The Old Guard implemented in OA

[Cray]

The Old Guard is a new Netflix film starring Charlize Theron. It revolves around several fast-healing immortals who wander the world inflicting violence on bad people. There's a touch of Highlander to it, but the immortals aren't hunting each other. They, and the modern world, are grappling with their immortality, and the movie examines that. In short: decent action film.

So, naturally, my first thought was, "Could you implement that sort of rapid regeneration in Orions Arm?"

Without resorting to nanoborgs, are there any biological augmentations in OA that could heal a neb or Superior body as fast as the Old Guard? (Or Wolverine, if you haven't seen the movie yet.)

[JohnnyYesterday]

No. Living cells can’t reproduce that fast.

For Wolverine-style healing, you’re looking at weeks to months, depending on the scale of the damage, e.g. regrowing an arm could take months. Regrowing a vital organ? They’re going to die.

[Achaz the Transavant]

Engenerated bodies in OA are generally bioborgs at first (before converting themselves into a "normal" body if that's what is desired) because you can't build a truly biological body that fast.

So a bioborg or vec probably could heal quite a bit faster although I have no idea how much (probably less than inside an engenerator).

[Drashner1]

You could design a body for the specific purpose of being highly durable - multiple organs for redundancy or maybe a vasculoid and similar systems to just eliminate the concept of a 'vital' organ entirely. But taking a nanoborg off the table means that you're limited by the speed of biology as well as it's more limited ability to handle waste heat.

Most biological sophonts in OA have (or can install) the ability to regenerate limbs and heal from wounds that would quite fatal to one of us. They can (if they wish) also control pain and could probably stay on their feet and moving (at least for a while) even if wounded to a level that would instantly disable one of us.

But they can't regenerate in seconds or minutes and still be limited to biology, unfortunately.

Todd

[stevebowers]

The vasculoid system would be a major advantage in this situation. Every bloodvessel could be lined with a tough artificial material and filled with artificial respirocytes, so that damage would not cut off the supply of oxygen to the tissues, and waste gases and other products could be absorbed and stored safely for later disposal. The artificial lining of the blood vessels could reassemble itself after trauma, and quickly reform into the original configuration. Assume that the user's muscles would be reinforced with artificial myomers, and the bones would be reinforced with ultrastrong and fracture-resistant diamondoid or similar, and you've basically got Wolverine.

Unfortunately the soft tissues and organs of such a user would still be subject to damage, so I'm afraid that they might suffer some pretty nasty internal injuries despite all these precautions. Reducing damage to the brain, liver and kidneys would require some pretty drastic redesigning.

[Cray]

The ideas about damage resistance and respirocytes are interesting. If you can keep the meat alive then it can heal. So, rather than making a nanoborg of it, what can healing implants and bionano do?

Can nanites floating in the blood (or just an implanted medic) simulate organ function for a while, providing in-situ processing of chemicals like the liver until a damaged organ is healed?

Can blood vessels be quickly patched around damaged areas so circulation is restored before respirocytes run out? This would give time for healing to occur.

What would be required to create temporary patches across cut muscles and tendons?

[Cray]

I suppose I could read some the EG articles on the topic to figure out their capabilities: https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4e9ad3a4b9387