292. Designer Qualia

Research into sensation never fails to draw funding from the entertainment and hedonism industries, so it is perhaps surprising that the field's holy grail, full manipulation, took so long to achieve. The necessary psychosurgical techniques have proved almost as difficult to perform as they were to develop. Combine that with high demand, and its easy to see why the prices for these procedures runs very high.

The most common tweaks are based around pain and pleasure. Soldiers often choose to have their sense of pain minimized, maintaining it for safety but at a merely uncomfortable level. Hedonists experiment by swapping feelings between stimuli, or experiencing the formally unpleasant as pleasurable.

Mechanics

Designer qualia are installed as a psychosurgical procedure [High].

Timeframe: 1 week
PM: -10
SV: 1d10/2

Designer qualia can have many in-game effects, such as granting the High Pain Tolerance trait.

264. Public Access Memory

The ability to share experience can make or break a community. Done well and mistakes will only be made once, done poorly and you might as well be alone. Opening up your memory to public access allows your community to take the best advice you could give. The implant, hooking your mesh inserts into your memory centers, creates a peer-to-peer network of experience.

Public access memories present themselves first as associations. A user can query the network with whatever is on their mind, and if the item is recognized, receive aggregate associations from all other users. Asking about a restaurant can give a sense of other users' experiences, as well as anything significant that may have happened there. Asking about an event can give other users' perspectives on and memories of that event. The implant is limited by mesh access: a database of memory would have prohibitive requirements, so queries are sent to any other users within range.

Mechanics

Public access memory is cyberware [Low]

231. Designer Synesthesia

As the development of mental augmentations accelerated, psychosurgeons began to look at disorders and pathologies for inspiration. Synesthesia has long been a neurological curiosity, and its general harmlessness made it an easy candidate, at least once ways to make it useful had been developed.

Designer synesthesia is most popular among mathematicians, logicians and scientists. Commonly, important mathematical or logical patterns will be made to appear visually distinct. Conversion of phenomenon that exist beyond human sensory ranges into comprehensible qualia are also routine in certain fields.

Mechanics

Designer synesthesia is a psychosurgical procedure.

Timeframe: 1 week
PM: -10
SV: 1d10/2

Plot Hook: There have been rumors of an exhuman project to achieve "total" synesthesia, with no barriers between modes of perception, and information being received in whatever way is preferred. Most experts maintain that this can't be done, if it even makes sense. A player character skilled in psychosurgury may nonetheless be contacted with a request to act as consultant. If that goes well, they will be offered to more direct work, work Firewall would be interested in seeing.

222. The Human Uplift Project

The human uplift project is a Cognite/exhuman cooperative attempt to take the techniques developed uplifting animals and apply them to humans. Making posthumans who would be to humans as humans were to pre-uplifted animals. How this would actually be done was a matter of long debate: animal uplifting processes always drew heavily from human examples. It was eventually decided that, in addition to greater overall intelligence, they should create a more powerful consciousness, in greater control of its faculties.

The endeavor is one of the greatest examples of the still new and dangerous field of unique psychosurgeries: the creation of new modes of thought not based on any existing examples. The bulk of the successful work, admittedly, is still based on existing mental augmentations, modified to fit together into a greater whole.

Thus far, the human uplifting program's most applicable results has been a small suite of mental augmentations and permanent psychosurgical procedures. Individually they amount only to a little, but together synergistic effects do create an undeniable transcendent result. The next step in the project will go beyond what can be done to existing minds, requiring that egos be made and raised with uplifting in mind.

Mechanics

Human uplifting is a mental augmentation [Expensive+]

Human uplifting grants the equivalent of the introspection cortex and endocrine control augmentations, as well as the eidetic memory, hyper linguist, math boost, and fast learner traits.

214. Daemons

Muses are one of the most useful and most taken for granted technologies of the post-singularity world. The constant labors of the personal assistant AIs have eliminated secretaries, receptionists, supervisors, and many managers, as well as general practitioners, many therapists, and earlier AIs. The efficiency gained through their pervasive use cannot be fully calculated, but many are confident it can still be increased.

The difference between a daemon and a muse is simple. Instead of working through the inefficiencies of spoken language, or displays, a daemon has a direct line into the brain. A daemon's advice is not spoken and not heard, instead it is immediately comprehended. The benefits of this close union are an increase in effectiveness across the board, because, although the muse's AI is not upgraded, its ability to interact with its user is greatly increased.

Although muses have gained acceptance from bioconservatives and those afraid of AI through sheer practicality, daemons are another story. Large segments of most populations do not want to give an AI a direct brain interface.

Mechanics

A daemon is a muse with a cyberware upgrade [Moderate] giving it direct access to the brain.

A daemon gains +5 to all skills. There may be other benefits at the GM's discretion.

205. Medusa-Locks

The replacing of hair with small, muscular fibers was originally conceived of as an edge up in fashion. Those of the cyber/fashion avant-garde were soon sporting floating "hair" that could reshape itself, moving in reaction to it's wearers mood, or reaching out to caress passers by. The fibers, however, were much thicker than actual hair, leading to an uncanny effect that prevented full acceptance by the general public.

Instead of attempting to overcome the problem by designing smaller fibers, one independent Extropian designer decided to embrace size, and began selling blueprints for a thicker, stronger version. These tendrils appear like dreadlocks even from up close, an illusion that is only broken when they are used to pick up small objects. A group of Scum militia implanted their dreads with syringes of poison, as well as modifying them to resemble snakes, leading to them being called "medusa-locks".

Mechanics

Floating hair is [Trivial]

Medusa-locks are [Low]

204. Introspection Cortex

Cognite receives the most attention for their uplift programs, but the development of mental augmentations is still one of their primary sources of revenue. One of their older products, still one of their top earners is the introspection cortex.

The introspection cortex is a supplementary network of connections between key areas of the brain (or, in cyberbrains, a simulation of such). The effect of the new network is to bring the unconscious mind into the reach of consciousness. Users do not gain any direct control over the unconscious aspects of their mind, but do become directly aware of them. A user will have an intuitive understanding of the fact that, for example, their dislike of a person is due to them smelling similar to an old enemy, or that their bad mood has more to due with their diet than their current circumstances.

A bioware equivalent is in the works.

Mechanics

Introspection Cortex's are cyberware [Moderate]

Combining an introspection cortex with augmentations such as endocrine control or a feedback cortex may produce synergistic effects boosting their benefits by 5 - 10, at the GM's discretion.

201. Knitting Spores

The fibers of the knitting fungus spread throughout the body, encompassing everything beneath the skin into its weave. As a result, the body's tissues are held together more stubbornly, better resisting impacts and shocks, and limiting damage. The spores are engineered to not damage organs, but this limits the speed of their growth, and they usually take 2 months to fully spread. The spores would be destroyed by stomach acid if ingested, and would cause damage to the lungs if inhaled, so they are rubbed thoroughly into the skin, sending their initial sprouts through pores.

Mechanics

Knitting spores are bioware [Moderate]

Knitting spores increase wound threshold by one.

196. Multi-Soldiers

Transhuman augmentation offers tremendous potential to military organizations, but augmentation isn't free and good morphs are certainly not cheap. Programs for standard augmentation, once the costs of surgery, downtime, and augment-usage training are factored in to the equation, can quickly become impractically expensive, even for hypercorps. Those augmentations that become standard are those whose benefits best outweigh their costs.

The multitasking augmentation, requiring only a cortical stack and therefore compatible with virtually all morphs, has become one of those standard augmentations. The primary disadvantage is the need for skilled soldiers, as forks have the skills of their originals and the most effective multitaskers will be those who can fill the roles of multiple types of specialists as well as typical soldiering.

The first fork is the most like a traditional soldier. This fork has direct control of the body, shooting, moving, and otherwise doing what a soldier would be expected to do. This fork is the only one with bodily control, and will typically be the only one using its senses as well.

The second fork maintains communications, tacnet, and operational awareness. This fork acts as a voice in the ears of the other two, giving important information, relaying orders, navigating, and keeping an eye on the situation as a whole and updating the others when needed. This fork typically spends its time in a simple VR environment containing tacnet feeds, communications, maps and other important sources of information.

The third fork typically specializes in infosec or bot-jamming, depending on what is needed. In the post-singularity battlefield hacking can be a powerful weapon, in the hands of one's enemies as well as oneself. An infosec specialist fork exploits weaknesses in enemy communications, but their primary task is typically defensive. It is also common for the third fork to be tasked as a bot-jammer, maintaining control of a small group of combat drones. A multitasking soldier who is actively fighting, maintaining situational awareness, and with control of several drones is as effective as a squad.

194. Post-Singularity Signage

Post-singularity signage has become a complex thing, required to account for augmented senses, augmented reality, and exotic forms of vision such as radiation, electrical activity or terahertz waves.

Signs have to be visually comprehensible and eye-catching across as much of the electromagnetic spectrum as possible. New sign designs often incorporate not just contrasting colors, but contrasting densities of materials, materials conducting electricity or heat, and materials that emit small amounts of radiation. Important warning signs are often given precedence over AR overlays, annoying at times but making it impossible to miss them.

Notes

Inspired in part by Anders Sandberg's Warning Signs for Tomorrow

193. Life with Enhanced Hearing

Those who have lived with enhanced hearing for a significant length of time often learn to gauge their surroundings from background noise. They have an intuitive sense of the mood of a city based upon the amassed infrasound produced by daily activity. They also have improved situational awareness, keeping track of everyone around them and learning to identify others based on the noises they make.

In many circles you have to have enhanced hearing to be considered a real music-lover. A great deal of the best and most interesting music being takes place in registers requiring enhanced hearing to really appreciate. Even old music, played live on real instruments, often sometimes gains new depths as high or low frequency sounds, previously unheard, are found to produce unintended patterns. Recorded music however, unless specifically recorded with enhanced hearing in mind, sounds oddly limited, like a black and white image.

Those deprived of enhanced hearing feel as though the world has been muffled, and often develop anxiety related to reduced situational awareness.

179. Animalware Cybersuites

Asked about the high costs of animal ownership, most would cite the costs of exowombs, sufficient livable space, or specialized food. The costs of training are most often underestimated, as they require either time or the services of a specialist or AI. Fa Jing's new line of animalware cybersuites was designed to meet that need, but instead they created a revolution in smart animal design, augmentation and training, bringing animals into the post-singularity age.

An animalware cybersuite replaces the biological brain with a cyberbrain, including an animal oriented ego-bridging service, a cybercortex, and a specially designed skillwire. A cyberbrain allows for easy forking of your good boys, a cybercortex increases intelligence and trainability, and skillware allows instant housebreaking and mastery of basic commands.

Mechanics

Animalware Cybersuites are cyberware (High)

176. Packnet

Favored by shepherds, packnets are tacnets designed for use by smart animals. Unlike tacnets, a packnet is not just software but must be implanted as special cyberware, acting as mesh inserts and simple brain scanners. This way the animal does not have to be trained to use a computer interface, as the packnet reacts directly to its thoughts. A cybercortex is highly recommended if the system is to be used to its fullest potential, and the system also combines well with compulsion goads, allowing single shepherds to control large groups with ease.

The animals are not presented with formal maps, but are given an intuitive knowledge of their surroundings. They do not communicate through language, but instintively understand each others intentions, as well as what the others are sensing and experiencing. The implant will induce fear or caution to steer its charges away from threats, and hunger or rage to entice them against targets.

Mechanics

Packnets are cyberware [High]

Packnets offer the same advantage as tacnets, but designed for use by smart animals. Non-smart animals (traditional breeds) are typically unable to use packnets in any significant way.

171. Lyre's Syrinx

Thanks to its uniquely complex syrinx, the lyrebird is capable of mimicking any sound it might hear. A favorite of singers, socialites, and con-artists, it allows for beautiful singing far beyond the human range, as well as, with practice, imitations of many sounds and other people's voices.

This is not the first augmentation available to replace the human larynx with a syrinx, although it is has become the most popular, thanks to its versatility. Early experiments with syrinx implants were little more than gimmicks, allowing users to sing like birds but little else. The great advantage of the lyre's syrinx is its versatility, its excellent mimicry allowing for normal human speech as well as most other sounds.

Not surprisingly, the lyre's syrinx is most popular among neo-avians. Militant mercurials often use complex code-song languages to communicate secretly, not unlike binary chatter.

Mechanics

A lyre's syrinx is bioware [Moderate]

A lyre's syrinx gives +20 to impersonation when mimicking another's voice.

144. Seeing-Eye Balls

Seeing-eye balls were, for a time, the premier choice for small, flying surveillance. They are perfect spheres the size of human eyeballs, mounting small cameras and propelled swiftly by ionic skin. They were limited in their capabilities, but were fast and reliable and were sold by the dozen in elegant pouches. They fell out of use when the smaller and even more discrete specks were released.

The balls made a recent comeback, however, when someone had the idea of modifying their synth to use the bots as eyes and, whats more, detach and reattach them at will. When attached they are almost indistinguishable from standard synth eyes, making them easy to smuggle into places that might not allow bots. Once detached, the user can see through them as if they were still their normal eyes. It is recommended they are used only one at a time or else kept paired, as disorientation and nausea often result from trying to perceive to entirely different points-of-view at once.

Mechanics

Seeing-eye balls are robots [Trivial]

Movement Rate: 4/40 Max Velocity: 80 Armor: 2/2 Durability: 25
Wound Threshold: 5 Mobility System: Ionic

Enhancements: 360 Degree Vision, Access Jacks, Enhanced Vision

Seeing-eye balls can also be installed as cyberware [Moderate]

119. Engineer's Womb

One of the biggest appeals of an exowomb is no longer having to go through pregnancy. Why, then, would anyone have an exowomb implanted, negating that huge benefit?

An engineer's womb is capable, like most ectogenesis pods, of bringing almost any animal to term. It borrows healing pod and morph growth technology to shorten gestation; most fetuses can be brought to term at twelve times their natural rate. Pregnancy might still be inconvenient, but will be nowhere near as much as with the natural option, and is guaranteed to be uneventful. Birth is fast and easy.

The real benefit of an engineer's womb can only be realized by a genetic engineer. The womb runs a feed into your mesh inserts (or directly to your cyberbrain, if applicable) giving constant updates on its current pregnancy. What's more, the womb is equipped with a suite of gene-hacker's tools, capable of gene-therapy and bio-modification throughout gestation. With only mental commands, an engineer can modify the fetus on the fly, with instant and constant feedback. Experienced engineers know that this constant feedback and at-hand tools is the difference between good results, and great.

Mechanics

An engineer's womb is cyberware [High]

An engineer's womb can also be used as a small (~limb sized) healing pod in an emergency.

72. Flight Bladder

Flight is one of the old dreams of humanity, and even with petals, experimental psychosurgery, and and new senses, remains a sought after experience. Many rent or buy flight capable morphs, or spend time in flight-oriented simulspaces. Sometimes, flight is not elegant. The flight bladder is merely practical at best, often slow and ungainly, and scorned by neo-avians. Some find, however, a pleasant laziness in drifting effortlessly through the sky.

A flight bladder works by taking in light-than-air gasses (usually helium, from convenient tanks) and storing it, for as long as days. The bladder can exhale small amounts of gas at a time, for propulsion or when it is time to return to ground. A bladder cannot be used in environments where gravity is too heavy, and/or atmosphere is to light. They are redundant in micro or zero gravity. For those reasons, they have caught on primarily on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

Flight bladders are most popular among neo-octopuses, whose body-plans adapt well to drifting and floating. Often it is an easy replacement for the ink-sac. The bladders, are redundant to neo-avians, not strong enough for most synths, and unless installed and used very carefully, render hominids hilariously off-balance.

Mechanics

A flight bladder is bioware [Moderate]

A flight bladder grants a morph the microlight mobility system, as the robotic enhancement.

59. Eudaimonia Gland

The eudaimonia gland began, almost a century ago, with research into the biofabrication of psychotropic medications and nootropics. Innovations that allowed for the manufacture of these substances by engineered bacteria eventually led to the ability of  the human body to create them. Specialized glands for specific compounds eventually gave way to more generalized designs. The eudaimonia gland is the culmination of this research: a single gland producing a broad spectrum of beneficial mind altering substances.

A eudaimonia gland sits at the base of the brain, constantly sampling brain chemistry and secreting varieties of psychotropics based on those samples. The gland is deliberately capable of creating only small doses, so as to avoid overdoses. This means that the gland can not, in itself, provide complete treatment for all but the mildest of mental illnesses, but it does blunt the edge of stresses and traumas, and they have seen a huge surge in use since the Fall.

Mechanics

A eudaimonia gland is bioware [Moderate]

Treat as a drug gland (Comfurt).

57. Metabolic Chamber

Hunger is one of the biggest disadvantages of biomorphs, so it may seem strange to find an augmentation designed to allow synthmorphs to eat. The ability to metabolize local chemicals for energy and material has its advantages, however, and makes an effective backup for the traditional nuclear batteries.

A metabolic chamber processes its food in two stages. First, heat induces burning, releasing energy that is absorbed by the chamber's systems. Second, a scavenger nanoswarm is excreted, gathering any material that might be useful for the synth's maintenance and/or repair. Finally, any remaining material is expelled as a fine powder.

Installation of a metabolic chamber can require significant restructuring to make room in the neck and abdomen, so the chamber is often installed externally. Sometimes one is even carried as separate gear, used to recharge electronics. On Titan, solar chargers are ineffective do to the distance of the sun, but metabolic chambers can make use of the moon's abundant hydrocarbons.

Mechanics

A metabolic chamber is cyberware or gear [Low]

52. Gut Macrofauna

Marie-Smith Nguyen's debut at the Elysium Gallery of Living Art revived one of the stranger dreams of some small corners of bio-hacker society. Her piece was a carefully crafted papier-mâché pregnancy belly, open at the belly button, and filled with a hive of honeybees. Disaster struck when she tripped, shattered the hive, and the gallery was suddenly filled with angry bees. This gave some strange people strange ideas.

Every so often, a bio-hacker floats the idea, seriously or tongue-in-cheek, of going whole-hog with symbiosis, and engineering symbiotes that would put human bodies on the path towards becoming ecosystems. After the Elysium debacle, enthusiasm peaked as bio-engineers considered the possible benefits of playing host to a hive of eusocial insects. They would defend the body as their home, and pay rent in honey!

The only practical results from this brief craze is a biomod creating a thick skin pocket suited for a wasp nest. The wasps are engineered not to attack anything smelling like their host, but will otherwise defend their home with their usual vigor. Footage of their effects during an attempted mugging has gone viral, but the mod is illegal or discouraged on most habitats.

Mechanics

Any time the host is attacked and suffers damage equal to one wound, everyone in the immediate area is attacked by wasps. Treat as bees and gardener wasps from Panopticon.