The Cogniton Substrate represents a groundbreaking revolution in the
Vocru's understanding of Existence. It led to the creation of a platform that seamlessly connected their minds to the universe, in turn permitting wide-scale execution of their advanced technologies. It remains in place to this day, yet no one has discovered a key that grants access to this infinite network.
Origins
The Vocru's journey to develop the cogniton substrate began with their inheritance of quantum theory from their biological predecessors on
Trangth. The Empire's reach expanded with every star system they conquered, but the quantum devices they interfaced with to carry out their
Will lacked the necessary speed and power to carry
Signal across ever-increasing distances, frustrating their ability to enact the
Burden of Rule. This led them to posit the existence of Cognitons, discrete but interconnected cognition-reactive units that could not only conduct energy and information, but also interface with Vocru minds directly and act intelligently on their behalf, thus collapsing thought and action into a simultaneous process.
If, for example, they wished to collapse a sun into a black hole, they no longer needed machines to carry this task out, but could "ask the sun", being made of intelligently responsive particles, to collapse itself.
The Problem of Decoherence
The initial attempts to engineer new technology based on the updated theory of the intelligent universe led to widespread
Decoherence: the further Vocru minds extended into the universe, the greater the tendency towards information loss given the enormous distances over which their selves were spread. One might think of it this way: the Self has a container called Body. If the Self is a drop of water, the Body provides an interface with the greater ocean. Minus that, the drop coalesces with the ocean. The feedback loop the cogniton substrate provided was so fast it effectively bypassed the Body, and so Vocru minds, confronted with the vastness without, dissolved. This threatened their very existence and necessitated a solution to maintain their awareness and control over their creations.
Enthredic
To overcome Decoherence, the Vocru engineered
Enthredic - an AI-based substance that established a semi-permeable boundary between Vocru minds and external Reality, allowing its Masters to maintain Coherence and continue to "instruct" the universe by writing their Will into the cogniton substrate.
A Paradigm Shift in Understanding
The idea of the cogniton substrate prompted a paradigm shift in the Vocru's understanding of the universe, which they began to view as an intelligent entity rather than composed primarily of matter, opening up possibilities for new technologies that could interact with the universe more intimately. The discovery also incited a cultural shift given the quasi-religious framework an intelligent universe inspired, ultimately leading to the creation of the
Vocru Temple and AI
Servants which became integrated elements of the substrate.
Latter-Day Use
Though the lion's share of knowledge regarding the use, and to large extent, even the existence of the cogniton substrate was lost following the Vocru Empire's
collapse, a handful of cosmic scholars and engineers known as
Cogcrafters chase what scraps of information and material remain of it, hoping to comprehend some small part of its grand design.
Servants of the Temple, which were wired up to make extensive use of the substrate and Cogniton tech in general, exist in bits and pieces scattered about the cosmos, and as such, these concrete vestiges form the cornerstone of a Cogcrafter's undertakings.
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