[MeisterBabylon]

Originally Posted by BlackSaba

Really wanted some insight on the IS cores, so I ran around the world. TWICE

Spoiler for Black Box Theory:

What I dont think I have seen, or unfortunately read through my skimming is any info on a black box. Now Ive done some reading and I think this would be useful to know if you want to throw some ideas down.

A Black box, in science and engineering, is a device (Almost any device, peripheral, system) which can be viewed solely in its terms of input, output, and transfer characteristics, without any knowledge of its internal workings, that is, its implementation is "opaque" (black). Almost anything might be referred to as a black box: a transistor, an algorithm, or the human mind.

Now check this out.

If you take a black box, literally, a black box, And add water and soap, without knowing of the reactions that will take place. you have the first characteristics of a black box. Input. The transfer characteristics come next.

Now in that black box, you take a tube, vinyl if you will, and cut a hole that will allow the contents to pour out without any wasted effort, you have the second characteristic. Transfer.

Now the final is the outcome of the first two meaning I+T=O. Now that can vary from a MAGNITUDE of things from creation of energy, to making choices in your mind. That being said, the black box is an opaque device which contains an unknown matter, that is used to power the device, and also used to maintain is own structuralism (given the fact that the IS Cores have not been mass produced, this can seem likely that the creation and overall handling of them is of the up-most importance to maintain the HIGHEST safety precautions).

Now for what its worth, we can say that the IS Cores are as opaque as the image we have been given as to what they may actually look like. And with that, we have a little bit of physics involved, and possibly some electronic engineering, for the sake of what its worth to power them.

In physics, a black box is described as "a system whose internal structure is unknown, or need not be considered for a particular purpose. In electronics it is a sealed piece of replaceable equipment, which totally defers from the idea for physics. How can you replace something that is not known?

Now. Lets take a look at the human mind (If you bothered to read the first part, Ill give you a condenser)

A Black box is an opaque, system, object, or device that you don't know whats happening on the inside, and the ONLY thing you know is what goes in it, and what happens outside of it. So whatever happens inside, you couldn't possibly imagine. The mind is one of those, IN THEORY. Now lets say that one of the Black Box "Minds" where placed in the IS cores. It doesn't need to go without saying that the mind is capable of near unimaginable things, things that we ourselves can't explain. Now lets put to the test that the ORIGINAL IS cores where configured to be one with your mind? True that is the case, as it requires voice activation, pilot wavelength sync or whatever it is, but that in my opinion is just to vague. What if the IS core was directly designed to be controlled by you mind? Meaning the Input of the IS cores "Black Box" would be your thoughts. The output is the reaction you get from the IS corresponding with your thoughts. Now as for the Transfer characteristics? Its like talking to another human being telepathically. As for its inner workings? Who knows. And maybe that the secret to IS cores. The Inner workings is something along the lines of mind linking. Almost, but not surely, if you can link your mind with an IS core (Which it clearly does) Why would you have the need to pilot it? If it can link with your mind, couldn't you give it one of its own? A.I. Or maybe it already has one?

....

Spoiler for O.o:

Ill just leave this here =D

Spoiler for Black Box in Philosophy:

In philosophy and science black box theories have been proposed for various fields by various philosophers and scientists.

Such a prominent theory is the so called "black box theory of consciousness", which states that the mind is fully understood once the inputs and outputs are well defined, and generally couples this with a radical skepticism regarding the possibility of ever successfully describing the underlying structure, mechanism, and dynamics of the mind.

Example:

If we had a black box that we could not open, could not just "look inside" to see how it worked, all we could do is guess how it worked based on what happens when we do something to it (an input) and what occurs as a result of that (an output). If we put an orange in on one side, and an orange falls out the other. We can make educated guesses on what is happening inside the black box. It could be filled with oranges, it could have a conveyor belt to move the orange from one side to the other, it could even go through an alternate universe for all we know. All we can do is guess.

Every now and again something strange will occur that changes our understanding of the black box. Like if we put an orange in and a guava popped out. Suddenly our "filled with oranges" and "conveyor belt" theories no longer work and we have to change our "educated guess" as to how the black box works.

The black box theory is a fairly popular method to describe what psychology is like. We cannot open the mind and simply "peek" inside, we can only do something to the mind (show it something scary) and from the results guess what goes on inside.

This theory getting compared to the Shroedinger experiment makes me smile. I used to call the IS internal materialization field Personal Reality, a small shoutout to a certain anime about mages and espers. Never really went far with it, and it sort of dropped off one end in terms of significance.

However, the presence of an AI in Byakushiki (and the advanced intelligence and autonomic processes of the other units) taken together with the 'fitting process' makes one wonder if the AI too evolves during the process of Upshifting. You then realize that IS core are never allowed to evolve in mass production models, and personal IS which do evolve are reset to factory settings every time they change hands. I found that rather silly. If the IS core evolved, it would be stronger, and it would allow mass production models to match personals better.

I'm probably thinking of Evangelion here, but maybe, if the IS core evolved and stayed evolved, it may become advanced enough to reject human control. Hence this "prevent or reset".

Or you could put it in another way, that because of this procedures put in place to minimize pilot rejection, IS cores can't evolve enough to become independent lifeforms. Once someone does, it would be a very exciting outcome to observe. (I'm exploring that in my fic)

So why doesn't IS reject/dominate their human hosts? Maybe its a symbiosis rather than a one-way relationship; we need their shields and power, they need our imagination and willpower to function. In a sense, our "willpower" serves as the energy that runs IS cores, and the more florid and more abundant there is, the better the IS thrives, and the more mileage we get out of the IS core. This explains how simply "having someone to protect", "having a strong desire", "suicide charges" all can push the IS above and beyond its normal statistics. With limits of course, as Rafale demonstrated by having to recharge the Byakushiki using core energy stored in its condensers after bypassing its own core.

And because we have no means of measuring willpower quantitatively, that would also contribute to the uncrackable black box.