Cortical linkage
Cortical linkage, also know as the linkage of minds, is a method of mental enhancement by combining the knowledge and experiences of one individual with another, resulting in blended personalities. This method is often by the Mechanicus while other sections of humanity employ other methods, as do certain xenos.[1c]
Other methods of direct knowledge transfer include engrammatic reproduction, psychic rip, genophagy, noospheric upload and many more, but all are flawed. Cortical linkage is the direct grafting of one consciousness, via machinic connection through the infospheric medium, from one mind to another. It has its own host of flaws, as well.[1b]
Overview
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The following paragraphs contain spoilers for: | Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work (Novel) |
The linkage of minds has been possible since the Age of Technology, but there are a number of risks.[1a]
Full linkage between living minds leads inevitably to psychosis as the personalities make war on each other for dominance. Hence the need for the moderation of the manifold in the Titan Legio. As such technologies demonstrate, it is impossible to achieve full blended consciousness between two living minds. Of course, it is possible to boost one’s own brainpower by linkage to a cloned or repurposed brain, thoroughly wiped, but the key there is that the brain be unformed, and patterning must be undertaken by the user.[1a]
If one wishes to gain the full extent of knowledge within a deceased or living brain, it is impossible, for knowledge is indivisible from experience, and personality is the accumulation of experience. Ergo, personality must survive. Therefore, absorbing a person’s full knowledge risks conflict between personalities, which leads to psychosis. Many tech-priests believed this full linkage would always lead to psychosis.[1a]
There are many interpersonal cybernetic networks, temporary and permanent, that enhance the capabilities of all involved, but no way of absorbing human knowledge into an extant personality without damaging or destroying that personality. Magos Diacomes studied the linkage of minds during the Great Crusade era and came close to rediscovering the secrets of cortical linkage through the use of xenos technology. He never rediscovered this lost technique, however, he did come close.[1a]
It's possible to blend minds, permanently, but Diacomes found that the donor mind always suppresses and ultimately supplants that of the host body. Diacomes proscribed memcore alterations in potential hosts. The intended effect of these memcore alterations is an increased receptiveness to mental overwriting.[1b]
During a cortical linking procedure, two subjects are strapped to steel beds. The memcore covers are then opened and the cortical probes are painfully inserted. Filaments wormed their way roughly interfacing into the subjects' memcore ports.[1c]
