Mechanical augmentation



"In an effort to secure freedom and liberty for those under their protection, many UNATCO agents have chosen to sacrifice social acceptance for mission performance by surgically replacing limbs and organs with mechanically or electronically enhanced equivalents."

- MedDirectorate

Mechanical augmentation involves the use of cybernetics in order to improve or replace certain human body parts. It is the progression from basic limb prosthetics with the distinguishing feature being that the machinery and robotics interface directly with the central nervous system as opposed to the ends of peripheral nerves. It was the first method of augmentation which allowed people to assume superhuman abilities, albeit not without limitations, the most salient downsides being the individuals suffering from extreme physical and mental pain, and reliance on the anti-rejection drug Neuropozyne and painkillers all their life, if not equipped with the X1 biochip. With research beginning as early as the 2000s, mechanical augmentations became widespread during the 2020s. It was the predecessor and research template to physiopharmaceutical augmentation and the much more advanced nanotechnological augmentation.

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.

Darrow Industries pioneered the PEDOT cluster array to create the machine-cell hybrid device known as the biochip that was made from organic materials. This was considered revolutionary at the time and was even published in prominent journals. 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 in the host's brain and because of the PEDOT cluster's entirely organic construction and its neuron-neuron interface, would be less prone to side effects. One such device is the R7 biochip, designed by Sarif Industries. The only downside to the biochip is the issue of 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 does this compromise the effectiveness of the biochip, it can lead to rejection, also known as Darrow Deficiency Syndrome. The only way to prevent rejection is to take Neuropozyne, which breaks down the build-up of glial tissue.

The X1 prototype biochip also designed by Sarif Industries would address the issue of glial tissue build up. The PEDOT cluster array used in the X1 biochip incorporates a mutagenic chemical that was isolated from the DNA strands of Patient X. The nature of this chemical is not explained but is apparently harmless, contrary to its description as a mutagen. When the mutagenic chemical is added to the PEDOT cluster of the biochip, within 24 hours, the PEDOT cluster is encapsulated in a thick coating of neural tissue that prevents the PEDOT cluster's ability to elicit the glial build-up response. Research on the X1 biochip was due to be presented in Washington DC in 2027, but the head researcher of Sarif Industries, Megan Reed, was kidnapped prior to the conference. It was heavily implied in the research notes entitled Composite Study 07121969 -- FINAL TEST RESULTS that the artificial neurons of future PEDOT clusters would be grown using segments of Patient X's DNA in an effort to naturally produce this mutagenic compound.

While many legitimate biotechnology firms worldwide, like Sarif Industries; and presumably also Isolay and Caidin Global, exist to develop mechanical augmentations for different uses ranging from civilian to military applications, some companies such as Tai Yong Medical and VersaLife conduct illegal and inhumane experimentation on detainees and civilians. Such secret developments have occurred at black sites such as Rifleman Bank Station and the Omega Ranch.

Socio-political
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.

List of mechanical augmentations

 * Augmentations (DXHR)
 * Augmentations (DXMD)

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)

Deus Ex


Deus Ex: Human Revolution


Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
