Interfacing from an engineering standpoint
Table of Contents
In which Sae WAY WAY WAY over-thinks interfacing IE how and why giant alien robots get their mechanical jollies.
Disclaimer: the thoughts and ideas contained within do not necessarily reflect the thoughts of the majority of the Transformers Fandom. Parental discretion is advised, purely to watch the look on your dad's face when he thinks about Optimus Prime getting it on.
So.
The thing about Transformers is that they're machines. Metal and wires and gears and circuitry.
"Well, no shit, Sae," I hear you say. "Only every five year old in America has figured that one out." Which is true. But a lot of people don't think about exactly what that means. Except, apparently, porn-writers and way-too-bored engineering students.
The porn writers can take the easy way out, and just substitute in some mechanical-sounding terms for humany terms and call it a fic. I started poking around maybe why they would need to 'interface' in the first place. Be warned, I'm going to try really hard to sound like I know what the fuck I'm talking about, and I will probably ramble all over the place.
Common sense and general observation leads one to notice that things that are good for us feel good. Exercise gives us energy, eating food is pleasurable, as is breathing (don't believe me? try NOT breathing and tell me how good it feels) and, of course, sex. This is probably natural selection at work - those that didn't enjoy food or sex or air didn't get the chance to pass on their genetic material. As this is just plain logic, it's semi-reasonable to assume the same could be observed in other species.
Back to Transformers being machines. Awesome machines, but still machines, each with it's own programming. Personally (usually), I follow the idea that TF's have no genetic material to pass along, as they reproduce by building empty shells and programming them and getting the AllSpark (note: Sae is unfamiliar with anything but MovieVerse) to give it life. So, any instincts would come from the programmers. It's been shown, again and again, that TF's feel and react to pain, which would have to be programmed into them. Would it not be reasonable to assume that, if they've been programmed to feel pain from bad situations, that the opposite is true, that their programming would allow them to feel good sensations from good situations?
Yes, this is me, justifying the existence of giant alien robot porn. Hush, you protesters, this is MY journal.
Okay, so. We have thus far determined that, yes, machines can feel good. And we have determined that there is no need for a genetic material exchange, as there is no genetic material TO exchange (most of the time. The occasional stickyfic never killed anyone. yet.) So, there has to be a reason giant alien machines would find petting each other enjoyable. Yes, there's all sorts of psychological reasons humans enjoy the same, but that base pleasure still comes from our sex drive, even when the contact isn't entirely sexual. And don't bring up 'NOT WHEN MY MOM HUGS ME >:C ', you know that's not what kind of contact I mean.
So, what would make heavy petting enjoyable for a robot? And here Sae turns to technobabble. I've been studying electromechanical engineering for a year now (interspersed with heavy doses of nuclear theory, but that won't apply here) I've learned a lot about what happens when you mix voltages, metals and magnetic fields. Bear with me, here, and if anything makes you go 'wait, whut?' ask or hit up Wiki.
There's a few ways of producing a voltage. The most common is chemically, which is what batteries do. Then there's generator action, which is a magnetic field, a conductor, and relative motion between the two, which is how turbines work. A third way is friction between a conductive surface and a non-conductive surface, which is what causes static shocks when you shuffle across a carpet in socks.
Voltage is all good and dandy, but it's useless unless there's a conductive path for current to flow, from a place of high voltage to a place of low voltage. If there is a path, electricity will travel, end of story. The earth itself is the last stop for any electricity that can get to it, hence the term 'grounded'. It's the ultimate 'low voltage', and electricity would, 99.9999 times out of a hundred, rather go there than anywhere else, by the path of least resistance. Electricity, resistance, and current are all connected - E=I*R, where voltage (E) produced is a product of the current(I) applied and the resistance(R). Yay, random science that as nothing to do with this topic!
Air sucks as a conductor. Just for a spark to jump one cm of air takes a retardedly high voltage. So does rubber, many plastics, ceramic, etc. One the other end, most metals make lovely conductors, silver and copper being near the top of the list. TF's, being made of metals and being machines, would be keenly aware of this. Keeping their electrical currents straight within their bodies would be a prime concern, to prevent damage.
A short circuit happens when electricity finds an easier path to take within a circuit than the one we want it to take. The result is a ridiculously high current, fried wiring, damage to the surrounding components and a system that isn't working the way it should. For a TF, it could be downright deadly, especially if they're grounded electrically.
So, I think they're not. I think their main circuits are electrically insulated from the ground, probably by insulators in their feet and armors, and generous usage of transformers of the electrical type, to make sure that they don't short themselves out by accident every time they brush against something.
What does this have to do with robot sex? Remember when I mentioned voltage via friction? THAT would be happening. With no grounds, a tiny voltage would be produced and stored in every moving component, as their parts rubbed against each other all day. In my mind, they'd feel this as a stiffness in their locomotion cables, kind of like how lactic acid feels for us. In order to get rid of it, they'd need to poke their inner components with something (I think recharge berths have little nubblies on them, just to get past armor and drain voltage from inner bits through the night) or they'd have to build up enough voltage to jump air and/or armor and get to ground. I've seen on some pumps and other spinning things, where there would be a grounding strap connected to the parts that would be building a frictional charge, and carefully insulated from the electrical parts of the device. A grounding strap itself would be rather inconvenient for a moving creature, so, we're left with poking or petting to build up the charge.
And we all know which one is more fun :B
So, getting rid of that charge = good thing = pleasant thing, and, since higher organisms like to attach emotional significance to things, interfacing. I don't see them placing as much significance on interfacing as we do on sex (it's not anywhere near as vital to them as it is to us), and they probably have a lot fewer taboos simply because there aren't nearly as many ways to go about it. But it IS enjoyable for them, and is as good a way as any to show affection. There's probably less jealousy overall, and multiple partners would be a common thing, because, again, it's just not as vital to life in general, and there's no benefit to making sure no one else touches one's partner (exceptions always exist, of course. I can think of a few mechs who'd be the jealous types, and not all of 'em are Decepticons, either)
I swear, I'm just typing this up to get it out of my brain, and I'm only posting it because sharing ideas is fun :B
Sparksex, in my own little corner of the fandom, is purely emotional. Slight echos of physical sensation and maybe a few glimpses of surface thoughts are transmitted through spark-to-spark contact, but it's mostly just emotions, as the spark seems to be like the metaphorical heart of humans; the soul and the source of emotion. There's no real reason higher thoughts would be transmitted through the spark, though reactions to those higher thoughts certainly would be.
Sparksex would take a metric butt-ton more trust than just interfacing, and I think most mechs would save it to share with only a few. It's benefits would be almost solely emotional, too - sharing deeper things, opening one's self to a lover, understanding and trust and security and all that jazz.
Note that spark-touching wouldn't have to be at all sexual, just two mechs trying to understand each other without any doubt, just as interfacing wouldn't have to be, despite it's pleasurable aspects.
And I'll come back to this later and add more on, when I haven't been staring at it on and off for four hours :B
In which Sae WAY WAY WAY over-thinks interfacing IE how and why giant alien robots get their mechanical jollies.
Disclaimer: the thoughts and ideas contained within do not necessarily reflect the thoughts of the majority of the Transformers Fandom. Parental discretion is advised, purely to watch the look on your dad's face when he thinks about Optimus Prime getting it on.
So.
The thing about Transformers is that they're machines. Metal and wires and gears and circuitry.
"Well, no shit, Sae," I hear you say. "Only every five year old in America has figured that one out." Which is true. But a lot of people don't think about exactly what that means. Except, apparently, porn-writers and way-too-bored engineering students.
The porn writers can take the easy way out, and just substitute in some mechanical-sounding terms for humany terms and call it a fic. I started poking around maybe why they would need to 'interface' in the first place. Be warned, I'm going to try really hard to sound like I know what the fuck I'm talking about, and I will probably ramble all over the place.
Common sense and general observation leads one to notice that things that are good for us feel good. Exercise gives us energy, eating food is pleasurable, as is breathing (don't believe me? try NOT breathing and tell me how good it feels) and, of course, sex. This is probably natural selection at work - those that didn't enjoy food or sex or air didn't get the chance to pass on their genetic material. As this is just plain logic, it's semi-reasonable to assume the same could be observed in other species.
Back to Transformers being machines. Awesome machines, but still machines, each with it's own programming. Personally (usually), I follow the idea that TF's have no genetic material to pass along, as they reproduce by building empty shells and programming them and getting the AllSpark (note: Sae is unfamiliar with anything but MovieVerse) to give it life. So, any instincts would come from the programmers. It's been shown, again and again, that TF's feel and react to pain, which would have to be programmed into them. Would it not be reasonable to assume that, if they've been programmed to feel pain from bad situations, that the opposite is true, that their programming would allow them to feel good sensations from good situations?
Yes, this is me, justifying the existence of giant alien robot porn. Hush, you protesters, this is MY journal.
Okay, so. We have thus far determined that, yes, machines can feel good. And we have determined that there is no need for a genetic material exchange, as there is no genetic material TO exchange (most of the time. The occasional stickyfic never killed anyone. yet.) So, there has to be a reason giant alien machines would find petting each other enjoyable. Yes, there's all sorts of psychological reasons humans enjoy the same, but that base pleasure still comes from our sex drive, even when the contact isn't entirely sexual. And don't bring up 'NOT WHEN MY MOM HUGS ME >:C ', you know that's not what kind of contact I mean.
So, what would make heavy petting enjoyable for a robot? And here Sae turns to technobabble. I've been studying electromechanical engineering for a year now (interspersed with heavy doses of nuclear theory, but that won't apply here) I've learned a lot about what happens when you mix voltages, metals and magnetic fields. Bear with me, here, and if anything makes you go 'wait, whut?' ask or hit up Wiki.
There's a few ways of producing a voltage. The most common is chemically, which is what batteries do. Then there's generator action, which is a magnetic field, a conductor, and relative motion between the two, which is how turbines work. A third way is friction between a conductive surface and a non-conductive surface, which is what causes static shocks when you shuffle across a carpet in socks.
Voltage is all good and dandy, but it's useless unless there's a conductive path for current to flow, from a place of high voltage to a place of low voltage. If there is a path, electricity will travel, end of story. The earth itself is the last stop for any electricity that can get to it, hence the term 'grounded'. It's the ultimate 'low voltage', and electricity would, 99.9999 times out of a hundred, rather go there than anywhere else, by the path of least resistance. Electricity, resistance, and current are all connected - E=I*R, where voltage (E) produced is a product of the current(I) applied and the resistance(R). Yay, random science that as nothing to do with this topic!
Air sucks as a conductor. Just for a spark to jump one cm of air takes a retardedly high voltage. So does rubber, many plastics, ceramic, etc. One the other end, most metals make lovely conductors, silver and copper being near the top of the list. TF's, being made of metals and being machines, would be keenly aware of this. Keeping their electrical currents straight within their bodies would be a prime concern, to prevent damage.
A short circuit happens when electricity finds an easier path to take within a circuit than the one we want it to take. The result is a ridiculously high current, fried wiring, damage to the surrounding components and a system that isn't working the way it should. For a TF, it could be downright deadly, especially if they're grounded electrically.
So, I think they're not. I think their main circuits are electrically insulated from the ground, probably by insulators in their feet and armors, and generous usage of transformers of the electrical type, to make sure that they don't short themselves out by accident every time they brush against something.
What does this have to do with robot sex? Remember when I mentioned voltage via friction? THAT would be happening. With no grounds, a tiny voltage would be produced and stored in every moving component, as their parts rubbed against each other all day. In my mind, they'd feel this as a stiffness in their locomotion cables, kind of like how lactic acid feels for us. In order to get rid of it, they'd need to poke their inner components with something (I think recharge berths have little nubblies on them, just to get past armor and drain voltage from inner bits through the night) or they'd have to build up enough voltage to jump air and/or armor and get to ground. I've seen on some pumps and other spinning things, where there would be a grounding strap connected to the parts that would be building a frictional charge, and carefully insulated from the electrical parts of the device. A grounding strap itself would be rather inconvenient for a moving creature, so, we're left with poking or petting to build up the charge.
And we all know which one is more fun :B
So, getting rid of that charge = good thing = pleasant thing, and, since higher organisms like to attach emotional significance to things, interfacing. I don't see them placing as much significance on interfacing as we do on sex (it's not anywhere near as vital to them as it is to us), and they probably have a lot fewer taboos simply because there aren't nearly as many ways to go about it. But it IS enjoyable for them, and is as good a way as any to show affection. There's probably less jealousy overall, and multiple partners would be a common thing, because, again, it's just not as vital to life in general, and there's no benefit to making sure no one else touches one's partner (exceptions always exist, of course. I can think of a few mechs who'd be the jealous types, and not all of 'em are Decepticons, either)
I swear, I'm just typing this up to get it out of my brain, and I'm only posting it because sharing ideas is fun :B
Sparksex, in my own little corner of the fandom, is purely emotional. Slight echos of physical sensation and maybe a few glimpses of surface thoughts are transmitted through spark-to-spark contact, but it's mostly just emotions, as the spark seems to be like the metaphorical heart of humans; the soul and the source of emotion. There's no real reason higher thoughts would be transmitted through the spark, though reactions to those higher thoughts certainly would be.
Sparksex would take a metric butt-ton more trust than just interfacing, and I think most mechs would save it to share with only a few. It's benefits would be almost solely emotional, too - sharing deeper things, opening one's self to a lover, understanding and trust and security and all that jazz.
Note that spark-touching wouldn't have to be at all sexual, just two mechs trying to understand each other without any doubt, just as interfacing wouldn't have to be, despite it's pleasurable aspects.
And I'll come back to this later and add more on, when I haven't been staring at it on and off for four hours :B