The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1074

Mech companies occupied a unique position within human society. Technically, they were arms manufacturers.

Some arms manufacturers sold infantry weapons. Other arms manufacturers sold turret installations.

Yet even though mech companies sold mechs, they were treated differently from other arms manufacturers.

This was because the designers and developers of those armaments were mostly anonymous faces. It didn’t really matter to the vast majority of the market which person designed a specific weapon model. The company brand stood for the entire company rather than a couple of notable weapon designers.

Due to the prominence of mechs in the Age of Mechs, mech companies enjoyed a very different situation. Mech designers enjoyed a lot of attention and publicity to the point where their personal fame often overpowered the brand of the company where they worked at! A mech company was just a hollow shell without a notable mech designer taking the lead!

This unique condition along with the custom of mech designers founding and leading their own mech companies in person came with vast implications.

The most important one was that mech companies served as an extension of the lead designer’s design philosophies. When it came to core principles, nothing was more important to a mech designer than the principles espoused by their deeply personal design philosophies.

Since the good ones often started their own businesses or took over existing ones, it made sense if they shaped the identities of their companies to accommodate their own beliefs.

The equation was slightly different when it came to mech companies that employed multiple mech designers. Even so, there would always be a small number of lead designers who took charge of the overall direction of the mech company.

The example of the KNG came to mind, though Ves admitted it was not the most stellar example of how a company should be run.

The Living Mech Corporation centered around Ves Larkinson, the mech designer. By that, he meant that the company should strongly be aligned to his own design philosophy. Even though no one but Ves himself could realize his design philosophy to its full potential, that didn’t mean that his subordinates should just do their own thing!

A mech corporation that did not follow through with their lead designer’s design philosophy would only hamper both in the future.

The mech designer wouldn’t be able to progress as much as the mechs being produced and sold by their companies failed to fully realize their mech designs.

The mech company therefore suffered as well as their lead designer’s stalling progress meant that it didn’t enjoy as much success as it ought to have.

Each were dependent on each other. This was why Ves put his full attention on this issue. If his own company did not match him in lockstep, then he could forget about spreading the influence of his design philosophy across the galaxy!

"It starts with a motto." Ves muttered.

No one else could help him set a motto for his company. As the lead designer of the LMC, only he could shape its principles. Even the System couldn’t help him solve this important hurdle.

Right now, Ves stared out of the high windows of his penthouse office, overlooking the darkening cloudy skies as evening set in. Most of the office workers as well as the day shift of mech technicians ended their work for the day and returned to their homes.

Thousands of workers filed out of the headquarters or the underground portion of the Mech Nursery. Company-provided transit shuttles and aircars waited at the vastly-expanded landing zone at the far end of the company premises. His workers entered them in an orderly fashion and took them all the way back to Freslin or one of its many suburbs.

"These people all rely on me to lead the company to prosperity."

It was a daunting thought. The wrong decision could not only ruin his own career, but also destroy the livelihoods of many of his workers.

Right now, he felt like he was leading his own miniature state. It was an apt analogy of the power he wielded and the responsibility that came with it. He no longer worked on his own but instead received the assistance of thousands of employees, all of whom shared in his fortune and misfortune.

"Meow."

Lucky idly floated down on his lap and demanded to be petted. Ves interrupted his reverie in order to lavish some attention to his pet.

As he looked at Lucky’s mechanical form and sensed the spark of spirituality deep inside, Ves couldn’t help but think if more machines could be like his cat.

What would a mech look like that possessed Lucky’s breath of life and spirit?

"It wouldn’t be a mech anymore." He muttered and shook his head. "A mech that has gained full autonomy is not really a mech anymore. It would be an entirely new sentient machine race."

A mech was a large war machine that operated along the direction of a mech pilot. Ves needed to remind himself to stick with this definition. While Ves wanted to make his mech more alive in a spiritual sense, he did not intend to go the full mile and make an entire race of Sigrund-like sentient AIs inhabiting mech-like bodies!

"The living mechs that I aim to design are not alive in a literal sense. It’s sufficient for them to be alive in spirit."

Mechs should remain inanimate when no one actively piloted them. Whatever Ves might aspire for mechs, he wasn’t extreme enough to think that they should be controlled by anything other than humans.

"Even if I believe that mechs should have more value and be more appreciated, it remains a fact that they are also tools who are meant to be used in the purpose they were designed for. In this case, mechs are designed to wage war."

It was very dangerous for humans to outsource the capacity to wage war on to easily exploitable AIs or other vulnerable entities. Humanity long learned that they needed to take charge of their own endeavors and Ves did not intend to upset that principle.

However, that did not mean his design philosophy was impossible to fulfill. _{freeweɓnovēl.coɱ}

"It depends on my definition of living mech." He muttered as he stroked Lucky’s back. "How can I define this term so that it recognizes the value I bring to mechs without sowing more confusion?"