Other than the Angel implant, the most common cybernetic enhancements are prosthetic limbs and headware upgrades. These implants are installed on an out-patient basis; the patient is sent home with a dedicated nano-hive that anesthetizes the target area and gradually replaces it with the desired implant overnight. The patient goes to sleep and wakes up with a new cybernetic limb or whatever they purchased. A regimen of anti-rejection and anti-dysphasia drugs follows, until the body has completely adjusted to its new parts. Some less-than-scrupulous doctors program the nano-hive to produce narcotics in addition to anesthetics, which causes the patient to become addicted to the process of implantation and guarantees more sales.
More robust cybernetics, such as mil-spec implants or full-body replacements (commonly called a Kit), are handled in special cyberclinics (called Farms) that are a combination of hospital and mechanic. A Kit is essentially a cybernetic construct with no organic parts, coated with Nu-skin to give it a human appearance. Installing a human consciousness into a Kit is a one-way deal. Once downloaded, the consciousness becomes a Rider and can never return to a meat brain. Cloned meat bodies with cybernetic brains are also available. A patient could also opt to have their consciousness stored in a mainframe and effectively “live” in the datasea. A Rider can be transferred easily to another Kit, a cyberbrain-equipped clone, or a digital construct, but the process must be done via a direct neural connection and can take several hours.
Most people are reluctant to commit to a cyberbrain. The fact that the process of converting a human mind into a digital format destroys the host brain leads to the perception that it is a soul-death, and that what lives on is a form of artificial intelligence; a program created by mapping the synapse patterns and memories of a human. Others simply don’t care, since it provides a form of immortality.
