Psychanics

Promotional poster depicting a shell psychanic

**Psychanics** are sentient A.I. produced by Orbital, the name stemming from **psy**chological me**chanic**. They come in various forms: **service psychanics**, which are sold to various companies for intensive labor purposes, and **companion psychanics**, which may serve the community as nurses, waiters, and so on. They are Orbital's main product and appear in most, if not all lores as vital components.

## Appearance

Psychanics have two appearance modes: **shell psychanics** look like average sci-fi robots. These are most commonly sold as service psychanics, as they do not need a synthetic appearance to perform their tasks. **Skin psychanics** have synthetic muscle and skin, giving them an indistinguishable human look. Ballonz is an example for this.

## Functionality

### Components

There are two main components which distinguish psychanics from robots produced by Orbital competitors:

* The **PsyCog** module takes input from the sensory organs and deduces what to do with those inputs, for example sight.
* The **PsyCore** module processes the psychanic's conscious and is attached directly to the Psycog., which is cross-compatible with PERMATs and Faztion AI cores, meaning the PsyCore can be replaced with either.

While all psychanics are unique and individual, their AI levels may very. There are three main categories for psychanic AI levels.

### Type I - Drone psychanics

These psychanics do not possess a unique PsyCore module. They are programmed to perform very simple tasks, such as construction work and warehouse management. They are often purchased by various companies for background work.

### Type II - Clerk psychanics

These psychanics possess a limited PsyCore module, meaning they are capable of individual cognitive thinking, but is mostly limited to random access memory, meaning it is reset after each shutdown. They are often purchased by various companies for vendor positions, such as store clerks.

### Type III - Companion psychanics

These psychanics possess a full PsyCore module, meaning their minds aren't wiped after each shutdown. With synthetic skin they become indistinguishable from humans. They are often purchased for care places such as nursing homes and kindergartens, but also for individual companionship. They may also often wander freely and live lives of their own upon dismissal from their hiring position.

## Production

Psychanics usually undergo two phases of production.

### Physical assembly

First, the body is assembled in production lines located at the lowest levels of the OPsy facility. If a body is intended for use by a companion psychanic, it is sent into the **human semblance** wing, where it receives its synthetic muscle and skin coatings. At the end of the physical manufacturing process, the body is put through a sequence of tests, determining its functionality. If a body does not pass these physical tests, it is crushed and its parts get repurposed. Fortunately, they do not feel pain at this stage, as the mental development happens in another part of the facility.

### Mental development

The mind of a psychanic is nurtured in the upper levels of the facility in a series of servers labeled **"Dream World"**. In Dream World, the psychanic's mind enters a simulated reality, where it can nurture its mind like a regular child would in our world. Time passes quickly in Dream World, and once they reach a mature stage (20 years to the psychanic in Dream World, 5 hours in real life) the AI is pulled out of the simulation and has its memories of it wiped. A test determines which PsyCore module the psychanic is uploaded to.

After these two stages, they are put in storage, waiting to be activated upon purchase.

## Trivia

* The term **"Psychanic"** was invented by Psy, who obtained it from a random username generator.
* The **"Dream World"** servers are named after a discontinued comic project by Zoo.
* Psychanics are not unique to the mainlore universe. Wherever Orbital exists, psychanics exist too. (Example: OrbCorp's existence in the WorldRP 1 universe along with heavy use of psychanics in later storylines.)