The face of computer technology has drastically changed since the beginning of the 21st century. Molecular switch-ing has replaced solid-state silicon gates allowswitch-ing for CPU processing speeds that are a thousand times faster. Today’s computers consume only a small portion of power com-pared to their predecessors at only a fraction of the cost. Uti-lizing an optical architecture and multi-layered holographic data storage technology, small yet powerful central process-ing units can now be worn like jewelry. Containprocess-ing personal and encrypted account information, a person’s Personal Central Processing Unit (PCPU) can uplink through an RF interface to any Public Area Network (PAN) access point lo-cated throughout most major cities. People can remotely ac-cess stocks, bank accounts, and web pages pretty much any time. PCPU’s also manage wireless subscriber account infor-mation and act as gateways for any personal telecommuni-cations device, typically utilizing wireless earpieces with built-in microphones.
PCPUs come in several shapes and sizes from a wrist-strapped devices to decorative pendants. Some models sport an inter-nal display and others rely solely on wireless adjunct devices.
All PCPUs come with a voice command feature that allows for the swift execution of simple tasks such as voice calling and browsing web favorites. Holo-Interface Units (HIUs or Hi-Yous) are quite popular with the average consumer. These remote devices, the size of an old fashioned fountain pen, can be placed on a flat surface to project a holographic keyboard and monitor display. Larger holographic monitor and access systems also exist to meet the needs of more demanding in-terface environments including flight control centers or po-lice dispatch offices. The manipulation of holo-icons allows a system operator to quickly input data while tracking multi-layered holo-displays.
The development of semi-transparent thin film transistor dis-plays has advanced personal eyeglass and goggle monitors that have given rise to Augmented Reality (AR). Unlike Virtual Reality (VR), which replaces true environmental sensory input with computer-generated input, Augmented Reality simply lays one over the other. The practical applications of this idea are boundless. From computer aided surgery, to navigation, to mechanical repair, to interior design, the ability to overlay computer-generated graphics while viewing a physical scene allows professionals to work while viewing pertinent informa-tion about the task at hand. A telecommunicainforma-tions techni-cian in the early 21st century, for example, had to rely on his technical knowledge, troubleshooting expertise, and primi-tive diagnostic tools to fix a piece of electronic equipment. In today’s world, a telecommunications technician with AR can project schematic diagrams to guide him through the equip-ment and superimpose data to provide troubleshooting tips thus expediting repair time.
Another area of technology currently under investigation by certain research companies is the creation of direct neural
CHAPTER EIGHT...the way of the future
interfaces between computer networks and the human mind.
Though the concept seems promising, no practical or functional method has yet been developed that does not entail extraordi-nary risk to the user. Severe brain damage in test subjects has made the introduction of a neural interface system unlikely in the near future.
Artificial Intelligence touches nearly every citizen’s life in some way. Limited Artificial Intelligence (LAI) is standard in nearly every computer system or computerized device and creates a
“smart” machine. LAI is not true intelligence, but it does al-low computers to recognize casual voice commands, verbally respond to users, and perform basic tasks on their own. Most people wouldn’t know how to use computers if it weren’t for LAI – there simply is no need for your average citizen to physically interface with their machines. LAI can be programmed with a variety of after-market “personalities,” which give computers a semblance of life. People often get attached to their LAI person-alities, treating them like pets.
Robotics have benefited greatly from Limited Artificial Intelli-gence. But in an era where nanotechnology can accomplish most of the manufacturing needs of society, the use of robotics is lim-ited. The military benefits from robotic drones, but robots are otherwise absent from everyday life except as toys for children.
Furthermore, the development of humanoid robots is regarded as expensively needless since LAI cannot give these machines the semblance of life or complexity of thinking needed to make them effective. And those are just the business reasons – the idea of humanoid or artificially intelligent robots suffers the same preju-dice as true Artificial Intelligence and clones.
trAnSPortAtion
Very few aspects of modern life have benefited as much from the introduction of arcanotechnology as transportation. D-En-gines have found their way into A-Pod-suspended commercial vehicles including large passenger transports and cargo vessels.
In fact, passenger transport companies such as TransWorld Lines (TWL) helped finance the Ashcroft Foundation’s develop-ment of the D-Engine OESE dampening field when it became ap-parent that the high environmental sensitivity generated by the Operator Extension Side Effect created motion sickness among passengers during extended flights. Once the OESE dampening field was released for commercial use, making A-Pod flight more comfortable for travelers, arcanotech began to spread through the transportation business at a startling rate.
The D-Engine powered anti-gravity hovercraft design is not lim-ited to larger vessels. Many smaller vehicles including intra-city passenger transports, personal pleasure yachts, police corsairs, construction vehicles, and waste sanitation vehicles enjoy the benefits of A-Pod technology. However, due to the enormous amount of energy needed to power A-Pod generated anti-gravity fields for flight and the corresponding physical D-Engine space constraints D-Engine/A-Pod combinations are only used in ve-hicles over twenty feet in length.
Instead of providing vertical lift, A-Pods have been modified for horizontal thrust. In effect, tipping an A-Pod on its side to drive horizontal motion requires far less energy since the A-Pod’s electromagnetic field does not need to compensate for lift. The practical upshot is a wheeled or waterborne vehicle drive system that can be efficiently powered by D-Cells. Thus, D-Cell powered A-Pods have completely replaced the internal combustion en-gine, drive train, and transmission assemblies in all automobiles, small trucks, and power boats. Many A-Pod driven vehicles can travel for an entire month between visits to D-Engine recharge stations. Since there are no pollutant emissions from A-Pod sys-tems, the air quality in urban areas is cleaner than at any time during the previous century.
New technologies have given way to new luxuries in the area of transportation. Personal comfort is considered important when operating a vehicle or enjoying a private compartment aboard a passenger transport. The vehicle’s onboard computer will cross-check individual data contained within a person’s PCPU through a wireless interface. The onboard computer will then arrange a person’s favorite music, set environmental conditions to suit his preferences, download his favorite destinations into the vehicle’s navigation system, and select the most ideal seat position to suit his posture. A person’s wireless communications subscriber data will also be queried to provide access to the vehicle’s onboard voice and data telecommunications system. All this is easily and automatically arranged when a driver takes his seat within the vehicle.
nAnotechnology
Who would have ever thought that something so small would cause such an immense change in the fabric of modern civiliza-tion? Yet the development of tiny sub-molecular biomechanical machines, or nanites, revolutionized so many aspects of New Earth Government society that only arcanotechnology could pos-sibly equal it in scope. The ability to manipulate matter on an atomic level through a process known as mechanosynthesis, has forever altered manufacturing, medicine, waste recycling, water purification, hardware repair, and other aspects of contemporary life. The capacity for nanite production of convenient and readily available merchandise resulted in the most complete redefinition of NEG economy since the time of the First Arcanotech War.
Nanites are constructed and programmed using nanofactories.
These machines range in size from large industrial manufactur-ing vaults to common household units roughly the size of an early 21st century washing machine. All commercial nanites are limited in that they can only be replicated, reprogrammed, or re-energized from within a nanofactory. This intentional engineer-ing constraint is designed to help administrate and control the
true Ai
True Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as the point when a machine can think for itself and gains true self-awareness, and not just imitates these qualities (as is the case with LAI). No matter how hard scientists and arcanotechnicians try, true Artificial Intelligence still seems to be beyond their means. Regardless of the technological limitations, Artifi-cial Intelligence has been outlawed by the New Earth Gov-ernment for the same reasons as cloning – the moral and ethical impact on a struggling society could be devastating.
The Nazzadi, who know what it means to be created life and treated as tools, are typically against true AI.
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technology. The beauty of nanofactories is that a user can sim-ply load raw material into the machine, initiate a manufacturing program, and within minutes remove a nice new shirt, PCPU, or other common item, freshly constructed from the atomic level on up by microscopic robots.
The vast overall potential of nanotechnology includes an enor-mous possibility of misuse. During early stages of development, the New Earth Government realized that the unrestrained de-velopment of nanotechnology was dangerous. With an entire world already fighting for survival, the possibility of unleashing uncontrollable nanoweapons upon the Earth was too horrible to consider. The NEG created a new government office to over-see and regulate nanotechnology development and control. To-day, the Department of Nanotech Administration (DNA) main-tains a firm grip on all aspects of nanotechnology through the establishment of stringent regulatory laws. DNA laws are strictly enforced through the Restricted Technology Enforcement divi-sion of the Federal Security Bureau. The potentially devastating consequences involved with the illegal use of nanotechnology is so severe that anyone convicted of tampering with or attempting to alter nanotech systems in any way faces capital punishment in court.
By law, nanotech manufacturing requires a validation process for each use of the nanofactory to ensure that only approved items are constructed and licensed copyrights are protected.
Each nanofactory communicates with a Nanoproduction Au-thorization Center (NPAC) over a wireless or fiberoptic inter-face. NPAC’s operate in a mated pair configuration, meaning that two remote centers mirror each other – this configuration provides operational diversity and allows for protection against system tampering. Communication between nanofactories and NPAC’s is facilitated through a fractal-encrypted protocol that is almost impossible to crack. In addition, nanoproduction soft-ware releases require a unique core operating system that is pro-prietary and a closely guarded secret by the DNA. These precau-tions have made the entire nanoproduction network extremely difficult to crack for hackers.
The validation process for nanotech manufacturing is based on four major considerations. First, a valid software license must be verified by the NPAC central database. These licenses are typi-cally operated on a pay-per-use basis and can be downloaded from a Public Area Network. Second, a nanofactory must fall under the proper classification for the type product. Nanofac-tories are classified as Private Use, Commercial/Industrial Use, and Government Use. Some items, such as automatic firearms, may be authorized for Governmental Use but not for Private Use nanofactories. Third, restricted items, including advanced medi-cal equipment and organ replacements, require a personal au-thorization code. These codes are provided to individuals who operate under certain vocational requirements, particularly doc-tors, and are stored in PCPU’s for remote access by the nanofac-tory. Finally, the item must be legal. The DNA maintains a mas-ter list of restricted and illegal items that is always cross-checked against a nanofactory’s authorization request.
Nanofactories can be equipped with licensed reusable software that allows an operator to perform certain functions without
having to download a new copy of the software with each use.
Such an application could be repair software to mend a hole in a pair of pants or repair a burned out A-Pod actuator assembly.
Even these activities are monitored by the NPAC.
Any attempt to manufacture unauthorized goods or operate il-legal software will result in a warning message from the control-ling NPAC, displayed on the nanofactory’s control panel. Unau-thorized tampering with the machine itself will activate a failsafe system that will cause the nanites to completely disassemble the factory, rendering themselves useless in the process.
Unknown to the general public, not all nanites require nanofac-tories to function. The New Earth Government has developed a class of free-roaming nanite security drones that are fully self-sufficient. All nanites generated by authorized factories include unique embedded identification codes, which can be used to trace them back to their point of origin. The security drones hunt down and locate any nanite that doesn’t possess a valid identification code. These nanites are traced back to their point of origin, which is reported to an FSB operations control center, triggering an immediate law enforcement response. In this way, the FSB can counter the deployment of illegal “pirate” nanofac-tories and maintain control of this technology.
Of course the development of nanotechnology would lead to the consideration of nanoweapons. As it turns out, the “grey goo” scenario of free-roaming nanites deconstructing everything in their path is an inefficient use of the technology. Nanites are rendered useless by concentrated high-energy radiation and there is no known way to shield machines that small – both the New Earth Government and the Migou are aware of this. Thus, the notion of developing nanoweapons has been abandoned by the NEG.
The Migou use of nanotechnology is in many ways similar to that of the NEG, though not as widely deployed. Most of their nanotech applications involve genetic manipulation, repair and manufacture of physical goods, and food replication. Nano-technology to the Migou is merely a matter of convenience. They too have abandoned nanotech weapons research due the tech-nology’s inherent limitations.
medicine
The last eighty years have seen incredible advancements in medi-cal science. Human and Nazzadi genetic structures are
com-to the Futurist in you
Nanotechnology in CthulhuTech has been introduced in such a way to provide interesting background flavor for the setting.
Let’s face it – the potential for nanotech is limitless. The re-strictions introduced here are meant to allow it to exist with-out dominating the setting. It’s important to remember that nanotech would be taken as much for granted by the average New Earth Government citizen as arcanotech. It should not be used as a primary focus for your game. After all, CthulhuTech is about far more interesting things than whether or not you can construct a shovel from the molecular level on up.
CHAPTER EIGHT...the way of the future
pletely mapped. Nerve damage from spinal chord injury can now be successfully repaired. Nanotechnology allows for a new form of “bladeless” non-invasive surgery that has revolutionized many operations. Nanites are used to hunt down and eradicate cancer cells, eliminating a disease that has haunted mankind through-out history. Damaged organ tissue can be repaired similarly and nerve endings can be spliced for organ or limb transplant. Ge-netic sequencing and cloning expertise are combined with nano-tech to produce transplant parts – a patient can actually receive a new limb based on his own genetic code.
In order to keep up on the demand resulting from the Aeon War, the health care industry resorted to other forms of medicine out-side of its traditional scientific options. The treatment of physical injury and disease has, in many cases, been accomplished through the practical application of magic. Most major hospitals employ resident sorcerers. Unfortunately, some people are still a bit squea-mish at the idea of being subjected to cosmic energy, even to cure their ills. Nevertheless, licensed sorcerers have played a key role in managing the health care demand through this time of war.
The Aeon War has brought with it a renewed focus on mental health. The effects of battle fatigue have been well known for the last hundred and fifty years, yet today’s war-torn environment has brought a whole new brand of horrors to assault the human mind as the true and dreadful nature of the universe starts to reveal itself. The secrets of the universe test the sanity of those exposed to them. Common citizens sometimes must cope with horrible creatures devouring their friends or neighbors. A collec-tive thread of tension weaves its way through every part of so-ciety, coming from the understanding that something out there feverishly works toward the ultimate enslavement or destruction of mankind. It’s a weight that everyone, at some level, carries with them every day of their lives.
The New Earth Government understands that this war cannot be fought on the battlefield alone. It must be fought within the minds of each individual exposed to the horrors they must face.
To this end, the NEG has committed significant resources to es-tablish new psychiatric hospitals and to increase the number of available therapists. The patterns of Post Traumatic Stress Dis-order and other mood and anxiety disDis-orders from exposure to eldritch horrors are so well documented that a proper course of
treatment can quickly be prescribed for most patients. Through efficient diagnosis, proper medication, and the correct adminis-tration of psychotherapy, patients can swiftly return to a healthy outlook on life. Direct exposure to the terrors of reality makes treatment mandatory by law.
The benchmark by which psychiatric care facilities operate is set by the Ashcroft Clinic. Countless hours of behavioral research and statistical studies by clinic specialists have positioned the Ashcroft Clinic as the foremost authority on the effect of the Aeon War’s horrors on the human mind. As such, their treat-ment policies and recommendations are distributed to hospi-tals and care facilities throughout the globe. The authority of the Ashcroft Clinic is enforced by the New Earth Government and in fact provides a way of fighting the war for the individual mind on a united front. In addition to providing valuable re-search results and treatment strategies, the Clinic also tracks behavioral trends within the geographical areas of NEG society.
They can detect any common threads of dysfunctional behavior that might suggest excessive exposure to taint or other unnatural influences. Their role is one that the New Earth Government very much values and appreciates. The Ashcroft Clinic maintains its headquarters in Chicago with a handful of other research and
They can detect any common threads of dysfunctional behavior that might suggest excessive exposure to taint or other unnatural influences. Their role is one that the New Earth Government very much values and appreciates. The Ashcroft Clinic maintains its headquarters in Chicago with a handful of other research and