Bioware Enhancements

Bioware enhancements, commonly referred to simply as implants, are electronic implants installed into a human being in order to improve their performance or allow additional functionality. Pioneered in 16 PRE by AugmentCorp, bioware enhancements quickly became an accepted part of mainstream society; today, 1 out of every 3 citizens has a bioware enhancement. Bioware enhancements vary from the cheap communications implants available at virtually any dealership to the vastly expensive buffer energy shields, which have been proven to render the user nearly invulnerable to anything weaker than a ballistics missile.

=History=

Origins
Bioware enhancements were not even close to a new concept when AugmentCorp developed them. The idea for bioware enhancements was allegedly drawn from influential movies and television shows, which left many citizens with pre-built conceptions of them. Many alternative methods for enhancing the human body had already been exhaustively researched; however, many of them had to be shut down due to either cost or safety issues. When an experiment involving mononuclear fission as a method of regenerating lost limbs resulted in a minor thermonuclear explosion, many companies abandoned bioware enhancements, giving it up as a lost field.

Development
When AgumentCorp arrived on the scene of bioware enhancement in 10 PRE, it was largely deserted. ArgumentCorp quickly expanded to fill the empty space, and began making rapid progress towards working bioware enhancements, making a new breakthrough nearly once a month. On 16/8/17 PRE, After approximately six years of hard work, the first bioware enhancement--a simple two-way communicator--was successfully created and installed on a human being, marking the true beginning of bioware enhancement.

The first implant
The first commercially available implant was a communications implant, or complant. The name itself is actually a misnomer; the communications implant, despite what the name implies, is a radio receiver installed into the brain. The first communications implant was far less functional than those on the market today; it only picked up local stations, had a range of less than 100 kilometers, and could only be muted, not turned off entirely.

Duffer pirate incident
The infamous Duffer pirate scandal occurred near the start of 23/7 PRE. It began with members of the Cargo United shipping company reporting that many of their shipments were being intercepted, and any convoys that were sent along were never heard from again. The event moved into a crisis when an assistant accidentally recorded a shipment in the shipping records as going to the wrong place; out of all the shipments that were made that week, the incorrectly recorded one was the only one that made it to its destination.

It was quickly discovered that the Cargo United shipping records were compromised, despite massive firewall and anti-hacker protection. Within days, the source of the hacking was trace to a section of the asteroid belt. A fleet of law enforcement personnel were sent their and uncovered warehouses full of Cargo United goods, makeshift ships, and several pirate barracks.

The 576 pirates arrested were charged with espionage and piracy. Members of their number (who have opted to anonymous) provided information on how they had gotten into the Cargo United shipping records: they had taken advantage of the novelty of bioware enhancements and, by way of a modified computer interface implant, gained access to the Cargo United shipping records, which had not yet been reprogrammed to guard against the foreign structures of the implant.

An uproar was started over this, and the Galactic Council motioned to enact legislation banning bioware enhancements; however, this movement was dealt a considerable blow when word came in of a medical implant which had allowed a doctor working at a disaster site to treat patients approximately six times as quickly. AugmentCorp shifted from developing general use implants to implants that focused on safety, and the movement against the legislation was effectively halted, allowing bioware enhancement research to continue.

=Technical aspects= Bioware enhancements are a combination of man-made electronics and biological components. They are divided into two categories: physical and mental. Physical enhancements are those designed to improve the body's abilities or provide other physical boosts, and include implants such as endurance enhancers or buffer shields. Mental enhancements are a bit of a misnomer in that they are essentially everything that is not a physical enhancement, making them more of a miscellaneous category. Mental enhancements are much more common than physical implants; for example, nearly 90% of implant users have a communications implant.

Regardless of category, the standard method for installing a bioware enhancement generally consists of first inserting a man-made frame for the implant, and then filling the frame with the biotechnical substance fitted to the desired implant. The method may differ depending on local standards or the implant's location in the body, but all installations follow this procedure to some degree. CITATIONS: AugmentCorp, Cargo United, Galactic Council

(article by Cathak Gulichu)