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Cyborgs - Data Panel
Definition: Category consisting of all cyborg sentients Toposophic: usually basic sapient, but there are also transapient cyborgs (upto third toposophic) Clades: Although there are a number of cyborg and biaioid clades based on organic plus self-replicating technology, the majority of cyborgs result from cyborgization of categories (bionts, sybonts, virtuals, etc) Categories: while cyborgs sometimes form cyborg-only polities, which may be small and short-lived, or powerful long-lasting empires, more often cyborgs are incorporated among other polities and subcultures Origin: Terragen, Xenosophont Distribution: found in all the Sephirotic polities, as well as throughout the Deeper Covenant, the Objectivist Commonwealth, the Shadow Federation and among several xenosophont empires, as well as in most regions outside the civilizations. Est. Population: about 20 trillion true cyborgs in the Sephirotics alone, more beyond. Legal Status: All cyborgs are in theory allowed full sentient rights throughout the civilized galaxy. In practice this differs, especially for beings who are owned by transapients or above that do not conform to the standards of the Civilized Galaxy. Cyborgs generally have little or no rights in the ahuman Panvirtual and Diamond Network civilizations, or in other ahuman polities. Environmental Requirements: Depends on body, environment, and degree of cyborgization Physiology: incorporates organic with cybernetic, drytech and/or sytech elements, in any combination. Psychology: Except for those borgs with purely biological or purely artificial brains, cyborg psychology derives from a superimposition of biont and simple ai behaviour and ratiocination. This occasionally leads to internal tensions and conflicts as the different parts of the being seek to "go their own way". While common forms of psychological dysfunction among cyborgs of augmented intelligence are hyperautism and HAS. All these and other problems are easily treated in the modern galaxy. Chronometric: varies; often can switch between slow and fast to facilitate biont or ai communication |
The term Cyborg means "cybernetic organism", i.e. "part human, part machine", or "part natural, part artificial" (e.g. by adding artificial brain or body implants). Cyborgs represent a third category of sophonts, in addition to the bionts (organics) and artificials or machinoids (vecs and bots).
The Cyborgs are as far advanced beyond the baseline condition as the superiors, but in a completely different manner. The superiors emphasise biotech and gengineering to enhance their bodily capabilities, the cyborgs bionics, infotech and wetware biochips.
Among the earlier (late information and interplanetary age) cyborgs there was often a dislike for the flesh, the "meat" as the gibsons and some cyber-transhumanists termed it. For their contemporaries the biopunks, the ribo-phunkers and the Genetekkers, salvation lay in the DNA, for the cyborgs in the matrix and virtuality. They were the natural allies of the AIs, and the first to see godlike status in the post-toposophic hyperturings. With the normals (whether baseline or superior) they had an uneasy and sometimes contemptuous alliance.
Because cyborgs were not grown or reproduced from scratch, but rather each cyborg was the result of an original baseline (or more rarely superior or tweak) human who embarked on a course of self-cyborgization, the 'borgs tended to be an incredibly diverse assemblage. Some went for intellectual enhancement, attaining supergenius levels through biochip implants and wetware programming. These became hackers and crackers, and were always in demand by the megacorps, who used them against rival megacorps (the rival megacorps of course had their own hackers and crackers). Others preferred physical enhancement, developing robocop style bodies of tremendous strength, and often replacing so much of their organic substrate that - during the early days (the interplanetary age and to a lesser extent the early federation period) they tended to suffer from psychotic breakdown and were put out of their misery by other bounty-hunter or police SWAT robocops (although reports of psychotic cyborgs taking out a whole building of unfortunate impoverished baselines were more often apocryphal than real). Still others developed a religious relationship with the AIs, explored virtual worlds, developed nanotech, or engaged in various other profitable or unprofitable and quixotic pursuits.
Many of the early cyborgs were attracted to the Cosmist and Transhumanist-based religions and memeticities. Some Cyborgs sought (and still seek) to "build themselves" stepwise into low- to mid-range AIs rather than to build AIs external to themselves. Even today, advanced (nanotech-grade) Cyborgs may choose to look human (if they choose not to use gengineering to radically modify their bodies, skulls etc) but by merely injecting a few cubic millimeters of molecular scale 3D heatless one bit per atom nanotech or pico-nanotech brain implant, a Cyborg with a human body could become a hyperturing in terms of its intellectual capacities. In practice it is not so easy to interface organically with piconanotech while retaining standard bodily functioning. Perhaps for this reason, the majority of cyborgs in the galaxy today however remain at the sapient (S<1) toposophic.
Cyborgs can be loosely divided into the cyborged and the true cyborgs. The cyborged are simply biont with enhancements (they are non-essential or gradually added), while true cyborgs are beings where the cybernetic interaction between biology and technology is an essential part. The exact dividing line is hard to draw, but usually it is done when the technology becomes essential for continued life or mental functioning.
Even today, the cyborged, or borgs as they call themselves, remain among the most diverse of all the sapient categories. Most are essentially just built-up bionts (usually nearbaselines or tweaks); hobbyists, performance artists, and body modification enthusiasts. For the average cyborg, being a 'borg is a fashion and cultural statement, and whilst some tribes and clans of borgs like to customise themselves with identical tech, this is considered rather laughable by true enthusiasts of the borg lifestyle
True cyborgs can in turn be divided into many categories depending on forms of cybernetics, design goals and evolutionary/technological origin. The most common division is along technology lines: classical cyborgs (microtech implants), nanocyborgs (nanotechnological systems) and the rarer pico- and femtotech cyborgs. There also exist sytech and biotech cyborgs that integrating living artificial organs. These in turn shade into true bioborgs - cyborgs that only use biological components and which can reproduce like normal bionts
Although there are a few cyborg clades that have been able to integrate the biological and cybernetic components and hence become true replicators like any biont or neumann, for most reproduction is via cloning and growing a new body, which is then carefully augmented as it develops. Some cyborg clades do not even reproduce, but simply maintain their somatic structure, adding and modifying and replacing as required.
Clade Cyborn - fundamentally an organic brain tissue meat matrix cultured on an inorganic scaffolding. The brain tissue is heavily genemodded for optimal performance, rendering its original genotype irrelevant. The inorganic scaffolding is almost always modular, to accommodate subsequent expansion
Simico - One of, if not the, earliest of the hive-mind clades, made up of self-modified cyborgs
