GDI Cybernetic Augmentation Alternatives, 2xxx (noncanon)
KnightDisciple
Love God. Do Right. Fear No Man.
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GDI Cybernetic Augmentation Alternatives, 2xxx
While the first half of the 21st Century saw slow, halting steps into the realm of cybernetics, especially after the CABAL crisis, it was actually the arrival of the Visitors (or more accurately, the aftermath and the wealth of scientific discoveries afterwards) that kickstarted the field of cybernetics into being something more than just the realm of nightmares, or crude and unwieldy devices.
Today, GDI boasts one of the highest proportions of voluntary cyborgs in the galaxy, and almost the entire military arm of the human government is augmented to some degree. Even in government, it's near-ubiquitous, just as much as their propensity for power armored bodyguards and battalions of heavy tanks on hot standby for immediate, forceful extraction of "high value soft assets". However, this does not mean the practice is truly universal.
For both the military and the diplomatic arm of the government, there are only two sets of implants that are truly considered mandatory. The first is a set of implanted medical monitoring devices; while work continues on reducing their size, the current crop of sensors can be placed with minimally-invasive outpatient procedures, and do not require extensive wiring or impede regular bodily functions in any way. For anyone but the most extremely tech-averse, they are at worse an annoyance (mostly due to the scarring); the fact that they can be removed when one retires, without any negative side effects, only enhances this fact.
The second required implant is some form of "neural interface mesh"; however, this is actually a range of implants. Many individuals choose the permanent "neurojack" format (itself an entire sub-category of implants), which allow for both wireless and wired connections for the user. However, for those who are leery of having cables buried deep in their brains and spinal columns, there are a series of "mesh" implants that go under the skin and muscle layers and utilize technology much like neurohelmets; their increased proximity to the brain allows them to pick up much more sophisticated input. Their implantation requires a few days of recovery, but as with the medical monitors, they can be removed if desired.
Both of these options, and all of the devices we will be discussing, are made possible by decades of relentless revision and improvement on isolinear computing technology. The sheer ability of quantum computing with solid-state crystalline structures continues to dazzle those familiar and unfamiliar with it alike.
The most commonly-cited areas of concern for both soldiers and diplomats, and the ones given as reasons for why artificial eyes and ears should be "required", are centered on concerns over damage from explosions, blinding from DEW devices, and other various risks to the extra-vulnerable soft tissues present in the head.
For the eyes, here is where isolinear technology is paired with the galaxy-wide utilization of Element Zero and the so-called "Mass Effect" phenomenon. The two main forms it takes are either stylish "sunglasses" (typically used by diplomats, or officers not in a line position), which rely more on small forcefields and specialized omni-forges, or more robust "goggles" (visually somewhere between more classical welding goggles and thick-framed wrap-around sunglasses), that rely on physical airtight seals and micro-resevoirs of shock-resistant eye-friendly fluid.
In either case, it's absurdly simple for the lenses to provide wide-spectrum protection against flash-blindness, and of course to provide various virtual displays (with a technique projecting them into the lenses rather than back into the eyes, thus reducing risk of long-term damage from overuse). The more complicated mechanisms inside these marvels are the ones intended to protect against shockwave damage; the military-grade goggles do a better job due to relying on physical protections, but the glasses are still resistant enough that the point where damage becomes possible is already presenting a fair bit of risk for greater damage to the rest of the head/skull anyway. After a certain point, heat-proofing these devices would be twisted comedy, as it could result in someone suffering third-degree burns everywhere except for their eyes, to the point they'd be dead anyway.
For the ears, it's actually much simpler, and was nearly a solved problem before even trying. Many old-style hearing aids and swimmer's ear plugs provided near-perfect airtight seals, with the former also providing sound amplification and nullification. Modern devices are essentially high-tech hearing aids, though with the volume typically scaled for the user's natural, non-damaged hearing. Their soft inner sections provide airtight seals, and the material can dissipated sudden shockwaves with enormous efficiency, resulting in, at worse, mild headaches and short-term ringing, instead of ruptured eardrums and powdered middle ear bones. They are also able to filter out abnormal sounds at high and low ranges, though they cannot do much for something that resonates with a person's skeleton (not that cyber-ears would really do any better on that front).
Beyond those two senses, the next main area that sees a lot of cyber-ware for work duties are various haptic feedback implants in the fingers and hands. These are easily replicated with various skin-tight gloves, which can be more easily taken off and put on outside of regular duties, as haptic feedback is not considered a major issue for day-to-day living. GDI's civilian technology production still tends to go with actual physical interfaces, or more traditional touch-screen display-controllers, with the more "exotic" holo-interfaces of the Citadel often seen as a bit wasteful and extravagant.
Things like muscular and skeletal enhancements are generally the domain of either bleeding-edge transhumanists, or bleeding-edge special operations soldiers. The former are always enthusiastically volunteering for various procedures. The latter, meanwhile, are the one real exception to allowing people to utilize external devices instead of cybernetic implants. However, these requirements are well-known, and the groups that require them are a subset of a subset of a subset of the armed forces; many of the spec ops groups get by with low-augment soldiers without issue.
All in all, GDI continues to exert considerable effort to allow the widest range of individuals possible to be contributing members of society in all capacities and at all levels. While the species-wide trauma from the CABAL conflict is gone, some families lost enough that their internal cultures have made them augmentation-averse, while other individuals find the concept of replacing so much working, vital "meatware" to be concerning for their own safety and sanctity of mind and body. All organs of GDI are aggressive in ensuring no active bias is present, in either direction; shaming and shunning someone for not having a large number of implants is just as unacceptable as shaming someone for being loaded up with cyberware. Many citizens and soldiers end up somewhere in the middle of this debate, and almost all are more than willing to extend grace and kindness to their fellow man.
Plus, as noted by more than a few low-augment aviators, the sunglasses do tend to look rather snazzy…
Author's OOC Notes:
-This is much less comprehensive than my Steel Talons writeup. It's much more of a fully-expressed brain-bug than anything.
-It's not meant to be binding on how the future looks.
-It is meant to present some ideas and options for people to be able to serve as diplomats and soldiers without cutting out their eyeballs, because that feels hella freaky and shady to me, conceptually.
-This doesn't really go into gene-modding to any extent, as I feel like we have even less of a grasp of what's possible in the future, right now.
-Between us already having isolinear tech, and the fact that, to my mind, if we can make actually-functional eyeball-sized cyber-eyes, we can strip out the "vision replication" part and put in just protective measures and a HUD, here we are.
-The diplomat glasses are sorta, in my head, based on Tony Stark's smart glasses that we see a handful of times.
-I don't have a strong mental picture of the goggles, but I do have the image of a trooper in Zone Armor popping the "lid" and then still be wearing this dark, shiny goggles as they just grin at the other person.
While the first half of the 21st Century saw slow, halting steps into the realm of cybernetics, especially after the CABAL crisis, it was actually the arrival of the Visitors (or more accurately, the aftermath and the wealth of scientific discoveries afterwards) that kickstarted the field of cybernetics into being something more than just the realm of nightmares, or crude and unwieldy devices.
Today, GDI boasts one of the highest proportions of voluntary cyborgs in the galaxy, and almost the entire military arm of the human government is augmented to some degree. Even in government, it's near-ubiquitous, just as much as their propensity for power armored bodyguards and battalions of heavy tanks on hot standby for immediate, forceful extraction of "high value soft assets". However, this does not mean the practice is truly universal.
For both the military and the diplomatic arm of the government, there are only two sets of implants that are truly considered mandatory. The first is a set of implanted medical monitoring devices; while work continues on reducing their size, the current crop of sensors can be placed with minimally-invasive outpatient procedures, and do not require extensive wiring or impede regular bodily functions in any way. For anyone but the most extremely tech-averse, they are at worse an annoyance (mostly due to the scarring); the fact that they can be removed when one retires, without any negative side effects, only enhances this fact.
The second required implant is some form of "neural interface mesh"; however, this is actually a range of implants. Many individuals choose the permanent "neurojack" format (itself an entire sub-category of implants), which allow for both wireless and wired connections for the user. However, for those who are leery of having cables buried deep in their brains and spinal columns, there are a series of "mesh" implants that go under the skin and muscle layers and utilize technology much like neurohelmets; their increased proximity to the brain allows them to pick up much more sophisticated input. Their implantation requires a few days of recovery, but as with the medical monitors, they can be removed if desired.
Both of these options, and all of the devices we will be discussing, are made possible by decades of relentless revision and improvement on isolinear computing technology. The sheer ability of quantum computing with solid-state crystalline structures continues to dazzle those familiar and unfamiliar with it alike.
The most commonly-cited areas of concern for both soldiers and diplomats, and the ones given as reasons for why artificial eyes and ears should be "required", are centered on concerns over damage from explosions, blinding from DEW devices, and other various risks to the extra-vulnerable soft tissues present in the head.
For the eyes, here is where isolinear technology is paired with the galaxy-wide utilization of Element Zero and the so-called "Mass Effect" phenomenon. The two main forms it takes are either stylish "sunglasses" (typically used by diplomats, or officers not in a line position), which rely more on small forcefields and specialized omni-forges, or more robust "goggles" (visually somewhere between more classical welding goggles and thick-framed wrap-around sunglasses), that rely on physical airtight seals and micro-resevoirs of shock-resistant eye-friendly fluid.
In either case, it's absurdly simple for the lenses to provide wide-spectrum protection against flash-blindness, and of course to provide various virtual displays (with a technique projecting them into the lenses rather than back into the eyes, thus reducing risk of long-term damage from overuse). The more complicated mechanisms inside these marvels are the ones intended to protect against shockwave damage; the military-grade goggles do a better job due to relying on physical protections, but the glasses are still resistant enough that the point where damage becomes possible is already presenting a fair bit of risk for greater damage to the rest of the head/skull anyway. After a certain point, heat-proofing these devices would be twisted comedy, as it could result in someone suffering third-degree burns everywhere except for their eyes, to the point they'd be dead anyway.
For the ears, it's actually much simpler, and was nearly a solved problem before even trying. Many old-style hearing aids and swimmer's ear plugs provided near-perfect airtight seals, with the former also providing sound amplification and nullification. Modern devices are essentially high-tech hearing aids, though with the volume typically scaled for the user's natural, non-damaged hearing. Their soft inner sections provide airtight seals, and the material can dissipated sudden shockwaves with enormous efficiency, resulting in, at worse, mild headaches and short-term ringing, instead of ruptured eardrums and powdered middle ear bones. They are also able to filter out abnormal sounds at high and low ranges, though they cannot do much for something that resonates with a person's skeleton (not that cyber-ears would really do any better on that front).
Beyond those two senses, the next main area that sees a lot of cyber-ware for work duties are various haptic feedback implants in the fingers and hands. These are easily replicated with various skin-tight gloves, which can be more easily taken off and put on outside of regular duties, as haptic feedback is not considered a major issue for day-to-day living. GDI's civilian technology production still tends to go with actual physical interfaces, or more traditional touch-screen display-controllers, with the more "exotic" holo-interfaces of the Citadel often seen as a bit wasteful and extravagant.
Things like muscular and skeletal enhancements are generally the domain of either bleeding-edge transhumanists, or bleeding-edge special operations soldiers. The former are always enthusiastically volunteering for various procedures. The latter, meanwhile, are the one real exception to allowing people to utilize external devices instead of cybernetic implants. However, these requirements are well-known, and the groups that require them are a subset of a subset of a subset of the armed forces; many of the spec ops groups get by with low-augment soldiers without issue.
All in all, GDI continues to exert considerable effort to allow the widest range of individuals possible to be contributing members of society in all capacities and at all levels. While the species-wide trauma from the CABAL conflict is gone, some families lost enough that their internal cultures have made them augmentation-averse, while other individuals find the concept of replacing so much working, vital "meatware" to be concerning for their own safety and sanctity of mind and body. All organs of GDI are aggressive in ensuring no active bias is present, in either direction; shaming and shunning someone for not having a large number of implants is just as unacceptable as shaming someone for being loaded up with cyberware. Many citizens and soldiers end up somewhere in the middle of this debate, and almost all are more than willing to extend grace and kindness to their fellow man.
Plus, as noted by more than a few low-augment aviators, the sunglasses do tend to look rather snazzy…
Author's OOC Notes:
-This is much less comprehensive than my Steel Talons writeup. It's much more of a fully-expressed brain-bug than anything.
-It's not meant to be binding on how the future looks.
-It is meant to present some ideas and options for people to be able to serve as diplomats and soldiers without cutting out their eyeballs, because that feels hella freaky and shady to me, conceptually.
-This doesn't really go into gene-modding to any extent, as I feel like we have even less of a grasp of what's possible in the future, right now.
-Between us already having isolinear tech, and the fact that, to my mind, if we can make actually-functional eyeball-sized cyber-eyes, we can strip out the "vision replication" part and put in just protective measures and a HUD, here we are.
-The diplomat glasses are sorta, in my head, based on Tony Stark's smart glasses that we see a handful of times.
-I don't have a strong mental picture of the goggles, but I do have the image of a trooper in Zone Armor popping the "lid" and then still be wearing this dark, shiny goggles as they just grin at the other person.
