Cyberware Generations

Generation Zero Cyberware

Gen Zero Prostheses

Cyberware was created as an evolution of medical prostheses. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, implants were mainly used to replace missing or damaged limbs and organs. Artificial heart valves, extremities, vertebrae-they were all designed to save human lives or to allow the patient to function more normally after severe body trauma.
The development of cyberware sped up after the First Central American War, when thousands of veterans came home injured. Technological progress and miniaturization allowed for “medical” cyberware to become more sophisticated and widespread, but it was still quite expensive and not very intuitive to use. The first prosthetic arm was a heavy mechanical contraption with a crude gripper instead of a hand and fingers.
Today we refer to such cyberware as “Generation Zero.” It is completely obsolete compared to modern technology.

Generation One Cyberware

Industrial Cyber Revolution

Postwar medical cyberware prosthesis development helped to speed up the miniaturization process. The first nonmedical implants ot be designed and successfully tested were reinforced spines and joints for heavy labour workers and air filters grafted in upper respiratory tracts for those working in polluted environments. Still, the high rate of implant rejection remained the main obstacle for the further cybernetic enhancement of society.
Cyberware found its way to the battlefields in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The Second Central American War and the Second and Third Corporate Wars were the crucibles that forged the first combat implants. Militech was first to seize the opportunity. Their enhanced cybersoldiers-with increased carrying capacity and direct connections to personal motion trackers and range fingers-proved to be superior to their opponents in almost every way. Each side of those conflicts oon started to design and employ combat cyberware. Those wars started an arms race between the private armies of the megacorporations that continues to this day.
That early combat and industrial cyberware is now referred to as “Generation One” or “Gen 1.” Made of metal and plastic, they exceed the Generation Zero, but are inferior even to the old-fashioned Generation Two Nowadays Gen 1 can only be seen on the black market, sold cheap to the poorest of people who can’t afford better cyberware.

Generation Two Cyberware

Implants Hit the Streets

As has often been the case in human history, war would play a pivotal role in the development of a new technology. The battlefield dust had not yet settled before the cybermedical market started booming. The same corporations that participated in the Corporate Wars now saw an opportunity for profit, and expanded their lines to produce medical implants for veterans. Right after that they introduced cheap models for the industrial market, and the first models for the masses were designed simultaneously. The first cyberweapons appeared too, thanks to their still federalls unregulated status.
These events all coincided with the invention of the antirejection treatment, the development of the new cultural style called “kitsch,” and the boom of braindance technology. Society, weary from recent wars, wanted to party again, and to look like the heroes in the newest braindance productions. The age of cyberware had begun.
Generation Two cyberimplants are the most common type of augmentation you will encounter on the street. They are functional and relatively cheap. Gen 1 pistons and hydaulics were replaced by artificial cybermuscles that allowed for greater actuation and strength. Then RealSkinn technology entered the market and immediately became a high-end status symbol.

Generation Three Cyberware

Rise of the Megacorporations

The rise of the megacorporations also played a role in cyberware’s continued technological development. The invention of Gen 3 cyberware was instigated by the corporate “cold wars” arms race. Every corporation wanted to have better equipped soldiers and enforcers to keep their own business secure. Light and more durable carbon fiber and ceramic polymers replaced heavy metal. Concealed subdermal armor and retractable weapons were designed for black ops and assassins. Bullet, blade, and fireproof armoured variants of RealSkinn were developed and are widely used today among corporate forces.
In the last thirty years, cyberware has become widely used in every aspect of life across all social strata-from the military, medicine, and manufacturing to family life, sex, and entertainment. Its development created legal and illegal business, from braindance and cyberfashion to the black market of the cyberlimbs and bioengineered organs. Humanity has been forever changed.

Generation Four Cyberware

For the Rich and Powerful

The newest and best kind of cyberware comes in two types. The first is used by top-tier corporate officials and agents. Implants like upgraded neural processors, netrunning hackware, grade IV cybereyes, and stress analyzers give them a competitive edge over their rivals and peers. Covered with the finest quality RealSkinn, these Gen 4 augmentations define a corpor’s lifestyle and are a sign of their status within the corporation.
Though no less advanced, the second type of peak modern cyberware is designed to be overtly visible. This style is becoming ever more popular among the social elite-corporate heirs, braindance stars, singers, and other celebrities. Flowing gold and platinum lines woven into the msot advanced RealSkinn. Anatomical cyberlimbs made of pure crystal artificially cultivated on orbital stations, or plated with natural wooden tiles worth tens of thousands of Eurodollars. This style of cyberware is almost purely decorative to signify status and wealth.