Ebilocus Architecture

Machinal Intellectual Quotient (MIQ)

Your Daemon's MIQ is a factor of great importance which you should consider carefully prior to your purchase. As a newcomer to the industry, many will think "bigger number is better", but where MIQ is concerned, this is far from being the case. Indeed, there are many good reasons why machines with a wide range of MIQ remain available on the market, and better reasons why higher MIQ Daemons are reserved for advanced users.

Before anything else, we should define what exactly is Machinal Intellectual Quotient. This value is usually found patterned or embossed on an osseous plate located behind and to the right of the pilot's headrest in dry-running cockpits, or right above the entrance valve of a wet-running cockpit. A common misconception is that this number is synonymous to a corresponding human IQ, when the two systems have completely different metrics and purposes. The MIQ aims to quantify the operational capacity for thought and reasoning of the Daemon, rather than assess its overall intelligence, and reaching certain threshold guarantees the machine will be able to accomplish certain tasks, barring damage to its neural system.

Highly mission-critical Daemons will see their individual MIQ be evaluated and certified before sale, while more mass-produced models will have only a few machines from a batch rated to apply an estimated rating to the rest. The evaluations measure the Daemon's short and long term memory, conceptualization and learning capability, ability to understand abstract ideas, high level spatial reasoning and language processing.

Physically, the MIQ's main contributing subsystem is the core ganglion, a neural organ generally located near the cockpit, and often conjoint with the optical ganglion, which is responsible for visual processing. Note that unlike a human brain, the motor functions of the body reside in ganglions separate from this main cortex. The motor neurons are distributed redundantly throughout the body (including in modular limbs) to ensure uninterrupted operation even if one or even the core ganglion is destroyed. There are many records of a Daemon continuing an operation with this central brain missing provided motor ganglions and the pilot were still functional. Though, such occurrences have had dire consequences for the pilot, depending on the skeletal connection depth used. Find more information on those dangers in the relevant section of this buying guide.

Now, let's consider the capabilities enabled by various MIQ ratings. The functions enabled by lower levels are included in higher levels.

In general, increasing MIQ is strongly correlated with better motor control and optimized sensory filtering. However, high machinal intelligence comes with its own drawbacks. Obviously, there is the con of higher prices due to the longer certification processes, lower yields of core ganglions of required MIQ, and more lengthy muscle memory training.

But just as important are the issues intrinsically tied with more intelligent machines. Chief among them are higher levels of instability and proneness to failed commands if the Daemon is not well taken care of. Tied to this are concerns with sentient life rights. Due to this, Daemons with an MIQ above 90 are much more regulated or even illegal depending on the jurisdiction. Consult your local Shin Megami Tsukiyo legal office for information on the MIQ constraints in place for your purchase. Finally, existing research indicates pilots may be significantly psychologically influenced by the inhuman mind of smarter Daemons given prolonged exposures or interaction. Due to all these issues, the MIQ of these machines are kept to the minimum value that will allow them to complete their intended functions.

Synchondrion

The synchondrion is the powerhouse of the Daemon. Or rather, of the Daemon's cells.

The synchondrion has evolved immensely throughout the long and hectic history of Daemon bioengineering. The very first Daemons simply used the natural mitochondria present in most Vitubia-borne lifeforms. This type of energy was serviceable for these early developments, and made the resulting systems highly flexible; they could be fueled with any calorie-dense organic matter found in-situ. ATP remained the main power source of Daemons for centuries, even as internal combustion engines, turbines and nuclear reactors displaced them as more performant options for machinery. Even today, there exist Daemon which function using only well optimized mitochondria as a power source; such machines are useful in situations where in-situ resupplying may be the only option.

However, using this strategy does put an unyielding ceiling on those platforms' performance. The power and energy density of mitochondria is limited by the chemical reactions involving the ATP molecule, and the only way to break those limits is to use a different reaction.

This is where the synchondrion comes in. The first synchondria were prokaryotes modified through directed evolution to harness the combustion of long-chain hydrocarbon directly instead of making use of ATP hydrolysis. Achieving this breakthrough propelled a takodachi bioengineering company to cluster-wide fame within years of the first prototypes' unveilings. Said company, Tako Eats, leveraged its bleeding edge equipment and expertise in bio-tissue synthesis to design the genome of the novel Mechanopyrus euryarchaea. This gene-modded descendant of Methanopyrus was originally notable for its exceptional resistance to high temperatures, with its home habitat being found in the hydrothermal vents of the Ailivian Ocean. These thermophilic properties allowed it to moderate and survive these more energetic reactions.

This breakthrough powered Daemons throughout the Nebula for centuries, as direct combustion led to a hundred fold increase in power density for the machine. It's also during this period that the first airborne, and then spaceborne Daemons were created. As with mitochondria, the synchondrion were distributed throughout all the tissues of the machine, providing mechanical or thermal energy to the limb's movements, propulsion systems, or even weapon platforms where applicable.

The synchondrion design industry is marked by its shifts in paradigms and power dynamics. Tako Eats did not remain the top dog of the field for long, though the title passed through its tentacles many times in the ages that followed. For example, GuiltCorp infamously rose to prominence by selling advanced synchondria genomes and stem cells to Deadbeat insurgents during the Tile wars, gaining a lucrative customer but setting the then Tako Alliance against them.

The next major leap forward was that which turned Daemons from an important part of the Deadbeat industrial complex into its very backbone, and the system to build all its top-of-the-line platforms on: nuclear synchondria. Nuclear synchondrion required vast advances in bioengineering. After all, with their use the tissues of the Daemon became radioactive, hyper-energized and potentially extremely hot. These new conditions asked even more thermal tolerance and denaturation hardening out of the cells than ever before, and entire new chemical pathways.

However, once these challenges were tackled, the reward was great. Fissile material offered tremendous amounts of power compared to older technologies, expanding the breadth of operations that could be undertaken by the Daemons.

The first task of the nuclear synchondrion is to process the nuclear fuel supplied by the Daemon's circulatory system. For example, the popular Thori-3 Synchondria are designed to take in Thorium 232 fuel in the form of thorium dioxide dissolved in the Daemon's supercritical blood, and enrich it into Uranium 233, usually through an organelle incorporating a beryllium-based neutron source. Unless maximized performance is absolutely critical to the functionning of the platform, bio-nuclear engineers prefer to keep the nuclear fuel in the form of thorium for as long as possible, since its lengthy half-life (14 billion years) means there is less waste of fuel compared to a synchondrion which stores its fuel as uranium or plutonium at all times.

Once the fuel is readily fissile, the atom is chemically bound to an hyper-thermophilic protein which allows the synchondrion to biochemically interface with the atom. Still suspended in the synchondrion, the fuel is moved to an organelle designed to absorb the energy generated by the nuclear reaction and re-emit it as useful thermal energy. To induce the fission proper, the synchondria as bulk tissue undergo a "compression". The synchondria are arranged in a sponge-like matrix, with voids separating the cells. These voids are normally wide enough that fuel contained within the matrix isn't packed closely enough to achieve criticality.

When power is required, the sponge tightens, bringing the synchondria (and the fuel) closer together, bringing the fuel density above the criticality threshold, and inducing fissile reactions.

These reactions generate energy in the form of high-speed fissile products, neutrons, and electromagnetic energy. The fissile products are ejected from the synchondrion and dissipate their energy into the blood as useful heat, while the neutron strike another piece of fuel to propagate the fission reaction. The EM waves may be asborbed by specialized radiotrophic organelles in more optimized systems.

With this, Daemons now coexisted in the military-industrial ecosystem of the Nebula as equals to other weapon platforms, where various forms of nuclear energy generation had long been the baseline standard.

Famous Poem, "Core Shine", 19XXX VTE

In the Nebula's realm, a tale of desire,
A love triangle stirred, emotions afire.
Three souls entwined, bound by fate's decree,
Let me tell you the story, of Tessa, Xander, and Lee.

Tessa, a beauty with synchondrion ablaze,
Her Daemon's power, a radiant haze.
Her heart beats strong, a fiery core,
A testament to Tako's legacy and more.

Xander, a rebel, with GuiltCorp's dark thread,
Synchondria's secrets, in his hands, he spread.
His Daemon roared, with nuclear might,
A tempting force, in the dead of night.

And Lee, a wanderer, free as the wind,
Whose Daemon's essence, from nature's kin.
Mitochondria's whisper, in every stride,
A humble power, in the world they reside.

Tessa's heart fluttered, when Xander drew near,
His nuclear synchondrion, her senses could hear.
The forbidden allure, a dangerous game,
Temptation's flame, fueled by fame.

But Lee, with gentle touch, showed her the light,
In the Ailivian Ocean, where love takes flight.
Their Daemons danced, in harmony they swirled,
A tender union, in a vast, vibrant world.

Oh, the threads of love, entangled and torn,
In the tumultuous Nebula, a story was born.
Tessa's heart torn between passion's extremes,
The power of nuclear and nature's serene.

Torn between Xander's touch, so electric and wild,
And Lee's embrace, gentle as a child.
Whose love would prevail, whose soul would win,
In this cosmic dance, a tale of love and sin.

Through battles waged, alliances tried,
A tale of love's struggle, ne'er to subside.
GuiltCorp and Tako clashed, in furious glee,
While Tessa, Xander, and Lee yearned to be free.

In the end, as stars whispered their tale,
Tessa chose love, and the wind did prevail.
Lee, her true love, in his arms she found peace,
Synchondrion's power, their love's sweet release.

Xander, though wounded, in darkness he stayed,
His nuclear might, in the shadows it laid.
A reminder of choices made in desire,
In the annals of love's tale, forever to admire.

And so, in the Nebula's vast expanse,
The love triangle ended, in a cosmic dance.
Tessa, Lee, and Xander, their paths now untwined,
Love's echoes lingered, as the universe aligned.

In this tale of love's embrace and strife,
Synchondrion's legacy, the thread of life.
A testament to power, choice, and desire,
In the Nebula's realm, where love's flames inspire.