We know from the Netcasts that cybernetic implants were widely used in the pre-Plague human worlds. But, is the lack of their presence in the FS episodes because subsequent human civilizations don't possess the technology level to create them or because they've banned their use since they're vulnerable to the Plague, etc?
I would assume that the level of Technology is such that if someone lost an arm that a new one would be grown and attached, and in the meantime a cybernetic model would be affixed while waiting for the new one to be grown... If this is the norm, then Characters in the universe that we see everyday will likely not mention or draw attention to such.
Also with Nanites its likely that there is no need of implants. in fact implants may be unused in the military for the possiblity of them being subverted. So there is that too.
The main reason we do not see implants (apart from one mention on Corinair of the Tech assisting the Takaran force on the grown plugging into a computer.) is because the people of Earth are new to this level of tech and it is likely very uncommon for anyone on earth to have implants as yet.
I wonder how long it would take for a population following a recent technological revolution would begin to take technological implants and stick them in their body's...
If someone came up to you in the street and offered you a shiny pair of night vision & termal vision capable cybernetic eyes would you except them?
I would let my early adopter buddy get a set and then buy it off of him used in a few years when the next big thing comes available.
I wouldn't replace the eyes, but I would accept a multifunction retinal insert capable of seeing in multiple spectrums. You could have the capability to see in low-light, infrared, thermal, etc. You could even program a "virtual vision" system with an iconic graphical user interface in order to receive/send emails, texts, etc. Maybe even with a Siri-type intelligent assistant program to help you coordinate everything.
I imagine you will see implants take off first to correct problems with augmentation coming later. It is a lot less of a risk for blind people to try implants as they are already blind. Once there is a track record of success you will probably see implants to enhance start to take off.
Of course there will always be those early adopters but widespread acceptance is going to take longer while people make sure they work like they are supposed to. I imagine implants with a lower downside if they malfunction will be adopted quicker with things like eyes taking a bit longer.
I figure that the military and astronauts will be the first groups to use large scale workforce augmentation (in real-live) and that we will likely see people with augmented (improved bodies) manning Sol system wide space missions that normal's like us couldn't easily survive.
I mean augmented people who could survive and function under extreme high or low G and/or other forces would be preferable in a long range hop from Earth to Mars and back.
The military and the government would be the first groups to embrace large scale workforce augmentation, but i don't think the augmentations would be solely cybernetic. More than likely we'll see a balanced introduction of cybernetic and bioengineering.
I don't like the idea of wide scale bio-engineering with out great need. But even that to me sounds like a slippery slope: to remove diseases and birth defects, could very easily be seen as the mass genocide of people with Parkinsons / MS / Down Syndrome or other.
I think that it would become more and more unfair to have some specially created people to compete in the olympics.
I prefer Bio-engineering when it involves growing replacement organs / skin / blood for medical reasons.
