Cybernetics.
The field of cybernetics is one that stresses the superiority of machine over man. Cyberware is designed for one purpose, and that is to replace inferior flesh parts and enhance humanity as a whole.
What cyberware makes up for in augmentation, however, it loses in subtlety. No matter how one disguises and hides a cybernetic attachment, there are always some hints that it is there. for example it could be a motion that is to fluid to be human, motions that seem far to robotic to be human, the blasting away of fake skin to reveal chrome, and so forth. It is also, and this cannot be emphasized enough, a dehumanizing experience. It is an isolating and empty feeling to have your arm cut off and replaced with a hunk of chrome that, while useful, is not your arm. It would be like somebody coming into your bedroom and putting up a giant Barney poster, it is still your room, but it doesn't feel right..
Cyberware also gives up plain old human adaptability. Human evolution is tuned towards making us adaptable to a number of situations, and while using a wrench to tighten a bolt is superior to the hand, it is good for little else, unlike the hand. While you might claim that the options available for a cyberhand make up for this pitfall, consider that you never have exactly what you need at any given time, and replacing that hand with a weapon makes it a fairly one dimensional limb.
However, the chrome is more durable, using much stronger materials than the flesh did. Inorganic material allows for forces to be applied that would crush a flesh arm. The tasks the cyberware is designed to do they do well,.
A reliable interface system is the key component to cyberware. It is absolutely essential that patients get the appropriate interface system which will turn the electrical impulses into chemical and altered electrical impulses that the brain can understand. A single piece of cyberware installed needs this interface system and is typically thrown in for a barely-noticeable fee upon the first cyberware installed. However, the interface system is split into two distinct subsystems:
Bodyware: Bodyware is where the stuff of cybernetic legend comes from. This interface covers everything from wired reflexes to dermal armour. However, the weak link of bodyware is the frailty of the human form , a cyberarm may well be able to withstand the immense pressure of grabbing a hovercycle that is flying by at high speed, but it will rip the cyberarm right out of the flesh and blood body. The interface will convert and control impulses from the body and take them and change them
into an understandable form.
Headware: Headware focuses mainly on calculation and data perception and processing. It can take over repetitive and heavy computational tasks leaving the creative process in the domain of the biological. This is the most delicate of the interface systems because of the hardwiring into the network of the brain. Headware also augments the current senses and adds new ones, because any information gathering device can be wired into the human brain. Seeing into the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums and hearing super and subsonics are just the tip of the iceberg for headware. The interface converts the normally unreadable signals into ones the brain can understand and allows perception of the world at new levels.
The process of cyberware implantation is a delicate process indeed, such that it falls back onto the field of nanotechnology to do most of the work. While the surgery places the equipment in the body at the right points, the nanites do the true merging of man and machine. Two types of nanites are used , threaders and coaters. Threaders are designed to be attracted to beta-galactose, a sugar derivative, and then produce toxins that kill it when its work is done. Beta-galactose is introduced into the blood and guided to the cyberware with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance devices where they dissolve leaving behind a layer that when treated with an enzyme, leaves behind a surface-bonded layer of gold or platnium conductive material. Then coaters are introduced and are attracted to the conductive material left by threaders and attach themselves to it before dying, leaving a protein-sheath.
This sounds more complicated than it actually is for the cyberdocs of the Eternity complex. After implanting the cyberware, it is a matter of waiting while the nanites do their job. This can take anywhere from 1 hour to 3 days depending on the cyberware installed, and so can add to total time above and beyond surgery. The patient is then watched for signs of rejection and if necessary, anti-rejection drugs are administered, and then the patient is cautioned to go easy on the cyberware for a few weeks while it adjusts in and sent on his way.
CyberPsychosis must be mentioned because it is too fun. CyberPsychosis is the stories you hear about people going psychotic when realizing they are more machine than human, and this process can sneak up on you, especially if you install lots of little pieces. It is fully explained under Cyborg Technologies, but the more metal a character gets without consideration of his humanity, the more likely it is that he will flip out and find a "special" team after him. The generally agreed upon legal point between some guy with cyberware and a cyborg is 73% -- that is, he has more than 73% of his body in cybernetic systems.
The huge variety of cyberware out there shows a thriving cybernetic industry. First among all the augmentation types considered or known is the field of cybernetics. Depending how much of a humanist you are, your opinion on cybernetics will vary greatly, but in general people don't mind a little cyberware but begin to get uncomfortable with vast amounts put in.
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