Are overly conventional cybernetic arms holding back the State?

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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Is conservatism in prosthetic design holding back progress in the State ?

Gutter Press was recently contacted by a prosthetics designer who argued that the design of cyber arms in the State is overly focused on replicating the human arm, and does not embrace the full range of possibilities for increasing the efficiency of State industry.

“Even the advanced cyber arms made by Ishukone or Kaalakiota are still recognisably arm shaped, replicating the abilities and range of motion of the arm. Even if the arm is stronger than a human one, it is still recognisable as a human arm. It’s not like we’re the Amarr, we don’t have to be constrained like this.”, was their main argument.

They also argued that there is a danger that the State could be left behind in cybernetics development, altering the balance of power between nations. Nations such as the Gallente Federation were suggested as being more open to the possibilities that cybernetics provide.

“The Gallente have all kinds of prosthetic arms available. Sure, they’re all stupid things like wings, or erotic stimulators, or other hedonistic nonsense, but they’re exploring the possibilities of non-arm-shaped arms. We’re not doing that, so we may be blind to something that the Gallente could eventually use against us.”

Other prosthetics engineers agreed that most Caldari-produced arms are quite conventional, and that even the Minmatar seem more open to possibilities, with many Minmatar prosthetics incorporating all kinds of tools and apparatus for performing tasks. They disagreed though that the Federation was advanced enough to pose a threat to the State in the long term.

Gutter Press asked several State citizens for their opinions.
“We should be conservative, lest another Sansha Kuvakei spring up”, was the opinion of a Navy contractor.
“The only good thing to come out of the Federation were the ships carrying the Caldari people to New Caldari”, opined a livestock geneticist.
“Arms ? Pfft, I want a skull-gun. And I want them to fix the vending machine, it keeps serving lemon-lime, not orange!”, was the opinion from a Navy trooper.

In other news, an unregistered vending machine was discovered in the capsuleer section of Jita 4-4, which was found to be funnelling a substantial amount of fractional ISK transactions to an account apparently under control of a Rogue drone Hive, which was using the ISK to purchase minerals and exotic dancers. The machine appeared to have been in operation for some time, with investigators tracing a total of 1Bn ISK of transfers made from the machine. Jita 4-4 authorities reminded capsuleers and capsuleer ship crews to be vigilant when spending ISK on station.

Gutter Press. News.

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“Having so spoken, this designer then unfolded into an arachnoidal mass of articulated legs and scurried under the couch.”

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There are plenty of things holding back the State. Cybernetic arms would be the least of it.

That Rogue Vendor, now, that’s news.

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The fact the Rogue Drone hive in question was effectively spending the ISK on drugs and exotic dancers makes me want to find it and high-five ( or maybe high-tentacle?) it.

This to me shows they are truly sentient, and I extend an open invite to this one in particular to arrange a business meeting.

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Hm. Yes.

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Human augmentations have certain neurological limits when they are designed to be used by baseline or close-to-baseline human beings. While we have examples of more complex forms - in the extreme the capsuleer neural control of spaceships - those require compatible genetics and excruciating, even occasionally fatal, training.

Entertainment use can take some slowness or clumsiness in use. The more under pressure, critical and hectic the use cases, the more important it becomes augmentations are something human beings are wired to use.

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And this is why we invented tools, like sticks, stones, surgery manipulators, drones with remote reality feeds and other various things we can make do things through the magic of controlled interfaces that takes baseline shapes and appendages into consideration. Gosh, imagine that.

Yes, we can push our ships above and beyond in terms of performance but there’s going to be significant diminishing returns if you want to start neurologically interfacing with a god damn hammer or prehensile sex toys or whatever the hell. The investment and risk just isn’t anywhere near commensurate with the potential ‘performance increase’.

I think people are starting to forget just how rare our condition is, and just how grueling the training to even start tapping into it really is.

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I’d also be concerned about the percentage of capsuleers left with a psychologogical state that would be classed as utterly socio/psychopathic.

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And other conditions, indeed.

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:smiley: I have family staying over, if I wasn’t psychopathathic before I will be soon…

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There’s also an observation that an unusual percentage of capsuleers seem to be traumatized-but-functional in some manner before entering training (orphaned, from dysfunctional clans, combat veterans, former slaves, disaster survivors etc). So that correlation between exceptional psyche and pod compatibility could run both ways.

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Always viewed that more as a strength than a weakness…

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I view it as a fact. It is what it is.

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A fact if they weren’t useless in life I guess, to each their own…

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Aha!!, that vending machine. I knew something was up when 10isk vanished from my account every month.
Well now that i have stopped that, lets see how fun they have with out my isk. The nerv spending my money and not inviting me…:angry:

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It seems like there might be some pattern in what sort of background you find a person who self-selects into a potentially deadly but also potentially very rewarding course of training will tend to have. Maybe well-adjusted and unscarred persons are normally content to live smaller but more peaceful lives.

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Fair point. People with nothing left to lose are more willing to bet their life for a big payoff.

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I wonder how they react when they realize that the Federation is using drones for industrial work. Quite easy to get drones that are specialized for the tasks they need to do.

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Maybe well-adjusted and unscarred persons are less amenable to willingly self-euthanise to become an infomorph.

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These are no stupid things. What if you would want to fly or have some fun? Aha! You would wish you would have one! If nobody would need them they would not be available. They are replacable anyway so no big deal, its not like you would be stuck with these fancier, floppy ones, when making coffee or writing another article.

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