Woo! Was out of town a bit, otherwise I would have commented earlier. I'm the creator of both CSEIA and the Freespacers in case you're wondering who I am.
As To Armor
Energized armor is an old idea, so its not exactly CSEIA's to own any more than, say, shield technology. But keep this in mind: I thought about that (using advanced alloys) too, but in the standard sense energized armor merely an anti-penetrator weapon, only good against kinetic penetrators (solid rounds), or possibly even low-tech plasma weapons if you crank up the power. But if you're already using Zanarium or other super advanced alloys, then you'd be all but immune to any sort of low-tech matter weaponry...without the need for energization. Its only good as a low-tech defense, I'm afraid.
As To Relic
Not to rain on your parade, but it all sounds startlingly similar to the Freespacers and their
Synthetic Intelligence. Not accusing you of copying or anything, but it may be quite hard to get them approved if they're practical replicas of SI. By which I mean the following:
- Freespacers are also derived from human ancestry a century or two back, rather than simply early Nepleslians.
- SI/Freespacers are also cybernetic conversionists, with heavy implant use being common and the bulk of their 'population' being converted from humans to AIs
- Freespacers also troublemakers -- Not space pirates, but anarchists and hackers derived from an ancestry of political dissidents, rebels, and terrorists.
- Freespacers are also nomads, or at least a almost completely ship-based nation.
Regardless, you may want to take at the Synthetic Intelligence to get an idea on how human-to-machine transfers can be done in technical detail, rather than simply using the word 'soul' (see
Emulation). They use the simplest and easiest solution -- to run a simulation that mimics the behavior of neuron cells, thus creating a digital version of the human brain. Just copy the behavioral programming from neuron cell genomes to algorithms programmed with the behavior, and a species can have digital sentience without even being advanced enough to understand the secrets of the human brain. The other solution is far more complex, requiring that you completely comprehend and map out human consciousness itself, and find a way to manually create a program that mimics all the variables of the human mind. This requires mindbogglingly advanced biotech and AI programming capacity, and sounds a bit beyond a race from that technological era.
Human brain copy-pasta style programming has long been thought to be the most logical and easiest way to develop digital sentience by programmers and those developing Strong AI, so I don't own that any more than I do the idea of energized armor. Feel free to use it as well.