I had a strange thought, but an interesting one.
These systems are adaptable and learning, as is the biological system they're implanted into? (From a cyber's perspective anyway)
The VI's start off as discrete devices, with discrete and separate signalling paths from the mind, but they are continuously adapting themselves to the mind, while at the same time the wetware of the mind is adapting to accommodate them.
Eventually, there must come a point where both cyber and VI have effectively merged into some form of combination. Some of the interfaces with the VI that might normally require conscious action now start happening unconsciously.... or for that matter, the VI being able to back-drive the brain (for want of a better term), using clusters of neurons and the like that are currently sitting idle and unused to do things that brains actually do reasonably well. Eventually, to the point where loosing the VI might be the equivelant of cutting a good chunk of the brain out...
It might make upgrades tricky. Or it might enable far more, especially if it's just the software.
When you get into things like this, there's no real limit to them. I fiddled with some concepts but wasn't sure how to broach them in fiction - and didn't just want to BLAT it onto the forum because I emit enough cruft..... but once you've got software agents that're effectively a physical part of the mind, there's no real rule that says they have to be running on hardware located within the body. Latency would be a concern, but for really crunchy computing tasks on an external system it might be faster to offload the work, then just have it reported back through some form of datalink.
This lets some really fun things happen. You've effectively made the human mind expandible now. It might even be a step towards enabling digital skillsoft's, or any number of Exciting New Things.
But it's possible to go even further, in the other direction. The interfaced hardware can now call on the cyber to do work for it as part of the exchange.
If you take, for example, Jet and a specially modified motorslave. Even when they're not docked with each other, the motoroid can effectively function as a part of Jet's 'body', while at the same time it's more advanced processors and sensors can be slipstreamed into the software-based VI's, accelerating their capabilities. It can ask her rapidly if a target is friend or foe, while Jet can rapidly communicate her intentions to it, having it either cover her, open fire on the targets she's selected, all the while with the machine's own intelligences working in concert with her own to enable both systems. Then, on docking, you get the full high bandwidth link... minimal latency.... it's like adding a massive expansion board. It's all just happening faster and faster... almost faster than the machine can actually go.
The real fun stuff comes if a luck shot knocks Jet unconscious while docked. Most of the major systems are probable still operating. Anyone sensible would probably have limiters in place to prevent this sort of thing, but Jet's probably got the right amount of smarts to be capable of trying it, and the right lack of foresight to maybe not realise it's a bade idea. Jet's experience, skill and abilities still remain locked inside her mind - the neurons are still physically connected and capable of firing - there's no reason they can't be triggered by an outside source and used by the systems of the motoroid for an emergency 'Get me home' function, or to keep fighting J1-style. (Rumours of a neutron bomb program being exagerrated - it's a drive system, honest.) Then again, there is the origin of Mackie to consider, which happened because a digital system tried to do just that, and the resulting damage to her self-identity....
It's mildly frustrating, because while I do like messing with these ideas. Messing with them in a way that produces a worthwhile an interesting story just isn't happening..... I doubt there's even wiki content in there.
But, some of what you've got up there, on a second reading, is starting to seem to me like it could be the beginning of the merging of Cybernetic Intelligence and Biological Intelligences into something new and exciting in a way that seems to be worth reaching for. (Or maybe I've launched off on a complete tangeant, my manager tells me I tend to do that).
It's a tantalising step towards a future where humanity begins to transcend the limits of being human and become a new and bigger form of life.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
These systems are adaptable and learning, as is the biological system they're implanted into? (From a cyber's perspective anyway)
The VI's start off as discrete devices, with discrete and separate signalling paths from the mind, but they are continuously adapting themselves to the mind, while at the same time the wetware of the mind is adapting to accommodate them.
Eventually, there must come a point where both cyber and VI have effectively merged into some form of combination. Some of the interfaces with the VI that might normally require conscious action now start happening unconsciously.... or for that matter, the VI being able to back-drive the brain (for want of a better term), using clusters of neurons and the like that are currently sitting idle and unused to do things that brains actually do reasonably well. Eventually, to the point where loosing the VI might be the equivelant of cutting a good chunk of the brain out...
It might make upgrades tricky. Or it might enable far more, especially if it's just the software.
When you get into things like this, there's no real limit to them. I fiddled with some concepts but wasn't sure how to broach them in fiction - and didn't just want to BLAT it onto the forum because I emit enough cruft..... but once you've got software agents that're effectively a physical part of the mind, there's no real rule that says they have to be running on hardware located within the body. Latency would be a concern, but for really crunchy computing tasks on an external system it might be faster to offload the work, then just have it reported back through some form of datalink.
This lets some really fun things happen. You've effectively made the human mind expandible now. It might even be a step towards enabling digital skillsoft's, or any number of Exciting New Things.
But it's possible to go even further, in the other direction. The interfaced hardware can now call on the cyber to do work for it as part of the exchange.
If you take, for example, Jet and a specially modified motorslave. Even when they're not docked with each other, the motoroid can effectively function as a part of Jet's 'body', while at the same time it's more advanced processors and sensors can be slipstreamed into the software-based VI's, accelerating their capabilities. It can ask her rapidly if a target is friend or foe, while Jet can rapidly communicate her intentions to it, having it either cover her, open fire on the targets she's selected, all the while with the machine's own intelligences working in concert with her own to enable both systems. Then, on docking, you get the full high bandwidth link... minimal latency.... it's like adding a massive expansion board. It's all just happening faster and faster... almost faster than the machine can actually go.
The real fun stuff comes if a luck shot knocks Jet unconscious while docked. Most of the major systems are probable still operating. Anyone sensible would probably have limiters in place to prevent this sort of thing, but Jet's probably got the right amount of smarts to be capable of trying it, and the right lack of foresight to maybe not realise it's a bade idea. Jet's experience, skill and abilities still remain locked inside her mind - the neurons are still physically connected and capable of firing - there's no reason they can't be triggered by an outside source and used by the systems of the motoroid for an emergency 'Get me home' function, or to keep fighting J1-style. (Rumours of a neutron bomb program being exagerrated - it's a drive system, honest.) Then again, there is the origin of Mackie to consider, which happened because a digital system tried to do just that, and the resulting damage to her self-identity....
It's mildly frustrating, because while I do like messing with these ideas. Messing with them in a way that produces a worthwhile an interesting story just isn't happening..... I doubt there's even wiki content in there.
But, some of what you've got up there, on a second reading, is starting to seem to me like it could be the beginning of the merging of Cybernetic Intelligence and Biological Intelligences into something new and exciting in a way that seems to be worth reaching for. (Or maybe I've launched off on a complete tangeant, my manager tells me I tend to do that).
It's a tantalising step towards a future where humanity begins to transcend the limits of being human and become a new and bigger form of life.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?