Artificial Dermis

The workmanship was exquisite. Sara’s new platform stood swaying gently within the confined space of the capsule’s interior, clad only in modest gray undergarments. It - she - was blonde and had an athlete’s figure, perhaps modeled after a pastiche of famous women of the Gondsholmian steppes. Synthetic skin was always a dicey proposition - get the texture or shading just wrong enough, and the result would tumble headlong into the realm of the uncanny – but this was crafted from surgical-grade materials that matched the real thing so well that Enzo would have found it indistinguishable from living flesh had he not borne witness to Sara's transformation himself.
Sara smiled and, emerging from the capsule with the uncertain step of one who had never used physical limbs before, came to stand before Enzo at just a hand's breadth away. The mellow vanilla scent of mold release powder rose from her freshly-cast artifical dermis for just a moment before being drowned out by the odor of ozone that pervaded the robotics boutique lobby. Enzo felt a warmth rising in his cheeks; even as a career spacer, long accustomed to working in the intimate confines of a starship with crewmembers of the opposite sex, something about this particular woman and her unashamed closeness stirred feelings in the man that he was too much a gentleman to put into words. "Judging by that slack-jawed expression," Sara said, looking up into his face with a pair of expensive-looking blue eyes that twinkled with mirth, "I take it you approve?"

The platforms that Human-Like Artificial Intelligences (HLAI) use to interact with the world may often be humanoid in overall shape, but this by no means necessarily implies that they are mistakable for humans upon closer inspection. Artificial limbs, even those meant for use in prosthesis, may display the seams and inner mechanisms inherent to their function. Indeed, this may even be done as a stylistic choice on the parts of the owners seeking to embrace 'cyber-chic.' When the artificial wish to pass as biological, they may chose to don a special layer to conceal these inorganic imperfections: the artificial dermis.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

The creation of artificial dermis is as much an art as it is a science. Essentially full-body suits designed for protection as well as aesthetics, artificial dermises are constructed of multiple layers of colored polymer and carbon composite to replicate the form, texture, and coloration of human skin in all its nuances and diversity.
The innermost layer of artificial dermis is carefully designed not to impede the operation of the underlying mechanisms while also providing structures that replicate the feeling of bones and tendons when palpated. Subsequent layers of polymer are laid over the top to provide softness and tune visual properties like subsurface scattering that give human flesh its unique appearance. Artificial hair may be manually rooted into the artificial dermis or, in more expensive examples, may be gradually replaced as it wears over time by the action of concealed micro-fabricators. A network of sensors spread throughout the artificial dermis can provide a sense of touch, texture, and temperature if the underlying prosthesis does not already provide these functions.
Modern artificial dermis has pores that can, at the owner's discretion, exude artificial sweat for cooling purposes. This liquid, usually water with trace chemicals to control freezing and evaporation points, can also be suffused with scents or pheremones to further enhance the verisimilitude of the artificial dermis. Clever wearers of artificial dermis have been known to replace their 'sweat' with a variety of other useful substances for specific applications - lubricants to allow for squeezing out of binds, chemical agents that sting or drug assailants on contact, protective gels for coping with hostile environmental conditions, and so forth - but caution must be excersized so that the pores don't become clogged and the surface of the artificial dermis isn't dissolved as a result of chemical incompatibility.

Significance

For HLAI and those with prostheses or cybernetic augmentations, artifical dermis offers the possibility for one to be taken as a natural, intact human being if so desired. Cobalt Protectorate society does not generally place stigma on walks of life that differ from the norm in this regard, but appearance is still important to many individuals' sense of personal identity and autonomy, and, thus, innovations like the artificial dermis have a place even in a society that has fully embraced the merging of biological and technological systems.

Item type

Clothing / Accessory