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Cyrano Mod

With the advent of sensory enhancements that enable sophonts to gauge one another's' moods based on the detection of changing physiological characteristics, the art of negotiating was made much easier. The problem persists, however, that, even if you know that what you're saying is upsetting the party you're trying to sweet-talk, you may not know what to say to set them at ease. While you may now know when to say the right thing, you still don't know what the right thing to say really is.

Enter the Cyrano Mod — a self-contained memetic-processing suite that monitors the conversation and analyzes the data being fed to it by physiological sensors with the purpose of suggesting dialogue that might favorably promote the user's desired outcome. Like other "thinking" modules that supplement the user's native "processing" capabilities -- be those rooted in neurobiology or artificial computronium -- the Cyrano Mod can be worn as an accessory and tied into the user's processing network via noninvasive interfaces, or it can be installed directly in the user's system.

The Cyrano Mod itself is not a complete thinking entity. It has one job, which it usually performs well. Its intelligence is woefully inadequate for tackling problems outside of its area of "expertise," however. The culmination of its deficiencies for the potential user is mainly that its output is only as good as the input you give it, and it is incapable of determining when it is out of its element.

Thus, if a Cyrano Mod is fed incorrect signals from a physiological sensor suite, or if its language module is out of date and mismatched to the setting in which it is used, it may produce some very bizarre and inappropriate results. It is of the utmost importance to make absolutely certain that the interface between the Cyrano Mod and its sensors is sound.

 
Appears in Topics
AugmenticsDrytech/HylotechHigh Tech / Hitech
Nanotech
 
Development Notes
Text by David Jackson
Initially published on 23 October 2004.

 
 
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