So by hybridizing cloning and robotics techniques together I believe I've managed to overcome the errors inherent in the two processes when they are used separately. When you're a transfected human, you spend time awake at night wondering about how different things may function when hybridized.
These synthetically grown cyborg brains use the same type of bioptic mesh for their nervous system as a mecha (just greatly miniaturized) and they can be produced in batches. They lack free-will and are obedient to their owner, so you can plug a Synthman into a module of your cockpit and like a blackbox it will record all that goes on during operation of the mecha, learning from the human, android or clone pilot at the same time he or she is gaining experience. My squadron has been complaining and seems to think I've obsoleted their jobs by introducing yet another type of automated pilot. I tried bribing them with Niodes to encourage them to "train" the alpha generation of Synthmen. That resulted in boxes that learned how to swear (I for one had never taught them to speak such colorful language!). Since that didn't work I re-engineered the Synthmen so that the organic pilots could direct them via a non-invasive wireless electrode chip placed on the forehead. I called this generation Beta. Dividing up tasks between you and your Beta Synthman ups the efficiency of piloting. Just remember that the little box is there to help you!
My other pilots found the whole concept rather creepy and a number of them quit, which led to another discovery about my Synthmen. If you wear more than one control chip, you can control multiple units by yourself. The Delta generation does have one major drawback though; sideffects produced were physical strain and headaches when operating large squadrons of Delta Synthman piloted mecha by oneself for an extended period of time. This necessitated revising the original model somewhat.
Version Gamma has a improved networked feedback since each Synthman is not only connected remotely to you, the master pilot, but also to each other via a transceiver. This allows them to function with a hive mind, something that was way harder to pull off in the Delta generation. When well harmonized, a pilot and his Synthmen can achieve high quality teamwork. Not quite as high quality as that experienced by regular pilots who have worked, lived and trained together for many years but basically, since the Synthman is an organic learning-machine, they do train together. With you. Each time you send your team out.
My clan's leader doesn't want me to replace all the pilots with "cereboxes" as he calls them though so at the moment each pilot is only allowed a few which they are told to treat as apprentices and assistants. There are still reports of the occasional migraine but it's nowhere near as incapacitating as when test pilots were guinea pigs to operating whole squadrons of synthmen controlled mechas.
I've drafted a few plans for Kappa, Iota and Lambda generation SynthMen but at present coming up against limited funds has forced me to shelve these for a more prosperous economic time. I'm nearly convinced that if a system that cycled a drip feed of painkiller into the pilot's bloodstream were utilized in conjunction with the Synthman box as part of the rig, that the whole intense headache thing could be avoided... but the idea of drugging pilots or doping artificial life-forms 24/7 seems ethically dodgy.
Submitted by Mycobacter# 712744