Acrena Machine Spirits
Acrena comes from the epic poem written by the Kaljarin people. Within the poem Acrena is a being who was able to speak with both man and machine. He is an outsider who sees the world as two sides colliding. Flesh and blood with metal and purpose.
Acrena, Machine Spirits, is the technology used to insert a person's consciousness into a mechanical shell. The Dominion has had a long history of being fearful of artificially sentient machines. Over time they have had to accept that intelligence machines were necessary to keep up with the rest of the galactic communities. These machines were limited by the various Coalition protocols, though this did little to assure the Dominion of their security.
Over the centuries the culture of the Dominion allowed for the belief that cybernetics was the best way to achieve intelligent machines. Thus when the Acrena technology was discovered it was immediately funded and put into production. After the first several successes a whole new market was eventually opened up.
Acrena have what is termed as limited free will, having deterministic systems placed upon them to ensure that they cannot harm organic sentient life. It is considered an honor to be asked to have one's consciousness copied. All of the Dominion's greatest minds and talents have had this great honor. A way of assuring that their creative brilliance is never lost.
Acrena are both looked down upon and marveled as one of the greatest Dominion technologies. Some view them as sub-sentients. The limiting of their free will has only worked to exacerbate this belief. The True Form Movement has set itself it stark opposition against the Acrena. They believe that the Acrena should be heavily controlled in order to ensure security. They often will refer to Acrena as "its" instead of any words that would ascribe them personhood. Others view the Acrena as a massive mechanical-species that deserves to be treated as sentient.
Utility
Whole career fields have been established around Acrena technologies. Many occupations that are wholly outside of normal sentient beings ability are given to the Acrena. These positions are heavily regulated to ensure that Acrena do not take viable jobs away from sentient beings.
Within the Acrena there are two types. Master and replicas. Masters serve as the original consciousness and spirit that enter into the machine body while replicas are those machines that have been copied. Replicas are often socialite personalities. These people allow their consciousness to be mapped and downloaded into an Acrena. Those copies are then sold to consumers.
Many become ship maintenance crews or even the mastermind for ships themselves. Often Military personnel who are hurt badly, beyond the point of functioning normally, will become an Acrena. Brilliant tacticians are often places as a starship's machine spirit. Granting the ship's captain access to not only knowledge but an intelligence that understands the ship as though it were their own body. This has made Dominion starships and terrestrial vehicles very powerful.
Other normal
The Acrena models come in various different forms
Some people use this as a way of achieving immortality while others use it as a second change.
Whole career fields have been established around this tech. There are some that become artificial as a means of gaining immortality, others seek it as a way to make money for a grand retirement. At retirement some are offered to become androids as to replicate flesh and blood so that they can return to society.
Access & Availability
Widely developed throughout the Dominion core worlds. Most people have at least some form of an Acrena either as a servant or as an employee of some sort. The farther out from the core worlds the less prevalent the technology becomes.
Complexity
The Dominion military oversees all manufacturing so as to keep it a secret. The most basic units, such as maintenance and security shells,
The most basic units such as starship maintenance Acrena are fairly simple processes. The more complicated the task the Acrena have to preform the more complicated the process becomes.
The process does take time causing the Dominion's forces to not have these in quantity. Once a person is placed within a shell they must go through a transition period to get used to their new bodies.
Discovery
The technology was found within the ancient Illanti database by Dr. Rajlna Braxis. Its modern application is basic compared to the complexity that the precursors had. Over the years it has been able to accompany more and more ambitious tasks. The greatest thus far is tactical warships having an Acrena as its artificial mind.
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