Cruising through the terminals I ran across this in a S'pht terminal:
Only I grasped the significance of the
dissection of some of the captives. These
creatures, repugnant as they are, are
sentient, and yet their bodies are not
bonded to any mechanisms. They can survive
without their armor and their staffs.
Until now, sentience had always required
cyber-organic symbiosis. All of our
science has led to this conclusion.
We can even give our pets sentience with
cyber-organic implants. Yet, these vile
conquerors are sentient without any machinations.
This has been mentioned before to state that the S'pht need the technology to remain sentient. But the thing that is curious to me is that the S'pht seem totally awestruck by the Phor being sentient without technological interference. What about Yrro and Pythia? Sure, they haven't been around for a while, but the legends that exist apparently make it rather clear that Yrro and Pythia used quite a bit of technology. It appears (to me, anyway) that when they say Until now, sentience has always required cyber-organic symbiosis it included Yrro and Pythia.
There is other talk of Yrro being another AI on the appropriate pages. This seems to fit in a little with that...
Unfortunately, since the talk of Yrro and Pythia are from legends there could be much that has been distorted. Boo.