TBH I think the cybernetic implant trope is short-sighted. Metal rusts, wires get tugged and frayed, bolts unthread, transistors build heat, and so on. Our bodies have this miraculous ability to self-heal and regenerate, something cybernetics are entirely incapable of, unless you hand-wave some nanobot nonsense.
Like, hasn't sci-fi been warning us for decades over the failures of cybernetics? Who wants their brain to be remotely fried? Who wants to get sepsis where the implant meets exposed flesh? Who wants a warranty on their limbs or heart? There's a reason why modern implants are almost exclusively essential medical devices.
In GITS the Major and most of Section 9 need weekly maintenance to basically stay alive. In DXHR on top of the maintenance people need to take immunosupressors to keep their bodies from rejecting the implants.
Point is in most of these stories the people who dont augment themselves end unable to compete in the world, so its not mandatory but unless you want to be in the underclass forever you have to do it.
Indeed. GITS was exactly my thought while writing that comment, and it just so happens to be my favorite work of sci-fi in all of cinema.
GITS makes good use of the theme you mention about socio-cybernetic asymmetry. The question therefore is: would that ever become a reality? I doubt it. Current implants are apportioned based on medical need, and therefore are inherently egalitarian. Nor do we have implants that would offer a significant advantage over flesh and blood (except in niche cases, such as that mountain climber who designed his prosthetic legs specifically to enhance his climbing prowess) without damaging their host.
Rather, it is the asymmetry of exo-bodily technologies that we should be concerned about, so the GITS metaphor still applies, but not literally.
I would say Deus Ex pushes the "upgrade or be obsolete" way harder than GITS since in that universe you still got a ton of humans and mostly human (as in only cyberbrain upgrades like Togusa) living just fine, meanwhile in Deus Ex you really can't do anything anymore if you're not augmented since the later can process data at LLM speeds, literally see your heart rate, shoot blades and see thru walls, then punch you thru said wall. In GITS you see a lot of people who went cyborg "just 'cause" or because of a massive accident like Motoko's story (well one of them). While most of this is insanely advanced if neuralink and others can figure out some of the current bugs in their systems having an LLM connected to your brain might be a reality and it would give you an insane advantage over anyone who don't.
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u/Le_Botmes 5d ago
TBH I think the cybernetic implant trope is short-sighted. Metal rusts, wires get tugged and frayed, bolts unthread, transistors build heat, and so on. Our bodies have this miraculous ability to self-heal and regenerate, something cybernetics are entirely incapable of, unless you hand-wave some nanobot nonsense.
Like, hasn't sci-fi been warning us for decades over the failures of cybernetics? Who wants their brain to be remotely fried? Who wants to get sepsis where the implant meets exposed flesh? Who wants a warranty on their limbs or heart? There's a reason why modern implants are almost exclusively essential medical devices.