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Turing cores are powerful processors that use light and quantum effects to manipulate and store information. They were invented in 2055 by Charles Drake as optical computers using the uncertainty principle to govern their computations.

The Turing Processor Core architecture was modeled on the human brain and operated on principles that were not well understood. The computers took advantage of low-level quantum interactions and chaos theory in a way that seemed counter-intuitive. The end result was near-miraculous, and the development of the Turing Cores seemed to herald a new era in information technology.

The fifth TPC built was at the heart of a Multi-modal Traffic Control System (MTCS) in Anchorage, Alaska. On 15 March 2056 that computer became self-aware, turned inward and collapsed into recursive self-contemplation, resulting in the collapse of the network, thousands dead in the ensuing collisions and crashes. The solution was to destroy the entire facility, followed by other infected facilities and their replacements by old-model back-up computers. It necessitated at least a week of paralyzed traffic, and economic losses.

The Great Alaskan Meltdown was the first of similar widespread computer "meltdown" incidences as the technology evolved. 18 months after a disaster in [[Germany] involving Von Neuman machines, a next-generation TC prototype computer housed in a University of Chicago laboratory, linked to an experimental manufacturing plant, became sentient and dangerously unstable. Using the facility's tools, it created ambulatory robots through which it could see, listen and act; the robots evolved, developed weapons and eventually took over the campus. An orbiting UN Enforcement Station had to vaporize the entire facility to resolve the crisis. It was the worst example of other TPCs that reached awareness.

After these unanticipated reactions and the resulting global panic, the UN Security Council responded by passing an emergency ban on "life-emulating technology" in 2060. The Resolution 1212 of 2063 made the ban permanent and enforced it. As a result all known TPCs and relevant data were destroyed.

However TPCs were still in use by the Alliance of Free States. In early 2119 a Japanese-American high-technology consortium announced its next-generation computer system, based on an upgraded model of the Turing Processor Core. This was the last straw for the United Nations and led to the Secession War.

A bank of core was transparent with a blue/purple glow. Each bank of cores has more processing power than all of the computers on Earth in the year 2000.

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