then they definitely would have dropped what they were doing in order to listen to the old Master ch Designer.
The ch Supremacist commanded the attention of an imnse audience.
Despite attracting more attention than any other point in her long and storied life, Master Cantor remained absolutely composed as she continued with her lecture.
She had just drawn a purple circle around the concepts that represented the ch and ch pilot.
"The full technical explanation of how a true ch is able to protect a ch pilot against a large variety of taphysical threats is beyond the scope of this presentation. However, I can offer a simplified explanation that will suffice for most of you. To understand what enables true chs to grant an additional dinsion of protection, we must first consider the purpose of a neural interface."
A new projection ca up. It depicted one of the earliest and most rudintary versions of a third-class neural interface.
Despite the incredible simplicity and lack of features that subsequent ch generations had tacked onto the technology, the primitive neural interface was so stripped down that it was easy for beginners to understand.
Ves had once received a crash course on neural interface technology, and he managed to pick up a few more pieces of information in subsequent years.
Nonetheless, he did not understand neural interfaces in depth, nor managed to obtain a certification from the Association that permitted him to tinker with the devices.
The MTA and RA typically allowed ch designers to do whatever they want with their chs as long as they did not violate a number of well-defined taboos. This was a boon to the ch industry as many ch designers erged that experinted with all kinds of new and unusual technologies. Excessive regulation and restriction of technological innovation would have stifled research and led to slower developnts.
Yet despite the obvious benefits of letting people play around with different technologies, the chers had always imposed abnormally strong restrictions on neural interfaces.
The excuse they used was that badly designed neural interfaces posed a serious threat to the health of the ch pilots that depended on them. This was a logical reason and had been broadly accepted by the public without much challenge.
Did neural interface specialists know more about this subject? Ves narrowed his eyes. Perhaps they did. It might be rather obvious that most neural interfaces in use today were deliberately restricted.
The chers were known to supervise neural interface specialists more closely. This ant that the forr may have issued warning to the latter about maintaining their discretion about this particular observation.
"The purpose of a neural interface is to form a bridge between the ch and the ch pilot." Master Cantor said as she used her projected teaching rod to draw a very clear line between the concept of ch and the concept of ch pilot. It is considered an essential if not a defining trait of a ch. Without the neural interface, the pilot can only resort to utilizing vastly inferior and much more inefficient ans of controlling a machine. This has been tried many tis in the years preceding the Age of chs, and it has always been dismissed as an imperfect and flawed thod of controlling a ch."
That was certainly true. Humanity already possessed the technological capacity to develop a ch since the Age of Stars. However, the control systems had always served as an insurmountable block. Whether these protochs were controlled by buttons, levers or mirroring body movent, the huge separation between the ch pilot and ch always produced disappointing results.
"Neural interfaces are capable of solving this crucial control problem. The man-machine connection that they are able to form between the two parties allows the ch pilot to control the ch as if it is his own body. While there are many variables in play that limit the extent to which the ch pilot can treat a ch as if it is his own body, the results are still far better than every other alternative."
Ves smirked. It appeared that while Master Cantor had been initiated in the secret of true chs, she clearly did not know about Carmine chs, or else she wouldn't have made such an arrogant statent.
"What is not as obvious is that this is not a one-way connection." Cantor continued. "The ch pilot is able to extend his mind to the machine, thereby enabling him to control the latter's enormous physical ch fra. At the sa ti, the ch is able to extend its digital logic to the mind of the ch pilot, thereby allowing the latter to process data as if he is a machine. If the ch extends its logic engine deep enough into the mind of the ch pilot, the individual in question will effectively gain a layer of protection to his relatively fragile mind and soul."
Ves' eyes lit up! He figured out what Master Cantor was alluding to! How could he have missed this observation?!
Master Cantor did not withhold the most crucial piece of information from the public for long.
"A complete neural interface is able to establish a man-
machine connection where the logic engine and the mind of a ch pilot are able to combine almost exactly as if they are one. This ans that they can no longer be treated as separate components, but must instead be regarded as a fusion of the two. This results in a remarkable synergy where the weaknesses of both components are much more extensively protected by their respective strengths!"
It was that simple!
Ves along with many other ch designers still looked amazed. What did it an for a ch to extend a huge portion of its logic engine to a ch pilot?
The risks were probably greater as the neural interface produced a much deeper and more integrated connection between the two. Any accident that caused this close bond to break by force would definitely cause the ch pilot to incur a lot of damage!
There are many other aspects of complete neural interfaces that I have yet to ntion, but what I have just explained is the most relevant and critical pieces of information that you should know. The reason why complete neural interfaces are able to grant elevated protection against taphysical threats is that it either shields the mind of a ch pilot or renders it into a mode that closely mirrors the digitized thinking processes of a pure ch. Depending on the training of the ch pilot, the person in the cockpit can draw more of the logic engine into his mind without negatively affecting his judgnt or combat effectiveness. This is enough to neutralize many possible attack thods utilized by cultivators."
Master Cantor sneered as she ntioned this group.
"The Red Two is in the process of forming a thorough introduction package on cultivation. Those who practice it may seem as if they have mastered the use of magic, but many of their techniques are dangerous. They exert a corrupting influence on the minds of their practitioners, driving them to extres and causing them to develop a superiority complex towards ordinary humans. However, we cannot deny that there is strength to cultivation. Certain practitioners are particularly adept at manipulating and hypnotizing humans. Most humans do not have any inherent defense against these invisible and difficult-to-detect techniques."
Her teaching rod tapped onto the connection between a true ch and a ch pilot.
"That is where this complete man-machine connection serves its secondary purpose. Humans who are not high-ranking ch pilots do not possess the inherent qualities that allows them to resist these esoteric attacks, but their machines are different. Cultivators cannot affect the mind of a ch because it does not have one in the first place. That might not matter if the ch pilot of a typical machine has not received strong enough protection against these sorts of threats. It is different for a true ch because both sides of the partnership effectively share the sa advantage."
The explanation made sense, though Ves had the distinct feeling that Master Cantor left out a few crucial facts.
There was no way that true chs were as simple as she described, but Ves had no ti to speculate what the Master ch Desinger had left out in her simple lecture.
The information she already revealed so far was enough for Ves to chew upon for the ti being.
"In conclusion, true chs are specialized solutions that are much more effective at combating the threat posed by 'cultivators'. Their capacity to do so is far superior to warships, which are crewed by large quantities of ordinary spacers whose minds are not protected by any machine. Cultivators are highly effective at neutralizing and subverting large warships because they can make them themselves unnoticeable and convert the crew mbers to their cause one by one. Even automated defense systems that should ordinarily attempt to eliminate the hidden interlopers can be fooled through special techniques that target their rigid programming. It is only when man and machine combine their forces together that they can both offer effective resistance against such nefarious foes!"
Damn! A lot of people suddenly grew really frightened as they imagined how easy it was for cultivators to tornt an unsuspecting ch force.
Even though there had never been any obvious cases where cultivators utilized their strange voodoo to completely subvert a large force, the awareness that this might be possible was enough to frighten a lot of previous self-assured individuals|!
Ves was no exception to this. He knew more about the potential threat posed by cultivators because he encountered plenty of weird stuff in the past.
One of his most iconic mories was the apparent discovery that dozens of cultists had been hiding in plain sight in a compartnt on a starship!
Despite the fact that they filled the entire space to the point where there were no unoccupied spaces anymore, Ves and other people had no clue that these scary bastards were present.
It was only once Ves utilized his spiritual perception that he figured out the frightening truth!
Given how a bunch of cultists lurking outside civilized space managed to learn this unsettling technique, then more powerful cultivators should easily be able to master more effective variations of this technique!
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