Vanilla Lore Expanded: Mechanoid Tech (Patreon)

Mechanoids are autonomous intelligent robots built for domestic, industrial or military purposes. Mechanoid design is complex, and the AI needed to make them effective is very advanced. They range in capability from simple domestic worker bots to mechanized assault machines, to human-passing negotiator and infiltrator units designed by archotechnological superintelligences.

Mechanites

Mechanites: Microscopic mechanoids. Most known for their use in medicine, they can be programmed to do many other things as well. Safe use of mechanites means strictly preventing them from reproducing.

Path to Mechanoid tech

Mechanoid technology and the way to create them was not an idea that appeared overnight, but instead a notion that evolved over hundreds of years. Back in the 21st century, humanity developed simple-minded drones and robots, created on long assembly lines using expensive and unsustainable resources. This resulted in a sub-human level of intelligence in a clunky, expensive shell, which was not the most optimal for the tasks such drones and robots were meant to do.

Humanity needed to improve their methods to fully replace most basic workers with an automated workforce. As the technology to make them became cheaper and more accessible, more and more private companies began experimenting with robot tech. The new robotic work units were perfect for menial labor tasks. They were hard-working and capable of following simple vocal instructions, but funnily enough could not be expected to walk up the stairs.

Over the next few years, private companies began a race to improve their designs so that they could charge more money than their competitors. This led to vast improvements in the robotics sector, as it was no longer limited to mindless husks and automated production lines. These new, experimental units had an expanded movement range equal to that of most organics. Their processors and computing units were also significantly upgraded which made it easier to code new commands for them on the go. No longer were robots destined for one purpose only since the day they were produced - the new, advanced robot models could adapt to any tasks with as little as few new lines of code.

Whilst to the original designers of the new robot model this seemed like an endgame, in reality it only made the robotics race even more brutal and tight. Various companies began breaking the law to find a way to improve the designs, and study of the human brain became a common job description across the robotics sector. This led to the development of the early Classifier AIs, which despite being faulty on many occasions, turned out to be a product in high demand.

Human governments signed many contracts with the private sector despite the illegal means by which the Classifier AI was created in the first place. After all, it’s easy to turn a blind eye on illegal human experimentation if the government can create new job positions like Criminality Predictor and fill them with unpaid robots. This led to trillions of dollars being funneled into an already growing market, which in turn allowed for the faster development of an arguably controversial tech.

Androids, a direct upgrade from mindless robots, were advanced platforms that were stronger, faster and more durable than the vast majority of organics. With their upgraded neural processors they are fully capable of independent operations. Early models of subpersonae cores gave them human-like qualities whilst still keeping them on the short leash by programming in numerous kill-switches and subroutines. To an outside person, Androids looked like living, breathing human beings due to synthetic skin, hair, almost humanlike eyes and behaviours, but underneath it all lied an automatic frame of metal and cable.

Whilst costly in production, androids were capable of replacing a human being in almost all the tasks, and due to them being, well, robotic in nature, they required no pay, no breaks and no unions, and never complained about the tasks they were needed to do. This is the reason they were often used in dangerous tasks, and more often than not they suffered decapitation, critical damage and electro-magnetic burns which caused individual models to be discarded.

Such discarded models often ended up either repurposed back into mindless robots, or if unlucky enough, on gigantic android junkyards, where very life-like bodies lay in giant heaps, often with visible structural damage. This sight sparked many social movements to give discarded androids a second life, but the power of the industry outweighs the power of the social vocal minority.

Over the next centuries, advancements were made in the Android technology which, in a similar way to phones turning into smartphones, resulted in smaller drones capable of more processing power and intelligence than the big, human-like vessels. It was not a surprise to see nano-technology industry blooming as the effect of robotics advancements, and soon nano-bots found their application in almost all parts of the technology sector. Modeled on organic DNA, these microscopic machine intellects are capable of autonomously assembling most components needed for new drones.