The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1717

Chapter 1717 Neural Interconnectivity

Ves encountered plenty of design philosophies over his career. His recent tour throughout the star sector allowed him to come into contact with plenty of Journeymen who each developed their own ideas on how to design better mechs.

He admired the creativity of those Journeymen. The galactic mech industry was incredibly huge and countless competitors had already come up with their own solutions.

It was very difficult to develop an original design philosophy that still hadn't been explored!

Out of all of the design philosophies he learned, Master Huron's design philosophy was probably one of the most extreme ones he heard!

It sounded even crazier than Class IX design philosophies! Not only did Master Huron decide to dedicate himself in the very sensitive field of neural interfaces, he opted to explore one of its most extreme applications in the form of connecting neural interfaces together!

Lady Curver allowed Ves some time to get over his shock.

"Many mech designers like you react like this when they first learn what neural interconnectivity means. Before you attempt to lecture me, don't forget that my Master has managed to realize his design philosophy. Neural interconnectivity is a real thing, and he's not the only mech designer in the galaxy who succeeded in applying it in a safe and useful manner!"

She was right. While Ves was imagining all sorts of horror stories, a mech designer would never be able to reach Master with this specialization if he didn't find a way to apply it without excessive risk!

Ves grew curious how Master Huron managed to grapple with the risks of experimenting with neural interfaces.

"The premise is simple, though the application is much more complex." She replied. "Two peas in a pod are very similar to each other. One of the simplest ways to form a stable neural network that connections the mind of a mech pilot to the mind of another mech pilot is by finding and pairing identical twins. Since they are already identical in many ways, there isn't much incompatibility if we form a small connection between their minds."

"It can't be that simple, right? One mistake can instantly ruin both of their brains!"

"That is true. My Master and I have never dared to open the floodgates. We only open up a tiny slit so that only a limited amount of data can be transferred back and forth. The bandwidth of this connection can be expanded gradually to strengthen the coordination between the mech pilots as they get more familiar with operating in this fashion."

"Identical twins, especially naturally-born ones, should be rare. Are those the only customers your Master is catering towards?"

"That was just his starting point, Ves. As he developed his design philosophy, he focused on expanding the pool of eligible mech pilots. He developed a way to pair brother to sister, father to son, mentor and student, and so on. My Master also engaged in a lot of research to expand the size of what we call the neural network. While this was incredibly difficult, he managed to find a way to pair an entire squad with each other. Once he achieved this breakthrough, it became easier for him to expand the neural network to encompass an entire mech company and mech battalion!"

That sounded incredibly powerful! Ves knew the importance of coordination in battle.

If a mech battalion numbering 500 mechs all fought in perfect sync with each other, Ves could easily imagine it beating twice its numbers! Even when the quality of the mechs and the skill of the mech pilots were identical between the two forces, the side with the better coordination possessed an absolute advantage!

Ves understood why neural interconnectivity was such a worthy goal to pursue despite all of the inherent risks surrounding neural interface technology. If Master Huron truly managed to develop a safe application of connecting mech pilots together, then this was absolutely a way to circumvent the conventional limitations of increasing the battle performance of mechs!

Unlike adding more expensive exotics or incorporating high technology in a mech design, the cost to set up a neural network was not that significant!

The only requirement to form a stable network was to upgrade the neural interface and some other components in the cockpit. Nothing more was necessary!

While the underlying tech was very complicated and abstruse, this was not a significant problem as long as Master Huron specialized it to the point where he could design a specialized neural interface in his sleep!

Ves couldn't help but convey genuine admiration for Master Huron's success! However, he quickly grew suspicious. If neural networks were so fantastic, why hadn't he heard of it? Why hadn't this tech become more widely known?

"There has to be a catch, right?" He asked.

Aisling dropped her smile and sighed. "Sadly, my Master hasn't been able to develop a way to solve all of the issues surrounding neural interconnectivity. The risks you've mentioned still exist. It is just that one of the main solutions my Master has come up with has mitigated them to an extent."

"What is his solution?"

"It's very simple! He only designs mechs for elite, highly-trained outfits and military units! When a mech regiment has developed a strong martial tradition and identity, all of its mech pilots share the same values, mindsets, training and fighting spirit! The greater their commonalities, the easier it becomes to unify them in a neural network!"

"There should still be a lot of differences between the individual mech pilots, right?"

"Correct. The neural networks my Master has formed for mech companies and mech battalions are only the shallowest versions of what he can provide. We don't dare to expand the bandwidth of the connections for fear or unpleasant side effects. Only smaller units such as squads made up of close companions are safe to form a greater network."

"I see. That makes sense. It sounds like your Master still has a lot to go. This field is far from mature."