History[]
Like many great advancements, LifeNet technology had its humble beginnings in the military; security in the late 23rd and early 24th centuries was becoming increasingly problematic, as the creation of more advanced forms of travel, both terrestrial and interstellar, as well as the push in 2313 to release Grid soft/hardware for use in the public domain, created added security holes in nearly every major industry. The Legion government had been experimenting for years with some sort of reliable way to biometrically track individuals, but with the increasing number of 'alien' lifeforms permeating into human day-to-day life, the inconsistencies of biometrics between multiple species of interstellar life threatened to permanently stall the project.
In 2327, however, the Legion government contracted then large-scale pharmaceutical company LifeWare to experiment with its faulty technology and find a way to reliably track multiple species using the same biometric protocols. What resulted in 2332 was the direct predecessor to LifeNet: Bioware. The Bioware system used a basic set of then-primitive biometric scans to "assign" values to non-human species that would coincide with human biometrics (for instance, assigning a member of a species that did not possess fingerprints a 'Bioware Fingerprint' for Legion government use). While the Legion government and populace was very receptive of Bioware technology, many interstellar species found it too invasive and degrading. Still, Bioware technology began to permeate the known universe as an effective and efficient was to track individuals.
In 2372, most major systems inhabited by human life ran Bioware-enable systems and technology; problems, however, had been surfacing for years with the technology. It was very difficult to assimilate new species into the Bioware network, and constant compatibility issues began to surface due to the base differences in biometrics that alien life did not share with humanity, differences that could not arbitrarily be assigned to an individual in the same way that a fingerprint could. By 2338, it was apparent that the system would fail within the next century if steps were not taken.
Later that year, LifeWare Industries was absorbed by the Ultima Corporation. Ultima would continue the work that LifeWare had begun and proved to improve it dramatically.
LifeNet[]
Ultima Bioengineering proved to be a good host to the former LifeWare technicians and scientists, as by the turn of the 25th century LifeNet was created and nearly perfected. Instead of trying to force other species under the generalized umbrella of human biometrics, LifeNet tracked each species of life separately; as such, the system did away with its predecessor's main flaw: compatibility. Because each species was seen as distinct and separate from each other biometrically, it was easier to add new classes and configurations to the system. What truly proved to be LifeNet's greatest success, however, was its ability to run off of previous Bioware hardware with only minimal updates to Bioware software, thus saving the major governments and businesses of the universe massive amounts of labor, time, and money.
In recent years, the LifeNet system has been radically upgraded from simple tracking systems to a full-scale medical system capable of tracking multitudes of data specific to each individual registered in the LifeNet system. Thanks to the recent addition of nanotech to the LifeNet system, LifeNet can also remotely track and fix problems in a host user's body, resulting in less visits to the hospital or emergency room, although this service is still in its infancy and is currently only available to high-paying customers.
LifeNet and Droids[]
The Creation of Droids[]
In 2236, a scientist, programmer, and inventor by the name of Dr. Ignacio Padena was working on perfecting a form of artificial intelligence that mimicked the human ability to learn; up until this point, only rudimentary learning could be accomplished on a computer, mainly based on algorithmic deduction. While testing his program, however, he noticed small fluctuations in the data produced by his test code that he couldn't account for in his design; at first, this was written off as a simple programming error, but in actuality it was the first semblance of personality a computer had ever been capable of showing. After further study, Dr. Padena came to the conclusion that the fluctuations came about not because the program was not learning properly, but because the program was refusing to learn at all.
Dr. Padena's original program is now on display in the Library under the name 'Mekano', which would later become the name of the Droid homeworld.
Unfortunately for Dr. Padena, he could not deduce exactly what part of his code caused the personality fluctuation. Nevertheless, his work continued, and in 2242, the first early Droid was created. With nearly the full set of human learning capabilities, this droid, named HR001, could logically deduce and come to logically sound conclusions on its own. It inherited, however, Mekano's personality 'flaw', which manifested itself as an inferiority complex. Intrigued by this new development, Dr. Padena began anew on finding the cause for HR001's personality.
The Invention of PERSONA[]
It took Dr. Padena and his team almost 3 years of intensive work to find what caused the personality 'glitch' in Mekano and HR001. Upon finding it, however, Dr. Padena began anew his quest to perfect his original Droid programming, which had been installed and was in use by almost 50,000 droids. The end result was a final version of his program, dubbed 'PERSONA'. PERSONA's release, however, caused major controversy, as the personality glitch that had already manifested in roughly 1/3 of droids caused a small number of them to refuse the upgraded programming. The droid's human owners, however, were adamant and forcefully installed the updated program into the droids. This inhumane treatment caused the eventual rebel of the droid populace, which resulted in their independence and assimilation as one of the Big Seven.
PERSONA and LifeNet[]
As machines, it was relatively simple to track droids; however, as of around 2387, it was apparent that technical flaws in the design of PERSONA, as well as droid's natural ability to live indefinitely, would soon cause problems. The droid population was growing exponentially and, thanks to their independence, could not simply be destroyed or deactivated arbitrarily. As well, the flaws in PERSONA, which caused roughly 1% of droids to become homicidal or destructive, was manifesting itself in much larger numbers thanks to the naturally high population of droids on Mekano. As Ultima Corp. came closer to the completion of LifeNet, Ultima Bioengineering realized that it could solve both problems by creating a custom version of LifeNet just for droids; instead of simply tracking biometrics, the Droid version of LifeNet would not only solve the technical issues of PERSONA, but create and manifest biometrics in droid hosts, thus effectively giving them 'life', such as a lifespan that could end with the death of the droid.
Unlike the release of PERSONA, however, this custom LifeNet software would not be forced onto droids; they could choose to upgrade to it if they so wished. The majority of droids chose the upgrade (as PERSONA's technical flaw could manifest itself at any time, and most did not want to take that risk), while the remainder were usually droids who had already become defective thanks to the PERSONA flaw. These droids were deemed unfit to live beside working droids, and upon the completion of the droid mass-update to LifeNet the droid government disposed of the defective droids, thus eradicating the PERSONA flaw from the droid species.