Cybernetics
So why put cyber into a punk?
From early 2000s to today, cybernetics evolved from replacement to enhancement. Many implants are for convenience, most are a necessity - to provide a crucial edge, - and some are a fashion choice.
Trading your flesh for machine pound by pound has a price, and not only the one listed in the catalogue. You lose your original meat parts forever. What if you lose something you can't replace no matter how many times you upgrade and add functionality? This is exactly the line of inquiry that leads people down the Cyberpsychosis lane. So don't think about it!
Cultural take on enhancements is not uniform across the globe. Individualistic cultures praise the chrome for efficiency, spiritual ones - despise it for lack of soul. Guess you could also say "ravaging the body = ravaging the mind" _____ "any body is a tool, so better have the best tool money can buy" ____ "chipping is a competitive necessity" ____ "prana don't flow thru metal, dude" _____"Forbidden." _____"chrome is cold, circuits are dead" ______ "the meat is dying anyway" ____ "the benefits are there, but it's terrifying!" _____"hear me out, there is actually nothing on this in the bible" _____ "cyberwear is a self-mutilation, one which says that since the world as a whole is marred, a person must mar themselves as well" ______ "idk still looks kinda cool" _____ or "i'm saving myself for the wedding night".
Take your pick, but don't regret it when a guy she tells you not to worry about has a huge rocket mount with laser targeting, sick subdermal armor, and can calculate stock options in nanoseconds with his advanced cognition chip.
Getting fitted with cyberwear requires a medical procedure. Expensive clinics provide full package for a steep price. But it also pays to have a trusted street doc in your neighborhood. Depending on the implant complexity, surgery can take between 15 minutes at the mall to hours under the knife plus weeks in recovery. You can grab off-the shelf cybertech at the malls, choose and exquisite item in a high-end salon, browse your street vendor, or hunt online for discounted chrome (sometimes the previous owner is still somewhat attached). "Second hand" gets a whole new meaning.
Some of the most popular implants:
- Biomonitor - checking your vitals and feeding data to your healthcare provider or security hub
- Skinwatch - projects numbers and messages through the skin on your wrist (or anywhere)
- Arms and hands
- Ears - to better hear the gossip in the Executive Lounge; advanced models get you sound-profiling database
- Eyes - record vids for sharing; remember that iris color changes with fashion, don't be a dupe;
- Legs
- Replacement or boosted heart, lungs, arteries
- Voicebox (looking at you, little mermaid)
- Boosted reflexes
- Tactile boost
- Olfactory boost
- Pain editor
- Claws, rrraawrr
- Filtering lungs
- gyrobalance
- Literally cellphone in your head
- or a videocomm
- or a full computer, processing unit and all!
- Subdermal armor;
- Smart tattoos, hair grafts and contact lenses - change color, patterns, shapes. Could set them to glow pink if the biomonitor reads arousal
- Weapon mounts
- Gills
- Intestinal recycler - scoff all you want, but this one really uses your nutrition to the max!
- Reinforced skeleton
- Exoskeleton frames for lifting and throwing heavy stuff
- BrainDance recorder (aka braintap)
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