NotPsychic wrote:
Well the bright side is that my prosthetics have gone from 'hopefully not permanent, to 'probably not.' I'm starting a new job (sort of) in a few weeks, and they put a clause in my contract that'll put some extra money toward replacements. Those Solaris beauties are still out of the picture, but unless something terrible happens (knock on wood), I should be able to get modern cybernetic replacements within the year. Maybe even biotic grade, but we'll see.
I will go murder a tree specifically to knock on it's wood. Best of luck to you and all.
Sentient Solutions wrote:
I dare say feeling like the gaudiest freak in the room would make me reconsider my choices in manufacturers.
To be fair darling you're on Illium. The odds of you being the gaudiest freak in the room are slim to nil.
Haseri wrote:
Ah-ha! This one knew that, deep-down, everyone realises the benefits of tentacles.
From what I hear they actually are, like, super handy for (ironically) hands free work. Bulk them up enough and you get some pretty potent limbs. Downside is having trouble sleeping on your back I guess (which honestly would just take some hella adjusting, more than like "I have CNT Waldos" even).
TokyoOutlaw wrote:
Maybe not, but it's still effectively selling yourself into a form of slavery.
Define slavery? It's certainly not chattel slavery. Or Hegemony style caste-based. Your rights just don't stop existing and society just doesn't stop recognizing you as a person. You're beholden to the corporation yeah but, I mean, we live in a day and age when corporations have more power than some governments. There are plenty of people who live on corporate colonies or space stations, who make use of lovely things like life support or company supplied food.
I mean like how's it meaningfully different from something like the military? Honestly when joining active service you sort of forfeit up more. And you're still signed in for however long your contract is, guaranteeing service.
The Corporations pay for all of the work done to you... for your upgrades,
Please. Honey. Say it with more revulsion. I can't get off unless I know I've inspired at least one outburst of rank contempt today.
and the only way to pay them back is to effectively let them own you until these are paid off. Sure, basic cybernetics and replacement limbs are relatively cheap, but going for these processes that give full replacements? They built you. They own you. They control what you can do, and what they need you to do.
How's...that different from the military? Most full conversions are soldiers or have served stints as soldiers or some other kind of paramilitary operator (the rest is like equal parts prearranged thing in the event of catastrophic body damage resulting from injury/disease or just 'cause). The contract term is long yeah but it's not infinite and you (general you) are a willing participant in the arrangement.
The thing is nobody's getting into a sanctioned program without being aware of exactly what it entails. You made it sound like we're seducing away wide eyed church virgins to a life of moral corruption and decay. They're not marionettes. We're not puppeteers. We care that they do their jobs and we recoup the value of our investment because, y'know, at the end of the day it is a business transaction. We don't care what other legal things they do any more than your extranet service provider cares about your taste in porn.
Besides, like, for targeted adds and stuff.
But seriously like, on the critical level, why do we care? Why do we want to micromanage every part of their lives? I mean I guess if we were mass manufacturing chemically conditioned child soldiers sure but not only is that hilariously evil but sorta dim.
There's plenty of people who want to do it. Who want the packages and the perks that come with it. We don't need to lure in anybody.
hierarchy_dad wrote:
That's the whole hook of the idea. This whole aug business is for the rich and famous. Only way us normal peons can have a taste of their augmentations is through hard, dirty work in the leash of the corporations! You're not meant to partake in their luxury, you're meant to enable the upper class to partake in it through your sweat and indentured service.
Unless of course auglands hands out the stuff like candy to sugar-hungry kids on the street corner, which I bet it does because it wouldn't be an utopian trans-* paradise otherwise.
You, uh, actually sort of had a point before you veered off into crazyland on the Bitter Express.
See the thing is is that affordability comes hand in hand with availability and when augs and the like first start working their way into a society they're rare, exotic, potent beyond the bounds of whatever the society had before by their very nature, and so they're expensive. Which naturally relegates them to the domain of the rich. The wealthy. Corporate security forces, government agencies, and the more technologically minded criminals.
This creates disparity because no shit. Now the rich are not only more advantaged than you socially and politically and what have you, but they're physically better. They can outfight you. Outthink you. They're going to outlive you. They're qualitatively superior. But since shit doesn't exist in a vacuum this leads to backlash. A lot of civs, C-Space collectively for example, sort of stops at this point. The governments step in, they place hard and fixed limits on what can be done and what can't. There's a line in the sand you can toe but never cross so even the wealthiest person is only going to be like...a few deviations away from the baseline rather than on an entirely goddamn different chart.
It proliferates through the military and civilian sectors in subtle, more accommodating aspects because it's too useful not to, but it's carefully watched and monitored by the govs. The drive by and large burns out. Life goes on.
This doesn't happen everywhere. In the Rainreaved for example it simply wasn't feasible because garden worlds were so far and few between and most of the planets were incredibly harsh. In other places the elites overwhelm the government, you get corporate cabals and shadow states. And some of those places descend into chaos 'cause the entire social order got shot in the head. But more often than not they come out of it. Or they never go into it and stabilize. The revolutionary fires start dying a bit.
Why?
Because people aren't complete idiots. An alienated, socially disenfranchised lower class is, especially in the Terminus, a potentially militant class. And there are usually enough people who are willing to not be total cunts about things and enough cunts who aren't skullshatteringly stupid about things that it can work. People who are non-super wealthy can get access to augs. They can be competitive in the workplace, in the military. They can make being poor not suck huge hairy balls. You get things like S+ and their clinics. Government mandated wards. A lot of corporations do similar things on their own initiative for their workers and their communities. Because megacorps aren't solely profit based (though that's a huge thing) they're very much political creatures.
And yeah there's still a social gap. There's still issues with the implementation and dispersion of tech. But it doesn't become a society cracking thing, just another issue to manage. It's sure as hell not perfect, nobody ever said it was perfect (utopia's a fucking joke), but it's workable.
Merkabah at the Gate wrote:
Mortification of the flesh exhibited in this place is incomplete. It is not done for the purpose of reaching [Approximate translation=Layered Lord.], but to give in to further temptations of the material world! A mockery of the [Approximate translation=Release.] to propagate further debauchery and gluttony! Form of the most blessed and intimate with the holy of holiest desecrated for wealth, worship of currency and carnal desires!
...It's an industry man. A business. It's not some intangible, immaterial, idealized thing but very much of society and of the people that compose it. If you think that radical augmentation brings you closer to God then hey go for it. Lot of worlds have histories of ascetic tradition, separating from the flesh and worldly desires to attain enlightenment is nothing new.
But at the same time you're going to have to, uh, find a pretty deep hole to shove your head in to ignore how the rest of the galaxy deals with it.
Know you who willingly pervert the divine connection - The gates of Paradise are closed to you. You will be offered one opportunity to redeem yourselves and make amends. Beyond that your souls and bodies are consigned to Sheol, and we, The Released will deliver you unto it.
Eh. Hell has a better party crowd anyway.
asari ex commando wrote:
While I can see the use of having prosthetics to replace lost limbs, simply due to sheer necessity, I still cannot grasp just why you would want to become a full conversion cyborg, if your organic body is still perfectly functional, and, perhaps most importantly, still intact. In my opinion, it just seems to defy common sense.
Beeeecause you get sick augmentations that let you do shit like jump off buildings or punch through walls or bench press a rover? Physical prowess coupled with a lot of people willing to set you and your family up with a nice lifestyle in turn for service? We just got finished with literally the bloodiest war in recorded history. There are still loads of people who have plenty of military skill but no good avenues of civilian employment and people in corporate armies willing to shed some skin to get ahead.
TokyoOutlaw wrote:
Regaining mobility, feeling, sight, sound, all of these are reasons that people choose to go with cybernetics. I suspect that most converts were people who had issues with their entire biological body. I doubt it's an easy decision for anyone.
There's more to regaining a life than just getting your senses back sweetheart.
asari ex commando wrote:
Personally, undergoing full conversion just because you want to, or because of your religion seems rather daft.
And you are entirely welcome to your myopic, intensely egocentric view.
Statistics: Posted by Mr_Sandman — 11 Nov 2014, 23:01