Mechanical augmentation

"In the past we've had to compensate for weaknesses, finding quick solutions that only benefit a few. But what if we never need to feel weak or morally conflicted again?"

- Adam Jensen

Mechanical augmentation involves the use of cybernetics in order to improve or replace human body parts. It is distinguished from basic limb prosthetics in that they interface directly with the central nervous system, as opposed to just the ends of peripheral nerves.

With technological advancement, it soon became the first method of augmentation which allowed people to assume superhuman abilities, albeit not without limitations. The most concerning of these is the body's rejection of the augmentations, known as Darrow Deficiency Syndrome. The only known way to counteract this is for the affected individual to take the anti-rejection drug, Neuropozyne, for the rest of their lives or else suffer from migraines, seizures, or even death.

With research beginning as early as the, mechanical augmentations became widespread by the. It was the predecessor and research template to physiopharmaceutical augmentation and the much more advanced nanotechnological augmentation that came into use by the.

Early Development
The main obstacle in mechanical augmentation was finding the perfect interface between man and machine. While external prosthetics can be made from hypoallergenic materials, there was no such luxury when implanting devices in the brain. Early augmentation projects addressed human diseases such as Parkinson's Disease, where patients had metal electrodes inserted into their brains to stop the tremors. While successful, the unfortunate side effect of using stiff metal electrodes was their vulnerability to impacts caused by bodily movements. This caused tissue injury and compromised the device's effectiveness. In 2001, Darrow Industries made a breakthrough that would revolutionize augmentations: they pioneered the PEDOT cluster array to create a biocompatible matrix device known as the biochip. The basis of the biochip was to use PEDOT, an organic conducting polymer, for the electrodes, which were attached to artificial neurons grown specifically for the device. The entire biochip would then be implanted into the host's brain and, because of the PEDOT cluster's entirely organic construction and its neuron to neuron interface, would be less prone to side effects. However, the biochips still suffered from glial tissue build up around the PEDOT cluster, which is detectable by elevated levels of cytotoxic-M and DDS-Y enzymes in the matrix. Not only did this compromise the effectiveness of the biochip, but it could also lead to rejection, known as Darrow Deficiency Syndrome (DDS). To prevent this, augmented individuals had to take Neuropozyne, which broke down the build-up of glial tissue.

Even with all the groundbreaking advancements into mechanical augmentations, there remained a very small percentage of the population whose bodies would still reject them due to being genetically incompatible, including the father of mechanical augmentations, Hugh Darrow. To help with this, Darrow Industries published the first genetic compatibility test in 2010 to determine if an individual's body would accept or reject augmentations.

2020s Development
By the 2020s, many biotechnology companies existed all over the world and were helping to advance mechanical augmentations, making them commonplace (but still controversial) in society. One such company, Sarif Industries, which had been founded in 2006 and had quickly grown to become one of the major biotech companies by 2026, was on the verge of a breakthrough. Despite it being over 20 years since the first biochip had been developed, nobody had yet figured out how to prevent the glial tissue buildup that ultimately lead to rejection if Neuropozyne was not taken. This all changed when Sarif Industries' head researcher, Megan Reed, created the X1 biochip prototype with her team. Unlike previous biochips, the X1 biochip's PEDOT cluster incorporated a mutagenic chemical composition that was isolated from the DNA strands of Patient X. After six weeks of testing against a regular biochip, the team discovered that not only did the X1 biochip have no noticeable glial tissue buildup, but it also appeared to strengthen its neural connections, meaning Neuropozyne would no longer be necessary.

However, mechanical augmentation was still a controversial subject in society, with people evenly split on pushing for or against them. Due to this, Reed and her team were scheduled to present and defend their research on the X1 biochip in Washington D.C. in 2027. If successful, they could pave the way for everyone to be safely augmented with no drawbacks. Unfortunately, the night before they were due in Washington D.C., Sarif Industries Headquarters was attacked and Reed and her team kidnapped, though it was made to look like they had been killed. As a result, their findings never went public.

Clandestine Development
While many legitimate biotechnology companies, like Sarif Industries and presumably Isolay and Caidin Global, existed to develop mechanical augmentations for different uses ranging from civilian to military applications, some companies, like Tai Yong Medical, conducted illegal and inhumane experiments on detainees and civilians. Such clandestine activities have occurred at black sites such as Rifleman Bank Station and the Omega Ranch.

Society's View
Despite the apparent benefits that augmentations could bring to humans, there was widespread belief that the technology could be abused. Having become commonplace by the 2020s, a social rift began to emerge between augmented and non-augmented human beings. Several prominent people advocated against the use of augmentations, including William Taggart, the head of Humanity Front, and Ezekiel Sanders, the head of the radical organization Purity First. While these two individuals had personal reasons for denouncing augmentations, few realized Taggart was actually pushing the Illuminati's views as, with the change in social order that comes with technological advancement, it meant losing control over the masses. However, the Illuminati secretly worked on plans so they could control augmented people with a biochip, allowing them to limit the person's abilities when needed. Taggart appeared to be very successful in pushing anti-augmentation sentiments, with society split evenly between those supporting augmentations and those who saw it as a threat as augmentations eliminated the need for natural skill or talent.

However, in 2027, Hugh Darrow, an Illuminati member who decided to work against the others, took drastic measures to show the world how others could controls those with augmentations by broadcasting a signal that made those with the affected biochip go crazy and start killing everyone near them. By the time the signal was cut off, the damage had already been done: 50 million were dead and the number of augmented people dwindled drastically. As any information on what really happened with the broadcast was either obscured or destroyed, the Illuminati spun the media to blame augs for all the deaths and the world began to move against them. By 2029, cities that once welcomed augs, like Prague, started to discriminate and treat them like second-class citizens by making them require travel papers and permits, go through additional security checkpoints, ride separate trains, and many businesses began to refuse to cater to them. Aug ghettos started to spring up as a result, like Prague's Golem City and Dresden's Glasshütte, where police brutality was a common sight and Neuropozyne supplies were kept artificially low to control the population.

Early mechanical augmentation mostly took the form of prosthetics that completely replaced limbs, but by the 2050s many mechanical augmentations had been developed to smaller devices, such as implants that would release steroids or prosthetics that replaced small parts of limbs. By 2052, clinics still offered augmentation work, mostly performed by bots. Extensive mechanical augmentation, hinted to replace as much as 90% of the human body, had become rare, but also expensive in terms of maintenance.

Anti-rejection pharmaceuticals is not a mentioned issue of the time - It is possible that between 2029 and 2051 a drug was created to prevent rejection, possibly by Bob Page Industries.

In the 2050s, the emergence of the nano-augmented, most notably Paul Denton who was inaugurated by the United Nations as the "first nanotechnologically-augmented agent", began rendering mechanical augmentations obsolete. Despite central authorities trying to advocate that it was not obsolete, physicians - like Jaime Reyes, expressed otherwise. Similar to the inferiority complex experienced by non-augmented individuals in the 2020s in comparison to their mechanically-augmented brethren, a rift was forming between nanotechnologically-augmented and mechanically-augmented individuals based on the latter's inhuman appearance and rejection by society.

After 2052, nanotechnological augmentations started to become more advanced and increasingly widespread. By 2072, it had completely supplanted mechanical augmentation. At this point it was commonly referred to as biomodification, or biomods. Biomods were produced both as legal standard biomods, by Piezochem, and allegedly dangerous black-market biomods, by the Omar.

The Omar perpetually sought out new technology with the intent to develop survivability under any condition. They were publicly viewed as a monstrous collective of soulless cyborgs, as their minds all had been assimilated into one.

The Order, secretly run by the Illuminati, peacefully urged opposition to biomodification - while the Knights Templar, lead by Order church Luminon Saman, became a genocidal anti-augmentation organization, vowing to eradicate it from the face of the earth.

Standard Piezochem biomods had been advanced to the point were the nanites could be integrated into 1 out of every 20 patients. The progress made by Apostlecorp, and especially Leila Nassifs research on Tarsus trainees Alex D, Billie Adams, Leo Jankowski and Klara Sparks - would eventually perfect the technology, and make it distributable to every person on the planet.

Deus Ex: Invisible War

 * No humans, as mechanical augmentation is considered impractical and obsolete since the advent of nano-augmentation. However, it is used on dogs to create cyberdogs and baboons to create rucks.

Deus Ex: The Fall

 * Possibly others, as mechanical augmentation is the only commercial form of augmentation in 2027

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

 * Many others, as mechanical augmentation is the only commercial form of augmentation in 2027

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

 * Many others, as mechanical augmentation is the only commercial form of augmentation in 2029 (though it has been heavily lobbied against and is now considered a social stigma by many)