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Forge Integrated Technology (FIT)

Forge Integrated Technology
Image from Bernd Helfert

Systems that incorporate one or more nanoforges into their structure for the purpose of producing new or replacement components as circumstances may require.

Initially developed in the Pre-Technocalypse Sol System, Forge Integrated Technology uses one or more nanoforges and a suite of bot systems to produce and emplace new components on a base platform as required. Applications may range from the construction and deployment of replacement parts to production of new devices for the purposes of modifying or upgrading the capabilities of the supporting platform. Depending on the design, raw materials for the forge may come from recycling the hardware to be replaced, from the local environment, or from an included mattercache (or some combination of these).

FIT systems are generally considered safer and more reliable than many other types of nanotech based repair and modification technologies, such as those that rely on networks of self-replicating nanobots or "nano-cells"". Modeled on naturally evolved cellular structures, such systems effectively build nearly every component out of arrays of self-replicating nano and micro-scale devices which can rebuild or restructure themselves almost at will. Tools based on such technologies are hugely capable (as well as being as effectively complex as any biological lifeform for all intents and purposes) and may be found in the most advanced ultratech civilizations (and nearly all transapient installations to varying degrees) but are often difficult for modosophonts to create and may occasionally demonstrate unexpected tendencies or 'attractors' after long periods of operation. Transapientech systems somehow avoid all these problems (the most popular theories revolve around active management of chaotic systems), but are not generally available to modosophonts.

FIT avoids most of these issues, although the loss of the Martian Defense Force during opening stages of the Technocalypse demonstrated the dangers of such systems being built without adequate network security.

Forge Integrated Technologies can be found across a wide range of applications and scales. Many satellites and probe craft use them to customize their capabilities as circumstances or needs change. Many spacecraft, stations, and habs use them as the basis for their self-repair and self-modification systems. At the extreme, certain post-singularity body types may integrate hundreds or thousands of forges (ranging from micro to macroscopic) into their structure, allowing the transapient to synthesize nanomachines, specialized viruses and microbes, and various devices within itself. These are then released into the environment to perform whatever task is required.

 
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Appears in Topics
Drytech/HylotechHigh Tech / HitechManufacturing
NanotechOrganic/BiotechSyntech/Synanotech
 
Development Notes
Text by Todd Drashner
Initially published on 15 December 2011.

 
 
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