AugAware.org articles

This page contains a copy of the articles from AugAware.org, a (now defunct) promotional website created as part of the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided marketing campaign. The AugAware.org site initially had anti-aug articles, but at some point was "hacked" by Augmented Rights Coalition activists who replaced the site's content with aug-friendly articles. Both sets of articles are preserved here for reference purposes. Some of these articles also appear in-game in The Picus Daily Standard and Samizdat.


 * See also: AugAware campaign

TERROR ATTACK IN PRAGUE


Augmented Terrorists Suspected

Source: PICUS NEWS - PRAGUE

A series of coordinated bomb blasts tore through downtown Prague yesterday morning, killing dozens and renewing fears of large-scale terrorist mayhem against the city. Rail travel to the downtown core is being rerouted, while forensic investigators comb the bomb site for answers.

This morning it remained unclear who is responsible. But given the growing tensions surrounding the city's controversial decision to relocate augmented citizens to the neighboring Utulek Complex, this latest attack suggests that augmented terrorists may be responsible.

TEHRAN WELCOMES U.N. REPRESENTATIVE


Honoko Sato, U.N. Special Envoy to the Augmented, arrived to tour the Middle East today

Source: PICUS NEWS - TEHRAN

Honoko Sato, U.N. Special Envoy to the Augmented, arrived to tour the Middle East today, almost two full years after rampaging augmented workers laid waste to many of the region’s most populated cities. Violence by and against the Augmented has increased worldwide since the Incident, leaving struggling local authorities ill-equipped to handle it.

“Hopefully,” she told reporters gathered at the tarmac, “the report I submit to the U.N. at the end of this journey will enable security council members to reach a wise, well-reasoned, and unanimous decision, as they debate drastic steps to curtail the global violence."

PALISADE BANK EXTENDS BEYOND PRAGUE


The Palisade Bank Corporation has unveiled plans to expand its holdings in the Czech Republic.

Source: PICUS NEWS - PRAGUE

The Palisade Bank Corporation has unveiled plans to expand its holdings in the Czech Republic.

“We will be doubling the number of technical and administrative jobs locally,” said Palisade CEO Ashani Talwar, “while building new data storage facilities in four cities.”

This will be the bank’s first major expansion since the Aug Incident; the second since 2025, when automated defenses inside a storage facility killed an engineer. Her death drew international attention until it was proven she’d been trying to access a client’s accounts.

Protect Our Future
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Are Your Children Safe?
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Looking Back - Cybathalon 2016: A Competition for Augmented Humans
Taking a look back to when it all started.

Source: IEEE SPECTRUM - Evan Ackerman

We take a look back to 2016 and see how, even then, the writing was on the wall for the tragedy that befell us, forever known as 'The Aug Incident'.

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Looking Back - More Than Human? The Ethics of Biologically Enhancing Soldiers
Our ability to "upgrade" the bodies of soldiers through drugs, implants, and exoskeletons was foreseen to upend the ethical norms of war

Source: The Atlantic - Patrick Lin

We look back at an article that focused on the ethical issues of using augmentations within the military, essentially foreseeing the creation of super soldiers that could endure virtually anything...but at what cost?

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Looking Back - 'Body Hacking' Movement Rises Ahead Of Moral Answers
We look back on the lack of safety and ethical oversight that brought us where we are today.

Source: All Tech Considered - Eyder Peralta

We look back and see how, due to the soft stances on oversight and regulation in their early days, augmentations were essentially allowed to spiral completely out of control.

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Looking Back - Ethical questions are looming for prosthetics
Foreseeing the vulnerabilities and ethical implications of augmentations.

Source: Wired.Co.UK - Bertolt Meyer

We look back at an inspiring article, which foresaw the potential ethical implications of swapping out healthy limbs for performance-enhancing augmentations all the way back in 2013. Even then, it was easy to see the risk of being able to hack and control augmented limbs, an issue we are sadly all too familiar with today.

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HOW DID WE GET HERE?
The dawn of the Mechanical Apartheid is upon us...witness it for yourself.



THE HUMAN RESTORATION ACT: A PROBLEM FOR ALL


Augmented or not, who will the next inscrutable world power summarily judge as “problematic”?

Source: SAMIZDAT MAGAZINE - UNITED NATIONS

If you’re augmented, you must be aware that the United Nations are sleeping peacefully at night beneath the cover of their olive branch with dreams of stripping you of your rights and dignity.

Their proposed Human Restoration Act is an obscene moral betrayal. Without a control chip inserted for good behavior and official papers congratulating you on your loss of rights, resistant Augs will be promptly herded into more suitable accommodation courtesy of their local law enforcement. Welcome to Golem, citizen!

Augmented or not, who will the next inscrutable world power summarily judge as “problematic”? The Act puts the world on notice that organizations like the U.N. feel they can do what they wish.

It’s time to tell them otherwise or become the next pariah en vogue. We have been warned.

PALISADE: CENTRALIZING SECRETS


What kind of secrets are they hiding in there?

Source: SAMIZDAT MAGAZINE - PRAGUE

Samizdat is all about truth and information. Which is why we consider the greatest thing to happen to Prague in the last 15 years to also be the worst. The creation of the Palisade Bank in 2017 created a welcome surge in the economy and put Prague back on the map, improving everyone’s quality of life.

Or did it? Since then, thousands of companies and their powerful owners have hidden behind those treacherous walls, allowing many to conveniently sidestep normal regulation or transparency in their business practices.

What kind of secrets are they hiding in there? We’ll never know because the Czech Republic’s pro-corporate laws ensure that no one can ever get a court order to find out. Cash your paycheck on that, my friends.

Panchaea: at the bottom of the deep blue secrecy


Two years after the Incident, it remains conveniently unclear what happened at Panchaea

Source: SAMIZDAT MAGAZINE - GOLEM CITY

In 2027, Panchaea was humanity’s titanic plan to save the world, a 1.5 kilometer deep installation plunging to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Built by a 100% augmented workforce, it was our hopeful answer to climate change.

Until it mysteriously blew up on the day the Augs went crazy.

Two years after the Incident, it remains conveniently unclear what happened at Panchaea. Amidst conflicting reports of human remains, corporate sabotage, and radioactive salvage, we wait for the official truth -- engineering failure or another augmented horror story? More and more, Panchaea feels like a trillion-dollar hole in which to hide a trillion-dollar secret.

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Forward Looking: Amputee hails new prosthetic: 'It's like they've given me my leg back'


Augmentations change lives for the better

Source: The Guardian - Haroon Siddique

Since we were able to start fusing prosthetics to our bodies, we have been able to make miracles happen and change lives. Those who couldn't walk anymore we're not only able to do so again, but to restore full functionality, as outlined in this article, written at the dawn of augmentations. We used to help restore lives, now we only work to destroy them...:

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Forward Looking: The Age of Enhancement
Human Enhancement Helped Us Conquer Switzerlands Eiger Peak

Source: Slate - Will Oremus

We look back and see how, even in 2013, human enhancement was foreseen as a positive and necessary step forward. We cannot kill progress, as the following article suggests:

[...]

Beyond wearables: electronic implants could cure disease
Forward Looking: 'Electroceuticals' we're correctly thought to assist in curing depression, heart failure and Parkinson's

Source: The Telegraph - Matthew Sparkes

Something that is often forgotten now is that augmentations can literally take a person who was missing a critical function, restore it, and return them to a normal life. Somewhere along the way, we lost our empathy, sympathy, and our humanity...:

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Human Enhancement and Nanotechnology
Forward Looking: A Foresight Nanotech Institute Policy Issues Brief

Source: Foresight Institute

Many people have come up with reasons why augmentations damage society, but we should work to embrace them, not destroy them. The article below about nanotechnology, written a couple of decades back, outlines that fear of progress should never be a reason to prevent it:

[...]