Posibrains

"I want to clarify here first. Due to the complexities of the posibrain in combination with my lack of understanding of complex theoretical particle physics, most of this goes against the laws of physics. I would as you all ignore this for the most part and accept this is science fiction, not science."

1. This disclaimer is entirely unnecessary, and does more to demolish the reader's suspension of disbelief than it does to support it.

"The Positronic Brain (Posibrain) is a type of processing unit used for most complex robotic devices in the current age, from simple posibrains found in Personal AI's to massive networks of interconnected positronic masses used for military level calculations such as used by the Sol Alliance military. Though their function is precise and complex they are found everywhere, and everybody should have a basic understanding of them."

1. The abbreviation 'posibrain' is unprofessional and unnecessary. Also, as Chada1 mentioned to me, 'PBU' is actually the correct initialism/abbreviation.
2. 'Current age' is vague and nonspecific. 'From the early 25th century onwards' would be better if referring to complex robotic devices, since it was stated later that positronic brains weren't viable until Skrellian AI algorithms were leaked.
3. Personal AIs, not Personal AI's.
4. 'Massive networks of interconnected positronic masses'? Not really a harsh criticism, I'm just saying, the same thing was used in Asimov's original works... for calculating and planning the entire global economy on Earth. And to use it for relatively simple military calculations?
5. Not all positronic brains are precise and complex. Some are highly specialised and simple, while others are able to do many tasks to some degree of competency due to being very complex; as you state later.
6. 'And everybody should have a basic understanding of them' seems out of place for a wiki article.

"In the latter part of the 23rd century, massive developments in MMI devices were already being made, but some developers had started to have ideas of purely synthetic devices that could possibly achieve the same level of sentience. Over the course of a few decades, the first positronic device had been built. It was small, and had approximately 500 pathways within it. Even this allowed for the storing of close to 32000 bits of information, a number that to most seemed quite pitiful. Many scientists and roboticists were put off by the dismal result, but a group of aspiring students at the School of Robotic Science in Olympia, Mars, carried on the development and created the first positronic brain, a device similar to it's predecessor yet far larger (It was about 15 inches on all sides) and contained 12048 pathways and even had coded portions consisting of a basic arithmetic processor, memory storage and visual input. This led to the development of positronic devices used only as calculators, processors and only occasionally with any sort of remote sentience, and even then only as a novelty. It was only upon the advent and discovery of Skrell that the old AI designs were leaked to the human populous. Rather rapidly the code taken from Skrellian papers was transferred to a form useful in Positronics, and so more true AI's began to flourish. This is similarily detailed in the IPC History section."

1. Were positronic brains designed immediately for sentience? If so, one would imagine they would be a lot better at it than they are made out to be in the rest of this section; in fact, you seem to mention in the basics section that they're used for calculations.

"The Positronic Brain works in a peculiar manner, as it makes use of Positrons, a subatomic particle that is the inverse of an electron and has been the subject of many experiments over the course of centuries. The brain consists of what are called Positronic Pathways; vacuumed channels which make use of magnetic fields to hold positrons in place. The position of these particles is indicative of the information they store, these locations are accessed by measuring energy in the location they are meant to be and assessing whether a positron is there or not. This in turn means the processing speed of a posibrain is immensely high, and the only limiting factor in synthetic speed if that of the wiring, motors and other components. In the centre of the posibrain is the positronic core. This core produces the magnetic field and processes all the information and passes it through the wires located in the bottom of the brain to be passed to the rest of the body. A cooling unit is normally located either inside the core to keep it cooled, or a cooling system is put in place around the brain in it's entirety."

1. Most of this checks out with Asimov's lore, which is good. Not really criticism, just a general comment.
2. Processing speed would be limited by the processor in the core, not the storage in the positronic pathways. The positronic part of it acts mainly like RAM does for a normal computer. However, what it's able to calculate is much, much higher than a normal computer.

"Occasionally for units often placed into dangerous environments, anti-EMP shields are placed around the brain. This is due to the fact that the Core is run by electricity and when struck with an EMP (Even though it creates it's own, in a sense) it will immediately shut down or even explode. Similarily, cooling units can be found around the brain or in the core itself to prevent overheating, though some very cheap models lack this and instead have a cheap heat sensor installed, and shut down when the brain is too hot."

1. It does not create an electromagnetic pulse, it creates an electromagnetic field, which is exactly why it can be disrupted by an EMP.
2. I would imagine that even very cheap models would have some sort of heatsink installed.

"Cooling Unit
Often a few bands of small piping around the posibrain that runs around the exterior and cools it down, it can also be a small chamber located within the core itself (As the pathways do not heat up, only the core) which keeps the whole system cool. Generally quite cheap, but very cheap units may simply shut down at temperatures that are too high."

1. Liquid cooling, nice. Now if only we could have this for the chassis...

"EMP Shielding Device
Normally a metal (Usually steel or thick copper) cage; similar to a Faraday Cage; around the posibrain, it stops nearly all EMP waves from entering the brain core. They are normally 100% effective, though the occasional problem will arise, and the cases themselves are very expensive though there are a few cheaper alternative of vastly varying effectiveness."

1. It wouldn't be 100% effective, ever; there'd have to be some way to get signals in and out of the PBU.

"Emotion Emulator
One of the most complex of the software modules, these emulate sentient emotions to varying degrees of success and skill. Cheaper forms; whilst taking up less processing power and storage space; can only emulate basic emotions like happiness, sadness, and tend to have limits and difficulty portraying these. More expensive emulators may be able to portray the basic emotions to a near perfect level and more complex ones to a decent degree. This is still hampered by hardware limitations like voice and movement, as many voice synthesisers have difficulty showing the intricacies of emotion."

1. Tamagotchi have better emotions than that. Come on.

"Memory Storage
Essential in all but the most basic of the basic of synthetics, this allows the general storing of memory outwith the pre-programmed functions. This consists of only long-term memory, so all synthetics will remember everything they encounter. The differences consist in the amount of storage, as once the space is filled the brain will evaluate what memory's are used more, and delete those little used. Most posibrains allow this memory to be extracted and stored outwith the brain as well, allowing the information to be parsed and converted to other uses."

1. This isn't particularly necessary, as positronic brains can store data in their pathways until they lose power; positronic pathways are a form of volatile memory.

"Personality Emulator
Similar to the Emotion Emulator, this allows synthetics to portray levels of personality often in conjunction with emotions. Whilst synthetics may develop personalities without one, they will be bland and normally will revolve around following laws/directives. There are many preset personalities that are cheaply found, such as Cowboy, Gentleman, Lady and Helper."

1. Personalities are inherent from the core programming and positronic pathways.

"Emotion Synthesiser
This, unlike the Emotion Emulator that simply displays emotion in accordance with stimulus and pre-programmed knowledge, can learn and develop emotion by it's own. One such example was that of an experiment followed through by the University of Mendell which developed the "Emotional Integrated Artificial Intelligence System". Experiments showed that the AI; which had been programmed with Happiness, Sadness and Anger as a base; managed to learn extremes of these as well as Envy, Greed and the beginnings of what they believed to be Love, though the experiment was publicly shut down soon after this. These forms of synthesisers are not generally legal outwith an experimental setting, with many counts of synthetics being arrested having been found to have them outwith universities and government facilities."

1. Why would this be illegal? Emotions are dangerous?
2. Corny 'robot learns to love' subplot. Ding.

"Improvisational Developmental System
This generally allows synthetics to learn from previous experiences in a manner different than others. A normal synthetic can learn in the sense of being told something, storing that memory then using the process later. This does not allow room for error (unless solutions to those errors are taught) and thus can cause many problems. The IDS means that synthetics can learn from mistakes and change plans in accordance to events. This is a system used in many high-end and specialised synthetics, but there are still many errors within it."

1. This is the biggest gripe I have with this lore. This is exactly what an artificial neural network is. Do you know what an ANN is? It's modeled after real brains, and can categorise data, control pseudo-biological organisms in the same manner as an organic, and modify how it reacts to certain events based on the outcome. It is exactly the Improvisational Developmental System, but it is easier, nearly foolproof, and from almost half a millennium before.

"The cost of a positronic brain or device varies mainly on 3 factors; Size, Number of Pathways, Software/Hardware requirements. Size and number of pathways go hand in hand, the larger a brain is the more pathways it has. Pathways within of themselves are expensive to create, so posibrains with more than 10,000 are rare, the average sized brain tending to be around 10cm on all sides and containing approximately 2000-4500 pathways. The requirements are the modules needed for whatever the posibrain is intended for use. A simple model used in calculation may need very few, whereas a Shell IPC may need many different modules to be able to function properly. In addition, the cost of whatever the brain will be held in must be taken into account, be it a chassis, posibrain-holder or as part of some massive machine. Positronic Devices are produced by many small companies across many systems, the largest common producer being Hephaestus Industries and it's subsidiaries. The prices can also vary in accordance with it's producer, though claims of having 'Better Pathways' are generally considered absolute bogus."

1. This is mostly good concerning Asimov's lore. Good job.
2. Technically, you could have a larger brain with a larger core instead of more pathways.
3. As shown in "That Thou Art Mindful of Him", the laws of a positronic brain cause the positronic brain to be larger. Additionally, as explained in Feminine Intuition, most of the cost comes from preventing quantum effects from messing with the results; this was deliberately done in the JN models to give then íntuition'.