Remote Body: The standard operating system (the Minimal Maintenance Architecture) that’s part of just about any cybershell or bioshell on the market lets them be teleoperated as an alternative to actually downloading yourself into them. It works pretty well, except when absurdly fast reactions are required, or there’s significant light-lag.
cybershells
Sysadmins Wanted, Infomorphs Preferred
SYSADMINS WANTED, INFOMORPHS PREFERRED – Site systems administrators wanted to manage long-range extranet relay stations in the Expansion Regions. Infomorphs preferred, cybershells and bioshells accepted but must provide own IMS44 hab module and breathing gases if necessary. Companions accommodated at own expense. Skills required: IIP, extranet interchange routing, cloud servers, auton agent management, local-space mesh, including wireless EM and whisker-laser, metashl scripting, tangle, blacknet protocols, and interchange perimeter security (min. 6 wall-clock years live experience). Psych requirement: no to minimal negative isolation response. 2-year contract, pays 24k over standard for hardship/hazard, full backup cover and personal bandwidth allowance. Contact Litheia Elethandrion, Sophont Contracting, Outer Ring Netweavers, ICC.
Trope-a-Day: Blank Slate
Blank Slate: The maintenance-mode “personality” run by unoccupied cybershells and bioshells to enable teleoperation, maintenance, minimal mobility, and self-diagnostics.
Trope-a-Day: Uncanny Valley
Uncanny Valley: Largely averted where other species are concerned, simply because they’re far enough apart in appearance from each other that it never comes into play. (Now, eldrae and humans, both being humanoids, are probably close-and-yet-far-away enough to fall right into this where each other are concerned – proportions off, and yet too perfect, too serene, move too smoothly, body language is all wrong – yet another reason why I don’t plan on touching that particular First Contact.)
A recognized phenomenon in robotics design where androids and gynoids are concerned; mostly averted in practice because it is a recognized phenomenon, and so cybershells of this kind tend to be either very, very good indeed, or deliberately robotic enough not to trigger it. And if you really want something that looks that human species-like, you can always go bioshell. Of course, much the same thing applies to bioshells with certain types of extreme augmentation, which their designers have to take into account.
This whole thing, of course, is all inconvenient enough that it’s an instinct the bioengineers are working hard on ripping out through their xenophobia elimination program…