The Mech Touch

Ves had a strong awareness that the choice of smart AI templates would have an enormous influence on his work and life trajectory in the next years and decades.

As much as most humans wanted to run their advanced civilization through manpower alone, this is plainly impossible.

Their society had grown too complex. The tool-using race had developed their latest tools far beyond what they were able to properly comprehend and control by themselves.

This was why nearly every piece of modern tech possessed certain degrees of automation. Humans alone could not fully control the sprawling technologies that they depended upon to live and fight.

It was a rather sad state of affairs, but it was an inevitable outcome.

The best humans could do to control their increasingly more complicated tech was to formulate sound design principles and avoid the common pitfalls of relying too much on AIs and algorithms to control their own tech.

It remained to be seen whether the Red Fleet was on the right track by developing smart AI templates.

There were clear risks related to turning AIs into sentient beings that could think for themselves.

Sigrund’s performance in the first stage of his reawakening from long-term hibernation was a particularly acute example of the horrors that artificial intelligences could unleash.

Who could have known that when Saint Davia Stark traveled to New Constantinople and happily left with her newly upgraded Amaranto Mark III, she had come awfully close to the ultimate culprit of the Sand War?

The hybrid alien AI had very clearly instigated the sandman race to uproot their peaceful existence just outside the borders of human space and invaded the Komodo Star Sector in a grand manner.

The invasion attempt was doomed to fail. From the moment the sandmen violated the bottom line of the Big Two, the race was destined to become extinct.

Exactly as Sigrund intended.

With the control he exerted over his former race, Ves bet that Sigrund could have easily chosen to employ less destructive means to eradicate his fellow sandmen. Trillions of innocent third-raters did not have to die to satisfy his strategic objectives.

This meant that Sigrund undoubtedly had the blood of a huge amount of innocent civilians on his hands.

In this meeting between the two, Ves may have indirectly caused the deaths of a lot more people, but Sigrund definitely possessed much greater culpability for the deaths caused by the Sand War!

The former sandman admiral bore so much guilt, but still managed to escape the eyesight of the newly christened Executioner of Light!

This was a deeply ironic occurrence!

Ves had no intention of spilling the truth to Saint Davia Stark. Sigrund was more valuable to him alive than dead. There was no obvious benefit to pointing out the ultimate cause of the Sand War to anyone.

While Saint Stark still remained haunted by the past, Ves only had eyes for the future. He bore too many responsibilities for the members of his clan and the people of red humanity to waste his time on ancient history.

Right now, he was much more interested in selecting the next smart AI templates to his SF-02 RF Smart AI Data Processing Cluster.

"Well, I think the most obvious choice here is to select the ARMOR POLISHER template." Ves said. "That is a really bad label, by the way."

"Trust me, my fellow researchers have come up with much worse names for the smart AI template that is specialized in mech design." Commodore Reze twitched his lips. "Choosing this template is an obvious choice for you, but please keep in mind that the personnel who developed it were not particularly motivated. Do not expect a polished experience if you make use of the ARMOR POLISHER template. The smart AI will likely be rough around the edges."

"That is okay." Ves said as he decided to look on the bright side of this circumstance. "I don’t expect you fleeters to know too much about the needs of mech designers. As long as the basic framework of this smart AI template remains sound, my fellow mech designers and I will have ample room to develop the new AI according to our unique requirements."

"I am glad to hear that. The smart AIs will be in good hands when they begin to work on behalf of your clan. I am certain of it. What template would you like to add next?"

Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought yet again. The choice of a second R&D-oriented smart AI template was not as straightforward this time.

There were so many attractive choices, but he only had a limited amount of slots to work with. He could only allocate 1 more slot to an R&D-related smart AI template.

Choosing the OCEAN WITCH template in order to help the shipbuilders of the Larkinson Clan would prevent him from helping the Larkinson Biotech Institute by choosing the PLAGUE DOCTOR template instead.

He felt tempted to pick the LORE MASTER template in order to solve his indecision in the most direct fashion, but that was a cowardly solution in his opinion.

The Larkinson Clan’s R&D divisions weren’t large and expansive enough to conduct research in so many different fields. There was no way that Ves and his fellow Larkinsons could equal the Polymath.

In the face of limited resources and manpower, Ves felt it was better to narrow the focus of his clan’s main research activities.

That did not mean that the Larkinson Clan ceased all R&D projects outside those categories. They just wouldn’t be able to gain priority.

Ves had a feeling that the choice he made today would impact the development of the Design Department and the Larkinson Clan as a whole.

After all, if the new SF-02 could drastically boost the research progress of a specific scientific discipline, then Ves would never allow its processing power to be squandered by working on other problems.

Several minutes passed by as Ves methodically weighed the pros and cons of different choices.

He eventually narrowed down his selection to just two templates.

"Commodore."

"Yes, professor?"

"I am hesitating between the PLAGUE DOCTOR template that is specialized in biotechnology and the IRON MONGER template that is specialized in metallurgy. Which one do you think will benefit my clan the most?"

"There is no clear winner as far as I am concerned." Sigrund calmly responded. "The IRON MONGER template is primarily geared towards researching and testing new alloys that are suitable to be used in the construction of warships, but your new smart AI can be trained to understand the requirements for metals used in the production of mechs. It should come with extensive understanding of transphasic alloys, though its understanding of superdimensional matter is still at a rudimentary stage. In short, if you or another specialist wants to develop your own alloys, then the IRON MONGER template will massively cut down on trial-and-error by guiding you to the right directions and cutting back the waiting period of completing simulations."

That sounded incredibly useful.

"Does it work with archetech as well?" Ves asked on behalf of his wife.

He did not know how Gloriana would react towards his decision to trade away his existing tokens for a powerful new data processing cluster. Telling her that it could accelerate the process of designing archemetal components by 10 times or more would definitely help to forestall another outburst.

"No. Not yet, at least." Commodore Reze said with a frown. "You or your wife must train the smart AI based on the IRON MONGER template yourself. Once this is done, it should be able to provide excellent assistance. You can train it to understand and work with other advanced tech related to metallurgy. For example, you can teach it how to process superdimensional matter based on your own research."

"I see. Can you tell me what is special about the PLAGUE DOCTOR template? Cool name, by the way."

"Thank you. I happened to have bestowed that name myself." Zonrad Reze proudly smiled. "This smart AI template is rather broad. It is designed to cover many fields of organic science, which includes medicine, genetics, biochemistry, biomechanics, exobiology, agriculture and so much more. It is not particularly good in any of these fields, but it will never be completely useless as long as it falls under the umbrella of biotechnology."

"How does this work when I want the SF-02 to assist me with a biomech design project?" Ves inquired. "Will the smart AI based on the ARMOR POLISHER template or the PLAGUE DOCTOR template take precedence?"

"That is up to you, Professor Larkinson. You can choose for yourself to let the ARMOR POLISHER do all of the work, or grant total responsibility to the PLAGUE DOCTOR. You can also choose to make them work together according to a split of your designation. For example, you can command them to share equal processing power, or you can choose to grant the PLAGUE DOCTOR 80 percent of the available processing power so that it takes the lead. By experimenting with these settings and instructions, your SF-02 can produce drastically different results."

That… actually sounded really fun!

Ves could already foresee situations where equal or unequal splits in processing power could produce all sorts of interesting and whacky design solutions.

This would especially be the case if the smart AIs developed eccentric and extreme personalities!

At this time, Ves still felt torn between the two available choices. He even felt tempted to change his mind on reserving the last smart AI template slot and simply pick both the IRON MONGER and the PLAGUE DOCTOR templates to complete his selection.

However… he had reasons not to go for this obvious solution.

Ves did not want his choices to result in boring and generic design solutions.

Standard choices often led to standard solutions. There was not much wrong with that, but if Ves wanted to stand out and continue to create radical inventions, then it was clear that he needed to specialize the SF-02’s research capabilities in an unusual and exotic direction.

Perhaps if he was able to exchange a second SF-02 from the Red Fleet in the future, he might pick up the smart AI template that he had turned away from this time.

Ves made up his mind.

Although the PLAGUE DOCTOR template sounded incredibly interesting, right now his clan needed the services of the IRON MONGER template more.

Just the fact that it could massively speed up Gloriana’s work was reason enough to favor this choice!

"I will pick the IRON MONGER template this time."

"Noted, professor. That makes for 4 out of 5 smart AI templates. You have one left. What do you have in mind for the last available slot?"

"I want a template that is unusual." Ves said. "It doesn’t necessarily have to be focused on combat or research. I just want a smart AI that can add more color to the works of other smart AIs and introduce a perspective that is radically different from others. It should ideally be predisposed towards irrational thinking when it develops greater sapience. If I want a straightforward answer, I can resort to the other 4 smart AIs. I need at least one deviant that is willing to engage in contrarian thinking. This is the best way to obtain second opinions."

"That is… a remarkable attitude." Commodore Reze looked impressed. "Very few fleeters have expressed this sentiment. They still think of smart AIs in the same framework as non-sentient AIs. You are among the first to truly recognize the greater potential of AIs that possess their own souls."

"Enough flattery. Do you have a recommendation, or should I trawl through the list myself?" Enjoy exclusive content from

"Well, one choice immediately comes to mind."

"Which one?"

"The NATIVE GOD template. As you can guess, it is a template that deliberately seeks to develop an inhuman personality in a smart AI. You can rest assured that it will not defect to the enemy side, but only if you raise it correctly."

Ves looked surprised. "Why would you fleeters create such a template?"

"Why else? We want to understand our enemies. This template is also able to generate different solutions related to phasewater technology."

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