Kal
Whispers
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: A new and improved take on the Brain in a Jar; mad science is best science.
- Image Credit: Cybernetic brain by Nikita Lebedev, edited by Ingrid L'lerim-Vandiir
- Alternate: Bionic brain by Rafe Johnson, edited by Ingrid L'lerim-Vandiir
- Neurocogitator Vats: NORN : PRESENT WORLD by Daniel Liang
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Tsudakyr | Columi
- Name: Neurocogitators
- Also known as N-Cogs, Synthbrains, Brains-in-Jars, etc.
- Designation: Sentient
- Origins: Greystone Mercantile | The Ineditorum
- Average Lifespan: Several Centuries under Optimal Conditions.
- Estimated Population: Scattered; rarely seen but in service to Greystone and its clients.
- Description: Depending on one's point of view the Neurocogitators may be the pinnacle of evolution, shedding the shackles of the flesh for intellect unchained, or an example of the true horror of vilest Alchemy and boundary-crossing Bioengineering. A more dispassionate analysis is likely to place them somewhere in the middle; decidedly unnatural, certainly, but hardly tormented. Most serve willingly, after all. They know no other way, their cognition tailored to avoid the petty distractions and unproductive selfishness of the free-willed. Mostly, anyway.
- Breathes: N/A, requires life support.
- Average Height of Adults: ~5-18 cm
- Average Length of Adults: ~9-33 cm
- Skin Colour: Greyish, pinkish, or sort-of-tan.
- Hair Colour: N/A; brains are very rarely hirsute.
- Distinctions: Neurocogitators (normally) resemble the brains of humanoids except without an attached body, their various needs (nutrition, oxygen, blood filtration, etc.) met by external devices, usually ones of a mechanical nature, though biotechnology has been know to see use in some cases. Their size varies greatly, but most Drones are between half and twice as large as a human brain, see above.
- Races: Neurocogitators are divided into three distinct categories who in turn are subdivided further.
- Drone: By far the most common form of Neurocogitator is the Drones, most of which are somewhere between half and twice as large as an average human brain. They may be generalists or specialists and relatively independent or slavishly subservient.
- Battlemind: Optimised for combat (or similar tasks) at the expense of all else, Battleminds are famed for their reaction times and impressive short-term adaptability, though their capacity for true creativity is usually limited by additional loyalty conditioning.
- Chainmind: Often considered the polar opposite of the Controllers, the Chainminds are defined by exacting precision, endless patience, and a complete lack of independence or creativity. Truly, they are masters of rote tasks - the ideal pencil pusher.
- Controller: Lesser cousins of the Overminds, Controllers are bred for command positions and roles that demand the capacity for independence, creativity, and intellect in equal measure. The unwise may consider them superior to lesser Drones in every way that matters, but to do so would be to disregard a simple fact - the cleverer the tool, the greater the risk of divergence.
- Overmind: Far rarer and less numerous than the Drones, the Overminds are the greatest of their kind; their size usually runs from four to twelve times that of an average human brain (67-201 cm in Length), though some have been known to grow larger still. Taking the square-cube law and their sophisticated cognition into consideration, it comes as no surprise that their intelligence is extraordinary.
- Warmind: Reaction time and discipline might win a battle, but wars are a different beast entirely, one the greater cousins of the Battleminds are well-suited to wrangle. All Overminds are supremely intelligent with a gift for logistics and the like, but far from all have a Warmind's singleminded dedication to the art of war; these may command bases, ships, or even entire theatres of war.
- Great Prime: Greatest (in every sense of the word) of all the Neurocogitators, the Great Primes are beings of nigh-incalculable intelligence and immense size, with an average specimen clocking in at around the size of a run-of-the-mill main battle tank. Given their size and complexity, it should come as no surprise that such specimens are few and far between.
- Othermind: Grouped together for the simple reason that they are neither Drones nor Overminds, the so-called Otherminds are an eclectic collection of unusual specimens, the majority of which are specialised for some exceedingly specific function or another.
- Navbrain: Overspecialised even by Othermind standards, the totality of a Navbrain's consciousness is dedicated to Instinctive Astrogation and the complicated equations usually handled by a navicomp; as such, they lack most self-awareness. Such odd specimens are rarely seen outside specially-made tanks aboard Greystone's vessels, their minds linked directly to the ship.
- Synthmind: Arguably the strangest of all are the Synthminds, beings purpose-bred to accurately simulate a sentient mind as part of a social experiment or, more rarely, the construction of "living case studies" based on information collected about a person of interest. The standard procedure should they achieve self-awareness is "immediate euthanasia" followed by an incident report.
- Neuroscryer: Like the Navbrains, the Neuroscryers are specialised Force Users of sorts, though their abilities are of a far rarer variety (though still limited as compared to the true Force Users among their kind and elsewhere) - theirs is the ability to scry across distances and even predict future events, a task to which they are wholly dedicated. Group coordination is common.
- Drone: By far the most common form of Neurocogitator is the Drones, most of which are somewhere between half and twice as large as an average human brain. They may be generalists or specialists and relatively independent or slavishly subservient.
- Force Sensitivity: Low; while some breeds have been cultivated for specialised Force Use, true Sensitives are few and far between among the Neurocogitators, perhaps as a result of their artificiality. These are rather rare among Controllers and Overminds and rarer still elsewhere.
- Best of Both Worlds: Sharing characteristics with both data-brains and the brains of humanoids, Neurocogitators are fairly difficult to mind control for those unused to their idiosyncrasies; more relevant to everyday life is the exacting precision by which they apply their intellects.
- Engineered Genius: Neurocogitators are supremely intelligent, with a mediocre Controller being considered the equivalent of an exceptional Arkanian. This may not extend to creativity and independent thought, which are often limited in the average Drone to hinder divergence.
- Worst of Both Worlds: While difficult, it is quite possible to mind control Neurocogitators; worse yet, their reliance on life support means that both EMP/Ion weapons and technologies developed to target organic vulnerabilities (e.g., defoliators) are a genuine threat to their existence.
- The Flesh is Weak: Neurocogitators are about as fragile as any other organic brain; they have exactly zero natural defence mechanisms.
- Brain-in-a-Jar: Cripplingly overspecialised beyond even the Columi, Neurocogitators are completely reliant on external technology.
- Diet: Subsist primarily on highly processed nutrients delivered via specialised machinery or a gel bath of sorts.
- Communication: As a general rule, all but the Force Sensitive among them (see Telepathy) require an interface with appropriate technology for anything even remotely resembling speech; they can, however, learn to communicate telepathically with telepaths like FUs or Grey Ones.
- Technology Level: Advanced by necessity; Neurocogitators require high-tech life support and MMIs (Chaos) to function properly.
- Religion/Beliefs: Variable, subrace dependent; some, notably Battleminds and to an even greater extent Chainminds, lack the independence to form complex beliefs on their own, while more free-willed specimens have been known to develop all manner of eccentricities. Most have some amount of respect for scientists and the like, given their origins, and societal symbiosis with the often subservient Grey Ones is common.
- General Behaviour: Rigorously disciplined and usually quite lacking in the hobby department, the average Neurocogitator is likely to spend much of its time analysing its past performance in the interest of self-improvement; more independent specimens, Overminds in particular, have been known to engage in far more idiosyncratic hobbies, including composing disharmonic music, studying Chiss poetry, and in an especially odd case setting up a HoloNet dating service in an attempt to match Sith and Jedi without due warning as a social experiment.
To the uninitiated, the Neurocogitators may resemble the primitive failings of alchemists of low character and ill-repute, organic brains brutally torn from their bodies as fodder for strange sciences beyond the ken of sane minds. This could not be further from the truth, however - while based on samples from various organics, most notably Columi and their Sith-affiliated Tsudakyr cousins, these are fully-functional beings in their own right.
With sufficient technological support, mind you. A bodyless brain cannot be expected to accomplish much without external assistance.
As with the Grey Ones that preceded and often exist in societal symbiosis with them, the Neurocogitators sprung from Greystone's strange insights and the skilful artifice of their Weavers, the genetic material used in their creation sourced from the IGGB and "acquired" from the estate of the late Darth Prospero. They may even (allegedly) be based at least partially on the Sith's own research notes, as acquired by a certain Shadow.
The participation of some of the Ineditorum's brightest minds only further refined the final product.
While the very act of engineering sentient beings for servitude has the potential to be quite controversial, Greystone firmly rejects the quite frankly slanderous implication that the Neurocogitators are slaves - unlike the GAR of old, their very genome was rewritten to eliminate most self-interest, at least insofar as the average Drone is concerned. The sheer intellect of the more evolved variants may result in some divergence.
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