Cyberware
CYBERWARE DEFINED
Cyberware, at its simplest, is an implanted technological device that can be manipulated by the metahuman body. Cyberware covers everything from enhancements such as datajacks, bone lacing and move-by-wire systems to devices that compensate for disabilities or damage that would otherwise be crippling.
Cyberware comes in many forms and consists of many components, such as plastic derivatives, ceramics and non-corrosive (as well as nonmagnetic and even non-conductive) metal, insulated micro fiberoptic lines, microelectronics, microcomputers, microoptical processors, micro gyroscopes and engines, electronically stimulated polymers and other myomers.
Direct Neural Interface
Most cyberware is either connected directly to the brain or wired into the nervous system, creating a direct neural link that allows the implant to be controlled by mental commands, usually a physiological impulse of some kind. In other words, the act of extending a retractable hand blade is as easy and unconscious as flexing a muscle; the user does not need to mentally issue an “open” command to the hand blade Many devices installed in cyberlimbs and body compartments, however, are not equipped to be hardwired to the body; for example, it is just not practical to cybernetically control a lockpick gun (p. 27). Likewise, many devices classified as headware (for example, a tactical computer), when installed in a cyberlimb, are not automatically connected to the brain or nervous system. Such items require a direct neural interface (DNI), a translator that allows the device to interact with and be controlled by the brain (see p. 39).
Interconnectivity
To get the most from your cyberware, it is often necessary for various devices to communicate with each other. For example, if you have an eye camera and headware memory, the eye camera should be connected to the headware memory in such a way that the pictures you take can be stored there. Cyberware devices can be linked to each other using an input/output transfer device, which allows the cyberware to exchange data. Both datajacks (p. 298, SR3) and routers (p. 22) fulfill this role. Such devices can also transfer data to and from external devices linked via a datajack or DNI connection. For more information on interconnectivity, see p. 46.
IMPLANTING
As the Universal Omnitech advertisement states: “If you can imagine it, we can implant it.”
Though the natural metahuman body is incapable of meeting the demands of the twenty-first century, it still represents a marvel of construction and performance. Using the machine that is cyberware to tamper with the machine that is the body by adding to, removing from or otherwise altering it is guaranteed to make the original machine run or look different. Even installing something as unobtrusive as a datajack means the metahuman head actually has a hole in it—a small piece of skull has been removed, and the human brain has been exposed. The skull’s purpose is to protect the brain, but metahumanity is willing to compromise that function for the ability to process computer images that much faster and better. Even though the hole is quite small, the fact remains that the skull’s role has been circumvented.
Cyberware radically alters the original flesh body, and such alterations take a toll. You might consider it “just a datajack,” but that relatively unobtrusive piece of cyberware changes how the brain operates and how the body protects itself.
Essence
Cyberware can do more than bioware (p. 60) or flesh replacement parts (p. 139), and it is diverse enough in design to work on everything from the brain to limbs to internal organs and the nervous system—for all practical purposes, its applications are unlimited. The one limit to implanting cyberware is created by the nature of the metahuman body: for each piece of cyberware implanted, the metahuman loses Essence— that element which separates the living from the nonliving. In SR3, Essence is defined as a body’s life force, its wholeness, its cohesive and holistic strength. Cyberware cuts through that like a hot knife through butter.
Essence loss is not simply a result of removing flesh: p eoplewho lose limbs or organs but do not replace them with cyberware do not lose Essence. The loss of Essence is a result of connecting a machine to the nervous system using microsurgery and nanotechnology. By doing so, you have changed the fundamental nature of your body—you gain an operational advantage, but you are no longer whole.
A point exists at which the brain can no longer accept additional machine elements as part of the body, if those parts are installed in the standard way. Every metahuman possesses six points of Essence that can be traded for cyberware; this appears to be a limit science alone cannot surpass. As a result, cyberware research developed simultaneously in two directions. One avenue sought to make the interface between the man and the machine less catastrophic to the body, i.e., reduce the Essence cost. This resulted in improving grades of cyberware. The other direction looked for a way to trick the body into accepting more cyberware than it had Essence to replace using specialized magical means. This created cybermancy (p. 50).
GRADES OF CYBERWARE
Cyberware is available in four grades. From lowest to highest grade, they are: basic, alphaware, betaware and deltaware. The better the grade, the lower the Essence loss and the higher quality the components. The most common cyberware is basic cyberware. Not exactly Essence-friendly, it is constructed for the mass market and readily available. Any surgeon or street doctor can implant basic cyberware. It has the advantages of being relatively inexpensive, easy to obtain and simple to install. The disadvantage is that it cannot be customized to an individual or a specific purpose—what you see is what you get. Alphaware is better-constructed than basic cyberware. The materials have higher quality control, and the devices receive more rigorous testing. In general, alphaware must be ordered, though it is beginning to be available as a stock item. It is as readily available as basic cyberware, but it costs twice as much and also reduces Essence loss. Betaware is custom-fitted and adjusted to the user’s physiology. Betaware must be special-ordered, and the client must undergo tests to analyze their body’s condition and submit to chemical tests and DNA screening. Betaware replaces many of the gyros and microengines used in basic cyberware and alphaware with myomers. Betaware implants cost four times as much as basic cyberware. It is less easily available and takes longer to produce. Betaware implants cost less Essence than basic or alphaware and are difficult to acquire on the street.
The rarest grade of cyberware (and perhaps the ultimate in cybernetic enhancement) is deltaware. Deltaware is always custom-built for each user as part of the surgical process. Constructed of the highest-grade metals, plastics and ceramics, deltaware borders on art—the electronics are wired as the implant is put into the body to ensure perfect compatibility and flawless construction. Deltaware generally wires the myomers directly to the body’s electrical impulses, so surgeons must be trained in both microelectronics and medicine. Deltaware is not available on the street, and the people capable of creating and implanting it are buried so deeply in the corporations that their names and locations are rarely even whispered in the shadows. Deltaware-capable clinics often offer access to cybermancy (p. 50), even if they cannot perform it themselves.
Deltaware implants, parts and tools cost eight times as much as basic cyberware.
Basic, alpha and beta cyberware is available used. The quality of this cyberware must be considered suspect, but it is cheap and will still do the job for which it was designed. Used deltaware cannot be purchased, but if you can otherwise acquire it, you can have it installed as if it were betaware. Rules for cyberware grades appear on p. 44.
CYBERWARE CLASSIFICATIONS
Cyberware is divided into three classifications, based on location and use: head ware, body ware and cyberlimbs. One of the many advantages that cyberware offers metahumanity is that each piece can dramatically expand the role of a metahuman body part. For all that metahumanity’s primary characteristic and advantage is its adaptability, the truth is that a flesh eye has a specific and singular function. Cyberware manufacturers now offer replacement parts that can perform multiple functions. For example, a cybereye offers more than twenty-five options, not including option packages and stackable operations.
Headware
It is easy to determine which items fall into the headware classification. Any cyberware that is implanted in the head is considered headware, which ranges from the exotic (cyberskulls) to the mundane (datajacks). Perhaps the most useful of all cyberware, headware’s proximity to the brain also makes it some of the most dangerous to install. The fact that pieces of the skull need to be removed or drilled through in order to install headware allows the body’s most important organ to be exposed and, in some cases, damaged. This risk has in no way diminished the popularity of datajacks, radios, additional memory and other accessories.
Headware is subdivided by function into senseware, matrixware, riggerware, communications and brainware.
Senseware consists of eye, ear and nasal modifications as well as chemical analyzers and weapons confined to sensory orifices. This type of cyberware implantation is popular because it allows multiple options to be added in a single procedure. Senseware can improve existing senses and add new ones.
Matrixware is the narrowest branch of headware, but the most commonly implanted, consisting primarily of datajacks and cerebral cyberdecks.
Riggerware consists of a rigger remote control deck and access installed in a cranial interface.
Communications headware is a very common enhancement. No one thinks twice about having a radio, telephone or other communications device implanted into their skull. The shadow community’s increased use of headware communications and the value of a rigger’s detection devices mean the next advancement in headware communications is most likely to involve the ability to jam another’s communications.
Brainware is the catchall category for headware and includes such items as headware memory, advanced-function processors such as the tactical computer, tooth compartments and even cortex bombs. The brainware classification originally described only headware designed to enhance (and even outperform) the brain, but the proliferation of unique pieces of gear that were difficult to categorize expanded the scope of this classification.
Bodyware
Bodyware covers all cyberware not implanted in the head. Any devices that use the central nervous system to deliver messages to the brain are considered bodyware, as are move-by-wire systems and high-end wired reflexes that bypass the normal nervous system routing, as are bone restructuring, body plating and even cybertorsos. Bodyware also includes any devices that can be built into cyberlimbs, such as hand blades or smartgun links.
Cyberlimbs
Once a subclassification of bodyware, cyberlimbs have evolved into a unique classification as a result of advances in the number of objects that can be incorporated into a single limb. Cyberlimb owners can now customize their limbs as easily as their cybereyes, even including storage compartments. Cyberlimbs have a high Essence cost because of the number of neural pathways that must remain open to the brain.
POWER SOURCES
Early efforts in cyberware required battery packs and recharging to power the devices, but like the dodo and the honest corporate official, they are things of the past. By reinforcing the natural myolinear sheath interfacing that connects the nervous system pathways using superconductive and macroconductive materials that are constantly repaired and reconnected via nanotechnology, cyberware can be powered from within the body.
Cyberware now runs on the natural neural bioelectricity that powers the flesh body. Even items that would seem to use more energy than the body can produce, such as cyberlimbs or wired reflexes, can perform at the levels they do because these superconductive pathways pick up bioelectric current from other parts of the body and instantaneously feed it to the areas that need the power. The process used to redistribute neural bioelectricity alters the body’s biochemistry. Some researchers believe that this base physiological change may also reduce Essence, which could explain why there have been no further breakthroughs since the development of deltaware.
Cyberware, at its simplest, is an implanted technological device that can be manipulated by the metahuman body. Cyberware covers everything from enhancements such as datajacks, bone lacing and move-by-wire systems to devices that compensate for disabilities or damage that would otherwise be crippling.
Cyberware comes in many forms and consists of many components, such as plastic derivatives, ceramics and non-corrosive (as well as nonmagnetic and even non-conductive) metal, insulated micro fiberoptic lines, microelectronics, microcomputers, microoptical processors, micro gyroscopes and engines, electronically stimulated polymers and other myomers.
Direct Neural Interface
Most cyberware is either connected directly to the brain or wired into the nervous system, creating a direct neural link that allows the implant to be controlled by mental commands, usually a physiological impulse of some kind. In other words, the act of extending a retractable hand blade is as easy and unconscious as flexing a muscle; the user does not need to mentally issue an “open” command to the hand blade Many devices installed in cyberlimbs and body compartments, however, are not equipped to be hardwired to the body; for example, it is just not practical to cybernetically control a lockpick gun (p. 27). Likewise, many devices classified as headware (for example, a tactical computer), when installed in a cyberlimb, are not automatically connected to the brain or nervous system. Such items require a direct neural interface (DNI), a translator that allows the device to interact with and be controlled by the brain (see p. 39).
Interconnectivity
To get the most from your cyberware, it is often necessary for various devices to communicate with each other. For example, if you have an eye camera and headware memory, the eye camera should be connected to the headware memory in such a way that the pictures you take can be stored there. Cyberware devices can be linked to each other using an input/output transfer device, which allows the cyberware to exchange data. Both datajacks (p. 298, SR3) and routers (p. 22) fulfill this role. Such devices can also transfer data to and from external devices linked via a datajack or DNI connection. For more information on interconnectivity, see p. 46.
IMPLANTING
As the Universal Omnitech advertisement states: “If you can imagine it, we can implant it.”
Though the natural metahuman body is incapable of meeting the demands of the twenty-first century, it still represents a marvel of construction and performance. Using the machine that is cyberware to tamper with the machine that is the body by adding to, removing from or otherwise altering it is guaranteed to make the original machine run or look different. Even installing something as unobtrusive as a datajack means the metahuman head actually has a hole in it—a small piece of skull has been removed, and the human brain has been exposed. The skull’s purpose is to protect the brain, but metahumanity is willing to compromise that function for the ability to process computer images that much faster and better. Even though the hole is quite small, the fact remains that the skull’s role has been circumvented.
Cyberware radically alters the original flesh body, and such alterations take a toll. You might consider it “just a datajack,” but that relatively unobtrusive piece of cyberware changes how the brain operates and how the body protects itself.
Essence
Cyberware can do more than bioware (p. 60) or flesh replacement parts (p. 139), and it is diverse enough in design to work on everything from the brain to limbs to internal organs and the nervous system—for all practical purposes, its applications are unlimited. The one limit to implanting cyberware is created by the nature of the metahuman body: for each piece of cyberware implanted, the metahuman loses Essence— that element which separates the living from the nonliving. In SR3, Essence is defined as a body’s life force, its wholeness, its cohesive and holistic strength. Cyberware cuts through that like a hot knife through butter.
Essence loss is not simply a result of removing flesh: p eoplewho lose limbs or organs but do not replace them with cyberware do not lose Essence. The loss of Essence is a result of connecting a machine to the nervous system using microsurgery and nanotechnology. By doing so, you have changed the fundamental nature of your body—you gain an operational advantage, but you are no longer whole.
A point exists at which the brain can no longer accept additional machine elements as part of the body, if those parts are installed in the standard way. Every metahuman possesses six points of Essence that can be traded for cyberware; this appears to be a limit science alone cannot surpass. As a result, cyberware research developed simultaneously in two directions. One avenue sought to make the interface between the man and the machine less catastrophic to the body, i.e., reduce the Essence cost. This resulted in improving grades of cyberware. The other direction looked for a way to trick the body into accepting more cyberware than it had Essence to replace using specialized magical means. This created cybermancy (p. 50).
GRADES OF CYBERWARE
Cyberware is available in four grades. From lowest to highest grade, they are: basic, alphaware, betaware and deltaware. The better the grade, the lower the Essence loss and the higher quality the components. The most common cyberware is basic cyberware. Not exactly Essence-friendly, it is constructed for the mass market and readily available. Any surgeon or street doctor can implant basic cyberware. It has the advantages of being relatively inexpensive, easy to obtain and simple to install. The disadvantage is that it cannot be customized to an individual or a specific purpose—what you see is what you get. Alphaware is better-constructed than basic cyberware. The materials have higher quality control, and the devices receive more rigorous testing. In general, alphaware must be ordered, though it is beginning to be available as a stock item. It is as readily available as basic cyberware, but it costs twice as much and also reduces Essence loss. Betaware is custom-fitted and adjusted to the user’s physiology. Betaware must be special-ordered, and the client must undergo tests to analyze their body’s condition and submit to chemical tests and DNA screening. Betaware replaces many of the gyros and microengines used in basic cyberware and alphaware with myomers. Betaware implants cost four times as much as basic cyberware. It is less easily available and takes longer to produce. Betaware implants cost less Essence than basic or alphaware and are difficult to acquire on the street.
The rarest grade of cyberware (and perhaps the ultimate in cybernetic enhancement) is deltaware. Deltaware is always custom-built for each user as part of the surgical process. Constructed of the highest-grade metals, plastics and ceramics, deltaware borders on art—the electronics are wired as the implant is put into the body to ensure perfect compatibility and flawless construction. Deltaware generally wires the myomers directly to the body’s electrical impulses, so surgeons must be trained in both microelectronics and medicine. Deltaware is not available on the street, and the people capable of creating and implanting it are buried so deeply in the corporations that their names and locations are rarely even whispered in the shadows. Deltaware-capable clinics often offer access to cybermancy (p. 50), even if they cannot perform it themselves.
Deltaware implants, parts and tools cost eight times as much as basic cyberware.
Basic, alpha and beta cyberware is available used. The quality of this cyberware must be considered suspect, but it is cheap and will still do the job for which it was designed. Used deltaware cannot be purchased, but if you can otherwise acquire it, you can have it installed as if it were betaware. Rules for cyberware grades appear on p. 44.
CYBERWARE CLASSIFICATIONS
Cyberware is divided into three classifications, based on location and use: head ware, body ware and cyberlimbs. One of the many advantages that cyberware offers metahumanity is that each piece can dramatically expand the role of a metahuman body part. For all that metahumanity’s primary characteristic and advantage is its adaptability, the truth is that a flesh eye has a specific and singular function. Cyberware manufacturers now offer replacement parts that can perform multiple functions. For example, a cybereye offers more than twenty-five options, not including option packages and stackable operations.
Headware
It is easy to determine which items fall into the headware classification. Any cyberware that is implanted in the head is considered headware, which ranges from the exotic (cyberskulls) to the mundane (datajacks). Perhaps the most useful of all cyberware, headware’s proximity to the brain also makes it some of the most dangerous to install. The fact that pieces of the skull need to be removed or drilled through in order to install headware allows the body’s most important organ to be exposed and, in some cases, damaged. This risk has in no way diminished the popularity of datajacks, radios, additional memory and other accessories.
Headware is subdivided by function into senseware, matrixware, riggerware, communications and brainware.
Senseware consists of eye, ear and nasal modifications as well as chemical analyzers and weapons confined to sensory orifices. This type of cyberware implantation is popular because it allows multiple options to be added in a single procedure. Senseware can improve existing senses and add new ones.
Matrixware is the narrowest branch of headware, but the most commonly implanted, consisting primarily of datajacks and cerebral cyberdecks.
Riggerware consists of a rigger remote control deck and access installed in a cranial interface.
Communications headware is a very common enhancement. No one thinks twice about having a radio, telephone or other communications device implanted into their skull. The shadow community’s increased use of headware communications and the value of a rigger’s detection devices mean the next advancement in headware communications is most likely to involve the ability to jam another’s communications.
Brainware is the catchall category for headware and includes such items as headware memory, advanced-function processors such as the tactical computer, tooth compartments and even cortex bombs. The brainware classification originally described only headware designed to enhance (and even outperform) the brain, but the proliferation of unique pieces of gear that were difficult to categorize expanded the scope of this classification.
Bodyware
Bodyware covers all cyberware not implanted in the head. Any devices that use the central nervous system to deliver messages to the brain are considered bodyware, as are move-by-wire systems and high-end wired reflexes that bypass the normal nervous system routing, as are bone restructuring, body plating and even cybertorsos. Bodyware also includes any devices that can be built into cyberlimbs, such as hand blades or smartgun links.
Cyberlimbs
Once a subclassification of bodyware, cyberlimbs have evolved into a unique classification as a result of advances in the number of objects that can be incorporated into a single limb. Cyberlimb owners can now customize their limbs as easily as their cybereyes, even including storage compartments. Cyberlimbs have a high Essence cost because of the number of neural pathways that must remain open to the brain.
POWER SOURCES
Early efforts in cyberware required battery packs and recharging to power the devices, but like the dodo and the honest corporate official, they are things of the past. By reinforcing the natural myolinear sheath interfacing that connects the nervous system pathways using superconductive and macroconductive materials that are constantly repaired and reconnected via nanotechnology, cyberware can be powered from within the body.
Cyberware now runs on the natural neural bioelectricity that powers the flesh body. Even items that would seem to use more energy than the body can produce, such as cyberlimbs or wired reflexes, can perform at the levels they do because these superconductive pathways pick up bioelectric current from other parts of the body and instantaneously feed it to the areas that need the power. The process used to redistribute neural bioelectricity alters the body’s biochemistry. Some researchers believe that this base physiological change may also reduce Essence, which could explain why there have been no further breakthroughs since the development of deltaware.