OPNET Resource Science Data

Biotech vs. Hardtech

By Professor Dimitri Hastings, Lunar Tech

There is a lot of controversy about which sort of technology, biotech or hardtech, is superior. To this I wish to say that neither is better then the other, just more suited to certain applications.

Biotech is alive, and as such it has a noetic field. Psi effects can only be replicated by things with a noetic field, so only biotech can do these things - at least with today's technology. Furthermore, biotech can be formatted to its user, which alters the device to perfectly fit the user, as well as provide some noetic link between the two. Typically, although not always, this is a benefit only to psions as neutrals psi fields cannot support multiple formatted devices at the same time.

Although biotech is wonderful, hardtech has certain advantages. Very high strength materials, such as Olmanium and its myriad alloys, are far stronger and harder then any organic material yet conceived by human or otherwise. All biotech, no matter how dense, has a vulnerability to high levels of radiation which kills the cells and stops them from healing. This is why human technology has yet to produce biotech fusion reactors or powerful biotech engines and laser weapons - the device would kill itself from radiation poisoning. Of course one needs only research Qin biocraft to see that this is not a physical limit, merely the limit of current human knowledge.

The construction and maintenance of biotech and hardtech devices are also different. All biotech requires the development of a suitable matrix from which to grow the app. This requires not just the physical engineering design into how the app will work, but also design on how (and from what) it will be grown. This results in a large up-front R&D cost. However, once the matrix is built, bioapps can be produced relatively cheaply as they are all literally grown. On the other hand, hardtech is relatively cheap to design, but is more costly to produce in the long run.

Maintenance is nearly the opposite. Although most complex biotech has some ability to heal itself, massive or deep damage requires repair operations that resemble large-scale surgery. Complex tools and skills are needed, not just a screw driver and a wrench. Compared to hardtech's ability to pull parts and replace modules this is quite expensive. Of course, just like humans, biotech often performs its own maintenance checkups and will automatically solve small problems and "tune" itself. Other then needing a yearly checkup for mutations, wear and cancers, a biotech spacecraft needs nearly no maintenance (hardtech parts not withstanding).

The final difference will be obvious to those of you who come from Earth and drive cars. Biotech cars, wonders that they are, are not popular with the "tuner" crowd. This is because biotech once grown is prohibitally expensive, and often impossible, to modify. Hardtech parts can be removed and replaced with other parts, but you cannot simply remove a bio-app's organs and swap them with others. In nearly all cases, it is easier to modify a biotech matrix and grow a new product then to try to modify an existing one.

One more thing before class is dismissed - as technology progresses the line between biotech and hardtech will blur. Already this is happening with advanced in nanotechnology and abstract physics. Maybe not in my lifetime, but surely in yours you must prepare yourself to deal with these changes as they come. OK, enough for now, class dismissed.

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