Orion's Arm Universe Project
An Introduction to Your Direct Neural Interface
Thank you for acquiring the Neurolex Alpha Direct Neural Interface: 9989AT edition. This introductory text has been produced to explain to you the process of implanting your DNI and what to expect from the installation process (for alternative formats including video, audio-only, eidolonic, and interactive please request now.)
The device you are currently reading this on is a Humaniform-Standard DNI applicator, no doubt it has molded comfortably to your hand (this behaviour will be exhibited again later during installation). Please note that whilst the device is compatible with major human clades, it is recommended that you consult the Neurolex Advicenet as to its appropriateness for you. Bioscanners and fail-safes are installed, but it's always best to be sure. The applicator will install seed components into your central nervous system from which a DNI will grow over the next three to five days, fully integrating itself over a few weeks. If you wish for faster installment, then this applicator is not the choice for you and we recommend that you stop reading and find an autodoc. Autodoc installation is significantly faster, owing to the greater availability of invasive tools, but comes at the cost of 10 hours of immobility and consciousness suspension. If you prefer to use the more convenient applicator, then please keep reading.
Before using the applicator, please insert the cartridge containing the DNI you wish to install. This is the transparent flexible card containing your Neurolex Alpha; within its sterilized form you should be able to see thirty or so devices ranging from 5mm to 0.25mm in diameter. If you have a nanoscope handy you can use it to identify the other one-thousand and forty microscopic components that make up the DNI. The applicator, with the cartridge installed, should be placed on your upper neck under your chin (please refrain from placing it there until you have finished reading). There it will bond as seamlessly and comfortably to your body as it is now doing to your hand, moulding around your neck to distribute its 20g weight. Once it has done this twenty wires will extend from its outer side and surround your head at an average distance of 2.5cm. These wires are dense with superconducting quantum interference devices and will non-invasively scan your brain to monitor the procedure. Don't worry about touching or knocking these wires too much, but please refrain from blocking them.
Using the SQUID array in the wires, the applicator will take a comprehensive scan of your head so as to plan the procedure. Assuming all is well the applicator will then sterilize and numb the skin it has bonded to. This will take approximately one minute and may feel slightly uncomfortable. Once complete, the applicator will ask you for final consent to proceed. If consent is given between ten and fifteen sub-millimetre catheters will penetrate the skin and enter suitable arteries (thanks to the numbing agents you will not feel this and there will be no significant damage). From there they will navigate into the brain and spinal column, branching hundreds of times until their termini are widely distributed. At this point the applicator will deploy micro-devices from the head of each termini; two thirds of these will be diagnostic components to monitor the process and ensure it is absolutely safe. The remaining third will be penetration seals that will bond with the blood-brain barrier and safely breach it.
Using the breaches, the applicator will transport the DNI components into the relevant areas of the brain and affix them there. At this point the job of the applicator is nearly done and the seals operate in reverse and close up all the breaks in the blood brain barrier. The catheters will retract into the applicator and it will unbond from your neck. You may notice a few pinpricks of blood from the sub-millimeter holes the catheters made, this is completely normal and you can wash them off safely. Before the applicator unbonds, these tiny holes will be effectively plugged by your body and will heal with no scarring.
The process described so far takes between six and eight hours, a speed determined by safe levels of waste heat. You wont be able to use your DNI yet though, the components of the Neurolex Alpha are still seeds and material caches at this point. The final DNI occupies 5 cubic centimetres in total, distributed in millimeter-sized components which are connected with each other and the central nervous system by a comprehensive microscopic mesh.
Over the next four to five days the seed components will draw from the material caches and from your body in order to grow into their final configuration (it is recommended you follow the Neurolex Dietary Plan during this time). For the first two days you will not experience anything, but around the third and fourth you will begin to feel the DNI connecting with your central nervous system. This can be confusing and discomforting, but the Neurolex Alpha has been designed to be as minimally disrupting as possible and the effects will be extremely mild (if you experience major disorientation or losses in mental capacity consult an autodoc immediately). You may experience minor moments of deja vous, vertigo, double/tunnel vision, echoing sound, synesthesia, and a myriad of other transient symptoms. This is all completely normal and is simply the DNI integrating with your connectome and learning how your brain operates.
By the end of the fourth day, all of these symptoms will have subsided. What you will be left with is a growing perception of a duplication of your senses. Many have described this as feeling like they had a second pair of eyes that were closed, as well as ears that were not hearing anything, and a mouth that was not open. This is the DNI constructing pseudo-cortices through which it will provide input and you can provide output.
Around the fifth day your DNI will finally be ready to use. It may activate at any time so we advise staying in a comfortable, quiet place for the duration of the day. You will experience your DNI activating as if your second set of eyes, ears, and mouth have all come under your control. In your secondary vision you will see the Neurolex Logo and your secondary hearing will provide the accompanying theme.
Congratulations!
Using your new secondary sensorium, the Neurolex Alpha will initiate its interface. At this stage the interface is extremely simplistic, using a Graphic User Interface to display each functional category (communication, net connection, entertainment, organisation, VR/AR, intelligence augmentation, exoself management, augment integration etc) as a separate icon which will be arrayed in a curved fashion in your secondary vision. The options for customising the interface are near-infinite, but we suggest sticking to the basic icon system to start with (note that many users find the secondary sensorium disorientating at first; to combat this we advise closing your eyes and learning to use your DNI in a quiet place to help you focus. Remember: your secondary sensorium can be shut off just as easily as your normal one, simply close your secondary eyes, mouth, and ears).
Before you start, there's one more process we'd like to talk about. At this point icons can be selected and orders given through your secondary vocaliser; speaking through this "second mouth" you can control your DNI. At first you will have to be explicit in your instruction which may be awkward. You may wonder at this stage what the benefit of a Direct Neural Interface is over any smart aid; the answer will become obvious from this point. Once activated the Neurolex will monitor everything you think and feel, particularly with regards to interacting with your new DNI. It does this so that it can get to know you so well that eventually it will respond before you even know you need it. The icon interface itself will likely be replaced, radically for many users, by something far better suited to your particular needs and desires. Options range from audio/visual, synsethesic, technotelepathy, impulse tagging, anthropomorphic companion, simulated instinct, knowsense, and many more. Research shows that more than 85% of users will have some level of mixed system with some functions displaying in one manner (e.g. audio/visual for entertainment) and others in another (e.g. knowsense for fact-checking).
User experience varies, but on average after three days of use you may already notice the interface has changed in a manner that is more pleasing or easy to use for you. The effect will probably be subtle at this stage and could be as simple as a change of icon colouring or configuration. New icons may even have appeared that better organise your DNI functions. This is all part of your DNI getting to know you.
By seven days after installation, you should have experienced your Neurolex beginning its function as the perfect assistant. It will likely start by making all manner of recommendations to you; whether it be what to have for lunch, informing you of an interesting fact/event/entertainment, how to better accomplish the task you're doing etc. At first it's quite likely these will be disappointing or unwanted, this is perfectly normal. All of your responses are used by the DNI to better know you, please do explain in as much detail as possible how you feel about any suggestion made. By ten to fourteen days after installation, the suggestions should have decreased in quantity and massively increased in quality. You'll find that your Neurolex is increasingly offering appropriate services and information at just the right time.
Over the same time period you'll notice that the Neurolex requires less explicit instruction. In a manner akin to a close friend, it will start to finish your sentences for you and begin tasks before you've finished using your secondary vocalisation. It will get things wrong at first, but over time it will improve so much that by three weeks after installation your secondary vocaliser will not be necessary for interacting with your DNI (though it likely will still be used for voice communication with others). Your Neurolex will be able to translate even the vaguest concepts, thoughts, and emotions into detailed clear instructions for it to follow. For example: a minor feeling of boredom combined with a scatter of memories may lead to your Neurolex suggesting and beginning a game, along with inviting a friend to play, that is a perfect choice for how to spend your afternoon.
After fourteen days, or however long it may take for your Neurolex to become confident in knowing you, it will begin to ask permission to handle things for you (you can of course grant control at any time before this, however it is strongly recommended you do not until the DNI has gotten to know you very well). These permissions will most likely include: selecting and ordering your food, managing your communications, keeping you up-to-date on current affairs/topics you are interested in, shopping for goods and services within a budget, installing desirable DNI programs, supervising any bots you may have, organising your calender, operating your nanomedical system, liaising with environmental optimisation protocols and many, many more. Granting permission will not remove you from executive control, simply that in the event your Neurolex concludes with a high certainty that you would want something done it will accomplish it, if possible, without bothering you (at fair but not high certainty, it will offer options for you to consider). DNI activity is fully recorded and the behind-the-scenes work your Neurolex does for you is available for review at any time.
If you don't like the sound of waiting weeks for your DNI to be fully integrated, we suggest seeking the following service from an autodoc. Using upload-level neural scans, an autodoc can generate a comprehensive psychological profile of you and from that Neurolex Alpha software will learn all about you before installation. In this situation, rather than begin with an icon system and a period of poor service whilst it gets to know you, your Neurolex will activate already fully customised. Please note that whilst this may be quicker there is a risk (albeit small) that the psychological model will be incorrect in some way. This could cause less than adequate service (which may be very disruptive) and require a longer period of adaptation. Sophonts in ultratech societies have nothing to fear, for all other customers we advise the slow and safe approach of using just the applicator.
And that's all there is too it! We hope this has been informative and has made you very excited to experience the Neurolex Alpha. If you implant today then in just three to four weeks your life will be revolutionised by a perfect, ultra-capable assistant right in your very mind. And that's only the beginning: additional programs can be downloaded as required from the Neurolex Premium Library (comprised of One Trillion top programs!) or third party sources, enhancing the capabilities of your DNI, and ultimately of you.
By Rynn B (2015)
Table of Contents
The device you are currently reading this on is a Humaniform-Standard DNI applicator, no doubt it has molded comfortably to your hand (this behaviour will be exhibited again later during installation). Please note that whilst the device is compatible with major human clades, it is recommended that you consult the Neurolex Advicenet as to its appropriateness for you. Bioscanners and fail-safes are installed, but it's always best to be sure. The applicator will install seed components into your central nervous system from which a DNI will grow over the next three to five days, fully integrating itself over a few weeks. If you wish for faster installment, then this applicator is not the choice for you and we recommend that you stop reading and find an autodoc. Autodoc installation is significantly faster, owing to the greater availability of invasive tools, but comes at the cost of 10 hours of immobility and consciousness suspension. If you prefer to use the more convenient applicator, then please keep reading.
Before using the applicator, please insert the cartridge containing the DNI you wish to install. This is the transparent flexible card containing your Neurolex Alpha; within its sterilized form you should be able to see thirty or so devices ranging from 5mm to 0.25mm in diameter. If you have a nanoscope handy you can use it to identify the other one-thousand and forty microscopic components that make up the DNI. The applicator, with the cartridge installed, should be placed on your upper neck under your chin (please refrain from placing it there until you have finished reading). There it will bond as seamlessly and comfortably to your body as it is now doing to your hand, moulding around your neck to distribute its 20g weight. Once it has done this twenty wires will extend from its outer side and surround your head at an average distance of 2.5cm. These wires are dense with superconducting quantum interference devices and will non-invasively scan your brain to monitor the procedure. Don't worry about touching or knocking these wires too much, but please refrain from blocking them.
Using the SQUID array in the wires, the applicator will take a comprehensive scan of your head so as to plan the procedure. Assuming all is well the applicator will then sterilize and numb the skin it has bonded to. This will take approximately one minute and may feel slightly uncomfortable. Once complete, the applicator will ask you for final consent to proceed. If consent is given between ten and fifteen sub-millimetre catheters will penetrate the skin and enter suitable arteries (thanks to the numbing agents you will not feel this and there will be no significant damage). From there they will navigate into the brain and spinal column, branching hundreds of times until their termini are widely distributed. At this point the applicator will deploy micro-devices from the head of each termini; two thirds of these will be diagnostic components to monitor the process and ensure it is absolutely safe. The remaining third will be penetration seals that will bond with the blood-brain barrier and safely breach it.
Using the breaches, the applicator will transport the DNI components into the relevant areas of the brain and affix them there. At this point the job of the applicator is nearly done and the seals operate in reverse and close up all the breaks in the blood brain barrier. The catheters will retract into the applicator and it will unbond from your neck. You may notice a few pinpricks of blood from the sub-millimeter holes the catheters made, this is completely normal and you can wash them off safely. Before the applicator unbonds, these tiny holes will be effectively plugged by your body and will heal with no scarring.
The process described so far takes between six and eight hours, a speed determined by safe levels of waste heat. You wont be able to use your DNI yet though, the components of the Neurolex Alpha are still seeds and material caches at this point. The final DNI occupies 5 cubic centimetres in total, distributed in millimeter-sized components which are connected with each other and the central nervous system by a comprehensive microscopic mesh.
Over the next four to five days the seed components will draw from the material caches and from your body in order to grow into their final configuration (it is recommended you follow the Neurolex Dietary Plan during this time). For the first two days you will not experience anything, but around the third and fourth you will begin to feel the DNI connecting with your central nervous system. This can be confusing and discomforting, but the Neurolex Alpha has been designed to be as minimally disrupting as possible and the effects will be extremely mild (if you experience major disorientation or losses in mental capacity consult an autodoc immediately). You may experience minor moments of deja vous, vertigo, double/tunnel vision, echoing sound, synesthesia, and a myriad of other transient symptoms. This is all completely normal and is simply the DNI integrating with your connectome and learning how your brain operates.
By the end of the fourth day, all of these symptoms will have subsided. What you will be left with is a growing perception of a duplication of your senses. Many have described this as feeling like they had a second pair of eyes that were closed, as well as ears that were not hearing anything, and a mouth that was not open. This is the DNI constructing pseudo-cortices through which it will provide input and you can provide output.
Around the fifth day your DNI will finally be ready to use. It may activate at any time so we advise staying in a comfortable, quiet place for the duration of the day. You will experience your DNI activating as if your second set of eyes, ears, and mouth have all come under your control. In your secondary vision you will see the Neurolex Logo and your secondary hearing will provide the accompanying theme.
Congratulations!
Using your new secondary sensorium, the Neurolex Alpha will initiate its interface. At this stage the interface is extremely simplistic, using a Graphic User Interface to display each functional category (communication, net connection, entertainment, organisation, VR/AR, intelligence augmentation, exoself management, augment integration etc) as a separate icon which will be arrayed in a curved fashion in your secondary vision. The options for customising the interface are near-infinite, but we suggest sticking to the basic icon system to start with (note that many users find the secondary sensorium disorientating at first; to combat this we advise closing your eyes and learning to use your DNI in a quiet place to help you focus. Remember: your secondary sensorium can be shut off just as easily as your normal one, simply close your secondary eyes, mouth, and ears).
Before you start, there's one more process we'd like to talk about. At this point icons can be selected and orders given through your secondary vocaliser; speaking through this "second mouth" you can control your DNI. At first you will have to be explicit in your instruction which may be awkward. You may wonder at this stage what the benefit of a Direct Neural Interface is over any smart aid; the answer will become obvious from this point. Once activated the Neurolex will monitor everything you think and feel, particularly with regards to interacting with your new DNI. It does this so that it can get to know you so well that eventually it will respond before you even know you need it. The icon interface itself will likely be replaced, radically for many users, by something far better suited to your particular needs and desires. Options range from audio/visual, synsethesic, technotelepathy, impulse tagging, anthropomorphic companion, simulated instinct, knowsense, and many more. Research shows that more than 85% of users will have some level of mixed system with some functions displaying in one manner (e.g. audio/visual for entertainment) and others in another (e.g. knowsense for fact-checking).
User experience varies, but on average after three days of use you may already notice the interface has changed in a manner that is more pleasing or easy to use for you. The effect will probably be subtle at this stage and could be as simple as a change of icon colouring or configuration. New icons may even have appeared that better organise your DNI functions. This is all part of your DNI getting to know you.
By seven days after installation, you should have experienced your Neurolex beginning its function as the perfect assistant. It will likely start by making all manner of recommendations to you; whether it be what to have for lunch, informing you of an interesting fact/event/entertainment, how to better accomplish the task you're doing etc. At first it's quite likely these will be disappointing or unwanted, this is perfectly normal. All of your responses are used by the DNI to better know you, please do explain in as much detail as possible how you feel about any suggestion made. By ten to fourteen days after installation, the suggestions should have decreased in quantity and massively increased in quality. You'll find that your Neurolex is increasingly offering appropriate services and information at just the right time.
Over the same time period you'll notice that the Neurolex requires less explicit instruction. In a manner akin to a close friend, it will start to finish your sentences for you and begin tasks before you've finished using your secondary vocalisation. It will get things wrong at first, but over time it will improve so much that by three weeks after installation your secondary vocaliser will not be necessary for interacting with your DNI (though it likely will still be used for voice communication with others). Your Neurolex will be able to translate even the vaguest concepts, thoughts, and emotions into detailed clear instructions for it to follow. For example: a minor feeling of boredom combined with a scatter of memories may lead to your Neurolex suggesting and beginning a game, along with inviting a friend to play, that is a perfect choice for how to spend your afternoon.
After fourteen days, or however long it may take for your Neurolex to become confident in knowing you, it will begin to ask permission to handle things for you (you can of course grant control at any time before this, however it is strongly recommended you do not until the DNI has gotten to know you very well). These permissions will most likely include: selecting and ordering your food, managing your communications, keeping you up-to-date on current affairs/topics you are interested in, shopping for goods and services within a budget, installing desirable DNI programs, supervising any bots you may have, organising your calender, operating your nanomedical system, liaising with environmental optimisation protocols and many, many more. Granting permission will not remove you from executive control, simply that in the event your Neurolex concludes with a high certainty that you would want something done it will accomplish it, if possible, without bothering you (at fair but not high certainty, it will offer options for you to consider). DNI activity is fully recorded and the behind-the-scenes work your Neurolex does for you is available for review at any time.
If you don't like the sound of waiting weeks for your DNI to be fully integrated, we suggest seeking the following service from an autodoc. Using upload-level neural scans, an autodoc can generate a comprehensive psychological profile of you and from that Neurolex Alpha software will learn all about you before installation. In this situation, rather than begin with an icon system and a period of poor service whilst it gets to know you, your Neurolex will activate already fully customised. Please note that whilst this may be quicker there is a risk (albeit small) that the psychological model will be incorrect in some way. This could cause less than adequate service (which may be very disruptive) and require a longer period of adaptation. Sophonts in ultratech societies have nothing to fear, for all other customers we advise the slow and safe approach of using just the applicator.
And that's all there is too it! We hope this has been informative and has made you very excited to experience the Neurolex Alpha. If you implant today then in just three to four weeks your life will be revolutionised by a perfect, ultra-capable assistant right in your very mind. And that's only the beginning: additional programs can be downloaded as required from the Neurolex Premium Library (comprised of One Trillion top programs!) or third party sources, enhancing the capabilities of your DNI, and ultimately of you.
By Rynn B (2015)
Table of Contents