Holo-me and Transhumanism

[Maur]

It is some time in the fourth millennium. Medicine has been a science for over a thousand years. Yet everyone looks pretty much the same as any human might have a thousand years ago.

Is there no transhumanism in the galaxy? Is everyone an unmodified Homo sapiens?

After another thousand years of advancement in medical science, I would expect to see people with body modifications that make tattoos and piercings look positively pedestrian...

For example:

Cybernetic eyes, or

Bionic limbs, or even

Near total body teplacement.

I wouldn't expect FDev to copy copyrighted images, but including cyberised options for Holo-me images would fit the setting... especially for the more out-there members of society, who don't want to play by mainstream society's rules.

 

[Zapgun]

People in the 3300s probably look at those images in the same way we look at early sci fi images.. quaint and totally not realistic. We're probably heavily into non-invasive genetic manipulation by then.. who needs metal when a good regrowth will do!

 

[Leadfoot]

There are already a small number of things such as eye implants but yeah, maybe a bionic arm or two would be interesting to see.

 

[Sylow]

You can have cybernetic eyes. But indeed that's it. On why it is like that, you can just philosophize. It might be that the humanity has just agreed on some beauty standard. Perhaps going outside of the normal view is so jarring that even the most jaded criminals are afraid of the social repercussions.

Alternatively our characters actually are modified a lot. But they still wear the space suit, which covers up all the really significant modifications. Except of course all the brain-cyberware, which allows us to control ships the way we do at all and gives us the reaction time we need to be able to handle ships at the high speeds we often use. But pilots who have their brain outside of their skull usually are not fit to fly any more. So as our commanders are still able to fly, they are shown with still intact skull.

Another line of thought would be along the line why there's so little AI and automatisation in the game. As far as I remember, AI is prohibited due to historical events in the universe. Perhaps strong body modifications hit the same vibe: bad things have happened, anybody who displays such strong modifications might just as well modify himself to look like a Thargoid, as he'll be shot around the next corner, anyway.

That's all in-game reasoning and wild guesses, though. In terms of gameplay I dare to say, currently we mostly are in first person view, few people ever see more of us than the chat thumbnail. So the current system probably is considered to be sufficient for the time being. If/when we get space legs, I would very much expect that a lot of new cosmetical features will be implemented, including significant body modification.

 

[Zapgun]

Indeed.. perhaps because of people like this:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P99qJGrPNLs
(cyberpsychosis!)

 

[Maur]

It seemed logical to have such things. Certain pirate factions may glorify transhuman modifications rather than seek to minimise their impact on those who observe them. All the raider spikes on some ships serve no function other than to make them more intimidating, and given the capability to do the same for the human body, possibly with some actual advantage, certain people would likely take that option... especially if it engenders fear in others.

 

[Zapgun]

It seemed logical to have such things. Certain pirate factions may glorify transhuman modifications rather than seek to minimise their impact on those who observe them. All the raider spikes on some ships serve no function other than to make them more intimidating, and given the capability to do the same for the human body, possibly with some actual advantage, certain people would likely take that option... especially if it engenders fear in others.

Honestly with how fragile tech is in the 3300s (like my poor scarab that can't handle a little rough terrain without falling about 40 minutes later), I'm not sure I'd want anything grafted to my body in the ED universe.

 

[ick]

The Thargoids are the descendants of human genetic manipulation. We just haven't gotten to that part of the lore yet....

 

[veryDead]

They can't even do a proper galactic map database in the future and you think they will be able to engineer machines that interface with our bodies and nervous system?