Brain

The central processing unit of a Synth is called the Brain. It is a roughly spherical object with multiple prongs protruding from its surface, functioning as plugs. The Synth's brain is firmly plugged into the socket at the back of the Synth's head cavity, where it connects to the neural system of the Synth's frame. The Brain contains the Synth's consciousness, does the majority of computation required to control and power the Frame, processes sensory input, fulfills the role of an interpreter between outside stimuli and perception and is considered to be the most important part of a Synth's body.

Since the mind of a Synth is an emergent property of the physical brain, the descruction or malfunctioning of the brain usually means the death of the Synth. It is therefor protected like no other part of the body, with a dense, thick metal frame surround it to shield it from the outside world.

Inside the brain

The inside of a Synth's brain is a closely kept secret of the Outer Rim civilization, with only few specialists having a close understanding of how most of it functions. Every brain specialist within the Outer Rim has specialized knowledge focused on specific parts of the brain, such as processing, memory, stimuli interpretation and neural networking. Large gatherings of of engineers and computer scientists are needed to update the design for future generations of Synths. Such update events however are very rare, since the design has been refined and optimized over the course of centuries and the philosophy of "Never touch a running system" applies.

This leads to no single person having a full understanding of the architecture of a Synth's brain. What is generally known to everyone is that it contains processors, memory (with in-memory processing), multiple hard-coded API's and a cluster of closely linked, software based neural networks, which, while powered, generate consciousness.

Synth Brains vs. Computers

A very important part about Synth Brains and how the Synth mind works is the concept of separation of conscious and subconscious computation. The Brain is capable of highly complex computation and, as a result of the many interactions of its intricate parts, consciousness emerges. This consciousness would not be possible without the high computational power of the brain, yet the consciousness is not capable of using this computational power consciously. This seems confusing and counterintuitive at first, but is easy to compare to how organic brains function: Organic brains have high computational power and are capable of approximately calculate complex processes without the conscious mind that emerges from it even being aware of it. An organic mind can estimate the ballistic trajectory of a thrown object, like a ball, with enough precision to estimate where the body needs to position a hand to catch the ball. All of that is done without the mind even knowing what a ballistic trajectory is or how to calculate it. Synths function in a very similar way. Many of the functions of their bodies are hidden behind an API layer, which their brain can use subconsciously to fulfill its purpose and function, while the Synth's conscious mind can not access the same API. This is why a Synth has to think for a bit, when you ask them to solve a mathematical equation. Even if the equation would be trivial to solve for a computer, the Synth's mind takes longer to solve the equation and needs to learn how to solve such equations to begin with before it can even attempt to solve it.