COMPUTERS
Typical Computers
Not so terribly different from the Empire, though far less apt to take the form of jewelry and body-sized holodisplays. The memory of the Cybrids and Prometheus runs deep here, as you might expect in a place so steeped in the legends of Harabec and Caanon Weathers. A typical tribal computer consists of a small metaplas housing for the netnode, something easy to carry in the hand and weighty enough not to blow away in a stiff wind. The display is usually a screen in the form of a thin opticrys panel layered between transparent layers of metaplas, though hologhosts are also frequently used (though far less private). Vidgoggles offer privacy for those who prefer to keep their computer display from prying eyes. Input is accomplished by stylus, vox, or datakey. Some systems use hologram controls with fingertip-tracking. All-in-all, nothing remarkable.
As in the Empire, computers are severely limited in general networking complexity so as to avoid approaching the critical proto-sentience stage. Any hyperadvanced system AIs are heavily-monitored, narrowly dedicated idiot-savants, never broad-spectrum geniuses, and they rarely, if ever, communicate directly with each other. But such advanced systems are extremely rare. History has shown that the average user needs little more than a simple device with moderate storage. Quantum-nodes allow lightning searches of local worldwebs, so actual processing speed is comparable to commercial Imperial systems.
Datashards
As I mentioned above, they still use datashards out here, quaint opticrys spikes protected by a synthex sheath. The Tribes of Man lack the interstellar network we have in the Empire, mostly due to tribal fractiousness, but there are also issues of sparse quantum reed supply. Data smuggling between star systems is still wholly physical.
About three centimeters long and half a centimeter wide for practical ergonomic reasons, a datashard tapers slightly toward the tip. The actual matrix which focuses the quantum data exchange with the computer is located in the tip.
Slicing
Tribal slicers are much more like elite commandos than Imperial webcutters. Because so many systems are dedicated and minimally networked, slicers often have to access a targeted system manually. Some civilian worldwebs are vulnerable to slicing, but the system ravelers confine any mischief to an acceptable level. In general, web addiction syndrome is far less developed in tribal space than in the Empire. Call it a beneficial effect of the frontier mentality. Tribals enjoy good vids and holodreams as much as the next citizen - but far more casually.
Tribal slicers occasionally try to slice into enemy command circuits, but the honor-based culture and the highly mobile nature of tribal combat makes this practice unreliable at best. Most command circuits use a shifting encryption algorithm that makes on the fly slicing nearly impossible. Still, I hear it has been done, so the wilderzone must have some advanced talent. Military slicing applies more to dataraids from enemy computers.
Synthralls
Synthralls, or synners, as tribal slang has it, are robotic servitors with sufficient AI to accomplish basic labor tasks. Some tribes have a secondary combat-programmed AI that patches synthralls into the local command circuit. The Tenets consider this acceptable, but honor codes do not apply against synthrall opponents. Because of the system limits, combat AI is adequate to basic defense or offense, but lacks initiative or creativity. Hence, synners don't display much flexibility, and their tactical decision-making slows in the midst of a conflict with many opponents.
Tribals, like any other sane human, become uneasy when they see armed autonomous machines. As a fail-safe, all combat synners have self-destruct sequences that can be triggered via the command circuit.
A passing jongleur told a tale about a Griever band that recently tried to use a horde of combat synners to carve out a holding for itself on the fringes of Starwolf territory. They called themselves the "Bone Rippers," and they had come into possession of an autofactory which they used for making new synners. Unfortunately for them, they underestimated the local Starwolf. When the Grievers started raiding some of the fringe Starwolf worlds, the Starwolf elders dispatched a Vengeance Fangs force and exterminated them. The jongleur claimed the battle took place on an out-of-the-way world called Desicca III and was quite the bloody affair. In a rather surprising plot twist, these Grievers apparently had access to equipment manufactured in the Empire. Another attempt by Unitech to create a corporate state in the wilderzone? The jongleur didn't say, and I find myself still wondering about this loose end. This story isn't the clearly impossible account I've heard in so many tales of battle. It had some thrilling details that rang quite true. I'll try to get you a transcription if you're interested.
Table of Contents | "WEAPONSMITH" TRIBES
