To boldly alchemize what no one alchemized before
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide a new twist on an old sub
- Image Source: LifeWire
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: Utai Mental Modem, artificial neural network
- Manufacturer: Utai Magic Circle
- Affiliation: Open-market
- Model: Utai Neural Converter
- Modularity: Yes: can change the external wiring
- Production: Minor
- Material: Alchemized reinforced plasteel, electronics
- Lightsaber resistant
- Can resist EMPs
- Allows users to make uploads and downloads from the HoloNet to their brains throughput within 50m of the modem
- Allows users to use their brains as a computer mainframe
- Lightsaber-resistant
- Can resist ion/EMPs
- Sentient-HoloNet interface: Allows users to upload and download data to the HoloNet within 50m of the modem
- Wifi hotspot: Provides users, Force-using or not, HoloNet access to computer equipment within 50m of the modem
- Computational power: Thanks to the alchemical treatment, a Force-user can temporarily become a computer mainframe, and the user is in a state referred to as a "mainframe state"
- Mental warning: Once a person is within 50m of the modem, they receive a mental ping letting them know they are in presence of a neural converter, or leaving its presence, so there are no surprises as to whether they can use it
- Force-nullifiers: The presence of Force-nullifiers can render the Utai Neural Converter nothing more than an ordinary wifi hotspot.
- Presence: Force-imbuement presence means that unless you somehow hide it, Force-users can detect the modem.
- Heightened headache risks: If the users within range of the neural converter cannot handle the heightened throughputs when entering mainframe mode, or high-speed mental interfaces with the HoloNet, their brains will likely get overwhelmed and headaches will likely ensue, sometimes debilitating ones
- Neurological damage: If a user is too often in mainframe state, or for too long, the user's nervous system can sustain lasting neurological damage as a result of being overloaded
- Force-guzzling: With higher throughputs comes higher expenditures of Force-energy: it will effectively double the users' Force-energy consumption when actively transferring data using the Force, regardless of whether it's for transferring data between sentients or for transferring data between the user and the HoloNet
- Jamming: If the modem is jammed, its HoloNet capabilities are jammed as well, leaving only the alchemical abilities unrelated to the HoloNet
- Computer mainframe: The nature of the alchemical treatment used to turn the user's brain into a computer mainframe means that the computational power of the resulting mainframe is constrained by the intellectual capabilities of the user in the mainframe state: it can be an issue if the need to install software into a person arose
- Memory theft: While a user is in mainframe state, a slicer can potentially enter the memory of the person in the mainframe state and steal memories from the person
- Reality dissociation: When the user is in mainframe state, the user enters a catatonic state in which consciousness is much more limited, in which the vital needs and whether to turn the mainframe off are the main conscious actions a user in mainframe state can take. Also, users reported that, while in mainframe state, users seem to be mostly oblivious to reality
- Memory corruption: If excessive amounts of data are fed to a person in mainframe state, it can potentially corrupt other preexisting memories, depending on the person's memory, even in the absence of neurological damage
- Mental warning: Once a person is within 50m of the modem, they receive a mental ping letting them know they are in presence of a neural converter, or are leaving one, but the ping can be unpleasant and cause surprises to people as to its presence, or whether they are getting out of range, especially to NFUs
The Utai Neural Converter is an evolution on the concept of the older Utai Mental Modem, in which the ability to hook up one's brain to the HoloNet is no longer restricted to Force-users. As with its predecessor, it can allow users within range to connect their brains to the HoloNet. It does so by turning the memories of people into computer files and programs while a person is under the alchemical effects. Of course, high throughputs when using either Force-powered mental data transfer method afforded by the modem are not without risks to the users' brains: if their cerebral wiring is inadequate, the users may get painful headaches, and sometimes even debilitating headaches, from either using mainframe mode or using the sentient-HoloNet Force-interface. However, whereas Force-users can connect their own brains to the Neural Converter wirelessly, NFUs need to press a specific button to either hook up their minds or to have their minds serve as a mainframe.
Even when there are no Force-users in the vicinity of the modem, the alchemized reinforced plasteel allows it to resist ion/EMPs as well as lightsabers, and also the ability to connect to it as a HoloNet wifi hotspot within 50m as well. Sadly, the alchemical treatments do not protect it against frequency jamming, meaning that if a jammer capable of affecting a modem was active, the modem loses all HoloNet capability while jammed. And people entering or exiting a 50m radius of the converter will receive a mental ping telling them they enter or exit its range respectively: while it allows people to let them know wifi, both conventional and Force-based, is available (along with the capability of turning themselves into a mainframe).
Where the Utai Neural Converter differs from its predecessor most is in its ability to alchemically and subconsciously harness the user's brain into a computer mainframe made up of what, in computing terms, is best described as a highly advanced artificial neural network, when a user enters mainframe mode. As its name indicate, the resulting computational power of a person in mainframe mode can reach that of an industrial-grade mainframe, but it was found that the computational power was highly dependent on the intellectual capabilities the user naturally possesses. A user in mainframe mode would also appear to nearby computers as a nearby mainframe. That being said, such computational power comes at a cost, and several pitfalls can befall a user of the Utai Neural Converter: lasting neurological damage can ensue from a prolonged or repeated use of mainframe mode, due to their brains "frying" from intensive use, a slicer can steal, alter or even delete the memories of someone in mainframe mode and, even in the absence of neurological damage, if too much data is fed into someone in mainframe state when using the Utai Neural Converter, it can potentially corrupt preexisting memories in someone in mainframe state.
Finally, even in the absence of these issues, a user in mainframe state enters a strange state of dissociation from reality, a semi-conscious state in which the user can only perform a very restricted set of conscious actions, most of them related to their vital needs, such as eating and drinking, as well as the possibility to turn off mainframe mode on its own. Users in mainframe mode reported also being mostly oblivious to the surrounding reality when mainframe mode was in use.
Last edited:
