This episode really makes me want to see more episodes on cyborgs in the civilian context. I remember you had a topic idea in an old poll about life as a cyborg. Those day in the life episodes are always great anyway, but those two combined would be even better!
@@Killy10000 nah the show has tons of civilian cybernetics. ya either should watch it again or watch it period. hell there is literally an episode that describes a case similar to the one in the beginning of this episode but instead of the military route its a guy who is denied them because of his families mythic beliefs.
To be honest it’s underrepresented even in cyberpunk fiction. 5 pages on combat cyberware and not a one on getting a chrome spine so you never feel back-pain again.
"I said that my zero-mass rifle was a tool of justice. Not used in anger, not used for vengeance... but now... now I'm not so sure, and besides: this ISN'T my zero-mass rifle."
Major Motoko Kusanagi "Maybe someday your "maker" will come … haul you away, take you apart, and announce the recall of a defective product. What if all that's left of the "real you" is just a couple of lonely brain cells, huh?"
I'm reminded of Heinlen's Mech-Infantry, so dangerous [to the enemy and themselves] that they usually stayed kilometers apart. Just one dropship full of those onion-pods with M-Is would ravage entire cities, cutting through defenses like a knife through vacuum. And that was with his 1950s imagination, no augmentation or bio engineering. Enjoyed the book thoroughly, after you mentioned it :D
One example from a Japanese Comic comes to mind, where they introduced a superstrong polymer into the soldier, which would bit by bit replace those bits of the brain that are not needed for thinking, but are just there to provide scaffolding. Suddenly, you needed a sledge hammer to give this particular cyborg a concussion, because his brain was made out of superrubber.
In the old role playing game Rifts, there were all sorts of augmented people alongside people with power armor, creatures from other worlds, and even magic. One of the types of augmentation was a group of people called Juicers. Instead of mechanical and computer enhancement, Juicers were chemically enhanced. A small computer constantly monitored the various aspects of their bodies, and as needed injected various chemicals and synthetic hormones, as well as triggering or shutting down the body's own glands, as well as regulating things like heart rate and pain. A small plate on the chest could inject swarms of nano-bots as needed to repair injuries caused by combat or accident. The result was the Juicers had crazy reflexes, improved strength, greatly improved endurance, and usually had a sped up perception of time. The downside was that their bodies couldn't handle the stress, and so after 2 or 3 years, their hearts would explode and other organs would just fail.
@@jordanp4987 Hey, it was a game that had power armor, demons, necormancers, vampires, techno-wizards, cyborgs, aliens, dinos ... like the everything and the kitchen sink of table top RPGs. I was willing to overlook a little thing like that.
My favorite single enhancement I've seen in sci-fi is from the Mass Effect series, where many people have little sensors implanted in their fingertips to let them seamlessly interact with holo displays and get haptic feedback.
I also like the auditory implant explained in the ME1 Bring Down the Sky dlc codex that provides seamless verbal language translation. That would be an incredibly useful implant today.
I wonder about a rift between those made in a factory (born there) vs those that volunteer to become cyborgs and what effect it would have on their mind.
Volunteers would probably have higher morale than those who had no choice. Like the difference between a volunteer military like the USA, and conscripted troops like China.
Congratulations on your upcoming anniversary. I believe your work on this channel, as well as your position as President of the National Space Society, will lead to the betterment of humanity today and far into the future.
Fantastic episode. I guess I never realized just how much of a limiting factor metabolism alone could be for enhanced armies. Kind of brings to mind the Tyranids of WH40k, how they rely on well designed bioforms and break down everything at horribly efficient levels to keep their armies and fleets topped off.
In some of the lore they sound like they are always running on a razor's edge budget where one solar system has to be enough to get them to the next, or they will be too starved for resources to properly invade. And then some writers just ignore it and have them go all-in every time.
@@Reddotzebra The tyranid economy - and military - runs on rule of cool, not on consistency. If not, then they would be completely impossible to combat. Just imagine the amount of biomass you would get if you really DID remove all the biomass from a planet, pluss the oceans, plus a chunk of the atmosphere, plus the top ten meters or so of soil. A single Planet, thus raided, would be enough to supply the tyranids with more heavy duty battleship equivalents than the imperial navy has ships in total....
The more I listen to this the more it seems the path taken by Warhammer 40k is quite realistic... quite a number of Astartes's implants are mechanical and low power in nature, which use their body for power supply. While the high power usage equipments remain out side on the power armor.
@@insertname9736 I thought being unrealistic parody was basically the point. Nobody could survive becoming an Astartes in the first place, nevermind all the other completely implausible, impractical and impossible things that exist in the setting. 😂
I think cybernetics can be conceptually rolled into the whole suite of enhancements in this context. Genetic enhancement, nanomachines, bodymods in all their varieties, and powered combat armor. My own fic has heat management as a big limit to performance for any sort of high-end soldier. Mastery of physical laws helps with this, but they feel it when tricks like shunting it into hyperspace or a nullspace pocket isn't available.
If you went with the route of powering cybernetics with one’s own body (assuming modifications for utmost efficiency), external batteries, and a solar panel cloak all at the same time, how much energy would that produce? Honestly cyborgs with bad ass cloaks that actually serve a purpose sounds really cool.
Grafting a person's body around a metal skeleton. With a drug enhancer augmenting the owns body's production to efficency at the correct needed time. You need to lift somthing. Immidate microdose of body made adrenaline.
And I just FINALLY finished my military sci-fi manuscript about a month ago... Gee thanks Isaac, you just added half a dozen things I want to add to my power armor shock troopers when I go back to edit and revise. In particular, I love the idea of a smart linked shared inventory linked up to a little AI helper so that someone who's running dry can flag a squadmate to lend them a spare magazine. And of course the whole bit about nuclear power supplies producing immense amounts of thermal waste heat got me thinking as well.
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel, I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine. Your kind cling to your flesh, as if it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call a temple will wither and you will beg my kind to save you, but I am already saved, for the machine is immortal. Even in death I serve The Omnissiah.
The first two seasons of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex are all about the aftermath of this. All the police and criminals got their augmentations during a fourth world war LoL. There's a really good flashback episode where the main character is fighting a sniper in an invasion of mexico. And she bluffs him by pausing to fake herself getting a satellite uplink to her cyborg brain. He hesitates, then she shoots his sniper bullet out of their air in such a way it also takes the snipers eye out. Cool beans.
It was the original "Ghost in the Shell" anime. Ever since I was 10, I've been fascinated with cybernetic enhancements. I can honestly see cybernetics bring a lucrative business in the future. Everything from replacement of lost/damaged limbs, neutral implants for computer interfacing or curing mental disabilities, to bring used to engineer the ultimate Special Forces soldier.
Ghost in the Shell was excellent, notwithstanding the scifi setting, they actively explored the social and technical ramifications of partial through to full augmentation. The principle being that the 'ghost' is the only tangible aspect of organic options that mattered, then they even went past that with the evolution of the tachcomas. Once you add more than a wristwatch to an organic person, it is a sliding scale to a fully autonomous AI battle entity. There is no one point you can identify as saying it is human-vs-nonhuman.
9 years already? How the time flies! Some ideas/nitpicks: 1) I don't think getting rid of either fear or pain is a good idea. Yes I know it's a common trope for cyborg soldiers, but both fear and pain serve as important warning systems. A better idea than switching it off or tuning it way down would be to be able to filter it so that you don't get warned for the minor irritant like a thorn or something but get warned of a nasty wound/infection/sheer drop etc. 2) Which power source can't be throttled at 16:00? it isn't clear from the sentence 3) Augmented quartermaster is a better idea than assistant AI because enemy can't hack into the quartermaster ;P 4) Dropship trailing power cables for the troops is an amazing idea
The introduction is perfect for a science fiction story. Isaac Arthur has immense potential to be an excellent science fiction writer as well. He has all the science backing, personal life experience, and a love of the subjects he works on that he would write Hard and Soft sci-fi stories that I would be excited to read (or watch), as well as his excellent science videos. 😊
Sugar-powered cybernetics. That's a fun idea. I'm imagining a scenario like the Terminator or Harlan Ellison's Soldier where a cyborg soldier is transported to our time and just starts eating all the junkfood.
This topic reminds me of the Cyberpunk 2077 lore which have cyberborg soldiers work for multinational corporation. I think to have the cyberborg soldiers in the next century as the power pack will be smaller but powerful.
The main problem with using a diamond battery as armor is that diamonds are still flamable, at least when exposed to liquid oxygen, or more powerful oxidizers like flourine. So the enemy could just deploy flourine flamethrowers and incinerate your cyborgs in their own armor with both chemical and radioactive heat as that carbon 14 gets vaporized and coats their lungs and other mucous membranes in radioactive Teflon.
@@knightofficer I mean maybe that will destroy the armor and kill them, but it still releases radioactive materials into the air around the enemies, rather than binding it up on the corpses or surrounding ground. Meaning it's hard to approach the enemies to confirm kills. Teflon is very non-reactive, so once the fluorine binds to that carbon, it will take something very unlikely to be inhaled or ingested by your own troops.
Something I wish more sci-fi would explore, is intentionally inhuman looking but still aesthetically pleasing cybernetics. Can't get what you want in a human form-factor, with current tech? Power source included? Screw it, make those legs twice the size, but throw in an eagle's talons or cat's paws theme so the stability spikes AND afterburners look more natural and cool. That sort of thing.
I can see non-functional or semi-functional 'wings' going into fashion, if radiator surface area is necessary for more power-demanding cyborgs. Or thick, heavy kangaroo/lizard-like tails for the car-throwing, tank-flipping sorts -- I think no matter how augmented your spine, legs, and arms are, a lot of comic book feats of strength are going to be tricky without a big, mobile counterbalance and additional point to brace yourself with; also useful for those firing high-recoil weapons or otherwise struggling to keep footing with two points of ground contact against whatever forces they're generating.
@@05Matz There's actually a Japanese researcher right now working on artificial tails. Though the 'Arque' is strapped on with a special belt. Seems kinda cool, actually. The idea is to help with balance and carrying stuff, by offering an automated counter weight. Obviously, the most excitement came from the tech geeks and~ the furries. Haven't heard anything new since 2019, but... yeah. Stuff happened there.
@@LORDOFDORKNESS42 There's an awful lot of overlap between those demographics, and the sci-fi enthusiasts and transhumanists too! I think they all share a general dissatisfaction with the limitations of the current way of living and an interest in re-imagining the way the world works, overall.
Man, my setting is gonna be pretty batshit crazy since there’s multiple human factions (some allies) using cyborgs, clones, AI, robots, and/or superhumans for their military solutions.
Anothet exelent SFIA video! I think a lot about how cybernetic things will get vs. genetic modding. I am sure both will exist to various degrees. I thought about the Eversor from the Officio Assassinorum when Isaac was talking about drug fuled bezerkers. I think genetics will be the key to super soldiers, with cybernetics being a bit less common. These episodes have been above normal fascinating over the last few weeks for me. SFIA is always thought provoking and fascinating, but the last few have been right in my wheelhouse. The kidnapped version reminded me of servitors in 40k. One of thr most horrifying thing to me in the whole grimdark universe 😮 this has all been 100% story fodder for me, great Stuff Sir!
@@cedriceric9730Are you exclaiming, or stating that faith will heal their femur? Because faith by no means heals birth deformities, you might just feel better about it.
The most prolific implants and alterations will be internal, most likely involving memory and sensory enhancement. They are also the type of implant that would not need much power to operate.
If my time in the military taught me anything, your cyborg soldiers will definitely need automatic antibiotics injectors. For shore leave. But honestly it seems to me that, other than life supporting implants, the most important thing will be a datalink. A soldier who can interface any needed combat equipment is far superior to one who only has what is integrated into their body. "Specialization is for insects, humans generalize."
The mobile game Nikke: Goddess of Victory deals with quite a few of these issues. The world has been invaded by robotic aliens called Raptures(who are probably our own rogue AI going by the hints dropped) and humanity is confined to one underground settlement called the Ark. Due to the severe overmatch in technology, humans can't really fight the Raptures, or even lift weapons capable of denting them, so the Nikkes are used, brain-in-a-jar cyborgs from women who volunteer(for various values of volunteer, the setting is incredibly grim under the surface) Since their bodies run off batteries and they only need to fuel their brain, they can go without eating for extended periods, but it's vitally important that they do still eat small amounts to prevent them from truly processing that they're a robot attached to a brain in the jar and having a mental breakdown, which is a very real fear when the only available counter to them is other Nikkes(they're even aware of this problem themselves and will talk about needing to eat with a real sense of creeping dread on occasion). They're also all unstable to some extent, though this is influenced by the conditions on the Ark, the conditions people who volunteer/are voluntold suffer, the mindwipe process, and the fact that most Nikke are unremarkable and stable mass production units, and only "exceptional" brains produced the named units we actually use with any regularity in-game It's also a gacha game whose selling point is curvy women squatting behind cover and jiggling their behinds, so you might enjoy that or prefer to find story compilations(including past seasonal events) on RU-vid or the like
Excellent video! I might add on the topic of using technology to tune out minor aches and pains, that it may be unwise to allow each person to self-medicate in this way. Ignoring the rock in your shoe turns into an open wound that gets infected, and not listening to your body can turn a stress fracture into months out of action. Pain is a useful if unpleasant tool, and we should be careful leaving it in the hands of the individual. Like any other prescription painkiller, make the troops go see a corpsman!
I recall an episode from Ghost in the shell where they discussed obsolescence in terms of Cyborg parts. What exactly are you supposed to do if there are no more spare parts left to keep your particular brain-jar design functioning, because the terms of service ended ten years ago, or the company went bankrupt or whatever? What are the implications of your body being literal state property?
Hey Isaac, can you do a video on Entomophagy? I’m very passionate about the lives and biology of insects and other invertebrates but have also eaten a wide variety of them, and I wonder if you could make a dedicated video on that.
I love the series of sci-fi Sundays taking it apart and trying to not use hand wave explanations for tech but have to mention the logistics and upkeep I feel like I cannot make any requests after I did request antimatter economy episode and the next year you did it.
Reika's Murauders. Book series about exactly this, cyborg armies. Awesome series. Also I figure a good power supply is a small atomic power supply that doesn't power the full body, but does charge internal batteries and super capacitors. Would mean the cyborg would have a need to sleep so the batteries can recharge.
I would hope removing augmentations would be as easy as putting them on. Life is short, but also long. When or if you’re done with combat, being able to reintegrate into society would be crucial. You’d also want your emotions and hormones sent back to normal so you can have proper relationships with people who haven’t had your augmentations. It’s amazing to be able to hear a pin drop in a crowded room, but regular people don’t want to feel like they’re privacy is gone when you’re around. You’d be able to hear if they’re anxious or lying through their heart, hear any whispers, and so many other things we take for granted. We like that our dogs can do that because they can’t make judgments on us. But a person with super human senses outside of a combat or security setting would be unsettling. And there are many other augmentations suitable for combat that may be socially acceptable to take off or turn off once you’re back home. Or maybe no one would care since at that point, privacy and other concerns might not mean then compared to what it means for us now
I think it's worth to mention that cybernetic upgrades will be highly desirable, but the top tier stuff will not be within the grasp of most people for a long time simply due to cost. So a military route might be a way for many to get access to the best augments that wouldn't be available to them otherwise.
Idea: Biological machines/A.I./androids vs. Synthetic/cybernetic humans. At what point do the two poles intersect at the middle and does it even matter?
Good ol' Ship of Theseus. As for replacing your parts with synthetics and cybernetics, how truly different is it from the fact that all of your cells are replaced after a few decades? They're replaced by newer cells that are intended to do a better job. It's just instead of one human unconsciously doing it with his own body, multiple humans are doing it with said body, albeit with different materials. Little by little would be the most acceptable... but the moment you make massive, wholesale changes it seems the sentiment also changes.
@@stevenhetzel6483 I agree that slow and steady change is best. Same with the human race. Fast change leads to conflict. But if you spread it over generations, it is normal. I think if a person replaced most of their body, they would probably have mental issues adjusting. Whereas if they do it little by little, it gives them time to adjust.
ultra high G survivability has one obvious use - drop troops - crashing into the ground at terminal velocity will likely require a crush zone, and will still be in the high 10s of g's to low hundreds of g's.
I'm not too into the warry stuffs, but it would be interesting to have cyborgs or robots or mundane people with exoskeletons or whatever shooting at the power cords, and just falling over and temporarily just shutting off when theirs is hit.
Interesting timing. The retro FPS Quake 2 has just had a remaster released this weekend, and the antagonists are a race of militaristic cyborgs. Not particularly well made ones though, if even one of them had the abilities described in this video I think they'd fare a lot better against the player.
Regarding a radiator type cooling system for a cybernetic body. If we are not so fixated in keeping the body together, and removing or replacing joints muscles and ligaments, stretching them out and filling the void space in between with cybernetic enhancement, storage capacity, or some method of power then we could very quickly find enough space even with a primitive system while keeping the same anthropomorphic formfactor. It may be that in the future we very much wouldn't be looking at the same kind of architectural Styles and that they would be made for much larger humanoid shapes in order to accommodate various sophisticated technologies or oversized cybernetic bodies. As technology became more sophisticated, the architecture could be scaled down to the ultimate sophistication which is purely biotic
In this case it would probably less be that the performance enhancing drugs are safe and more that you'd harden or replace the parts that would normally be damaged. Humanity tends to have a habit of going that route when possible, if it's cheaper.
Plenty of ways to power. 1 Most promising that i did not notice you talked about is Thorium. The one you talked about is isotopes, and yes, with cooling methods it is easy but why cool just direct the heat to some kind of storage that fuels some of your gear or even weapons (steampunk?). Any cyborg that needs to survive any resonable lenght of time needs some kinds of advanced medical and life support systems, up to that the cybord does not even need to consume food and water or air, the support systems provide all living cells with what they need for optimal results. Same with repair, nanobots yes are the most popular and can repair mechanical, electronical and biological components but they also are the weak point as sutch small entities do not have any defences on their own, so they only can be internal and externally there probably be something else of with a mix with something else.
i fucking love this video so much, thanks for it, it is giving me cool-ass ideas! In fact you touched on a idea i had for a while: That video game HUDs could only work for cyborgs, as they and only they could self-diagnosticate the damage on their bodies, because they would have a computer/s that would tell them. Or an AI that can review if everything is nominal. The whole idea of a hulking full conversion cyborg with radiators sounds awesome. I almost wish you (or me, but can't, sadly) could commision a heavy cyborg with those. Honestly, thanks a lot, this video is very helpful.
How does one retire or do a career change when your body has been turned into a hulking war machine with an attached railgun? The interviewers keep freaking out when I crash through their walls... doors are too small
I've been listening to you for years but either your use of stories is new,(ish) or I just never noticed it before - , either way, your opening story in this video was really powerful (at least to me)
Also regarding power generation, the solution very likely is within materials science in that two dielectric substances integrated it into the moving body in various places and used as filler or mass would be much easier to generate a continuous supply of electricity instead of a more complicated system with multiple points of failure. Low voltage reliable resilient power generation coupled with slim next generation batteries that are continuously charging and have a deep power reservoir is very likely the way board at least for consumer cybernetics.
That said I do find the idea that cybernetic soldiers becoming a type of sci-fi mamluk caste (is slaves soldiers that become a military elite and sometimes kings) rather interesting repeat of history.
A 100 kilogram black hole surrounded by mirrors to keep it from exploding. Brought to you by SFIA, where keeping lightning in a bottle is the safe, easy, low power option.
I always imagned the idea of using hydrogen fuel cells to power androids. Actually a two stage system of a water electrolysis system piped into a hydrogen fuel cell. I envisioned a thusly equipped android would simply need a suitable source of fresh clean water and maybe a uniform plastered with solar cells or high density battery storage charged daily wirelessly in a recharge couch, which could be the seating of a troop carrier that may be nuclear powered augmented with solar as well. If this was implemented in a Terminator style cyborg then you would have a big bellied cyborg with a lot of his or her abdomen containing the electrolysis chamber and fuel cell, a much smaller set of custom miniature heart, lungs, stomach, liver, digestive tract to provide nutrition and energy only to the smaller organs and the brain, the legs and pelvis could be storage batteries which would be in the perfect position to wirelessly charge in recharge couches, which could also be personal combat vehicles so the cyborg soldier could fight and recharge for most of the same time.
I could definitely see Cyborgs also having improved genetics performed on them. Making their biology as efficient as possible and then add cybernetics to any remaining weak points. Basically Captain America with cybernetic enhancements ^^
@@PerfectAlibi1He does actually have a number of cybernetics as well, just not to a large degree, for instance, Spartan's bones are plated in ceramics.
I imagine a combination of all the things. I imagine a compression organ/ third lung that compresses gas into liquid form including hydrogen and nitrogen with a secondary cybernetic veign system to keep the body cool. The liquid hydrogen feeds into a generator organ which will power the cybernetic components of the body and refuel simply by breathing. Special pores can be constructed for exhaust. The liquid nitrogen pumps through insulated tubes to cool the body. The human brain is encased in the cyber brain and held together in a harness that prevents it from shaking around too much and the interior of the skull is filled with an oxygen rich insulative gel with heat sinks. The brain is tied into a cyber spine that acts like a second brain and is tied into everything. It acts as a processor and is tied into the brain case and not directly into the human brain. I believe that cybernetics shouldn't replace humanity. Our bodies will opperate much the same as now but in combination with the cybernetics and not require as many calories as they do now because of replacement parts. Every system For higher power needs an exosuit with its own generator unit will be required but it'll act as a second skin tied into the cybernetics of the user combined with a recirculating organ to more efficiently process the hydrogen intake. Any spaceborne model will of course be limited to air tank capacity but people will have space ships with hydrogen rich air.
Someone with exceedingly fast reflexes here. Having fast reflexes is only one part of the equation. You also need really good senses and fast processing. First you need to sense what to respond to, then be able to processes that and then decide what to do. Adrenaline can enhance this into insane levels but such levels of Adrenaline in your system damages the body and psyche
Timely. I'm working on a fanfiction series applying cybernetics to the Resident Evil universe. It starts with nanites being stolen from Umbrella by a stalker, and ends on a Gardener ship over a hundred and twenty years in the future, fleeing earth after a WBE of Wesker and a super intelligent version of the series' mold infection start taking over with humans caught in the middle. Resident evil is a series where humanity has been traumatized by advanced bio engineering technology creating monsters and zombies, with a bunch of ordinary human soldiers and cops struggling to protect civilian populations. The series has however, done things with biology that most franchises would do with cybernetics and traditional sci fi technology. Its made simulations using its mold, made giant super soldiers using viruses and parasites in combination. They've even figured out how to convert someone into a physically perfect clone of someone else. I don't 100% agree with the idea of penalizing mutated characters. To me, human is in the mind. I understand the in universe culture. And the horror of the series tends to come from the loss of self due to disease and corporate or government malfeasence. I know from Isaac though, that this doesn't have to be the case. Umbrella just likes to have control over things and people, even if its something they shouldn't. The attraction is seeing how the main characters from the series adapt to an environment where they have to augment their bodies if they want to survive. And especially in how they struggle to break the association between advanced technologies, massive amounts of violence, and the trauma they endured.
@@netangamer1057 I don't give out links, the first part is complete on archive of our own. "Nothing Bad Has Happened Yet" and it carries a mature warning as well as an LGBT romance tag. :P I'm currently working on the second part, which doesn't have much futurism in it, but the third part, the apocalyptic future, will. I have some parts of Part 3 written already, but I'd rather wait until the first two stories are done to publish any material for the third.
I'm not going to lie, if technology was there now I'd totally blow most of my cash on augmentations, and I'm already really physically gifted as far as humans go, but like why wouldn't I want to be able to fly, be able to bench a truck, see in IR and have a videographic memory (literally)?
Agreed. "Do you know what humanity's greatest weakness is? Humans consistently ignore the endless infinity of possibilities in favor of maintaining the status quo. People fear change, they settle with fine when they could have exceptional."
