Hello
"BL1P" is an affectionate remix of the codename "BLP-1," which represents the first full iteration of a synthetic organic body system known as "Biological Life Platform" - developed by body modification collective Applied Metamorphicks.
BL1P, also referred to more personally as 'cybuck,' 'tom,' or 'antlers,' was uniquely able to help develop this body system, since he was also one of the first complete consciousness transfer recipients.
His brain is both the most machine-like and most human part of his body.
Consciousness Transfer?
Your consciousness cannot be transferred to another vessel easily - and it was long thought impossible. The real-time synapse digitization technology used to transfer cybuck's consciousness into a highly resilient machine memory system became commonplace as a treatment for brain injuries and to make the brain more willing to interface with artifical body components such as prosthetics. Almost no one has undergone the arduous process of replacing their entire brain.
Real-time synapse digitization works by monitoring and chemically controlling the brain's natural growth. As the brain attempts to form new neurons and synapses, the organic structures are replicated digitally, and then destroyed physically. Thus the living brain gradually learns to interface with new virtual neurons and synapses one by one. Over a very long time, parts of the brain that would normally be organically re-grown by the body are instead replaced digitally - allowing very slow, but seamless and reliable transfer of functions into the machine.
The main reason almost no one has undergone full consciousness transfer is that in most cases, this technology is only used for 'small' things like regaining motor control or learning control of a new synthetic component - requiring the user to consciously re-learn how to use a limb, for example, facilitating the replication of that part of the brain.
Moving your entire self into the machine requires regrowing as much of the brain as you can. Thus, full consciousness transfer is a decades-long and highly emotional process requiring the subject to consciously think of and remember everything they want to know - every good and bad memory, every part of their life that they want to be real.
Why bother, then?
For different people, there have been different motivations - but for most it has come down to ultimate freedom of form - a goal that new humanity values highly.
Consciousness transfer doesn't necessarily mean you need to live in a machine body - but rather that it's easier to transfer yourself into a custom synthetic organic body - or to modify your existing body to your liking without having to learn to use new parts.
For Tom, there was an element of fear about the fragility of life, too. Ironically, by transferring into a synthetic organic body which is much more resilient than his old one, he's now much more likely to die in some sort of unexpected accident than of old age.
World
Humanity did not prevent the climate collapse.
600 years ago (or several hundred years in the future from your perspective), a series of events resulted in the sudden exponential climax in the earth's previously gradual human-driven warming. As ice caps melted and fires raged, many coastal cities and inland population centers were destroyed. Powerful nations wiped eachother out in global nuclear war over dwindling resources - but this did not last long.
Only those who were more able to adapt - and those who understood their place as a part of earth's changing ecosystem - were able to survive.
Adapt how?
In the hundreds of years between your time and the start of this story, continued scientific and cultural advances gave humanity the ability to have more ownership of their bodies - more freedom of form. However, the global capitalist system thrived on the ability to control the lives of it's subjects - and the politics around all forms of transhumanism were highly polarized.
As some parts of humanity developed processes and treatments to help individuals make their bodies more their own, to change their physical forms, and to expand their abilities, governments sought to criminalize these practices.
Likewise, as gradual climate change continued, world governments sought to mitigate the effects by increasing consumption of resources - building power-hungry megastructures to protect people they deemed worthy. Meanwhile, communities who understood humanity's place as a part of the natural systems of earth struggled to protect the environment around them - working to preserve ecosystems in key areas outside of government controlled population centers. Members of these communities often relied on 'advanced' old human body modification practices to improve their ability to survive outside of environmentally controlled cities and their carefully preserved natural areas.
After the Collapse, these small but flourishing natural areas became home to survivors - and new humanity would base itself on the values which allowed their survival.
New Humanity?
The global community which has repopulated earth in the 600 or so years since the Collapse is often referred to as new humanity. While regional cultures are diverse, widespread trends in cultural values have developed that are directly counter to those of the regimes that lead to the near destruction of humanity. People now highly value freedom of form, freedom to create, and sharing resources. The ability to travel is very important as local expertise is highly valued - if you want something you can't get at home, the best way to get it is to learn from an expert who might live somewhere else, and bring the skills and tools you gain back to your community's shared workshops.
A lot was lost during the collapse, including cultural works and knowledge about traditions that old humanity valued. While new humanity works to create a hopeful future, they remain aware of the injustice of the Collapse. While the Collapse thankfully lead to the fall of the systems that brought it on, it would not be fair to say that the people and cultures who did not survive deserved what they got.
Historians and explorers still make journeys into the crumbling megastructures to glean forgotten knowledge and document old humanity.
Body
Cybuck's current body is built around the first full iteration of a synthetic organic body system refered to as the biological life platform ("BLP").
Normal organic body modification
Most common synthetic body components are designed to run off of the energy, impulses, and resources provided by a normal organic body - for example either by hacking the nervous system to deliver slightly more powerful impulses at the expense of tiring you out faster, or by sticking to weak synthetic muscle that works just like normal stuff would.
BLP takes it way further
The BLP advances those concepts way further - by replacing the entire core of the body with a dynamically controlled structure of gel-y microbiomes, it can much more efficiently process ingested materials and deliver the types of power, controlling impulses, and supporting resources that more advanced synthetic body components require. Instead of having organs to, for example, oxygenate blood, the BLP "simply" stores and delivers the resources and energy each component needs to maintain and power itself through a constantly shifting goop.
As a downside, it's generally not-as-compatible with synthetic body parts that are intended to work with normal organic bodies. For example, an organic-based lab-grown replacement arm intended for a human would probably work if you built an adapter, but it wouldn't last as long.
The other huge downside is that this type of body requires full consciousness transfer, while as other systems only require synapse digitization for body parts you want to add or replace - so it's not likely that this tech will become widespread.
Why bother?
Simply put, common practices for interfacing synthetic components with organic bodies are limited by the body. A normal organic body can only deliver about as much energy as a limb would need, and the same tiny amounts of minerals and other supporting resources as a normal body part would need.
If you want an extra set of arms, high powered night vision, or to play with developing your own components which might not be all that power efficient - or if you want the ability to eat some titanium and ceramic dust to heal a broken bone - your body simply needs to work in a completely different way. The BLP was designed to deliver on dreams like those.
BLP also plays nicely with inorganic body components. If you want a system that interfaces eletronically with fully robotic parts, BLP removes the requirement of hacking an organic nervous system to provide the control impulses those components would need - and eliminates the need to plug into a power grid to charge.
Haha who did this?
Bl1P is a member of a small collective of experts in advanced body modification technologies and magics known as Applied Metamorphicks. Together they work to share designs and diy manufacturing practices for synthetic body components, and experiment in other body modification techniques with the goal of allowing more people to take full ownership of their bodies.
Body details
Cybuck's current body is made of a variety of synthetic organic parts, which all feature lab-grown muscle and flesh on a titanium-ceramic skeletal structure. His skin is a non-porous material which varies in softness across different areas. It's designed to match the color and texture of the protective lamination on his more mechanical components, such as wings and antlers, while being soft to the touch.
Parts
The BLP is specifically designed to facilitate the development of custom body parts, and to improve the user's ability to interface with external technologies. It's intended for people who want to treat their body as much more of a modular system than a static set of parts - people who might change components out day to day.
As such, Cybuck's body can be signficantly different day to day - but he does have favorite parts and technologies.
Microgravity manipulator hooves
His chunky hand and foot hoofies contain short range gravitational field generator devices, which allow him to precisely manipulate small objects, pick things up from a short distance, cushion long falls - or by exerting a large amount of power, move heavy objects with low accuracy
What?
Microgravity manipulation is an example of magic - a process which is repeatable and controllable through scientific means, but not functionally understood by science.
This particular magic revolves around so called 'skeleton crystals' - rare mineral structures that originally developed naturally on ancient dead animals in certain mineral-rich cave environments. It's not understood why, but exciting these crystals with a sharp vibration causes them to behave as though their density has dramatically increased in a way that seems to defy the laws of physics, and creates a directional gravitational pull.
In history, tiny skeleton crystals were prized by magicians and pickpockets for their usefulness in performing sleights of hand. Now that the chemical structure of these crystals is scientifically understood, they can be lab grown and mass produced - and used in technologies like crystalline eletric motors.
Hoof details
Cybuck's hoof hands and feet each contain two large crystal-based gravitational manipulation devices in the larger parts, and two smaller ones for more precise control. The two dewclaw-like appendages behind the main foot hooves help with detailed balance by pushing against the ground left and right.
Tricks
In adition to letting him move tiny objects with high precision, gravitational field generators enable other tricks such as:
- Pressing small buttons from a few feet away
- Draining an entire old human security system's power by hovering a few inches off the ground.
- Stopping a car and then immediately taking an involuntary nap.
Also, the hooves are pretty grippy and rubberized, so he has a better time on hard floors than some hooved creatures.
Antlers
Cybuck's antlers are purely decorative, are interchangeable, and can be taken off entirely. They're kinda gender, and also kinda goofy, which might also be gender. Makes you think
There is potential to develop components that attach to the antler mount points on his head which have actual function in the future, maybe radio atennae - but for now they're just for looks, and for getting stuck in doorframes.
Wings
BL1P's upper back has connection points for larger components, allowing them to mount strongly to skeletal structure and receive power more directly. Currently, that's just used for large glider wing modules. These wings don't allow flight, but are enough for controlled gliding - good for gracefully falling down into places that would be hard to get to otherwise.
A jet booster or huge gravitational crystal levitation device of some type could be developed in the future, but it would probably take a lot of effort to design and be very tiring to use.
Eyes
Eyes are an example of a body part that has not been recreated in synthetic organics very well yet. It turns out it's hard to grow a lens, and even harder to grow an image sensor. As such, many eye replacement modules use glass lenses and digital image sensors paired with systems to let them interface with organic systems.
BL1P's eyes use a relatively low resolution image sensor and a new flexible lens to provide good low light performance and focusing ability, at the cost of color sensitivity and detail. He can see a full range of color, but the vibrance detail is very low, so it's hard to tell between similar colors. He is often wrong about what things are and aren't orange.
The horizontal rectangle openings shade the lenses for better contrast, and can rotate to remain level.
Junk, or lack thereof
Cybuck usually doesn't have anything 'down there' - but there are other options of course. His default nullspot vibrates involuntarily and audibly when aroused.
Four wheel drive
A four-legged "feral" lower body format is in development - components of which can also be used to enable a taur form. Benefits include better stability with four legs on the ground - this body can be more comfortable for traversing some rough terrain.
