24 days until deadline.By the way, feel free at any time repriorize your research queue as well as drop off obsolete lines of study.
Meshanblov cackled in glee at the destruction wrought by his genius. Soon all would bow before the mighty Meshanblov!
Continue with the Capacitors
Begin refining the digital uploading and quantum simulation process, making it more precise, safer, more reliable, all round better and have the toggle-able option to also simulate emotions.
Wow, absolutely no progress was made today. No ideas what to use as dielectric between graphene layers, nothing good enough anyway. And improved quantum brain... ugh, nothing comes into mind. The actual quantum computer probably must be made smaller, because currently it is roughly size of human torso. Doesn't exactly fit inside your exoskeleton.
It appears I forgot to address Meshanite production yesterday. Assistants will have it ready tommorrow if you give them hand.
Research in progress:
High density capacitors
Quantum brain II
Meshanite production line - outsourced, assistants
To be researched:
EMP hardening
Modular design
Research done:
Armored exoskeleton structure
Artificial muscles
Digital brain copy
Electricity driven cells
Particle beam
Meshanite
Myomers
High capacity fuel cell
Quantum brain
Miniature fission reactor
Test subjects expired: 19
Play with the drone evasion exercise again.
I forgot what that excersice was in nature, but it matters little. You are getting better with this. Still nowhere close where you can call yourself skilled, but you aren't mere novice either.
Playing with toys is fun and all, but for one such as me the only real application of this tech is to dive through pure streams of data with my mind. So do that.
That's... a great idea! Visualization is completely unnecessary part however, like is using any other senses. Unless the data is visual in nature, of course. In that case it makes sense for it to be presented visually. So it will be less "diving" than... being connected? First step is to translate received data for something your brain can deal with. A buffer is required for programmed part to determine what send where in what form and so on. And eventually you'll want to send modified data back so that's another part to consider.
Making plans for required chips is easy and you even produce few so you can figure out where in the brain to stick them, naturally using test subjects for the purpose.
Research in progress:
MMI - Data Diver
To be researched:
Mind to machine interface - canine adaptation
Mind merging
Artificial muscles
Exoskeleton
Mind merging
Advanced medical procedures
Optical camouflage
Overclocked biology
Research done:
Stable weapon attachment point and remote aiming designator
Mind to machine interface
Dreamstream
Test subjects expired: 50 (100)
Other victims: 35
OPERATION: GARDEN OF DELIGHTS
Step One: Incentive module + killswitch + Terrible Glory in one subject (if I still have a player volunteer, give this to them by sheer accidental nepotism)! Make sure the subject is provided a maximally comfortable room to recover in, rig up some Netflix and/or pornography if needed for them to watch and have the more talented lab assistants cook the subject actual decent food. Visit the subject personally to bring them their food in order to get them to imprint on me, allow nobody else to see them.
Step Two: As soon as the subject can be moved safely, doesn't require IVs and is noticeably imprinted on me, move them off-site to a trailer outfitted like a nice-looking apartment complete with arrangements equal in quality to their recovery bed. Establish a maximum security perimeter of 1 mile around the trailer.
Step Three: Give the subject a decent monthly salary (about $70k a year, explain that this is the entry-level salary with predicted increases as time goes by), give them the title of Executive Producer (complete with nice-looking folding chair with their name on it) and assign them decently varied, not overly challenging data entry work that they need to do to earn it, about 4 hours' worth a day, to be done when they feel like it, no particular rush.
OPERATION: ALL-SEEING EYE
Step One: Get about 7 or so test subjects and give them the incentive module (complete with imprinting) + killswitch + improved reaction times + improved learning + hivemind. Imprint them on me. I shall teach them the secrets of excellent cooking, or get someone else to do it if I don't have the time.
Step Two: Provide them with decent quarters, a $70k/year salary (between them) and give them the title of <Executive Producer's Name>'s Assistant, complete with nice folding chairs with their names on it. Their job description presently entails making and bringing breakfast, lunch and dinner to the Executive Producer (a different one brings the food for each day), plus a bit of data entry just so they remain stimulated.
OPERATION: MOUSEWATCH 2016
Step One: Keep watching those mice. Nuke if they get unmanageably unruly.
Step Two: Make sure I get regular reports of anything the lab assistant on duty sees on shift. Nuke if she gets unmanageably unruly.
Step Three: GOTO STEP ONE
((Your volunteer is still TopHat as far as I know.))
Not sure if you want to give your soldier tech you don't fully understand, especially not something that might shred his brain and kill him prematurely. Oh well looks like he accepted poorly understood technology of dubious origin. There we go.
TopHat gets title of Executive Producer and is put under scalpel. Glory device is installed together with its inglorious counterpart, aka killswitch. Then he's placed into isolation until imprint can happen. Likewise assistants are given series of treatments and brain surgeries. Two are lost due complications caused by mixture of drugs and simultanous brain surgeries not playing well with their chemistry. Rest are put into isolation like their "boss". You do good enough job patching them up so imprinting can take place today.
They can't really be moved today unless you want your subjects to suffer side effects. Hivemind will hatch tomorrow and subjects will most likely be useless while their minds are being rebuilt. And day after that terrible glory may or may not reach critical period so the experiment will be short. Hopefully you will gain data you desire.
Operation Mousewatch 2016 reports funny things happening. It starts exactly like the last report of terrible glory activation; a fancy illusionary lightshow. So without wasting time you activate the microwave oven hoping it will deter more destructive effects. Pretty much right away the assistant reports sensation of boiling which disappears almost immediately together with other hallucinations. The mouse is smoking and dead.
Research in progress:
To be researched:
Terrible Glory - Analysis
Hivemind testing
Research done:
Improved coordination
Improved cooperative bonding
Improved learning ability
Improved reaction times II
Terrible Glory
Hive mind
Brain killswitch
Incentive module
Major Technologies:
NERVOUS SYSTEM DESIGN AND UNDERSTANDING
Test subjects expired: 35
Other victims: 7
once the exoskeleton is done, use overlapping 'scales' of self reparing "smart-metal" to make the outer armor.
High quality super powerful eletric motors whirl and pneumatics hiss while you test individual joints of the exoskeleton. It seems you have the frame ready for your soldier. Now it needs to be armored, fitted with the portable antimatter bomb power plant, and get your soldier inside.
Just to confirm, you are using your existing two layered armor material? That's not terribly good if cut into small scales, it performs better as more solid blocks. I guess outer layer memorymetal could be easily reformed into scales, but inner shock absorbing layer is not so good for cutting. Of course you could add third layer of memorymetal scales if you want to. If that's what you are doing, then consider it done.
Research in progress:
To be researched:
Reverse chemical formulation
Improved training speeds
Intelligence increasing treatments
Research done:
Layered lighweight armor
Matter annihilation power plant
Dead man's switch
Rail-guns
Exoskeleton
Test subjects expired: 6
Final tweaks on the coilgun. Get that fire rate up.
Then work on functional cyborg limbs. Steel recoil absorbing shoulder. Now I can finally do inhuman experiments on my test subjects!
Say, that battery has a lot of energy in it. What would it take to make it explode and release that energy?
It's almost a cheat how you can recover left over magnetic field as electricity back into batteries. It comes almost free with the very basic recoil dampening methods, though even after multidiscipline approach for recoil dampening more is needed. Fullpower shot will totally shatter his shoulder. With minor fiddling with optics you create a relly nice scope for it. It has nice passive range finder based on pair of cameras and specialized optics. This nice little addon ensures the user won't have to account for distance because the scope will handle that.
Dealing with recoil requires specific padding material for shoulders. Sponge-like structure for absorbing power but simultanously stiff enough to deal with it. You synthetize few failed prototypes while looking for optimal features.
Cybernetic limbs on the other hand are interesting business. Limb itself is not a problem, some sturdy material for frame and a bunch of actuators for movement. The problem is sensory feedback and attachment to meaty and fragile human body. Actually, know what? Screw limb replacement! Simply merge meat and technology! Both are machines anyway, so why should one thing them as separate? Sure, they are based on different functional principles, but that's hardly reason to not combine both! Take best of both worlds, self-replication from biotech and simplicity and power from techtech!
Metal reinforcements directly into bones! Nanofiber boost for sinew to keep them tightly knit to bones! Shock electrodes to get maximum power out of muscles! More nanofibers for skin to enhance natural armor! Connection points and nerve hijackers so you can add extra addons directly into limbs!
Test subjects perished today don't thank you for this idea.
Research in progress:
True cyber limbs
Shock absorbent lining
To be researched:
Brain integrated chips - Improved reaction speed
Brain integrated chips - Imprinted knowledge
Killing emotions
Associate obedience with joy
Researched done:
Reaction time study
Optical camouflage
Mobile holoprojector
High density battery
Dazzleball
Extended camouflage
Coilgun
Test subjects expired: 19
I meant the other test subjects, not actual soldiers. Hey, would it be beneficial to use more of them on these tests? most of my testing is mechanical so far, it seems.
Let's learn some theoretical math related to motion and kinetic manipulation. Prove that particle exists, mathematically!
You have effectively infinite number of unwilling test subjects in your disposal. Go nuts with them. More subjects used means more reliable data, though margin of difference is hardly relevant above completely arbitrarily selected number of 10.
You more or less mutilate Standard Model theory to fit your very hypothetical particle in. It leaves bigger holes into the theory than it had before, but your particle got a nice snuggly spot for itself, which exactly what you need to call your idea proved. Judging by theory's new face it seems you need a lot of energy to control kinetic energies, especially for changing it. Preventing existing energy being changed by other weak powers like gravity is much easier. It also turns out that you can't really do jackshit about temperatures. It theoretically falls under governance of your particle (which needs proper scietifically impressive name, by the way), but since atoms are bouncing all over the place in all directions simultanously it is night impossible to control them all at once. Managing vectors larger coherent structures, such as bullets and airships is much easier because everything is primarily going in same direction.
The daily problem for tomorrow is to solve how you actually control those things in any meaningful way.
Research in progress:
Manipulation of kinetic energies
To be researched:
Railguns
Multibrain control systems - fixes
Lasers
Nanobot production: Extended raw materials
Armor
Distributed neural networks
Camouflage
Swarm bots
Hunter drones
Large scale modularity
Research done:
Nerve interface
Brain in a jar
Meshanite
Myomers
Highly volatile fuel
Robotic body
!!Multibrain control systems!!
Corrosion resistance
Major Technologies:
Nanomachines
Self construction
Self destruction
Electric manipulation
Kinetic shielding
Structural support
Gray Goo Limited EditionTM
Corrosion resistance
Test subjects expired: 19
After much theorizing, I have three different ideas that I see promise in.
- Codename Tarantula: A flatter torso ringed by eight lithe, hoofed legs. It lacks a mobile head and neck, so to compensate for reduced visibility it has sensory organs (eyes, simple ears, infrared-sensing glands) placed around its torso and on its limbs. There are two pairs of smaller humanoid arms on the bottom of the torso and two pairs of larger ones on the top. The goal of this model is to keep as low a profile as possible for such a large creature, with few obvious weak points and redundant limbs and organs for resiliency to damage.
- Codename Brutus: A torso that appears to be a ball of sinew and muscles, supported on six powerful clawed legs. It has two pairs of powerful gorrila-esque arms, one near the front of its torso and one near the back. Between its front large arms, there is a smaller pair of arms with eight fingers intended for precision work. The head is placed higher up on the body. The goal of this model is raw muscular strength, and seeing how efficiently that can be used for speed, close combat ability, and to move heavy weapons.
- Codename Chimera: A long and flexible torso with six pairs of limbs - alternating arms and legs, with arms being the first pair after the (mostly human-looking) head. The front pair of legs is lithe and clawed, while the back pairs are hoofed and muscular. The front arms are slender and long, with long fingers, while the second pair of arms are humanoid in proportion but larger. The last pair is even larger, and simplified to focus on strength over precision. The torso ends with a prehensile tail. The goal of this model is adaptability - giving it a variety of parts could give it the abilities it needs to survive in different situations.
There's more I want to do, but scales and poison glands and horns can all be added later.
I create test versions of these bodies and begin formulating tests to measure their relative abilities. If I finish that, I begin thinking of ways to speed up the recovery process after someone has been given a new body.
Now here's the proper abominations I'm hoping for! All right, let's see... Two days go slowly as you work out kinks in DNA and other pieces which control body development.
Large bodies needs strong bones and muscles. Tarantula model needs rigid primary structure to hold flattened shape. Getting bone structure right is a bit hard. While planning out chromosomes you realize that letting these bodies grow a brain is not a good idea. While you could design them to be mindless and/or docile, it is better to prevent brain growing altogether. They are going to get new one anyway. So you set way to ensure no brain developes, but a cavity for brain does, including all neurons required to control body. This means most body systems need to be fully autonomous; heart, breathing, waste management. This is something you think you can use on all designs.
Ball like form of Brutus probably makes it hard to aim any weapons forward, so perhaps more sideway shooting is better. Because of that head must be able to rotate very easily. Maybe the head could be simply detection organ holder while brain is firmly secured in the center under dense mass of muscles and bone? Makes sense. Evolution introduced a big weakness for placing brain in so dangerous place. But you can't call yourself a proud scientist if you can't fix mistakes of evolution! Which brings your attention to whole muscle degradation. Like, what's the deal with that? Combat bodies like these shouldn't have to constantly train in order to maintain their muscle strength! Maybe you should create personification of evolution so your Brutus model can bunch it on the face.
Perhaps you should call Chimera model a Human Centipede? And let me get this right: the bodyshape from front to back is:
- Human-looking head
- Slender arms
- Lithe and clawed legs (feline/canine type?)
- Large human arms
- Hoofed and strong legs
- "Hulk Smash!" arms
- Prehensile tail
Did I get it right?
Research in progress:
Codename Tarantula
Codename Brutus
Codename Chimera
To be researched:
Post-implantation adaptation
Research done:
Targeted hyper cancer
Inline DNA manipulation
Artificial Siamese Twins
Monster maker
Rapid healing
Extra bodypart attachments
Panacea - Immune system replacer
New nerve pathways
Major Technologies:
CELL MANIPULATION AND LARGE SYSTEMS DESIGN
Test subjects expired: 35
Ow.
"Well, that, uh... that went well."
Attempt to determine how screwed the whole project is, overall, at this point.
Contact any available Company personnel and inquire about being returned to a working environment. Either have myself moved back to the lab, or have my laptop brought to me. I can work a laptop with one hand. Right hand's usually busy with a mug of coffee anyway.
This situation requires a solution. Unfortunately it is the same solution that I was trying to find for the project itself.
I have made some minor progress on the MMI technology before, something about being able to control a simple device. Try to bring it up to a level where it can be used to control an artificial hand. Because otherwise, we've already got all the necessary materials for a prosthesis.
Check up on the progress of stuff in the lab, and the health of that one injured assistant. Write some code for a theoretical hand/arm prosthesis if I have the time.
((how many 1s did I roll in that previous turn anyway?))
((One too many. Even today you got more of those. I'm gonna ignore those for today. You deserve your terminator hand. But please do something to appease RNG.))
Whole project as in "forging superalloy"? Screwed. Anvil didn't take all the heat very well. And whole "bend hot superalloy with hammer" didn't go very well. Your assistants tried to finish what you started, but the superalloy plate simply fractured. It doesn't seem to take extreme bending very well unless near melting point. Or if you meant the prototype body, it's not really screwed. If assistants pull all nighter you'll have it completed by next morning.
Technically your MMI can already be used for controlling devices so it is primarily matter of adapting the prosthetic arm respond for its signal. Very simple thing. All you need to do is to get MMI inside your skull. Your new laptop is brought to you by a trio of very unassuming men. They set up secure connection to your lab so you can continue your less hands-on work. Your agent mentions they have access to medicine that can be used to regrow your entire missing arm within few days. Should you want it, simply let him know. For now you whip up your customized CAD, design robo arm for yourself and write a program for it.
On evening you get back to lab so you can check status by yourself. Artee body is in progress, but assistants working on it promise it will be ready tomorrow barring a natural disaster some kind. Superalloy weakness simulation hasn't ringed a ding yet either. You can't decide if that's good or bad.
Oh, and the wounded assistant too is getting prosthetic hand. It's good you show concern for your little helpers. The Company respects that, even if you are the one who fucked up in first place.
Research in progress:
Construct body prototype - outsourced, assistants
Superalloy weakness - outsourced, molecular simulation
Research to do:
Man Machine Interface
Customized personal supercomputer
Consciousness Simulation Engine
Bionic Brain Matter
Wetware AI
Research completed:
Structural skeleton
Myomers
Muscle layout
Cooling
Molecular simulation
High capacity fuel cell
Wear protection
Knowledge Database
Other victims: 1