Circuits and Wires

                                                                              By Groghen Da’

This document is a study on legalized Organic Augmentations and the just technophobia

of the Galactic Council and it’s citizens.

The year was Berius, the year that would make history in the Galactic Council as the year robotic augmentations came to a screaming halt.

Now, for many citizens of the Council. Everyday life is full of smart technology and integrated service bots for high End life, but what if I told you ... .that the high end tech that only the rich and powerful could have, was accessible for everyone?

To the one reading this, I know your mouth has dropped! That’s right! Service bots, augmentations? It’s yours my friend, just as long as you were born before the year of 20B! Year 20 was quite a year for robotics, companies that built them were plenty, species of all kinds had been approved through applications for augmentations and cybernetics!

So what happened, why did it all disappear?? Sadly. Access to such technology proved that the citizens of the council weren’t ready, and might not ever be.....

It all began during a protest, a peaceful and just protest to give aid to the planets outside of the Council’s jurisdiction, the protests were on a multi-planetary level. All fighting for the right to help others live equally, but...not all shared this view. A group of individuals who will not be named, had secretly built their own networks and modified machines outside the view of the Cyber Terror Forces. These bots were reconfigured to explode at the front of the protest.....the data signatures were masked by surprisingly well homemade algorithms.

As records show: police bots and drones could not detect that these service bots were wired to explode. After several explosions transpired, which brought multiple deaths to innocent protestors. The Galactic Council took immediate action against those responsible, a permanent ban on general augmentations, service bots and cybernetic enhancements were put into place, and a paid removal of such categories had been set up in every major city within the Council territories.

As logical as this would seem for someone nowadays, in the year of Berius, these technologies were apart of everyday lives, and most of the populations were reluctant, that is until the ones responsible for the first attack had leaked developer data from a massive amount of companies for smart devices that were able to link to cybernetic enhancements such as

“SuperSight 2.0”

“Strong Arms Enhancements” (and relating to ‘Strong’ products)

“Like-A-Regen”

“Beautified”

“Brainsurge”

“Neuro-Chips ” (and most Neuro hardware)

“V2 Quasi-Chipsets”

Almost instantly, citizens began experiencing fatal malfunctions in their cybernetics, and in many instances, behavior and complete personalities had been altered, murders rose across all Council territories by 250%, even high ranking political figures became docile, not knowing where they were, hallucinations. It became chaotic, with coalitions of the Outer Territories preying on planets on the edge of the Council.

Though the population of “enhanced citizens” held a decent size within the Council, the disruption affected critical infrastructures such as border control, cybersecurity, cyber-terror forces, etc. with the addition of viruses from unknown sources, Many citizens had been quarantined until extraction of defected parts. The situation lasted several years, with increased hostility alongside the Council’s borders, relations with the Outer Territories quickly became fragile, and many authorized visitors were quarantined, and then deported, not allowed to return.

The most interesting aspect of the event was the cyber-viruses that had appeared. Standard security software blocked many possible breaches, but a particular virus that got through seemed to have origins rooted in Outer Territory technology, this gave light to the leaders of the Council that Cyborgs may have infiltrated some of the planets. During the times before Berius, Cyborgs were extremely rare, often only being performance artists or actors in films, like now, they were not allowed within the Council territories if they were from the Outer Territories.

Artificial intelligence was another victim of this confusion, service bots had become violent, drones began attacking each other and citizens, transportations, ships, and many essential cogs of the Galactic Council became erratic and unreliable. The Galactic Council felt like it had lost it's footing for a moment.  After the Galactic Protectorate (with the aid of planetary forces) quelled the havoc that challenged the Council, many laws were passed to ban the use / production of cybernetics.

However, there was a debate held over the production of enhanced prosthetics. Today we know prosthetics are typically used to enhance various species in the workforce, but at the time, one Citizen would be able to flip an switch and instantly have the strength of a well 5 Citizens!

After relative debates had finished. The Galactic Council passed a law to produce new generations of service bots and artificial intelligence, but only for the upper classes and highest form of research and development in order to keep up with the Outer Territories. Many citizens don't know this, but the dispatch for the Galactic Protectorate Service is in fact, maintained by an artificial intelligent operator! The now modern heavy moderation of service bots and artificial intelligence has proven effective in the past several hundred years, but the destruction and chaos caused by the Great Cyber Scare of Berius left great paranoia amongst citizens, to this day many citizens have fear of cybernetic and robotics related technology, often showing hostility towards any of them, and rightfully so. 

Sadly, some citizens opt in for enhancements in order to stay in their desired workforce, the stigmata that comes along with that can feel isolating at times, dating becomes a bit more difficult, some places won't even hire due to loss of morale in the work environment, others believe that it's just an excuse not to be transfered to NC-Districts. In the end, these enhancements, excuses, are here to stay, and if the Council has authorized it to be, then it should be believed to obviously been done in our best interests, and most will openly agree with this.