Mnemosurgery Speculations
We know mnemosurgery is dangerous/addictive, though we don’t exactly know how/why. We have seen some of the effects on Chromedome and we see that he is indeed getting worse. However, he is the only mnemosurgeon we have regular contact with.
My question is, if we had a chance to follow Trepan or Lobe, would we see those same deteriorations? Is it debilitating/addictive for all mnemosurgeons or just some? In issue #49, Sunder seems to imply that yes it does in fact come with the territory.
Then maybe, are some able to handle it better than others? Are there ways for mnemosurgeons to stave off these effects? By the time Tumbler/Chromedome came around, Trepan would have have a very, very long career of deep reads/lobotomies/shadowplay etc under his belt. More than I would say Chromedome has in his current state as of issue #52.
Now, it is hard to say whether or not Trepan was suffering from the side effects at the New Institute as badly as Chromedome is now, but we don’t get to see him for more than a brief second before Overlord takes him. You would think though, if he was as bad off as Chromedome, he would have been dancing with death at that point.
This is where I think there is a major difference between those who learn mnemosurgery later in their lives verses those who were made for the job. I think that if there was a way to stave off the effects of injecting, that would have been the first thing Trepan would have taught Tumbler and we would not see Chromedome being so sick now.
This is off course based off my HC that Trepan and Lobe were made specifically for the job of cerebroscience and mnemosurgery, and there are actually very few mechs who are. (More on that at another time/post.)
Mechs who are made for the job have very specialized processors that run very fast and are able to process a massive amount of stimuli all at once. This means then that they can handle the deep reads and personality adjustments and the side effects of performing them much better than those who learned the job second hand, For example, a deep read on a conscious patient may put Chromdome out of commission for the rest of the day whereas Trepan is back to performing procedures within an hour.
This all really comes down to how exactly mnemosurgery kills those who perform it. My guess is a deterioration of the processor, leaving surgeons suffering from severe mental and also physical debilitations.
In the end though, we really don’t know enough about mnemosurgery to really say at this point how and why it effects the mechs who perform it. Until we get more details, this is all just speculation and headcanoning on my part.