Cyborganic Engineering

Cyber-organic lifeform engineering, commonly abbreviated as cyborganic engineering, is an advanced technological accomplishment made by numerous different interstellar civilizations, both inside and outside The Cluster. It involves the creation of advanced artificial beings that are capable of growing, evolving and behaving identical to living creatures, which can then be bred and configured for a variety of roles, from infrastructure to the military.

Origins
It is impossible to say which species first developed the concept of cyborganic engineering, as its history is scattered and mysterious. The Serphiads, a species known for pioneering cyborganic engineering, are commonly cited as being the creators of all precursory cyborganic technology, though there is evidence that contradicts this. Remnants of ancient Tuoctlo weapons technology indicate the Tuoctlo may have made use of cyborganic engineering in their military, suggesting cyborganic engineering predates even venerable Serphiad civilization. The Jian’Tur made use of cyborganics extensively in the Triangulum Galaxy, eventually leading to their evolution into the Cleanser Swarms. Numerous Technomage cults, most notably the Amorphous Node in the Milky Way Galaxy, also have considerable experience in cyborganic engineering, a technology they seemingly developed all on their own. Likewise, the claim that the Serphiads alone developed cyborganic engineering and are responsible for all subsequent cyborganic technology used by other civilizations is a flawed one.

Even despite its prevalence within The Cluster, it is widely believed that cyborganic technology is something that exists in other parts of the universe, as well. The Avatars, a race from far beyond The Cluster, closely resembled the militarized cyborganic creatures used by civilizations such as the Zetylian Hegemony. Even the all-powerful Vuokra recognize the cyborganic technology used by various civilizations in The Cluster, though they express no desire to use said technology themselves, most likely due to the transcendent nature of Vuokra technology that renders cyborganic engineering useless to them. While not a technological absolute, cyborganic engineering is a significant technological achievement, and thus has only been used to a major extent by a select few civilizations.

Mechanics and Usage
The exact mechanics of any individual cyborganic entity vary considerably depending on their intended purpose and the civilization that created. Cyborganic entities from two civilizations can look radically different from each other due to the highly adaptive nature of cyborganic entities as a whole. Regardless, there are a few distinct similarities that most cyborganic entities share, and thus the process of creating them has some universal constants, as well. Most cyborganic engineering starts with the creation of an AI matrix that will control the cyborganic entity. Like the brain of a living organism, these AI matrices start off simple and unspecialized, but will gradually adapt and conform to the specialized purpose of the cyborganic entity they are inserted into through carefully guided cyborganic evolution. The process of cyborganic evolution is naturally very random, so cyborganic breeders always carefully control the environment of growing cyborganic creatures so as to ensure they mature into their desired forms. The body of a cyborganic creature is often very amorphous so as to make evolution easier for them, as the AI matrix can adjust its body shape and specialize itself automatically as it evolves, a feature not available to conventional AI systems that are locked inside of predefined mechanical devices. Though possessing nearly unlimited potential, certain limits are put on the AI matrices of cyborganic creatures so as to ensure they remain subservient to their creators. This is the primary reason most cyborganic creatures are limited to an animalistic level of intelligence, as they could otherwise become self-aware and turn on their creators.

Once their evolution has been largely completed and the cyborganic creature has reached maturity, they are put into use. Cyborganic entities can fill virtually any role imaginable, and are capable of making almost anything more efficient. Upon being placed in a role, a cyborganic entity will naturally adapt and improve itself so as to maximize its effectiveness within said role. For example, a cyborganic power generator (which has been guided into evolving systems inside of itself that automatically generate fusion reactions) that has been interlinked with the power grid of a colony will constantly be aware of that colony’s power usage, and will thus automatically adjust itself as power needs fluctuate. This means that cyborganic infrastructure is extremely efficient, as it is constantly self-organizing and adapting at a rate unheard of by conventional infrastructural systems. This self-improving nature is also what makes cyborganic weapons so unimaginably destructive, as they can absorb and analyze combat data in real time so as to make themselves exponentially better in their designated combat roles. As many unlucky civilizations have discovered, fighting cyborganic weapons is often an uphill battle, as every moment spent engaging them in combat makes them stronger.

Though many would assume the development of such powerful and unpredictable creatures would have to be controlled and monitored extensively, unpredictability is one of the greatest advantages of cyborganic engineering, as it can lead to new breakthroughs and the creation of new creatures previously unheard of by cyborganic scientists. This is where cyborganic breeding comes into play. When cyborganic creatures evolve new traits that cyborganic breeders want to replicate, the breeders take the fragments of data located inside of that cyborganic creature’s AI matrix that correspond to the new traits and insert them into the matrix of a developing cyborganic creature, causing that creature to evolve the same traits as it incorporates the new data into its developing form. The earlier this data is introduced in a cyborganic’s life, the more rigidly defined these copied traits will be in the form of the evolving cyborganic creature. If this process is repeated multiple times, an entirely new breed of cyborganic creatures can be created based on automatic improvements made on the data by generations of cyborganic AI matrices. Of course, not all of these data introductions will result in beneficial evolution patterns, so one of the most important tasks for cyborganic breeders is finding out which traits they should copy so as to create newer, stronger cyborganic entities.