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Body Transformation Protocols

Transmogrification; radical changes to physical form in sophonts

Body Transformation Protocols
Image from Steve Bowers and Bing Image Creator
Snapshot: Changing Form
Of course, handling this kind of wildly non-humanoid body was not trivial. I had been provided with several levels of interface. I1 was just a remote control, it felt like I was sitting somewhere else moving around the body with a mental joystick. I2 was the humanoid interface, it mapped my humanoid body image onto the mist. As long as the mist was humanoid things were normal, but having a part of you extend into a translucent pseudopod when you tensed your stomach was rather confusing. I3 went further and actually overrode the normal body image and motor cortex, making it natural to be a mist and seeing through one's whole surface. I4 was even stronger. Through that interface I had access to the individual micromachines. I could do manipulations on the microscale or even nanoscale with some specialised foglets inside me. I could feel the tensions and textures of the individual pebbles when I held them suspended in myself.
Anders Sandberg; O Diamond! Diamond! Thou Little Knowest the Mischief Done
Before the development of engeneration, which allows a sophont to upload their mind-state into a database then subsequently download it into a new (and often quite different) body, radical changes in physical form were difficult to achieve, and required extensive surgery involving advanced medical technology. Indeed, some sophonts, even in the Current Era, still opt for medical modification in order to attain morphological freedom; believers in the Continuity Theory of Identity prefer to retain the same living neural tissue when changing form, even though this may require complex modification and augmentation if their new body is significantly different from the old one.

However the goal of morphological freedom is most readily attained using uploading technology, which allows the sophont concerned almost complete freedom to choose their new form. Aioids of various kinds were already accustomed to downloading their mindstates into new types of robotic forms when the technology of engeneration was developed, but at first biological sophonts (bionts) almost always downloaded themselves into a body that was very similar to their original form. Any significant difference between the old form and the new one could cause severe adjustment problems, and the newly-downloaded individuals found themselves unable to function comfortably for a wide range of reasons. Apart from relatively mild alterations to morphology, engeneration techniques were not sophisticated enough to allow radical changes until well after the end of the Federation Era.

Virtual Transmogrification

Before morphological freedom became commonplace in the real world, uploads which remained in the virtual world found it relatively easy to change their simulated form. A virtual sophont can transform into a radically different entity, a process which could cause various degrees of substrate shock, or difficulties with translation metamorphosis. Over time these problems were solved using sophisticated neuropsychological engineering, and by the Age of Establishment it was possible to use similar methodology to allow sophonts in the physical world to adapt to new bodies with relative ease.

In order to feel comfortable in a body with different sexual characteristics (or none at all), different diet (or none at all) or different vulnerabilities and fears, and in most cases these problems were solved in the simulated world before the real one.

Transformation Interface Levels

A sophont who wishes to drastically change their physical form must find a way to comfortably inhabit and control their new body, which may have a different number of limbs, a different form of locomotion and a different set of senses from their previous one. To do this there are a number of different interface levels that the subject may employ, in order to master their new physical form. The most common forms of interface protocol are known as Interface1 to Interface 4, although there are other, more complex options.

  • (I1) Interface Level 1, known as Automatic Control, allows the user to control their new body in a very basic fashion; most of the actions and activities of the body are controlled by an obedient automatic system, that interprets the user's orders in a way that appears natural to an outside observer. This level of interface uses complex behavioural models to translate the wishes of the user into actions, and simulates familiar senses and sensations for the benefit of the user. At first the user can choose to experience their new body from a third-person perspective if preferred, but as the user gets accustomed to the new body's capabilities most users progress towards more advanced levels of control.
  • (I2) Interface level 2, known as Translation Control; at this level the user fully inhabits the body, and is learning to utilise all the capabilities of this form; but all the movements possible for the new body are translated into movements the user can easily understand, and all the sensorial data is translated into a form that the user is familiar with. For instance sonar senses can be translated into visual senses, and chemical senses converted into taste and smell; however these translations are often approximate, so much of the detailed information is relayed via the users' exocortex. External processing can also handle the control of unfamiliar limbs and respond to proprioception cues that the unaugmented user would find confusing.
  • (I3) Interface Level 3, known as Instinctive Control, requires that the user can understand the workings and movements of their new body on an intuitive level, as if they had been born into it. They can fully interpret and understand the messages relayed to them via their sensoria, and respond to stimuli naturally by actions which are appropriate to that form. For instance a flying morph using instinctive control can detect updrafts and crosswinds natively, while observing the environment using acute eyesight or echolocation depending on the abilities of that form. Acquiring instinctive control over a new body generally requires significant neuropsychological reconfiguration, although this can be achieved using a suitably integrated exoself. In most cases the original neurophysiological patterning of the user will be suppressed and deactivated, usually stored as a data backup which can be reactivated if and when necessary.
  • (I4) Interface Level 4, known as Enhanced or Advanced Control, allows the user to access capabilities that a typical modosophont would not be able to access. Certain physical forms, such as bush-vecs, supersophonts, and morphs incorporating u-fog or other smart matter have capabilities and senses that far exceed those possessed by a typical modosophont. In order to utilise those capabilities to their fullest extent, a Level 4 interface user must have access to rapid processing capabilities, enhanced memory data banks and a comprehensive suite of analytical tools and sensors. In the Current Era a significant fraction of modosophonts have ultra-tech enhancements which improve their abilities significantly, and for this reason many individuals who desire to change their form also choose to progress to a Level 4 interface as quickly as possible.

Menomorphs and Rheomorphs

Modosophonts who change their form regularly are known as rheomorphs, while those who tend to retain the same form for most or all of their lives are known as menomorphs. Most citizens of the Terragen Sphere in the Current Era fall somewhere between these two options.

For individuals who prefer to change their external appearance on a superficial level, there is the option of moodomorphic attire, which allows the user to project an image or illusion of almost any shape or form using phased array emitters and smart matter of various kinds. Sophonts using such a projection can assume the characteristics of almost any clade or morphotype, but only a fraction of such changes are accompanied by radical neuropsychological adjustments.
 
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Appears in Topics
AugmenticsEverydaytechHigh Tech / Hitech
Neurotechnology
 
Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers, with snapshot by Anders Sandberg
Additional Material by Grawa 427 and Todd Drashner
Initially published on 25 March 2025.

 
 
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