Cybernetics

Classes

Cybernetics are generally split into three categories that are perceived quite differently by society.

Restorative

Restorative or 'medical' implants are broadly accepted and seek to repair the body or restore it to normal functions. This includes but is not limited to artificial limbs, cochlear and retinal implants, heart regulators and implanted hormone dispensers.

Medical Dispensers

Implanted directly under the skin in the arm or abdomen, dispensers are tiny reservoirs connected to gate microchips that have been coated in enzymes that stimulate capillary growth. The pre-programmed microchip monitors the blood flowing through its channels and releases specific amounts of the drug or hormone contained within its reservoir as required. Alternately it may release the drugs into the blood at specific intervals, such as daily osteoporosis drugs.

Other dispensers may have receivers that allow them to be triggered remotely by medical professionals, either in addition to or instead of self-contained blood monitoring. These are particularly common in cancer treatment.

Retinal

Retinal implants function by directly stimulating the optic nerve, and thus are only practical for forms of blindness where the optic nerve and visual cortex are still intact. Retinal implants are most commonly used to treat moderate injuries and certain degenerative diseases that affect the internal structure of the eye. The vision restored is somewhat inferior to normal sight and people often have poor peripheral vision and depth perception in particular.

Children who are blind from birth due to eye defects must receive retinal implants well before puberty and preferably while still toddlers so that the visual cortex forms correctly; receiving the implants for the first time as adults may restore vision but leave the brain with only a limited ability to process the data. This manifests as an inability to identify and focus on key details or to recognise individual faces, amongst other problems.

Augmentations

Any cybernetics that are designed to improve the body in non-natural ways or give additional functions. Some groups wish to ban such technology, generally claiming moral or religious reasons for it being wrong.

Digital Contacts

Dermal Interfaces

Microchipping

Tongueduino

A series of electrodes implanted just under the surface of the tongue, this is one of the few (confirmed) augmentations used by military. The electrodes translate the Earth's magnetic field into tingling sensations on the tongue and with practice individuals can use this to navigate without a compass. By linking it to external sensors such as a GPS system or geiger counter users can expand capabilities to navigate to specific locations or identify hazards outside normal human perception.

Cosmetic

Purely cosmetic, non-functional bodily modifications. People that have them are often treated with suspicion by society in much the same way as people with extensive tattooing or extreme piercings are.

Electoo

Illuminated designs powered by body heat and pizo-electrics implanted under the upper layers of skin. Often part of a tattoo although special techniques have to be used not to damage it.

Legal

Medical cybernetics can be with doctor and parental consent at any age over six months. Any other form requires being a legal adult. Many countries enforce a cool-down period of one to six weeks, depending on the procedure.

In most nations all implants capable of digital communication with any system are required to be encrypted and limited to a few centimetres range unless their function explicitly requires otherwise. This is in response to several people having their medical implants remotely hacked both in test cases and at least two notorious murders (one shutting down a pacemaker and another injecting a lethal dose of insulin).

(Author needs to finish reading articles on regulation so she can write something better.)