Cybernetics and Uploading

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Cybernetics and Uploading

The earliest cybernetic systems were prostheses such as hearing-aid implants and pacemakers. Late in TL8, cybernetics that linked the user’s nervous system with electronics were developed, allowing paralyzed individuals to control computers. This set the stage for bionic eyes and advanced limb replacements. In some settings, cybernetic limbs and organs may be unnecessary, thanks to easy-to-grow transplants. In others, cybernetic replacement may be much more common.

Cybernetics that enhance a person's abilities are a different matter. Many simple cybernetic implants are for convenience. An implanted, voice-activated communicator is easier to use than a pocket phone. Neural interfaces allow hands-free use of many gadgets, sometimes with greater efficiency. Combat implants can also provide a crucial edge. An opponent with a laser in his forearm, a battle computer in his brain, and armor under his skin is trouble.

Social Effect of Cybernetics

Cybernetic implants blur the line between a person and his gadgetry, making a man's abilities less important than his neurosurgeon's. Still, not everyone will want cybernetics. A spy may benefit from concealed armor and implanted claws, but it will take surgery to remove if they're spotted when he's walking through Customs. If he's captured and his captors find his implant communicator, they may be less than gentle about confiscating it.

Those who receive cybernetics will have to deal with their own differences – and with how others view them. Becoming a machine might be considered a Social Stigma in many societies. Cybernetics could also lead to reaction penalties in a society where Intolerance against robots or cyborgs exists.

Cybernetics are not always controversial. They might be a standard medical treatment or fashion choice, no more unusual than a prosthetic leg or plastic surgery is at TL8. If a lot of war veterans have bionic replacements, they could even be a mark of distinction: "Yes sir, got that leg after fighting in the Battle of Three Suns, back when I was a sergeant in the High Marines. No, never could afford to replace it with a transplant." In some societies, certain types of cybernetics, like neural interface implants, may mark the user as a member of an elite group (aerospace pilots, for example) or a particular subculture.

Statistics

Cybernetic modifications usually provide advantages or mitigate disadvantages; these traits are listed under Statistics along with the total point cost. The Body Modification rules apply, with the exception that the more detailed Operations rules below supersede the Surgical Modifications rules.

Cybernetic advantages often have the limitation Temporary Disadvantage (Electrical, -20%), which means the advantage is vulnerable to electrical surges, power draining, etc. See Electrical.

Cybernetic replacement parts for specific body locations are bought as a crippling disadvantage with the Mitigator (-70%) limitation. This limitation is assumed to include the effects of the Electrical, Maintenance (1 person, monthly), and Unhealing disadvantages for that body part.

Cybernetic implants generally supercede (or mitigate) existing natural or biological traits. Thus, if someone with Night Vision 1 gains a bionic eye that provides Night Vision 2, the levels don't stack together. Modify the character's point total accordingly; if paying character points for the advantage, base the cost on the net change (if positive).

Availability

Each modification specifies the type of procedure, the cost of the cybernetics, and the LC. Procedures are classified as simple, minor, complex, or radical – see below.

Procedure

Installing cybernetic modifications involves opening up the patient and, except for simple procedures, performing neurosurgery to connect the device to the user's nervous system.

Surgery skill is used to install cybernetics, and Surgery (Cybernetics) may be a common specialization at TL9. Most hospitals are reliable enough that no skill rolls are required for surgery the characters pay for (although cyber-surgery accidents or malpractice can be part of an adventure plot). If they do their own work, or a black-market surgeon is hired, the GM should require a Surgery skill roll.

The table below shows the procedures' difficulty modifiers (use the parenthetical value for brain or eye surgery), the time per attempt, and the injury caused by a failed roll (this is applied to the body part operated on). Success installs the modification, but it won't work until after the specified recovery period. The fee is the surgical fee charged at a clinic or hospital – ignore it for characters who do their own work.

Surgical Procedures Table

Procedure Modifiers Time Injury Recovery
Period		 Fee
Simple +4 (+2) 15 min. 1 HP 1 hour $100
Minor +2 (+0) 1 hour 1d/2 HP 1 day $1,000
Major 0 (-2) 2 hours 1d HP 1 week $10,000
Radical -3 (-5) 4 hours 3d HP 4 weeks $100,000

All damages and recovery times assume the surgeon is using robotic instruments; without them, double recovery time and damage. (Increase damage from a failed Simple procedure to 1d/2 HP.)

A modification is not functional until the recovery time has passed. If a disadvantage is mitigated by the modification – e.g., One Hand for a Bionic Hand – the patient will suffer the disadvantage until the recovery time is completed.

On a critical success, halve the recovery time. A critical failure may inflict double damage, or may result in the inadvertent installation of defective cybernetics. These may break down at a dramatically appropriate time, or cause an inconvenient disadvantage. Leaking toxic chemicals, bad installation, electrical faults, or infection might lead to Chronic Pain, Neurological Disorder, Unfit, Terminal Illness, or Wounded. A problem may also be specific to the attempted modification, such as a malfunctioning ear implant leading to Motion Sickness.

At TL10+, the recovery time of most cybernetic surgeries drops as advanced biotech and nanosurgical techniques simplify the procedures.

Biofabrication (TL10)

Some surface implants – notably skin coatings and dermal armor – can be grown by immersing the patient in a vat of micromachines inside a biofab, which assembles the implant as if it were a 3D printer. This technique is also used to add synthetic flesh and tactile sensors to robots and total cyborgs. Nanosurgeons make the neurological connections between skin and body.

This process requires a Physician roll (modified by the quality of the tank) and takes the specified number of hours. The patient is unconscious. On a failed Physician roll, the process must be repeated. On a critical failure, something goes gruesomely wrong, resulting in 1d corrosion damage for every 2 hours the process took.

Detecting and Removing Cybernetics

A diagnostic bed, medscanner, or X-ray scanner can detect concealed implants on a successful Electronics Operation (Medical) or Diagnosis roll.

Cybernetics can be safely removed in the same fashion they are installed, but the operation is easier: add +1 to Surgery rolls. If the parts don't need to be removed intact, add +2 and halve the time required.

Cybernetics may be rigged to cause unpleasant effects (e.g., see Bomb Implant) if removal is attempted. A successful Traps-4 roll is required to notice a cyber-trap before it goes off; roll at no penalty if specifically looking for it. Disarming a booby trap requires an appropriate Traps roll prior to the surgery.

Second-Hand Cybernetics

Second-hand parts may be available, usually at 20-70% (1d+1 × 10%) of the cost of the cybernetics. This may or may not be a bargain, and there may be damage that is not immediately evident. Because of their value, bionics are rarely discarded until they are totally destroyed, giving new meaning to the phrase "loot the bodies." Salvaged cybernetics are usually worth 10-35% (1d+1 × 5%) of the original value depending on their condition.

Salvaging cybernetics from a corpse is much faster than installing them in a living person. It takes only one-third the procedure time and, if paying someone, costs 1/10th as much. A Mechanic (Robotics) skill roll can be substituted for surgery. Failing the roll means the parts require major repairs; critical failure destroys them.

Repairing Cybernetics

Use Mechanic (Robotics) skill to repair physical damage or malfunctioning cybernetics, or to diagnose second-hand parts to see if they have any hidden flaws. Minor damage to bionic body parts can be repaired from the outside, without surgery. For implants and major damage, the part must be completely removed before any repairs can take place.

Powering Cybernetics

Cybernetic devices are assumed to be powered by body heat and motion. Exceptions are noted in the descriptions. Bionic limbs require cell replacement or recharging on a monthly basis (this is part of the maintenance requirement subsumed in their Mitigator limitation).

Body Modifications

These include modifications to the body's limbs and organs, as well as implanted devices.

Brain Implants

Brain implants are inserted into the recipien'’s skull and linked to his central nervous system. Some societies may see brain implants as sinister. Others may consider altering the mind to be more socially acceptable than modifying the body.

Brain implants are riskier than other implants. Critical failure on major or radical procedures may cause brain injury, resulting in a loss of one point of IQ, or a disadvantage like Epilepsy or Phantom Voices.

Cybernetic Uplift

These modifications are normally added to pets or working animals in order to give them additional capabilities.

Total Cyborg Brain Transplants

A total cyborg is someone whose entire body has been replaced with artificial parts. Only his brain, parts of the spinal cord, and a few other nerves remain human. Robot bodies large enough to house human brain cases have a total cyborg mentality lens. The most common are androids, but other types are possible. Robot templates with No Brain, Diffuse, or Homogenous are precluded, which is why there are no total cyborg versions of bush robots or nanomorphs.

In general, a TL9 machine can hold a human-sized cyborg brain case (brain and life support system) if it was designed to hold a computer at least as large as a microframe. It replaces the computer with one that is one size smaller. At TL10+, life support systems can be made compact. The robot body need only have been built for a personal computer to have room for a human-sized brain. Nonhuman brains may require a larger or smaller volume.

Total cyborgs may not have other cybernetics, with the exception of brain implants.

Statistics: The character takes on the robot body's racial template with the Cyborg lens; his brain is the same. See Mind Transfer.

Availability: Radical operation (major at TL10-12). $40,000 for the brain case, plus the cost of robot body. The cyborg's body is functional after the operation.

See Robots and Total Cyborgs.

Uploading

Memories are encoded within the physical structure of the brain. Uploading is the process of copying this into a digital form. Uploads can create a mind emulation – a computer program that emulates the workings of the original person's mind. A mind emulation is not just a recording, but a working model of the way a particular brain functions.

Downloading Minds

This is the transfer of an uploaded mind into a living brain. It may use nanomachine or replicator technology to replicate every neural connection in the original brain, rebuilding the new brain into a copy of the desired mind. It could also be a highly sophisticated form of regeneration ray technology.

For ethical (and possibly technical) reasons, downloading is normally performed on a "blank mind" – for example, a clone that was developed in a coma, with no memories or personality of its own. However, downloading into another person's brain may also be possible.

Downloading requires an Electronics Operation (Medical) roll. Success means the mind emulation replaces the original's memories and personality (if it had any). Failure means that the transfer process fails and destroys the brain of the body that was going to receive the download. Critical failure, or any failure by 5 or more, means the transfer seems to work, but there's a hidden flaw. The subject may suffer Partial Amnesia or a Split Personality, or the wrong emulation may have been transferred!

The difficulty of downloading depends on how different the new body's brain structure is from the mind emulation's original body. This allows someone to become a person of a different sex, age, or species. Such downloads are useful for spies or students of alien cultures, or as punishment or torture ("work off your bad karma as a dog"). However, the GM is free to rule that two species are too dissimilar for a transformation to be possible. If downloading to the brain of another person of the same species, roll at -1 to skill. For transfer to a different species, apply physiology modifiers.

The effects of successful downloading are covered under Mind Transfer. That is, the old racial template is replaced by that of the new body. The Mind vs. Brain rule should apply except in science-fantasy settings; downloading an emulated human mind into a cat's brain would result in a drop in IQ, for example.

A failed download will result in a low-res copy. A critical failure results in a very-low-res copy. It may take some time to realize this, however; the GM should roll secretly.

Clinical Mind Transference Equipment (TL10^): The host body must be placed inside this coffin-sized unit. $500,000, 250 lbs., E/200 hr. LC3.

Portable Mind Transference Equipment (TL11^): This mind transference unit is suitcase-sized. It need only be attached to the host's head. $50,000, 25 lbs., D/20 hr. LC2.

Downloading Nanosurgery (TL12): The new host body's brain is restructured via surgical nanomachines, using the mind emulation data as a template. This requires a chrysalis machine plus $100,000 worth of nanobots. LC2.

Replicator-Based Downloading (TL12^)

A replicator can materialize a brain or body for transplant purposes. Use the rules for replicators; the quality of the resulting download depends on the quality of the original scanning information used to make the template. The necessary template is a Complexity 10 program. LC2.

Personality Overlays

"Overdubbing" a conscious mind may either overwrite that mind (destroying it and creating the new person), or result in an unstable blend of both minds. If the latter, the effect is a Split Personality with -10 to -30 additional points of different mental disadvantages for each personality. Flashbacks, Manic-Depressive, On the Edge, and Paranoia are all appropriate.

Incarnation

If a mind emulation of a formerly biological entity can be downloaded into flesh, why not a digital mind? A former AI struggling to live as a biological entity could be a very interesting character!

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