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Posthumans in Trek?

USSHermes

Lieutenant
Red Shirt
:borg:

In Trek we have advanced medical technology and advanced robotics - but apart from the Borg, few races seem to take advantage of cybernetic upgrades or genetic upgrades.

Geordi's eyes are a notable exception - but of course they are to fix his blindness, not to upgrade his sight. The Binarrs's Implantation seems to be a cultural thing and even they aren't that modified.

Where are the biomods, tricorder implants etc?

You would think by the next gen era they could at least have some medical sensors in doctor's fingers so they could wave their hands over patients and diagnose them rapidly.


I would have:

1. A gene-treatment to give me the aging of an el-urian.

2. One finger on my left hand would be replaced with one that looks 'real' but has a built in sensor device.

3. A gene-treatment to give me some of the biological redundancies of the Klingons (back-up organs etc.)

4.A synthetic finger on my right hand that has a built in 'holdout' stun-
setting only phaser weapon.

5. Only one artificial eye (in case some radiation field or whatever that screws up cybernetics affects me I would still be able to see). this eye would show far beyond the usual human visual spectrum and link to my other implants in a overlay HUD.

What would you have?
 
Well damn, there's a plethora of possibilities. It would be a real life RPG, picking what upgrades you want done to yourself.

I would love a built-in tridcorder chip, maybe in my palm, that routes the information to a bionic eye with the HUD system you mentioned. I like the one eye only idea.

Since it is the 24th century I would see if they could make a metal skeleton for me a la Wolverine. Just think...Duranium bones. Hell I'd even take the claws too (for protection of course):klingon:

The redundant organs is a good idea as well

I wouldn't mind gettin a hold of the chip that the Obsidian Order uses for their agents as well. The one that releases endorphins when being tortured, but also acts as a storage unit as well. I believe it had many functions.

Thats all for now but I'm sure I'll think of more.
 
Nightly backups. While I consider the continuity of my mind to be the determining factor in me being alive and the same person, I have to admit there's something reassuring about the idea that a snapshot is ready to take over my responsibilities in the event of my dissolution. And who knows, I may one day choose to roll back my mind to a previous version. Imagine getting goatse'd on the holodeck ... no amount of Counselor Troi's psychobabble could get you through that, you'd have to roll back to yesterday's image.

Some kind of data implant with encryption keys, medical information, and an emergency beacon keyed to my life signs seems like a must-have. It could even measure other parts of my environment and activate the beacon before my life signs are affected. Approaching dangerous radiation levels? Emergency beam-out requested. Fall off a cliff? Accelerometer tripped, subspace ranging determines distance to the ground is fatal, emergency beam-out requested. Neelix preparing to serve food? Emergency beam-out of Neelix requested, maximum dispersal.
 
6. "Primitive" nanotech based on Borg nanoprobes that would routinely fix damage to my biological and technological systems.

7. Built in universal translator if they don't have them already (I think Ferengi do?)

8. Genemod to enhance my strength based on Vulcan DNA (IIRC Vulcans are like 25% stronger than normal humans?)

9.Subcuteneous communicator powered by bioelectricity.
 
You would need to ensure however that crewmemebers didn't go "full borg" because next thing you know you'll go through an ion storm or something and not only are ships systems shot but also your engineer and first officer are gibbering and banging their heads agains bulkheads.
 
There's something un-Trekkish about the notion of "post-humans." One of the conceits of Star Trek is that "humans are fine just as we are" - fallable, occasionally evil or stupid, but salvageable. That's probably what's behind the negative portrayal of any serious alteration to humans - the Borg and the Augments both inspire extreme disgust and fear, despite the overall feeling of tolerance and acceptance towards aliens who take all sorts of extreme forms, from mobile rocks to puddles of goo to silicon lattices to pure energy beings.

A positive portrayal of "post-humans" is one of those ideas that would be a good basis for some other series, but not Star Trek.
 
^The amount of irrational hatred against the Augments is one of Trek's greatest unresolved issues. And just because of the Eugenics Wars, which happened (some number of:p)centuries earlier.

Imagine the admiral's speech in Dr. Bashir, I Presume, but replace "genetic engineering" with "Germans" and "Khan Singh" with "Adolf Hitler" and the reactionary, ignorant attitude it espouses becomes patently obvious.
 
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