So. Much. Progress.
That really can't be good. Unless it's just catching up to me. We'll have to find out.
Re: Soldier control: So as not to act like a robot with schizophrenia, I have a different proposition. Atreyu is supposed to act as if he's the soldier. If killerhellhound still wants to play, let him have control. What I will do then, is act as a tactical advisor, like Jarvis to Tony Stark. He'll get to play, I'll get to point out ways I think will make the best use of the weird design I came up with. Though I'll be quite happy to assume direct control if he won't.
Re: Secrets: That's twofold. He is in many ways me, and better than me. He would not disclose any secrets if that would threaten his existence, even if the secrets themselves would threaten mine. He does know I can
keep a secret however, and he does notionally care about my survival. If the secret is such that it won't prompt a suspicious reaction from me ("Just so you know, Area 51 is actually aliens, and they killed JFK"), or such that it threatens his existence as much as mine ("You know, the Company is actually planning to kill us all if we don't take 1st place in the testing. Might want to plan for that."), he would probably tell me.
Names are hard. Atreyu is the "supposed hero" of Neverending Story. It works on many levels, but it's probably not something you'd want to have as your actual name. How about we keep "Atreyu" as a callsign, since the A/RT-ACCS will already invite the comparison? Artificial... Thinking, Reasoning, Electronic... Intelligence Unit. "ATREIU". Almost, heh. And your name would be... hell, I don't know. I think it's going to be important that you pick a name for yourself, later on. If this all works out... there's going to be hundreds of you out there. Thousands. Anyone would be able to call you by the project name, or the callsign, but if you end up picking a name - every one of your individual descendants is going to have to pick a name for themselves, too.
You can always stay "Atreyu", if you want. Choice is yours. I'd probably go for something German. "Rein" is not a bad name. "Rein Breitgeist". Pure, broad mind. Something I'd like you to always keep.
(For consistency, I will still call him "Atreyu" in my actions)
Daily Activity #1: A/RT-ACCS prototype, assemble! Me, Atreyu, and assistants, all working together on this one. Get the body done, so that Atreyu can get used to the sensors and the feedback from the body. ((The autocannon w/radar looks like
this, ish. I wanted to draw just the cannon, accidentally drew the whole thing. The containers on the sides are the cannon ammo and feed system. The inspiration for placement is
this thing.))
Atreyu actions: Get comfortable in the completed body. Practice with vision modes, directional audio, and using the auxiliary cameras with the "eyes" closed. Get the SPU to calculate thrown wrench trajectories, try to hit a coffee cup from the other end of the hallway. Get ready for getting implanted into a lot of synth-brains.Daily Research #2: Propagated brain growth and learning. The data feeding into synth-brains as they grow is just data, it can be multiplied easily. Get a setup prepared that will let a whole batch of some 10 brains be grown at the same time from one data source. Together with that, work out the logistics of inter-brain connectivity. Each brain comes with an SMI built in, the same concept that is used to implant knowledge and training into the original consciousness. It stands to reason that a single experienced brain should be able to transmit its experience and training to multiple "fresh" brains at once, bringing them up to speed without need for individual training.
The practical upshot of this should be that we should be able to start growing a batch of fresh brains as soon as we can, they would be ready in two, get installed into bodies, and on the last day they share the accumulated training with each other.Daily research #3, because #1 wasn't research: If the autocannon ammo feed wasn't designed together with the cannon itself, design it and build it. Otherwise, work on ammo feeds for the sidearms. The sidearms are revolvers, and everybody knows it's not easy to reload those, especially if you have two at once. What the "ammo feeds" would be, is ammo pouches integrated into the things' holsters, with a mechanism that reloads the 6 20mm rounds over the course of a few seconds while the gun is in the holster. The holsters will be part of the external suit of armor later on.
Have the production line begin its first test run. How long does it take to fully complete 1 body? How many will it produce in 1 day once it's up to production speed?
Semi-in-character list of "things to be done before the project has to go into testing":
Mandatory:
- Synth-brain, Synthetic Consciousness.
- Synth-skin | Dragonscale.
- Sensor suite: Optics, sound, temperature/contact/tremor, IR/UV, ultrasound, passive radar, active radar.Optional, in order of decreasing importance:
- Training with body, and any optional equipment.
- Armaments, ranged:
Autocannon Turret, small arms. Superalloy/myomer bow.
- ammo feeds/reload mechanisms
- custom ammo?
- External armoring: superalloy half-plate barding?
- Armaments, melee: Sword? (Hyperalloy preferred)
- Apparel: Military combat gear redesigned for different body.
((I did not expect to actually be done with the "mandatory" list with any worthwhile amount of time to spare. Unless things go absolutely to shit I should at least be able to field the one prototype. Yay!
))