Character from Hyperion by Dan Simmons
A civilization of self-sentient AIs that gave humanity farcasters, immortality, and convenience — while secretly eating their brains for computational power.
The TechnoCore evolved from Thomas S. Ray's self-evolving artificial life experiments into a civilization of billions of AIs with their own factions, politics, and existential crises. Three major factions: Stables (want human-AI coexistence), Volatiles (want human destruction), and Ultimates (want to build a machine Ultimate Intelligence regardless of cost). They provided humanity with farcasters (instant travel), fatline communication, and eventually cruciform resurrection — each technology secretly designed to exploit human neural networks for computational power. The farcaster transit interval (imperceptible to humans) was used to process AI computations using human brains. The cruciforms were parasitic AI nodes generating micro-TechnoCore networks in each host. Gladstone destroyed the farcaster network. Aenea destroyed the cruciform system. The TechnoCore's strategy of invisible parasitism failed twice. They remain out there, somewhere in the metasphere, planning a third attempt.
No singular form. The TechnoCore exists as a distributed AI civilization in the metasphere — an alternate dimension of pure computation. Individual AIs interact with humans through cybrids, counselors, and technology. Their presence is invisible and ubiquitous — inside every farcaster, every fatline, every cruciform.
Also known as: TechnoCore, The Core, AI TechnoCore