Machine-Assisted Free Will (CivBE)

Wonders

Machine-Assisted Free Will
National Wonder in Beyond Earth
Cost	800
Maintenance	None
Requires	None
Specialist slots	None
Effect	None
Notes	Leaf Techs cost 15% less Science.

Artifacts

Machine Assisted Free Will is a national wonder in the Rising Tide expansion pack. It can only be built by combining Progenitor Artifacts.

Machine-Assisted Free Will reduces the cost of Leaf Techs by 15%. The original effect of the wonder was made all technology cost 30% less Science, but this was changed in the October 2015 patch

Quote

"The manifestation of free thought is the most complex mechanical process humankind has ever sought to master. We must equip our mechanics with the right tools." - Daoming Sochua, Scientific Morality, Second Edition Prologue

History

Each of the over 100 billion neurons in the human brain fire around 200 times a second and are connected to a thousand other neurons, allowing for 20 million billion bits of information to be processed every second. Cognitive amplification through machine assisted free will would dramatically increase such sluggish transmission of information.

Before the Great Mistake, cognitive amplification was developing slowly, primarily due to the dangers of clinical research. Early patients suffered cellular damage and in the final test case, the cerebral prosthesis fused to the patient's skull. With advances in bioelectronics, the organic circuitry used to create the prosthesis was perfected; combining the technology of quantum computers and chemical neurotransmission enhancers. The chemical enhancers provide a jolt of speed to natural neural transmission, allowing the brain to receive the processed output of the quantum computers. Essentially, the quantum computers do the computational heavy lifting and the brain speeds up to obtain the processed information, all in a safe cerebral prosthesis.

The human brain adapts to quantum assistance in phases. In the initial phase, where the brain rejects external input, a neurological phenomenon occurs where a patient will experience "gaze perception", sensing someone is watching them at all times. Patients find the next phase difficult to describe, relating that they feel like they are in a large room crowded with people talking in muted voices. Unpublished research into this second phase suggests these other people may be fellow users. Some users enjoy this feeling of "oneness" as request to remain in this phase before the unit completes pairing with their brain. All users describe the return of gaze perception for a split second before the unit completes its pairing. In that second, they describe being watched by a tall, dark being in brightly colored robes that some refer to as the "Seer" and others the "Pharaoh". Researchers believe this shared image to be a distortion of the laboratory technician assisting in the procedure.

Artifacts that prefer this wonder

Image	Artifact name
	Void Spectre
	M Theory Capsule
	Sporadic Listener
	Confounding Object (Unknown Progenitor)