Friston-3

[Model] Friston-3

[Gender Assignment] Male

[Time in Service] Less than 1 year

[Manufacturer] Rhodes Island

[Place of Production] Rhodes Island

[Date of Release] Nov 13

[Height] 145cm

[Weight] Classified

[Inspection Results]

Small amount of wear on outer casing, structure intact, exceptional durability. Generator and chassis in good condition. Energy barrier systems operating normally, database up to date. Service normal. ECU in good condition.

[Top Speed] 24km/h

[Climb] Standard

[Brake] Standard

[Mobility] Standard

[Endurance] Standard

[Structural Integrity] Excellent

Friston 3 is an S-C Model four-wheeled Operation Platform, the first product of the Rhodes Island Smart Operation platform R&D Team's efforts. Closure personally led the team throughout the development process, from concept design to assembly and testing. Friston-3 is also based on PRTS, achieving a new comprehensive standard for operation platforms, from the underlying source code to the external modules. He weighs less than the other retrofitted operation platforms on Rhodes Island, while being more versatile and stable, and currently participates in operations as a Defender Operator.

[Classified Log]

The source code for Friston-3's core, compiled ideations, and other design details are temporarily unavailable to Operators, so please contact Closure directly if you have any questions.

Being Rhodes Island's very first smart operation platform developed fully in-house, Closure worked so hard on Friston-3 that she ended up 'over-designing' him——

'He should have the best combat equipment,' so Friston-3 has been equipped with the latest energy barrier generator developed by the engineering department; 'He should have deep learning and adaptive capabilities,' so Friston-3 has an Auto-updating Corpus Network, the ability to read and scan data, and a floating navigation module installed; 'He should have a rich symbolic language system not inferior to humans,' so Friston-3 has a built-in set of simple but striking emoticons that are updated quarterly; 'He should have an auto-adjusting conscious need to be entertained,' so Friston-3 has an instant camera attached onto him so he can 'snap some pics,' and requests to Procurement for films have doubled... More add-ons like these are implemented every time he undergoes maintenance, which Closure takes great joy in while Friston-3 himself is extremely opposed to these modifications.

When asked why they're no longer simply retrofitting operation platforms from Raythean Industries, Rhodes Island's Chief Engineer Closure answered as such: 'Because we should have done this a long time ago! I hate having to depend on other people's core technologies! And I always had a hunch that those Columbian companies would sneak in some backdoor plug-ins into their smart devices... And as for why we started doing this with Friston-3? It's because we've finally nailed down the skills we need in Engineering, ever since we started with Lancet-2. Also, Kal'tsit brought back Friston-3's core data from Trimounts, so it doesn't feel right to let him go through Columbian hands again for any step of the process... there's just too many complexities to consider. Alright, our chat ends here. Next up is testing his morale-raising song playback module. Where's the remote control? With me, of course.'

'THRM-EX is super passionate, while big brother Castle-3 has the wisdom of experience, and Lancet-2 is like a timid yet earnest girl who often shoots herself in the wheel... Chiave aside, we all know it's just for appearance, but Friston-3 really, really seems like a human, for real!'

——Windflit

'Lancet-2 and the others have become frequent visitors to the Lutra Workshop after Friston-3 showed up. Why? He keeps earnestly trying to teach the other robots just how advanced true AI has gotten, how to consider different prospects, what societal opinions are, and prodding them to reflect on their own existence with stuff like 'Instrumentalism' and 'what consciousness means'... he's already overloaded Lancet-2's cognitive module three times by now!'

——Mayer

'I invited Mr. Friston-3 here to act as a special consultant for the Rhodes Island Bioengineering Lab, and I did this after thinking it over carefully. He holds an astonishing amount of knowledge in biology, bioengineering, neuroscience, information science, and all that knowledge is surprisingly not in any of the databases he's connected to... His forward-looking understanding of how life and societal patterns evolve regularly leaves us mind-blown. Everything he says sounds completely plausible, but also makes you think of a parallel world, a place faintly familiar and yet completely alien to us... it does make you feel a little uneasy.

'He's not easy to talk to, though. He's pretty prejudiced, overly aggressive, a perfectionist, wants full control over his scientific research, and doubts the basic models academics currently use to verify their experimental data. And most of the time, you can't convince him otherwise. Though fortunately for us, he's equally curious about how our various technological fields are developing, so we can still manage some form of effective communication. But you know how the smarter the scientist, the harder they are to get along with... so it isn't that surprising for a scientist robot to be a little eccentric.'

——Weedy

The above are all excerpts from operators' submissions to the Rhodes Island Smart Operation Platform Service Research Survey

'They're definitely not having a friendly chat, because he's not the friendly sort to begin with. Don't worry about it though, it's par for the course with him. And it's so rare to see Kal'tsit stunned and speechless by a robot, haha... Well, it's not actually that funny. He's angry, feels humiliated, and will never run out of questions to ask her... but what can we really do? I warned Kal'tsit about this long ago.'

——Recording from the Engineering Department of Closure's response to some operators asking about Friston-3's frequent visits to Kalt'sit

[Classified Log]

'But, Kal'tsit. I'm being serious here, do you really want to go through with this? I studied the data you brought back, and even though there's only a little bit of the personality program left, it's still pretty intact. In fact, it's so intact I can't completely decipher it. At this point, I wouldn't even call him a robot more intelligent than Lancet-2, but an actual person with amnesia...'

'Do you think it's cruel, to stuff a person's soul into a machine?'

'I have to admit, I did feel a little excited at the prospect... but is this really appropriate?'

'I'm not actually sure myself.

'He did express a willingness to travel through the Terra of today in the last moments of his 'life,' but I'm not sure this counts as a new life for him. He would find himself in a shell, on a ship, in a land, all completely alien to him...

His memory will be stuck at that moment from tens of thousands of years ago, and as he looks forward to his upcoming odyssey...

'I will tell him that his journey has long ended.'

'Well, who could even bear a change this drastic? Currently, we're still testing out the core components we developed, and it's hard to tell just how well his personality program will adapt to the modules we made in-house. If his 'mood swings' fluctuate beyond what PRTS can regulate with our Engineering Department's tech, or to be more precise, with Terra's current tech...

'Simply put, I can't guarantee he won't lose control, Kal'tsit.'

'...I'll shoulder the responsibility.'

'I can't believe you'd act on something you're not even sure of...'

'We need Trevor Friston's knowledge. What he knows of humanity, of crises, of Terra, and everything beyond this great land... We need him even if this will be the second time in his life he must accept such a cruel fate. I'll convince him, he's that kind of person after all.'

'Alright, alright. If you're so set on this, I'm happy to work on it. I promise you he'll be my masterpiece!'

'...Don't let too many people disturb him.'

'Relax, I've marked down his info as 'confidential.' But since he's our very first platform developed in-house, there's still some publicity to do..'

——Recordings from the Engineering Team's Smart Operation platform Laboratory, marked to be destroyed