To Travis and Aspasia

Grab yourself a seat, start a fire and poke one of our resident vigilantes, average Joes or supervillains as much as you'd like.

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IamLEAM1983
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To Travis and Aspasia

Post by IamLEAM1983 »

How's Neuralink looking like, in the Hopeverse?
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IamLEAM1983
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As Travis

Post by IamLEAM1983 »

"Long story short, take the last time you asked about AI development and stick the legal mess associated with that on Musk's third revision of the SOC.

Neuralink Version 1 came out in 2023, and it wasn't much more than a more subtle Google Glass widget. Some fibers could be custom-hooked to neuron pairs associated to certain gestures or memories, like thinking about flicking the lights on to turn on a room's set of Wi-Fi-connected bulbs; but it mostly involved adding a feed of some sort or a HUD, if you want, to unmodified eyes. That didn't cause too much of an outcry.

Version 2 was out by 2024 and came with a snappier, smaller SOC that could passively cool itself with your own brain-case fluid. It involved a bunch of bespoke packets that depended on which organism had installed it in you, going from biometrics for professional athletes to brain-body interfaces for paraplegics or other folks with limited mobility. That's when shit started hitting the proverbial fan, seeing as hackers published unlocked BIOS revisions for the hardware. It gave Neuralink the ability to ignore pain thresholds, use verbal consent as a means to operate independently from the user's mind; and just generally could turn anyone into a one-man full-spectrum team. The catch was that if someone with low Cerebral Palsy rode around with an unlocked BIOS and allowed the AI to drag them into technical bouts or open firefights, they could leave 'em with dozens of torn ligaments, snapped bones, torn muscles...

It's a hard price to pay for one night spent playing vigilante. I remember hearing a story about a guy who just used his chip to overcome the limitations of his impaired visual cortex, a few years back. Dude lost his wife in a fishy accident, didn't buy the cops' official explanation. He got his BIOS unlocked, gave his AI full body control and went sleuthing. By the time he'd killed the dealer who'd set things into motion, the only thing keeping him going was the AI having shut off all of his pain receptors. Story goes he died learning that his wife had died because of some dumb shit who'd been high as a kite while at the wheel.

Then there's Version 3, which hit just before the incursions. Folks were already worried, with Musk and his copycats being stuck kowtowing to a fuckton of regulatory decisions put in place just to make sure that no predictive algo would so much as have the ability to go rogue. Rogue "chippers" might look less imposing than your classic cyborg or nanosuit-wearer, but they hit as hard as their limbs and flesh can take. Turns out, if you're not worried at all about breaking your own fucking arm, chances are you can punch through a windshield's window or even try your luck clothes-lining someone who'd dashing off at low speeds on a motorbike.

At least, with chipped fleshies, there's a point where the body just can't keep going. With some cyborgs or, fuck, with Clanks?

I'll just say this: most Clanks delete their helper routine as soon as they can walk on their own, out of the unspoken and fucking obviously tacit fear that someone, somewhere is gonna go Terminator. Archie and Barley are both androids, now, what do you think might happen if they had zero shreds of human hesitation?"
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TennyoCeres84
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Post by TennyoCeres84 »

"Sorry for the delayed response, but I've been busy with Coach and Miranda repairing The Last Round after the incursions."

"Travis covered the chronological and social aspects of Neuralink, so I'll come at it from a personal respective. I remember poking through some of Issacs' notes after he had been incarcerated. Rendell had initially wanted him to create us with cybernetics and chips, but all of the simulations he ran deduced this would be a significantly terrible idea. Hence why we received the nanite technology."

"We're not really a community, apart from the few Blue Chimeras I keep in touch with, but I think we're at least collectively concerned when large corporations roll out chips and cybernetics without considering the ins and outs of how these devices will affect their recipients mentally. Issacs' notes indicated that we would have suffered similar issues of over calculating our abilities and leading us to ignore fear and pain in the name of performance. Thankfully, that route wasn't taken."

"Somewhat repeating what Travis said, some cyborgs and just about every Clank have to be very careful not to go past what would otherwise be human levels of endurance. You unfortunately get these tragic stories and cautionary tales, maintaining your humanity is absolutely important to steering away from these sorts of issues."
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