The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5762 Design Philosophy Challenge

As Master Alice Cantor provided a simple explanation on how complete neural interfaces worked, Ves finally understood why his living mechs were not quite suited to this tech.

"As you can see, true mechs are able to resist any influences that act on the minds of living humans simply because they are not valid targets to begin with. Aside from very rare exceptions that will not be elaborated upon, true mechs are lifeless objects that can only be affected by material attacks. Yet that is exactly the type of attacks that mechs are well-

suited to withstand."

The projected theoretical model changed upon Master Cantor's command.

Instead of depicting a basic pairing between a true mech and a mech pilot, it showed a model between a living mech and a mech pilot instead!

Ves grew a little more tense as he already had a good guess why the old mecher summoned this diagram.

"Complete neural interfaces bring great advantages to mechs and enable mech pilots to gain the upper hand against all manner of unusual opponents. However, in order for true mechs to serve their other purpose, they must be as divergent from mech pilots as possible. The relationship between a mech and a mech pilot is at its strongest when the two are different from each other. Maximum synergy can be achieved when both are specialized in completely different aspects. There is little rationale to bring them closer together for the purpose of developing a true mech, as is the case for Professor Larkinson's deviant works."

Her projected teaching rod tapped onto the bubble that stood for a living mech.

"Living mechs share much in common with all other mechs in that they offer vastly superior material protection. What they do not possess is absolute protection against most forms of mental and other esoteric attacks. The reason why this is the case should be clear. They are alive. They have souls, as best as we are able to determine. While this undoubtedly grants these so-called living mechs numerous useful advantages, they are afflicted with a fatal flaw: they are vulnerable to many of the same metaphysical attacks that can directly affect the mech pilot."

Ves knew it. The logic was clear. While living mechs still retained the digital logic engine that ran every mech, their spiritualities added a vulnerability that could potentially allow cultivators to mess with the machines.

It was as if making mechs alive did not just make them stronger, but also created an enormous loophole that could potentially allow powerful cultivators to disable them with disturbing ease!

To say that Ves was not pleased was an understatement. He was furious and outraged that he had completely overlooked this massive vulnerability!

Though he did not dare to take Master Cantor's exaggerated claims as absolute facts until he conducted his own experiments, he found her theory to be very plausible.

If living mechs truly did not possess the qualifications to become true mechs, then Ves was in deep trouble!

His mind was already racing to come up with counter arguments. If true mechs became the new standard in the mech industry going forward, then he needed to move quickly to remedy or mitigate the damage to his living mechs.

Ves refused to give up, though. Living mechs served as the core of his design philosophy. There was no way he could abandon his products after he had invested his entire career into them. As long as there was a single mech pilot left that still favored his living mechs over these true mechs, then he still had a purpose in his work!

As Ves continued to think on how to handle this unexpected problem, Master Cantor suddenly pointed her teaching rod straight in his direction!

"Professor Larkinson! As the inventor and chief developer of living mechs, you should be able to answer this question. When you work on improving them, are you doing so with the aim of converging their properties with the properties of mech pilots? In other words, are you working to reduce the differences between your products and their users?"

The old woman had put Ves on the spot. He was obliged to answer.

While it would be best if he could massage his reply, his pride and his principles did not allow him to lie or obfuscate anything about his design philosophy.

As a mech designer, he had an obligation to stand up for his own work.

Ves took a step forward and radiated his voice across the underwater environment.

"My living mechs present an alternate framework of mechs as a combat platform. They do not abide by all of the rules that govern ordinary mechs, and I have never accounted for the possibilities brought by true mechs. It is indeed true that I have sought to make mechs more similar to their human partners by making them alive. However, I am not pursuing this goal to the extreme. I still believe that a pairing between living mechs and mech pilots can retain strong synergies by preserving much of their existing advantages."

"Thank you for your clarification on this matter, professor." Master Cantor respectfully nodded before she addressed her audience. "As you have heard, living mechs do indeed take after their mech pilots. They gain life, which means they become susceptible to the same attacks that target this aspect. Normal mechs are akin to outsized suits of armor that offer excellent protection against material attacks and only slight protection against mental attacks. True mechs are enhanced suits of armor that offer protection against both material and mental attacks. While living mechs offer identical material protection as the former two, their ability to resist mental attacks may not be that much better than a normal human! Instead of pursuing divergence as is the case in all other mechs, living mechs are pursuing convergence, which is counterproductive to their purpose!"

The woman seemed determined to hammer home this point in people's minds!

Though Ves wanted to open his mount and challenge her assertions, he held back and tried to maintain his cool.

It would be better for him to address her various points after it was his turn to speak again. He could use the additional time to develop more sophisticated counter arguments.

The projection of the theoretical model vanished. This signified that Master Cantor was done with this argument.

"Further details on true mechs and complete neural interfaces will be forthcoming when the Red Association has released an information package on cultivation. For now, the development, modification and use of complete neural interfaces by parties other than our own organization is prohibited. The threat posed by out-of-control cultivators to our society is growing with each passing day, but true mechs are more dangerous and onerous to pilot. We will consider expanding the right to make use of true mechs at a later date."

Ves felt a lot of relief after he heard this. Sure enough. The mechers couldn't help themselves. They wanted to retain as much good stuff to themselves whenever possible. True mechs had the potential to be extremely powerful against the right opponents. Why give away this advantage for free?

By retaining a stranglehold on true mechs, the mechers effectively retained the most effective countermeasures against cultivators.

This would give the Red Association the power to keep cultivators in check and enforce their own rules.

This was a capability that not even the Red Fleet could match!

The mechers were playing a deep political game after they chose to disclose the existence of true mechs and complete neural interfaces.

At the very least, they took the wind out of the sails of existing cultivators as well as those aspiring to grasp this power!

Every cultivator in the Red Ocean knew they could not let go of their restraint and throw their weight around.

If they ever stepped too far out of line, the Red Association would dispatch a bunch of true mechs and crush the offenders by relying on impenetrable defenses and vastly superior material might!

This was a clever power play on the part of the mechers.

Master Alice Cantor did not elaborate on true mechs any further. Her primary goal was to push back against living mechs, so she brought back a familiar argument.

"Let me explain another reason why it is not wise for our society to embrace living mechs on a large scale. Mechs are weapons of war that are designed to give humans the power to fight with strength far beyond what we can manage with our weak physiques. Our race has used an endless variety of weapons over its lengthy history. Weapons ranging from spears, firearms, tanks, warships and ultimately mechs demonstrate continuous progression in the sophistication and power of our preferred means of combat. Yet no matter how powerful they become, each of these weapons are still firmly controlled by their human wielders."

The Master Mech Designer directed another accusing stare at Ves.

"Every proper mech designer is taught from the beginning that they must serve mech pilots. The mechs they design must empower their users in some fashion. They are never instructed to design a machine that can reduce or replace the role of mech pilots. Doing so will result in the creation of combat machines that are no longer reliant on humans to wage war. This is unacceptable! This not only breaks the most important principle of the mech industry, but also violates one of the fundamental taboos of our civilization!"

Ves could see plenty of looks of concern among the audience. Even if they were originally well predisposed towards living mechs, they were still human. That meant that they had all been raised with the common values and principles that humans were expected to carry.

This also included the principle of never allowing humans to make themselves redundant in their own society!

"Mechs exist to serve mech pilots." The stern old woman stated with strong conviction. "There is an inherent master-

slave relationship between the two. Mech pilots are the masters while mechs are their slaves. As cruel as this may sound, this is the natural order. Technology is meant to serve our race. It is not meant to hold dominion over us, which is a possibility so long as we grant too much power and autonomy to our machines. Please answer this question for me, Professor Larkinson. How do you envision the relationship between your living mechs and their mech pilots in the context of your design philosophy?"

Ves tried his best to suppress an ugly expression. She was putting him on the spot yet again. She had most definitely studied his living mechs quite well for her to address this specific point.

Just like before, Ves provided an honest answer even though it weakened his position.

"I reject the attitude of treating mechs as subordinate to their human users. While I understand why this is the current norm, I think that mechs deserve more respect than that. I design my living mechs with the explicit desire and assumption that they will only reach their full potential when their mech pilots treat them as equal partners. I emphatically do not want my living mechs to overpower their mech pilots and become the dominant partner in their relationship. All I aspire towards is true equality. Instead of forcing mechs to serve their pilots, I prefer that the two befriend each other and become close comrades-in-arms as they fight together. While I am cognizant that not every mech pilot will be able to develop a harmonious relationship with a living mech, the vast majority of my customers have come to utilize their products with great satisfaction."

Naturally, Master Cantor sneered when Ves mentioned his aspiration for living mechs to develop equal partnerships with mech pilots.

"A truly equal relationship is only possible if we live in a utopia. We do not. We live in a reality where our civilization is being pushed into a corner of the Red Ocean. If we are to survive and win the Red War, we cannot afford to be softhearted. This is the wrong time and place to pursue fanciful and unrealistic ideals. Red humanity must instead remember how their ancestors managed to defeat the aliens of the Milky Way in ages past and remain uncompromising in the face of adversity! No alien, living mech or other exotic life form must stand in the way of the ascension of our race! Only a proper mech can give our race the conditions to defeat the enemies of the present and the future!"