Robots
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Revision as of 13:59, 19 July 2012
Robots are everywhere. Robots range from the simplest of automatic devices to the most sophisticated of artificial intelligences. Some “robots” are even human, in the sense that their “programs” are centered on uploaded human personalities. In addition to industrial robots built into factories, the various classes of robots include:
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Microbots
These tiny mobile robots range in size from insect to dust mite. A single microbot has limited utility and intelligence, but a swarm of hundreds or thousands is another matter. Microbots are controlled by pinhead-sized computers running simple programs modeled on insect behavior patterns. A colony of such robots (a “cyberswarm”) has intelligence superior to that of any component part, just as an ant colony is an extremely adaptive organism. Many buildings and vehicles have their own hives of microbots living within the machinery or structure, performing routine maintenance and repair tasks. Microbots also have industrial, agricultural, medical, espionage, and military applications. Microbot toy sets exist, such as model farms, zoos, communities, or battlefields, with tiny microbot people, vehicles, or animals. Precocious Fifth Wave kids with cleverly modified microbot construction kits can cause all sorts of mischief.
Cybershells
A cybershell is a machine body larger than a microbot that is designed to house a controlling intelligence. Cybershells range from the size of a mouse on up. Cybershells come in all shapes, from humanoids to things that look like artificial insects, snakes, or vehicles.
A cybershell consists of a frame containing computer, sensor, power, and communications systems and, in some cases, manipulators, means of propulsion, and other gadgets. The solar system is home to about 30 billion cybershells. A minority are androids, but the vast majority have more functional designs. Most house nonsapient AIs, but any infomorph can be used if the cybershell’s built-in computer is powerful enough to run it. The latest small computers are powerful enough that a cat-sized or larger cybershell could conceivably be fitted with one capable of housing a sapient infomorph.
Inhabited vehicles or spacecraft capable of being controlled by computer are not called cybershells. The term is applied to the hardware installed within. Thus, a spacecraft may contain several cybershells: its mainframe computers, various work robots, each crewmember’s virtual interface, etc.
Bush Robots
Just coming into use are fractal-branching ultradexterous manipulator robots, a term usually ignored in favor of “bush robot.” Abush robot’s arms each branch into multiple “fingers,” each of which branches into a set of smaller fingers, and so on, down to micrometer or (theoretically) nanometer scale. Each set of fingers is capable of independent sensing and operation; a “bushbot” can perform complex repairs, or even surgery, without special tools. The amount of computing power required is staggering; therefore, bush robots able to do much more than micromanipulation require sophisticated computer systems.
Bioshells
A bioshell is a living body, often a bioroid or human clone, whose brain was genetically or surgically rendered decereberate so it never developed higher functions. It is controlled by an implanted computer housing an infomorph, usually a low-sapient AI, sapient AI, or mind emulation.
The first bioshells created in the 2070s were only fitted with computers running lowsapient AIs or shadows. In the early 2090s, Exogenesis corporation developed a computer small enough to fit in a bioshell body and smart enough to house a sapient AI or ghost, and bioshells became much more popular. There are presently many tens of thousands of them in the solar system. Roughly half host ghosts or sapient AIs, enabling them to experience a more human-like existence. In fact, some bioshells based on human clones have even given birth to human children, a practice that remains quite controversial.
A bioshell’s legal status will depend on the infomorph occupying the body. However, bioshells sometimes upset people (“A zombie!”). The creation of bioshells is totally banned in some areas, notably the Islamic Caliphate, and regulated in the European Union, which only allows bioshells to be owned by sapient AIs or ghosts for their personal use. Other cultures, such as the Duncanites, treat bioshells no differently from cybershells.
