Brain in a jar

A brain in a jar is a brain that has been removed from its body, placed in a jar and hooked to machines to allow the brain to interact with the world around it.

## Overview

Brains in jars, or BIJ, while not technically undead are considered a form of afterlife for the Dalmer. It is possible for the Dalmer to remove their brains from their bodies and place them into a domed shell filled with brine and hooked up to electronic devices.

Dalmer brains can function autonomously from the body. A Dalmer brain placed in a solution of brine and pressurized bio-medical gel, (which allows the brains to continue to function for several centuries) connected to a battery and a telephone line, can communicate, think and count (it pulsates while doing this) as well as any other Dalmer.

Any damage to the casing or the brain itself can disrupt the robot's brainwaves and damage its neural connection to the rest of the body, affecting the brains performance.

Feeding the organic brain information about its surroundings are special sensors. Apart from providing a real-time high resolution feed of the robot's surroundings, they are also capable of switching to infrared mode, in case the main sensors, for one reason or another, become useless for operating in unlighted areas. The basic BIJ is equipped with a simple attachment to a voice box and optical sensors or other sensory input devices.

The memories and programs necessary for the brain to interact with its non natural body are stored in electronic brain enhancements, found inside the organic or partially organic brain, itself contained within a domed shell, the “jar”.

BIJs, due to the nature of their organic processor, can be programmed with much more complex and expansive instructions than typical robots. This also means they are superior to typical combat robots in the Empires arsenal, at least in terms of their tactics and strategy. Military maintenance bots can be controlled via a matrix network. In this case, a central AI operates the robots. The programs used to run BIJs are Facility Maintenance**,** Movement, Repair, Pest Control, Hearts, and Sensors. In addition, all BIJs have a built-in voice synthesizer. Over time however, most BIJs develop telepathy due to incomplete mixing or wrong proportions of medical gel and brine being placed in the jar.

It is possible for the brain to break its own programming (most often from decompression) and develop serious personality quirks.

This setup is unique in cyborg terms as it uses an actual organic brain as the central processor. In iron terms, the brain is maintained active in the jar via a saline solution and electric impulses designed to stimulate the organ. Brains in jars appears to be much larger than a normal brain. This is due to the brain being suspended in fluid with very little restraint, causing it to decompress.

The brain can be fed with brain flakes, the central ridge serving as a mouth.

There are several variants possible for brains, some are immobile, and allow the BIJ to interact with their surroundings.

### **Chassis Model**

A BIJ moves on a tracked chassis (using dual 40 hydro-processor motors), either on a fixed or flexible mount. This is attached to a sizable cylindrical torso with a hardened glass dome on top, housing the central processing unit with the organic brain suspended inside. In addition, to use consoles, operate levers, or engage targets with weapons, they have two flexible manipulators, ending in three point claws, on the sides of their torsos.

The manipulators in some Chassis models are designed to operate regular weaponry (such as assault rifles), while some others have integrated laser guns (wattage equivalent to laser pistols).

### **Flying Face Model**

A FF model is a special type of BIJ. It consists of a robotic sphere-shaped body housing the brain with three monitors attached to the robot's chassis. Two of these monitors depict eyes and the other depicts a mouth. These BIJs levitate by means of a propulsion system.

### **Dalmer Interaction Harness**

The brain is held inside of a hardened glass container at the top of an anthropomorphic combat robot chassis. This bot is equipped with a cannon on its left arm that a combination of a machine gun and a missile launcher as well as a large claw on its right arm for close combat and is able to communicate verbally. The humanoid robotic suit is extremely resistant to damage.

At the base, it uses the same principle of a BIJ, two electronic eyes are connected to the brain allowing it to see. The DIH brain bot is also able to communicate verbally due to an integrated voice module with the same voice as before, only slightly robotic.