Culture
Synths, strictly speaking, don't have a culture entirely for themselves, but rather see themselves as culturally intertwined with the society that surrounds them. For the most part this would be the culture of the Outer Rim, although smaller Synth populations exist within other civilizations as well. More often than not the goal of most Synths is to fit into the culture that surrounds them and to be a respected member of society, while still identifying as Synths. However, even though they blend into the society that surrounds hem, their synthetic origin and way of living differs from the organics around them in some inescapabele ways.
Contents
Energy Consumption
Synths are entirely synthetic and have ways of powering their bodies that differ greatly from that of organics. Organics have to consume food to gain nutrition, which their bodies convert into energy to power the body's processes, from movement to cognition. Without this energy, a body will die. Synths require regular charging of their battery tissue to keep them alive. This has led to charging points being a common thing all throughout the Outer Rim. Just as organics like having sources of food around, Synths feel comfortable knowing that they can sit on a bench nearby to recharge their batteries a bit when they feel tired. The ubiquity of charging points often leads to Synths forgetting that they require energy to live, since they so often enter places or use furniture that charges them without them even noticing. Battery extensions and modules that generate power themselves make the need to charge even less noticable.
Energy is seen as a basic right for Synths throughout the Outer Rim and is therefor available for free. Places that don't have a ubiquitous energy supply are often considered wild or underdeveloped. One of the first thing that happens when a new planet is colonized within the outer Rim is that a charging network for Synths is set up to allow movement throughout the colony and reduce the threat of a Synth being stranded somewhere without a chance to charge.
It is seen as fashionable for Synths to wear modules that do the charging for them, by generating power or amplifying the power transmitted through charging points. Typical modules of that sort would be skin plating covered in solar sells, crests and fins that act as solar panels as well as, in rare cases, miniature nuclear reactor modules built into the Synth's frame. Due to the ubiquity of charging points such modules are usually not really necessary, but tend to be used as fashion items and as a display of independence and style.
Food and Drink
While Synths do not require food or drink for sustenance or to generate energy, it is instead used to provide their bodies with materials required for maintenance as well as the change of their frame size. Since the bodies of Synths are made of entirely different materials than those of organics, the substances they consume are also entirely different. Whereas organics will eat food based on carbohydrates, fats and protein, Synths will prefer foods heavy in minerals and metals.
While synths can theoretically eat and digest organic food, it does not appeal to them in either taste, smell or looks. It also tends to give them slight indigestion, since organic food does not contain the nutrition they require for their internal chemical processes.
Since the majority of a Synth's body consists of carbon based materials, the majority of their diet is also carbon. Popular carbon based food items include carbon crisps, graphite bars and graphene flakes. Carbon can come in many different shapes, including fullerene based drinks, or in form of polymers. Polymer noodles and polymüsli are popular as well.
It is not uncommon for Synths to season their food with materials that would be a bit risky for organics, such as bismuth, rust or (for those who like it very spicy) uranium. Food items that could be dangerous to organics around Synths are marked with danger indicators to remind Synths not to put others in danger and to please make sure not to leave too many uranium crumbs all over the place.
Commercial batteries are not classified as Synth food items no matter how tasty they are .
Synths can have very varied diets, with many of them only consuming very little food to begin with. Since food consumption is only necessary to maintain a Synth's body or to re-shape it and Synths generally don't use food for energy generation, they typically only eat regular meals during times of extensive physical change. A small, incomplete list of Synth foods can be found here: List of Synth Food Examples
Lifestyle
Synths typically try to fit into the society they live within. If they have a large number of organics living in their community, they are more prone to free time activities that organics can also relate to. If the community consists primarily of Synths, then the culture of that community will typically be more centered around things and activities that are important to a synthetic lifestyle. This means that describing one Synth's lifestyle does not describe all Synth's lifestyles. The examples listed here only represent a small portion of the synthetic life experience.
Work
Hobbies
Synth Specific Fashion
Synth fashion can be very different from fashion for organics, since synthetic fashion tends to revolve mostly around styling synthetic bodies rather than clothing. This happens primarily through the use of different modules, but also through colours, skin, alternative frames, glowing elements and even holographic elements. More on Synth fashion can be learned from the page specifically dedicated to it.
Education
Synths, much like organics, have to grow up through experiencing and learning many things. Every child in the Outer Rim is educated through a public school system that takes them all the way from learning about fundamentals like reading, writing, mathematics as well as several of the most important languages spoken throughout the Outer Rim to higher education at universities. Synths and organics go to the same schools and same classes and are not seperated. Growing up and going to school together is the best way to ensure understanding for each other, despite the physical differences.
Even though Synths are not pushed in any particular direction, when they make their choice of what to focus their studies on during their time at a university, they have a tendency of choosing majors that are heavily focused on technology and science. This is a tendency and not a rule though, so you can also find many Synths in agricultural studies, economics and many others.
All education is provided by the Outer Rim free of charge, whether a person decides to go for a PhD or not to go to university at all. There are incentives of higher monthly income as a reward for getting a higher education though.
Coexistence with Organics
Throughout the history of the Outer Rim Synths have played an important role of the development of culture and society as a whole. The connection between Synths and organics has always been vital, since Synths were originally created by the organics of the Outer Rim to help out with the production of food, leading to Synths being an important part of the continued survival of all organic species. Organics and Synths both enjoy each other's mutual respect for that reason. Yet there are big differences in the way of synthetic and organic life. These differences are what makes the cultural interactions between these species interesting.
Synths require no food to live, since they depend entirely on electrical energy to sustain themselves. Synth food merely exists for two reasons:
- To supply their bodies with materials they need for repairs, maintenance and change of body shape.
- As a way to meaningfully interact with organics and to share a common activity.
The second point is important for social interaction between Synths and organics. When organics consume food, this will often happen at a social setting. It is a chance to bond with people around you. Synths therefor also prefer to eat while other people around them are eating, simply because it is the social thing to do. Eating with others strenghthens relationship and furthers cultural exchange, because it involves conversation and the discovery of whatever interesting things the person you're talking to is eating.
Since Synths don't need to eat food to supply their bodies with energy and don't need to supply their bodies with replacement materials very often, they tend to choose foods that are very light, but flavourful. Examples of food eaten around social settings are aerogel or polymer foam based foods. These can come in many interesting flavours (That is, interesting for Synths. Organics care very little for the intricacies of the difference between copper and tin flavours).
Synths will often partake in leisure activities with organics, whether it is exercise, travel, shopping or meeting up to watch the newest, funny 5D meme videos online. Friendships between Synths and organics are just as common as friendships among Synths. There typically is not much of a difference, except that you might want to hide any tasty looking batteries before your Synth buddies come over for a visit. Relationships between Synths and organics are also fully accepted and considered normal.
Synths often find the way organics live fascinating, since it can feel pretty foreign to them. They will often try to emulate certain things, to feel more part of the same society. In theory it does not make much sense for a synthetic creature to take and enjoy drugs, like alcohol or caffeine, yet Synths have developed substances they can injest, which trigger neural responses in their bodies, which simulate these experiences. This allows them to partake in fun activities like "getting drunk and regretting it the next day" or "having way too much coffee and not being able to sleep".
Interaction with machines
Even though the argument could be made that Synths are just particularly intelligent and conscious machines, they do not identify themselves as machines. They recognize that they are, as a matter of fact, like machines, but if confronted with that fact, they will typically respond by pointing out that organics are basically machines too. They "just happen to be more squishy and less energy efficient". This leads to Synths treating other machines in the exact same way as organics would treat them. Machines that are not at the cognitive level of consciousness are considered to be tools, or cute robot pets, but never as a living being with a mind. The deciding factor that makes a machine alive to a Synth is whether or not a conscious mind resides within it. This does, however, not mean that Synths are incapable of feeling affection for machines less intelligent than them. It is popular to own small, unintelligent service robots, like helperbots (also known as owobots), which are sometimes treated like pets.
