Psyborgs

CHAPTER 38 – II

The Few were becoming cyborgs. Already dependent on technology to a much greater extent than the more rugged and animalistic Many, they were handing over much of their internal biological real estate to nanobots. This allowed them to live three times as long as “conventional” humans. Combined with near-instantaneous cloning, The Few clearly saw themselves as the next stage of the evolutionary process. They were beyond Homo-Superior; they were on the verge of transcending “Homo” altogether.

All thanks to the technological leap afforded them by the Irrimmium chiliagon. The technology was pure. It healed and elongated life. And while it stood up to Death and looked it dead in the eye, it ultimately backed down, not attempting to overstep the natural law of the very universe itself.

Yet with all of this, a problem arose: what to do with the older versions of themselves? They became superfluous, tedious. As more of The Few took part in the “Improvement Procedures”, more human detritus was accumulating. It had already been written into law that anyone who entered into the on-the-spot cloning procedure would have their original selves mentally wiped clean. The original version would cease to be the person they were before. And though they would be “lesser” versions of their cloned selves, they would still have the benefit of their generations of genetic alterations. They weren’t quite cyborgs, but they were still the most advanced humans to have ever lived (though they now lacked any personality or sense of history).

A solution was presented to much acclaim. Rather than continue to spend time, money, and resources on working with The Many to do the dirty work of maintaining their progressively more plush compound, The New Few would send their inferior redundancies out to do it themselves. The Many would certainly protest. They would need to be pacified…no…since this New Few was no longer even human, they could treat simple homo sapiens like homo sapiens treated lesser animals. They would either be domesticated into passivity or eradicated. No exceptions.

While the power granted by the Irrimmium was pure, these cyborgs were still more human than not, with all the millennia of baggage that that entailed.

Genetic engineering had made The Expendable Few stronger, smarter, and healthier than their non-GMO rivals outside of the compound. What those inside the compound didn’t realize, even with all that immense intellect, was that experience and perseverance were harder to code. While those who would be sent outside of the compound’s walls held great advantages vis-a-vis The Few, they were still giving something up. The New Few were leaving open a hole in their defenses, a blind spot, that could be exploited if their opposition were positioned in the right place.

Rationalism-Empiricism
Last call comes at you fast when you’re having a blast
Arguing with friends and pulling shit out of your ass
Misstating theories and misremembering the past
Facts you heard won’t last past another empty glass