Official Safehold Speculation Thread

In reply to Weird Harold, PeterZ and Chief-CWH

What RFC has seems to have indicated is that initial installation of NEATs in the TF in terms of shortly after birth is for the best long term effects for the human who receives the NEAT. True, it would become hard for installations in later years of a human's life, but with all the TF's citizens getting a NEAT at birth would remove the need for later life installation.

However, if someone who hadn't gotten a NEAT and later was able to get one- say in the early days of NEATs- there might have been a medical procedure to have additional material resources for the NEATs' nannites to create the NEAT external connection interfaces and the internal networking to the brain with the intent of causing as little damage to the recipient's brain (and other portions of the body) as possible.

OsageOrange wrote:In reply to Weird Harold, PeterZ and Chief-CWH

What RFC has seems to have indicated is that initial installation of NEATs in the TF in terms of shortly after birth is for the best long term effects for the human who receives the NEAT. True, it would become hard for installations in later years of a human's life, but with all the TF's citizens getting a NEAT at birth would remove the need for later life installation.

However, if someone who hadn't gotten a NEAT and later was able to get one- say in the early days of NEATs- there might have been a medical procedure to have additional material resources for the NEATs' nannites to create the NEAT external connection interfaces and the internal networking to the brain with the intent of causing as little damage to the recipient's brain (and other portions of the body) as possible.

That is not my interpretation of those quotes. My interpretation is that it is possible to use nanotech on an adult to add the receptors which can read a brain, allowing it to be downloaded. But you cannot use it to build the equipment to load the brain with information.

That's my interpretation of the text.

SWM wrote:That is not my interpretation of those quotes. My interpretation is that it is possible to use nanotech on an adult to add the receptors which can read a brain, allowing it to be downloaded. But you cannot use it to build the equipment to load the brain with information.

That's my interpretation of the text.

I don't think Merlin's download of Nahrman Bates can be used as evidence. The modification made would have killed Nahrman if he wasn't already dying; therefore not exactly useful for adult NEAT installation.

I'm pretty sure that there is a way to modify an adult, but it won't result in a fully functional NEAT by TF standard as of Operation Ark. It's probably akin to Merlin's "low speed input" vs his faulty "High-Speed Input."

Ah... a doctoral thesis on neats...

More seriously, thanks for the posting. I've bookmarked it for future reference. You did a great job gathering this stuff into one place.

Don

Weird Harold wrote:

SWM wrote:That is not my interpretation of those quotes. My interpretation is that it is possible to use nanotech on an adult to add the receptors which can read a brain, allowing it to be downloaded. But you cannot use it to build the equipment to load the brain with information.

That's my interpretation of the text.

I don't think Merlin's download of Nahrman Bates can be used as evidence. The modification made would have killed Nahrman if he wasn't already dying; therefore not exactly useful for adult NEAT installation.

I'm pretty sure that there is a way to modify an adult, but it won't result in a fully functional NEAT by TF standard as of Operation Ark. It's probably akin to Merlin's "low speed input" vs his faulty "High-Speed Input."

I'm not using Merlin's download of Narhman Bates as evidence. I am basing my interpretation on all the text around it. Allow me to highlight the sections I am referring to:

The problem is that for a NEAT to interface with a human being, the human being has to have the necessary implants."

Think of it as . .. the fitting a water hose screws into aboard one of the water hoys the harbormaster uses to refill a ship's water tanks. . . . So without something to attach the 'hose' to, I can't just pour knowledge into your heads."

The NEATs are designed to impart information, not record it. They’re transmitters, and the human doesn’t come brain-equipped with a receiver. That has to be provided if the NEAT’s going to connect. But the human brain does radiate, if a receiver’s sensitive enough to pick up its transmissions, and that’s one of the things—the most important thing, really, under the circumstances—that headset I used is specifically designed to do.

So, NEATs are transmitters for dumping information into the brain. And they need specialized receivers in the brain, implants. But what Merlin created to read Narhman's brain is different--that is designed for transmitting information the other way.

It sounds to me like Merlin cannot build implants for a NEAT in a Safehold adult. What he can build is a lesser implant only good for reading a brain, not teaching a brain.

SWM wrote:
That is not my interpretation of those quotes. My interpretation is that it is possible to use nanotech on an adult to add the receptors which can read a brain, allowing it to be downloaded. But you cannot use it to build the equipment to load the brain with information.

That's my interpretation of the text.

I'm not gonna deny a read-only NEAT- part of what I'm trying to say is that if Merlin wanted to install a NEAT in someone (say Cayleb), which he likely wouldn't do, he would want to use additional material from Nimue's Cave to help build the Read-only NEAT so that Cayleb wouldn't be killed.

“Well, that was what it was most often used for, its primary function. Its secondary function was to make recordings just like you and me.” She smiled briefly at his expression. “Of course, it was designed to do that using the NEAT connections all Terrans were equipped with—nothing else would give it enough bandwidth to record something so complex under such adverse conditions—but that’s where the nanotech I’ve injected all of you with comes in.” Her smile vanished. “When I activated the headset, Owl used its tertiary function to reprogram the nannies’ base parameters. He needed my authorization to do it, and he couldn’t’ve done it without the headset’s EMT functions, but, to be honest, if you hadn’t already been dying, Nahrmahn, it almost certainly would’ve killed you anyway.”

“Killed me?” Nahrmahn’s nostrils flared. “You mean our nanotech could kill any of us?”

“Yes.” Nimue met his gaze unflinchingly. “Under the right circumstances. As I said, however, Owl couldn’t do it without the headset’s interface and my personal and direct authorization as the nannies’ originator. It’s not some sort of ‘kill switch,’ Nahrmahn; it’s part of the standard package I used as the basis for all of you. And what it’s normally used for is targeted emergency repair of the nerves controlling your vital functions. It’s an emergency medical intervention technique that bypasses destroyed or severely damaged nerves to keep things like a critically injured person’s heart and lungs working until the medical teams can get him into a trauma center.”

“That … sounds reasonable.”

“It is. Unfortunately, it’s a … brute-force approach. It’s a quick-and-dirty, emergency-only technique to be used only in a last-ditch situation, because it requires pretty close to a complete regen afterwards.”

“‘Regen’?” he repeated the unfamiliar word carefully.

“Regeneration, Nahrmahn. In some cases, a complete body regen, which could take up to a couple of years, even with Federation medical tech. In other cases, a more limited regen, affecting only the specific nervous tissue that was, for want of a better term, scavenged to build the bypass.”



Looks like we have textev for the archangels return boys!! Sounds like a Regen facility with Archangels downloads is hiding under the temple.

Also sounds like if anybody with TF tech kidnaps Merlin they could kill the entire resistance command by hacking him and executing a nannies kill order code.

P. S. Also of interesting note the nanotech actually comes from Merlin's Pica not Nimue's cave.

And maybe foreshadowing Nahrmahn's return to the flesh...

Thendisnia wrote:And maybe foreshadowing Nahrmahn's return to the flesh...

Doubt it, the current Nahrman is too dependent on OWL for his existence.