Personal Tech
The arc of progress is that eventually the masses get to live like the kings of old.
…And the new kings live like gods.
Several key technologies affect the lives of almost everyone in Charted Space. Bordering on the miraculous in today’s terms, they are utterly routine in the same way keyed door-locks would have been an unimaginable privilege only a few centuries ago.
…And the new kings live like gods.
Several key technologies affect the lives of almost everyone in Charted Space. Bordering on the miraculous in today’s terms, they are utterly routine in the same way keyed door-locks would have been an unimaginable privilege only a few centuries ago.
Silhouette
After decades of humanity’s enslavement by artificial intelligences, the creation of “free standing” AIs has been largely banned; the few still in use being kept isolated from the physical world with almost religious fervor.
Conversely, almost every person is given their own personal AI as children, molding itself to them as they grow up. Your Silhouette gathers all manner of personal metadata, becoming able to anticipate your desires, filter content, and project your exact preferences into the surrounding environment. Some treat their silhouette as a separate entity, a named imaginary friend or pooka that follows them around, eager to help. Others consider their silhouette only an extension of themselves, a nameless digital prosthesis allowing them to interact with and control the information space around them.
Conversely, almost every person is given their own personal AI as children, molding itself to them as they grow up. Your Silhouette gathers all manner of personal metadata, becoming able to anticipate your desires, filter content, and project your exact preferences into the surrounding environment. Some treat their silhouette as a separate entity, a named imaginary friend or pooka that follows them around, eager to help. Others consider their silhouette only an extension of themselves, a nameless digital prosthesis allowing them to interact with and control the information space around them.
The memory and processing power required to maintain a strong silhouette is massive. While some exist only as memory, stored on personal implants or carried by hand and ready to upload itself into local processors, the most desirable versions called Muses or Tracers are permanently imprinted onto Xenoglass gems, worn as jewelry or implanted decoratively in the skin. Ability to function without external power sources and more compact than anything humanity has developed, Xenoglass is ideal for this application.
Figments
Modern life is suffused with digital imagery holographically projected directly into your living eye, an indispensable new layer of reality. Instructions, signage, menus, and visual media are entirely conveyed though these Figments. Vastly cheaper than building physical infrastructure, only the most critical documents and signs still exist in physical form (e.g. essential traffic directions and emergency exit markings).
Figments are made visible through Visors, small devices worn on your eyebrow or bridge of the nose, or implants that splice figments into your optic nerve impulses directly.
Figments have softly glowing borders to make them immediately visually distinctive from real objects and textures. This is a hardwired safety feature (which cannot be turned off by user preferences) to prevent hacked visors from being able to overtake the wearer’s visual senses entirely.
Wands
Combining sensor, remote control, and pointer, the Wand is the essential tool bridging the physical and digital worlds. Usually a roughly forearm-length slender rod with a simple handgrip, many are personalized with fanciful shapes or decorations. Long knives that act as wands are also common, either style stored in a scabbard along the forearm or thigh. Pointing or drawing shapes in the air allows the user to direct their silhouette, visor, and other compatible devices.
Wands are often upgraded with additional sensors or functions for specific occupations, such as medical, forensic, and environmental study wands. Some also use liquid robotics and memory materials to morph into common tools for mechanical or electronic work.
Oilskins
The widespread use of total dermal coverings began as Earth’s increasingly corrupted ecology made full body environmental protection an absolute necessity. Incorporating liquid robotics to become independently mobile, Oilskins can fluidly spread to cover the body or retract into a globule of ooze. Fashion led to their being decorated with elaborate patterns and colors along with wearing traditional clothes over the oilskin.
Many oilskin variations exist, including armored and stealth versions, but most feature a Panacea Protocol, incorporating health monitoring sensors and medication reservoirs.