The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5694 Transhumanist Dreams

Even though the Evolution Witch was born within the ranks of the Mech Trade Association, her tale of defying her deadly fate and overcoming all adversity by completely transcending her mortality still served as a powerful source of inspiration to many admirers!

Her amazing rise coincided with the trend of humanity's growing acceptance of more extreme forms of human augmentation.

Although there were many parts of human civilization that still rejected more extreme divergences from humanity, there were more and more population groups that had gradually lost their aversion for more radical forms of augmentation.

The Evolution Witch was hardly the only success case that supported their controversial beliefs, but she had definitely contributed to this trend!

She was part of a newer wave of god pilots who were born well after the end of the Age of Conquest and did not become burdened by its sins.

To the younger generations of the human race, all of the horror stories about extreme and unregulated genetic modification were no different than abstract history lessons.

As long as contemporary humans paid more attention and implemented more safeguards, surely it would be safe enough to explore more daring forms of implants and gene mod templates.

"Much of the old guard of our faction is left behind in the old galaxy." Professor Vector Loban continued. "Many of us who chose to transfer to the Red Ocean sought to move away from the stifling culture that reigned supreme in the center of human civilization. Now, we have freed ourselves from the idiosyncrasies of the past. By stepping out of the shadow of the Chosen Human and embracing the more enlightened leadership of the Evolution Witch, we shall play a more proactive role in directing and promoting the evolution of the human race."

"Uh huh." Ves said in a tone that made it clear that he had not entirely bought into this transition. "And how does my Carmine System fit into this picture? The way you have been talking about it makes it seem that you prize it more for its ability to help people overcome their human limitations than to help both mech pilots and non-pilots control powerful living mechs."

"Both functions are important, but we are primarily invested in the possibility of helping humans overcome their weak and fragile bodies. Think about what you can offer to many people. Your Carmine System may have been able to save the Evolution Witch's life back when she was still young. Whether she would be able to gain the motivation to work her way up to a god pilot is still questionable, but we believe that the people who have assumed their new forms should have expanded their own potential."

Ves frowned deeper. "The cost is too great. If this change takes place on a larger scale, humanity will become unrecognizable. I can understand the concept of trading away a part of our humanity in order to gain a large boost of power, but… if there are no actual humans left at the end, we may have already lost our struggle to survive in a sense."

"I think that many desperate civilizations who may one day find themselves left at the mercy of the native aliens will think otherwise. I understand your caution, professor, but our society is large enough to cope with accidents. We do not have to force every human to bond with Carmine mechs or merge with them one day. We can set up programs to selectively encourage volunteers to form Blood Pacts with your Carmine mechs. Think about how this will affect our performance in the Red War. Settlements are no longer forced to rely on mech pilots to defend them against the alien threats. We can effectively expand our manpower pool and pair Carmine mechs with a much larger group of civilians. They can form large planetary militias that can mobilize into battle the moment an alien fleet has intruded in their star system."

That…. would definitely be an imposing sight!

One of the biggest shortcomings of defending red humanity's sprawling colony settlements was that it was impossible to make them all secure.

It cost a lot of money and resources to fortify them and station additional defensive troops to them. If the residents of a remote colony were able to defend their own territory by deploying lots of Carmine mechs in an emergency, then that would make any invading enemy think twice.

"What about fully transformed humans?" Ves asked.

"That would be even better. Their control over their new 'bodies' should be greater than a normal pilot. Transformed humans have an even greater motivation to fight for their homes because it is much harder to evacuate them from their colonies because there is not enough space to accommodate them all. They became our firmest shield in the colonies that we rely upon to expand our population and sustain our war effort."

It became clear that the Transhumanists had big plans in store for the Carmine System!

Whether it was its current implementation or its future possibilities, the Transhumanists practically salivated at the thought of leveraging Carmine mechs to transform parts of human society!

It was no wonder why the Survivalists initially expressed a lot of reluctance at the thought of letting the Transhumanists know about the Carmine System.

The Survivalists mostly saw the Carmine System and its vast potential as a tool that could solve existing problems such as restoring the piloting ability of a brain-damaged mech pilot.

The Transhumanists on the other hand wanted to take advantage of the Carmine System to make all of their wild fantasies come true!

They were much more crazy about human augmentation and transcendence, so it made sense that they were much more thorough in mapping out the many possible uses of the Carmine System.

The problem was that they possessed much less limits and were willing to go much further in order to make faster progress!

Now that Ves understood the intentions of the current regime of the Transhumanist Faction a lot better, he had a greater understanding behind the request to roll out Carmine mechs within just three years.

That did not make this request any less reasonable.

"I have great concerns about prematurely announcing the existence of the Carmine System and making it available to the wider public." He cautiously said. "It is not that I want to keep it out of the hands of the masses, but if anything goes horribly wrong, I will be the one that will pay the price for any mistakes. The Yuri Machine is not directly related to the Carmine System, but the fact that it was able to appear does not bode well for me and my work. I am lucky that out of millions of living mechs, an uncontrolled transformation process has only happened once. I am not eager to increase this statistic."

The Transhumanist mech designer comprehended Ves' caution, but his priorities were entirely different.

"Your Blood Knight model has already attained stable results so far. There are no obvious indications that your Carmine mechs pose any acute danger to their humans. The only cause for alarm is when the mechs are terminated. The consequences to the people that they have bonded with are serious. Other than that, there is much about your innovative new design application that is worthy of praise. If you cannot immediately develop a means to replicate the phenomenon of the Yuri Machine in a more controlled process, then there is another research direction that you can pursue."

"And that is…?"

"Let us collaborate." Vector Loban suggested with an eager expression. "I will be staying aboard the Tarrasque to supervise our ongoing studies of the existing Carmine mechs. I am also tasked with exploring the viability of integrating your Carmine System in a different kind of mech. A biomech."

"A biomech?!" Ves almost jumped to his feet! "That… that is too extreme! Biomechs are much more prone to go out of control than ordinary mechs! I have always doubted whether it is a good idea to combine the Carmine System with biomechs. The latter is a source of trouble and it is completely unclear how my original invention will interact with a purely organic mech. Not even the Survivalists have dared to make this suggestion, and they once ordered me to design a Carmine juggernaut!"

This indicated that the risks were too great to bear for the Survivalists at the time!

"We are not the Survivalists." Loban shook his head. "Besides, even if you consult their opinions, they should be much more open-minded towards more forward-thinking research projects. The Survivalists are pragmatists. They favor the survival and the stability of the human race above any other consideration. In times of stability, any excessively strong changes can destabilize our society and threaten our survival, so it is logical for them to oppose rapid development. Now that red humanity is in perennial peril, their stance has flipped. The Survivalists understand that we must push our boundaries harder in order to dig our way out of our adverse position."

In other words, the Survivalist Faction acquiesced to the Transhumanist Faction's more radical approach.

The entire Association was willing to invest a lot more into Carmine mechs going forward!

Ves felt mixed about this sudden shift in policy.

On the one hand, he was bound to make faster progress in the development of the Carmine System. This was good news because he had decided to center his design philosophy around this incredibly beneficial design solution. He might be able to realize his design philosophy significantly faster than he originally thought!

On the other hand, rushing through experiments came with its own risks. The chance of accidents became a lot greater. The lives of a lot of human volunteers might become ruined one day because Ves had overlooked a critical variable!

This was especially the case if he recklessly started to integrate the Carmine System in a biomech as opposed to conventional one! The sheer amount of risk factors involved in this particular combination frightened him into paralysis!

Besides, what exactly did the Transhumanist intend to do with Carmine biomechs?

Were they attempting to turn themselves into biomechs?

Ves suddenly connected the dots. "Wait, is this what you guys are after? You won't necessarily want to turn yourself into a conventional mech. What you truly aspire to become is a biomech!"

Vector Loban did not deny this accusation. "Is it not a dream to become a biomech? I will gain all of the power of a highly developed combat machine, but retain control of all of my faculties and most of my humanity. At most, I will have to live in a house and make use of tools scaled for a giant humanoid. This is a sacrifice that I am gladly willing to make. As long as we design our biomechs to resemble the human physique to a large extent, we can minimize any incompatibility issues and speed up the adaptation process. Each of us will be able to gain bodies as strong as a human phase lord as yours. In fact, it is not necessary for us to pursue this development trajectory anymore as turning ourselves into biomechs is an inherently more human and controllable process!"

Damn! The yearning in Professor Loban's voice was so strong that he would definitely jump at the chance to become an organic version of the Yuri Machine if possible!

The man's rabid enthusiasm for these possibilities signified that he would never give up on this research!

"Three years is too soon." Ves pushed back. "I understand the need to speed up our progress in the development of the Carmine System, but it is too soon to pair it up with a biomech, let alone make it available to the public. We should at least take the time to conduct small-scale experiments under highly controlled circumstances to see whether the idea is viable to begin with. I would much prefer it if we can perfect the Carmine System with conventional mechs before we tackle any other combinations."