MALTECH: SYNTHETICS AND ANDROIDS
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Androids and Synthetics are considered maltech by large parts of the sector.

  *  Synths are machines made of flesh that, near perfectly, mimic human biology.
They look like humans, act like humans, age like humans, live and die like humans.
They have bone, skin, and blood just the same as humans have.
But they are not humans, they are synths, and they are created by us, and for us.

Some pre regulation synths were made to have different attributes than
humans, and can have super-human strength, reflexes, intelligence, sight,
hearing etc. These are very dangerous individuals, able to blend in with
humanity, and reveal super-human abilities when cornered.

The company Cydronics manufactured the first series of synths in
2994 based on pre-scream patterns found in the old mines of Kotris, Allisto,
and by the start of the Wars of Sovereignty in 3109 near 40% of imperial navy
personell were synthetic.

In 3111 the Cartesian Heresy was declared by the the church, and
rattified by Imperial amendment, witch declared the existance of soulless
life immitating humans as an affront to God, and resulted in the systematic
decommissioning of all Cydronics synths, the extermination of the Cydronics
company, and the extinction of House Kanayama; the ruling house of Kotris and
traditionally the whole Allisto system.
Sygnet would be given the task of enforcing this process.

In 3195, following years of lobbying and political movement,
the Imperial High-Courts ruled the 13th amendment unenforcable, and instructed
Sygnet to work with NeoBionic to determine the nessecary regulations and
control structured needed for them to start making

All modern post-regulation NeoBionics synths are made with obvious markings
identifying them as SYGNET registered synths.
Typically, this is an identification number around the cornea, blue white or
amber blood, safety features like obedience- and deactivation phrases,
and various cybernetic implants and serialized biomarker-fingerprinting.

Synths manufactured by Cydronics before the implementation of these
regulations are illegal and can usually only be identified through psychic
interview protocols conducted by SYGNET Auditors or D-CON teams, or by
highly specialized post mortem autopsies.
Early Synth purges relied heavily on captured Cydronics databases, but the
databases were never complete and some synths were deliberately kept paperless.

No synths are known to ever have been able to reproduce, or develop MES.

Synths are currently outlawed as maltech in the imperial core and
papal state, and a select other jurisdictions, and have only been legalized in
the rest of the sector very recently, and only under heavy regulation.


  *  Androids are machines made to mimic humans.
While convincing, they are inherently not synths, and relatively easily
identified as non-human. They are regulated similarly to synths, and are
outlawed in the imperial core and papal state.


  *  Virtual Intelligences are custom built pieces of software able to attain 
sub-human intelligence. A VI does not learn and develop, is a lot simpler than
an AI, and can never ascend to become an AI.
They are inherently identifiable as non-human, and generally allowed in the
sector, but their seeming similarity to AIs requires them to register with
SYGNET much like synths and androids.
True Artificial Intelligences are recognized as true life before the law,
and not synthetic life.


  *  Clones are human beings created from the genetic material of only one
parent. Clones are not synths and are given full personhood before the law.
However, the process of cloning is generally considered Maltech; falling in
the grey area between the categories of Gene engineering Maltech and
Synthetic lifeforms Maltech, it has received inconsistent rulings over the ages. 


  *  Cyborgs are modified humans who have replaced or expanded parts of their
biological forms with mechanical or biological limbs, organs, etc.
Mechanical prosthetics are widely available in most systems, while bionic 
upgrades are less common but still available in more advanced systems.

Cyborgs have personhood before the law.

Modifying the brain directly is considered Maltech, so cybernetic designs must
steer clear of direct brain modification and interfacing to remain compliant.