#augments

[stormbringers-melody]

"Eventually I stopped thinking about what the augments represented-

-and started thinking about what they allowed me to keep."

[emein3ntz]

Repair cubicles and augments in The Murderbot Diaries.

SecUnit standard is the reason repair cubicles work right? Every unit gets their own (I bet they sell them separately like iPhones and chargers. Greedy mfs) can you use someone else's repair cubicle or Is it specific to you via a 3d model? Is this a linking process the unit performs themself once on mission? Repair cubicles can't be cheap to make if they're essentially transportable MedSystem for Secunits (why were the ones on Ganaka Pit left behind?). If you fall into a new repair cubicle as just a heap of scraps with missing parts, and each SecUnit human face is different, how does it repair you? Can it scan you or find you in a database to repair you based on your model? It can't be "based on your DNA" (epigenetics), so are you going to come out completely different every time?

If so no wonder MB can't keep a stable identity, imagine being morphed into a different unrecognizable face every time your owner sent you to get destroyed without care.

Or are all the units the same? They can't be, since you'd be identified immediately and MB can pass as augmented human. So how does that work?

Not to mention how does a repair cubicle even work at all. (So curious , gimme a manual!)

Augments

Oh my God I've been WAITING to talk about them . Not finished reading yet so Im sorry if I'm missing anything but !! Augments!

The implants that are attached straight to your nerve endings and neural tissue! The implants that allow humans to connect directly to the feed. The implants that allow for better data processing and storage space.

IMAGINE all the shit that went down to get them to that level. The engineering process, the trial and error. Human and animal experimentation. Imagine the amount of times people had to have died horrible deaths to get the neural implants ATTACHED to their NERVOUS SYSTEMS.

The surgeries the cost, the propaganda, only the rich having that extensive body modification at first, and the shift in public view via media manipulation etc etc to make it seem cool and to get people to buy more of these products. Surely people are easier to control and data mine with them.

These augments are insane and i understand why humans and augmented humans are mentioned as if they're different species at times in the series. This has got to cause massive effects on body systems and cells and brain stems and maybe even DNA eventually.

What are the massive long term health repercussions of augments? What were they before all the updated technology? Poisoning! It kills u in many horrible ways. Ways that could have been kept from the public. Pls give me a history book.

Imagine the mixed opinions and backlash and discrimination even when this stuff wasnt widely accepted. Something only the rich got. Something to make you unhuman. Human AI integration. The great symbiosis.

Can you hack someone else's implants since it's attached to the feed? Can one get a virus? This is a new form of control and warfare. Malware in your head!! Attached to your nerves! Governor module core.

Alternatively, ad space in your head. Idk man.

"Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull" WRONG. Augment.

[skymallnine]

Trying to crack Dominion strategy with augments feels a bit like trying to out-wrestle a Vulcan.

Fantastic idea to have your five (5) augments working on this problem! Now let’s just check if the Dominion has dabbled in any gene engineering and… oh. Oh no.

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

#1145

Eugenics and genetic modification are not the same thing. The terms are not interchangeable. Eugenics is the practice of erasing perceived ‘undesirable’ traits in the gene pool. It is motivated by racism and ableism and is horrific. Genetic modification is one possible tool that eugenicist could use to achieve that end. Another tool which has actually been used by eugenicists to advance their awful goal is compulsory sterilization. This is also horrific and recognized as such - compulsory sterilization is a Crime Against Humanity in the Rome Statute. However, sterilization procedures such as tube tying and vasectomies are not practices that people generally call for to be banned, because people may want to prevent themselves from getting pregnant or from getting another person pregnant for all sorts of reasons and we recognized that people should have autonomy over their own bodies and be free to make their own reproductive choices. Consensual vasectomies and tube tying being legal in a country does not mean that country is endorsing eugenics. A country in which there is a government program of coercing or using incentives to get members groups perceived as undesirable to have their tubes tied or have vasectomies is practicing eugenics. The legality and use of tool in general does not necessarily mean that the tool is being used for eugenics. Now, let’s take that one step further with a hypothetical on genetic engineering. Imagine that we determine that if one gene was removed from the human genome, those without that gene would no longer get dementia and there were zero other impacts. Would a country that made that genetic modification procedure available for free to everyone who wanted it and the doctors performing that procedure be practicing eugenics? Now imagine that procedure didn’t work in adults or even children. It had to be administered during fetal development to be effective. Would a parent choosing to have that gene removed from their unborn child so they would never get dementia be practicing eugenics? I'm not going to weigh in on those my point is that it’s a complex issue, there are very flew easy answers available and you really have to consider motive. Eugenicists are motivated by the view that certain people are superior and other people are inferior and they want to get rid of the latter.

Applying it to Strange New Worlds, Una has specifically stated that the Illyrian motivation for genetic modification is so that they fit in with their environment, rather than terraform (this intersects another really interesting scientific ethical discussion happening around climate engineering and the potential consequences). There is no evidence in canon that Illyrians are motivated by the need to be superior or are getting rid of undesired traits. They took up modification to live on planets that would otherwise be unhospitable to them (beta canon is that their home world is no longer inhabitable even with modification due to environmental collapse outside of their control, they’re essentially environmental refugees). While Illyrians modify themselves genetically, there is no evidence that Illyrians are practicing eugenics. In the context of DS9, Bashir’s parents believed it was undesirable to have a son with intellectual disabilities. They modified him to get rid the trait they perceived as undesirable. They were practicing eugenics. In Star Trek canon, billions of people died during the Eugenics Wars. When it comes to the law, it is incredibly difficult determining motive and therefore it is understandable that they banned genetic engineering as a way of stopping eugenicists and preventing a repeat. But in doing so, they accidentally created a legal regime in which entire families could be arrested.   The point Star Trek has been making lately with the Illyrian storyline is sometimes shit is complicated, and that a law that is meant to protect, can also sometimes harm and we need to be able to listen, think and consider complex situations. And I also hate myself a bit for writing this. I should just be able to ignore all the terrible takes and ‘I haven’t watched but…’ people.

[suekay]

Augment Headcanon

Why are human augments considered so dangerous with the benefits outweighed by the dangers? Well... my feeling is this:

When you augment most other humanoid species and you get pretty mild results. Kind of like how we've been breeding cats for millennia, and while variations have appeared, the average cat is still the average cat.

But when you augment a human... we're more like dogs. You have absolutely no idea what's gonna happen. Is the augment going to turn out like a border collie - far more intelligent than the average human, agile, eager to please but also a clingy nervous wreck? Or are they gonna be like an XL Bully - not all that smart, and unaware of their true strength, or are they gonna be like a Chihuahua? You know, cute but clinically insane.

[jone-slugger]

An AU in which Bashir talks to Dal about his experiences being an augment.

[wisteria-lodge]

I am currently in the middle of First, Do No Harm, a Garak/Bashir fic where it is a plot point that male human augments don't have body hair. Because, well...

they DON'T. (come on, you know I'm right.)

(for context, half these people have literally just escaped being marooned on a desert planet. They *haven't* been shaving)

EDIT: I tried to post some photos of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Riker, Picard, and a bunch of the guys from Enterprise as a point of comparison, because all of them demonstrably DO have body hair. But that was just too sexy for the Mature Audience filter, so just. Know that's a thing, I guess.