The Mech TouchThe Mech Touch
5761 Complete Neural Interfaces
Ves had never heard of the existence of true mechs.
Neither did Jovy Armalon and Vector Loban.
From the expressions of the mech 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 extremely well!
Perhaps the old-timers who lived during the transition from the Age of Conquest to the Age of Mechs 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 mechs 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 mechs.
What made true mechs different from ordinary mechs?
How much did the mechers advance the development of the complete neural interface since its inception?
What sort of additional requirements did mech pilots had to satisfy in order to pilot these true mechs?
How much greater were the risks and dangers of piloting a true mech greater than piloting an ordinary mech?
What was the cost and technical complexity of complete neural interfaces? Were they confined to first-class mechs, or could they be applied to lesser mechs as well?
Did mech pilots have a greater or lower chance to break through when piloting true mechs?
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 mech pilot and mech designer in the venue looked hungrily at Master Alice Cantor. The old woman had become the only source to a hidden piece of tech that held great promise!
Her words ignited the entire mech community!
If people hadn't already been tuning into the broadcast after Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson's shocking exposure of cultivation, then they definitely would have dropped what they were doing in order to listen to the old Master Mech Designer.
The Mech Supremacist commanded the attention of an immense 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 mech and mech pilot.
"The full technical explanation of how a true mech is able to protect a mech pilot against a large variety of metaphysical 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 mechs to grant an additional dimension of protection, we must first consider the purpose of a neural interface."
A new projection came up. It depicted one of the earliest and most rudimentary versions of a third-class neural interface.
Despite the incredible simplicity and lack of features that subsequent mech 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 mech designers to do whatever they want with their mechs as long as they did not violate a number of well-defined taboos. This was a boon to the mech industry as many mech designers emerged that experimented with all kinds of new and unusual technologies. Excessive regulation and restriction of technological innovation would have stifled research and led to slower developments.
Yet despite the obvious benefits of letting people play around with different technologies, the mechers 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 mech 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 mechers were known to supervise neural interface specialists more closely. This meant that the former 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 mech and the mech pilot." Master Cantor said as she used her projected teaching rod to draw a very clear line between the concept of mech and the concept of mech pilot. It is considered an essential if not a defining trait of a mech. Without the neural interface, the pilot can only resort to utilizing vastly inferior and much more inefficient means of controlling a machine. This has been tried many times in the years preceding the Age of Mechs, and it has always been dismissed as an imperfect and flawed method of controlling a mech."
That was certainly true. Humanity already possessed the technological capacity to develop a mech since the Age of Stars. However, the control systems had always served as an insurmountable block. Whether these protomechs were controlled by buttons, levers or mirroring body movement, the huge separation between the mech pilot and mech 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 mech pilot to control the mech as if it is his own body. While there are many variables in play that limit the extent to which the mech pilot can treat a mech 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 mechs, she clearly did not know about Carmine mechs, or else she wouldn't have made such an arrogant statement.
"What is not as obvious is that this is not a one-way connection." Cantor continued. "The mech pilot is able to extend his mind to the machine, thereby enabling him to control the latter's enormous physical mech frame. At the same time, the mech is able to extend its digital logic to the mind of the mech pilot, thereby allowing the latter to process data as if he is a machine. If the mech extends its logic engine deep enough into the mind of the mech 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 mech pilot are able to combine almost exactly as if they are one. This means 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 mech designers still looked amazed. What did it mean for a mech to extend a huge portion of its logic engine to a mech 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 mech pilot to incur a lot of damage!
There are many other aspects of complete neural interfaces that I have yet to mention, 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 metaphysical threats is that it either shields the mind of a mech pilot or renders it into a mode that closely mirrors the digitized thinking processes of a pure mech. Depending on the training of the mech pilot, the person in the cockpit can draw more of the logic engine into his mind without negatively affecting his judgment or combat effectiveness. This is enough to neutralize many possible attack methods utilized by cultivators."
Master Cantor sneered as she mentioned 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 extremes 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 mech and a mech pilot.
"That is where this complete man-machine connection serves its secondary purpose. Humans who are not high-ranking mech 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 mech because it does not have one in the first place. That might not matter if the mech pilot of a typical machine has not received strong enough protection against these sorts of threats. It is different for a true mech because both sides of the partnership effectively share the same 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 mechs were as simple as she described, but Ves had no time to speculate what the Master Mech Desinger had left out in her simple lecture.
The information she already revealed so far was enough for Ves to chew upon for the time being.
"In conclusion, true mechs 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 members 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 torment an unsuspecting mech 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 memories was the apparent discovery that dozens of cultists had been hiding in plain sight in a compartment 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!