...and, for that matter, a complete sidebar into Fenspace *medical* state-of-the-art.
Interesting points:
- Biomods as one-time-only reboot: If you're dying slow, and you are not currently biomodded, and you manage to ingest some handwavium, you're almost certain to wind up as something that *isn't* dying slow. This is pretty significant. Just about any doctor worthy of the name who lives in a 'wave-friendly society is going to keep a supply of the stuff on hand, in the bio-friendliest strain he can find.
- Biomods as protection: Some biomods deal with some medical problems all by themselves. If your biomod makes you naturally regrow limbs and damaged organs, then there's certain branches of medical science that you just don't have to worry about
- Biomods as complication: Fenspace doctors simply cannot be prepared in the same way that normal doctors are. If your blood is now copper-based, there's no way that they'll have your blood type in the freezers unless you yourself put it there. If you no longer have the same organs in the same places doing the same things, their ability to come up with a diagnosis will be hampered, and their ability to perform surgery productively (if that's what's called for, and they figure it out in time) will be basically shot all to hell.
- Yes, we have wavetech!: If a given medical establishment happens to have a device labelled "solve problem *foo* just because - play Barry Manilow for at least 1 hour per 24" then that particular problem isn't a problem, so long as the stereo holds out. At least, if that's the correct label. Thankfully, wavetech devices tend to work with biomods quite well. This can help a rather lot on the previous issue, depending on the equipment in question, but never gets rid of it entirely. Also thankfully, "keep random lifeform alive and reasonably stable" is something that handwaved equipment does pretty well, so once you've got them *in* the medical center, you generally have some time to scratch your head and be confused while you're trying to figure out what to do next - so long as you don't run out of beds.
- No, we don't have so much of the other stuff.: From a daneside perspective, Fenspace is poor. Their primary economy is backed by dirt. Their richest citizen is a *milionaire* who is best known for running a glorified hotel - not even a chain! A great many of its people would just as soon cut ties entirely with daneside, and most of them got their remnant assets frozen one way or the other about the time they broke atmosphere. The amount of actual daneside cash flowing into the system is pretty low, given the population - which means that the amount that flows into the medical community and can be used for things like Extremely Pricey Medical Devices (or prescription medication) is also pretty low. A lot of the things that the daneside medical community takes for granted aren't necessarily available, and most of the sorts of things that you'd normally send patients to another hospital for, or send for from another hospital, are entirely absent.
- Space is big. Remarkable percentages of the fenspace population live in tiny enclaves that are pretty far away from everybody. Folks die out in space and no one knows about it until later. Handwavium can stabilize you pretty effectively if they get you to a care center, but they have to get you there first. By the same token, with the percentage of biomods out there, and the fact that so many of the fatal accidents happen far away from home, organ donation in space is really pretty rare - and you can forget about pulling something up out of the gravity well. You *might* be able to keep someone stable on a trip back into the gravity well for a transplant, but you might not. Most unmodded patients who would normally get a heart transplant or a lung transplant or whatever back daneside take the guacamole instead. For the biomods, well, the chance of something going Terribly Wrong is usually too high to risk a transplant anyway - if you're lucky, your mod will save you.
...which means that it's probably pretty common for people with dangerous jobs out space-side to stay deliberately unmodded - with almost the same degree of paranoia that they use on their environmental seals - and keep a slug of guacamole in their suit, just in case. If they come out of it with a mod that doesn't seriously improve their survivability by itself? Well, that's just God's little way of telling you that it's time to find some other line of work. Likewise, most of the people who are actually in the medical community who find out about the effects of biomods through some means other than personal experence will probably be keeping themselves clean, just in case - and urging their friends and family to do the same.
Interesting points:
- Biomods as one-time-only reboot: If you're dying slow, and you are not currently biomodded, and you manage to ingest some handwavium, you're almost certain to wind up as something that *isn't* dying slow. This is pretty significant. Just about any doctor worthy of the name who lives in a 'wave-friendly society is going to keep a supply of the stuff on hand, in the bio-friendliest strain he can find.
- Biomods as protection: Some biomods deal with some medical problems all by themselves. If your biomod makes you naturally regrow limbs and damaged organs, then there's certain branches of medical science that you just don't have to worry about
- Biomods as complication: Fenspace doctors simply cannot be prepared in the same way that normal doctors are. If your blood is now copper-based, there's no way that they'll have your blood type in the freezers unless you yourself put it there. If you no longer have the same organs in the same places doing the same things, their ability to come up with a diagnosis will be hampered, and their ability to perform surgery productively (if that's what's called for, and they figure it out in time) will be basically shot all to hell.
- Yes, we have wavetech!: If a given medical establishment happens to have a device labelled "solve problem *foo* just because - play Barry Manilow for at least 1 hour per 24" then that particular problem isn't a problem, so long as the stereo holds out. At least, if that's the correct label. Thankfully, wavetech devices tend to work with biomods quite well. This can help a rather lot on the previous issue, depending on the equipment in question, but never gets rid of it entirely. Also thankfully, "keep random lifeform alive and reasonably stable" is something that handwaved equipment does pretty well, so once you've got them *in* the medical center, you generally have some time to scratch your head and be confused while you're trying to figure out what to do next - so long as you don't run out of beds.
- No, we don't have so much of the other stuff.: From a daneside perspective, Fenspace is poor. Their primary economy is backed by dirt. Their richest citizen is a *milionaire* who is best known for running a glorified hotel - not even a chain! A great many of its people would just as soon cut ties entirely with daneside, and most of them got their remnant assets frozen one way or the other about the time they broke atmosphere. The amount of actual daneside cash flowing into the system is pretty low, given the population - which means that the amount that flows into the medical community and can be used for things like Extremely Pricey Medical Devices (or prescription medication) is also pretty low. A lot of the things that the daneside medical community takes for granted aren't necessarily available, and most of the sorts of things that you'd normally send patients to another hospital for, or send for from another hospital, are entirely absent.
- Space is big. Remarkable percentages of the fenspace population live in tiny enclaves that are pretty far away from everybody. Folks die out in space and no one knows about it until later. Handwavium can stabilize you pretty effectively if they get you to a care center, but they have to get you there first. By the same token, with the percentage of biomods out there, and the fact that so many of the fatal accidents happen far away from home, organ donation in space is really pretty rare - and you can forget about pulling something up out of the gravity well. You *might* be able to keep someone stable on a trip back into the gravity well for a transplant, but you might not. Most unmodded patients who would normally get a heart transplant or a lung transplant or whatever back daneside take the guacamole instead. For the biomods, well, the chance of something going Terribly Wrong is usually too high to risk a transplant anyway - if you're lucky, your mod will save you.
...which means that it's probably pretty common for people with dangerous jobs out space-side to stay deliberately unmodded - with almost the same degree of paranoia that they use on their environmental seals - and keep a slug of guacamole in their suit, just in case. If they come out of it with a mod that doesn't seriously improve their survivability by itself? Well, that's just God's little way of telling you that it's time to find some other line of work. Likewise, most of the people who are actually in the medical community who find out about the effects of biomods through some means other than personal experence will probably be keeping themselves clean, just in case - and urging their friends and family to do the same.