Android

Artificial. Curious. Evolving.

Androids are artificial lifeforms typically built in the image of their creator species. Semi-sentient androids—those who lack self-awareness or free will—are commonly used as laborers in the Borderlands and Pact space, but they are illegal in the Dominion and Yarasi Empire. Para-sentient androids with a true sapient artificial intelligence are rare anywhere outside the Borderlands.

The history of artificial intelligence in the Tartarus Cluster begins with the Sillibar. In the early stages of their expanding empire, they created a legion of autonomous workers—the Vokron—to compensate for their limited population. Over time, however, growing fears of a potential android revolt convinced the Sillibar to slowly phase out the Vokron, a process that was accelerated as the empire conquered new species and acquired new workers. The fears turned out to be well-founded. After an abortive uprising, the Vokron Purge lasted for nearly twenty years before the androids were destroyed. The Sillibar have outlawed para-sentient AI ever since.

Elsewhere in the Cluster, the Dominion and the Yarasi have largely avoided such pitfalls. The Dominion’s focus on the development of psionic abilities—and the creation of Synesthetes and Vestiges to power their ships and equipment—has made artificial intelligence unnecessary. And for the Yarasi, consciousness is considered sacred, making any attempts to recreate it artificially a form of heresy.

Androids have no shared culture or space to call their own. Fully autonomous androids are looked at with great suspicion, especially those who attempt to conceal their artificial nature. Most civilizations have at least some laws banning the use and/or develop of para-sentient AIs, and extremists in both Dominion and Yarasi space consider artificial consciousness outright heretical.

Art Credit: Ullr2020