Ghosts

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Grandpa: Timmy, you’d better do your homework.

Timmy: I don’t have any homework grandpa, not since mom bought the neural inductance educator.

Grandpa: I don’t like you gallivanting about with those Bravaxians. Mark my words, they’re a bad influence.

Timmy: I don’t have to listen to you. You’ve been dead for almost a whole year now, and the service contract on your ghost is going to be up soon. You won’t be so bossy when your projector drone is packed up in the closet.

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The Eternal You Life Extension Group started offering services in the last decades of Era-0. Their most popular service was the Ghost System that would upload a complex simulation of the subject’s personality into an artificial intelligence system coupled to a holographic projection system. The Ghost System was installed in a drone or (less expensively) in a particular location, often a residence. The subject would buy an initial service contract (often for a year), with the option for extension going to the inheritors of the deceased’s estate.

Computronium

The ultimate computer, computronium has been described as "programmable matter".  In fact it is a remarkable feat of nanotechnology, the shrinking of a computer to the atomic scale.  Before Era-3, even the best nanoforges in the galaxy couldn't produce a sample of computronium above 5% in purity. 

It is said that the core of Troniac, the Computer-God was made of pure computronium. After the Battle of the Pillars, during the 1000 Years War, when Troniac its self took some substantial damage, fragments of purportedly pure computronium started circulating among Troniac Cultists that were supposed to be fragments of Troniac's core.  These shards were often kept as holy relics, and many of these formed the basis of the known Avatars of Troniac, and some of the more dubious samples formed the minds of some of the Mad Saints of Troniac.

There were also a few sources of naturally occurring computronium.  This was exceedingly rare, as the natural processes necessary to deposit the right minerals in the right configuration proved extremely complex.  Yet, given enough time, space, and matter, nature found a way.  These natural computronium deposits only ever produced a material of very low purity, generally regarded as junk by anyone on search of computer power, yet endlessly fascinating to anyone interested in geology or computer science.

Computronium above a certain critical mass, tends to be independently sentient.  Unless the computronium is formed in a certain way, so as to properly integrate it into an interactive environment with a suitable suite of inputs and outputs, it tends to be hopelessly insane.  As a result of these facts, the Planetary League heavily regulated the production of computronium within its borders.  In spite of these same facts, Gazillion, inc continued to produce computronium in many of its own facilities, often enslaving the resulting AIs to power its technological empire.

Large-Scale AI

Definition and Uses

Most intelligent organic life-forms are limited in how many things they can be aware of and meaningfully think about at one time.  Artificial systems can be designed to circumvent these limits, and doing so allows for the successful management and administration of truly large endeavors.  Large-scale AI often serves in the role of "ship's computer" on large star-ships, and as an incredibly valuable administrative assistant in any government, but especially those at the scale of large modern nation-states and above. 

History

Originally developed in the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns early in Era-0, and re-invented early in Era-1 in the Planetary League, large-scale AI is a technology capable of transforming the way large enterprises are carried out.  The advent of these intelligences was known as "the singularity" in human-controlled space.  The Corporate States made extensive use of large-scale AI in integrating the administration of a state with for-profit enterprise.

Examples

General Zarlok and the computer-god Troniac are both examples of large-scale AI.  Large-scale AI was used extensively in the University of Aldebaran-2 to collate large data sets and discover hidden pieces of information.

The Nalaxian Code

The Nalaxian Code is the only algorithm known that is strong enough to defeat the Creed of Troniac.  It was developed in the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns during the 1,000 Years War, as part of the development process of General Zarlok.   The code was created by the Grand Nalaxian, a sentient complex of spawning pools on Artanis 4 that served as that planet's governor.