Private Attempts at Cyborg Development

This is apparently a thing in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. I'm not sure how to feel about it, honestly, and it's also rather strongly dependent on the setting of the MGS Universe, but maybe with some spinning and twisting from Cyborg Central, it could be a thing? 

http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Sears_Program

Well within the OC universe there are a number of governments that have active child cyborg programs, so it does not seem be on reason that there are private companies assisting with those programs or engaging in their own programs independently.

Well the OC universe may be modified, mightn't it? Why not have multiple divergent timelines or just multiple parallel universes? It just seems like having Private Cyborg Battalions might be a really interesting conflict. I also would predict that Taerkitty could have a field day with this sort of thing. 

If nothing else, I think this is a really neat intellectual exercise. The conditions for such technology to be available in the private sector would be intriguing speculah, for one thing, and the possibility of a cyborg being captured or the data being lost somehow make for interesting implications and inductive reasoning. 

I could see, for example, the reverse engineering of Italian prosthetic technology by, say, China (because I always pick China) and the upgrading of this tech to a military standard. China is corrupt, so this information is quickly sold to the highest bidder in Hong Kong or Macau, where it makes its way across the globe. I think we discussed that particular scenario before, but more ideas is always good.

It does sound like the SWA hired / acquired people from the private and University sectors working on cybernetics, artificial organs, mental conditioning and other disciplines, put them together, and gave them the funding and freedom to do what they needed to make a working prototype (Angelica) and then production models.

Kiskaloo wrote:Well within the OC universe there are a number of governments that have active child cyborg programs...

I think it depends on which OC (presuming by that you mean "Original Character" rather than "Original Canon") universe you consult.   

That said: it's certainly an interesting prospect... particularly as a programme run by a private organisation may not need to worry so much (not the same as "not at all", but there would presumably be a little less bureaucracy to deal with) about hiding the budget, justifying its funding etc. Not to mention it might not need to weigh political ramifications as much as a government might... though, I think once you've started converting children into cybernetic soldiers it's probably something of an all-or-nothing gig, no matter whether the owner be public or private.

Alfisti wrote:it's certainly an interesting prospect... particularly as a programme run by a private organisation may not need to worry so much (not the same as "not at all", but there would presumably be a little less bureaucracy to deal with) about hiding the budget, justifying its funding etc.

I expect a private organization would have to justify the funding far more than a government would.

I think the main worry would be secrecy - as in worry about what would happen when knowledge of the program became public. As such, perhaps the project would likely be located in a "failed state" where one could guarantee the discretion of the local "government" (as well as leverage their power for security) or located someplace well outside international boundaries (like an island in the South Atlantic or Pacific).

Well there are plenty of places like this in Africa. I imagine also that you can pay off a regional warlord in one of the more mountainous nations in the Middle East (Rural Pakistan or Afghanistan springs to mind). Indoctrination camps are certainly a thing there, after all, and if you have the fundage to do cyborgs, you can probably afford to buy/rent a zeppelin, such as discussed in the General Aviation Thread. 

Hell, that would actually be very useful for the SWA as well. But in any case. 

I suspect a big problem would be getting the capital in the first place. What would be a viable method of getting this cash? The Russian Mafia, Yakuza, and the Chinese Military/Triads are the stereotypical choices for this sort of thing.

Il Direttore wrote:I suspect a big problem would be getting the capital in the first place. What would be a viable method of getting this cash? The Russian Mafia, Yakuza, and the Chinese Military/Triads are the stereotypical choices for this sort of thing.

Not sure they'd be interested in funding such an outfit.

I expect it would be more medical consortiums - major pharmaceutical companies, major bioengineering firms, stuff like that.

Honestly, you'd need some shadowy medical company like the Aleria Corporation in the current SyFy series Helix or the Umbrella Corporation from the Resident Evil universe.

Theft of cyborg technology by NGOs is the central conflict of Rehabilitation Branch. Prime baddies are drug and arms cartels, sinister research corporations, and decommissioned foreign agencies that refuse to die.

Sears Program.  Gives new meaning to Sears Robot & Co...

Kiskaloo wrote:

Il Direttore wrote:I suspect a big problem would be getting the capital in the first place. What would be a viable method of getting this cash? The Russian Mafia, Yakuza, and the Chinese Military/Triads are the stereotypical choices for this sort of thing.

Not sure they'd be interested in funding such an outfit.

I expect it would be more medical consortiums - major pharmaceutical companies, major bioengineering firms, stuff like that.

Honestly, you'd need some shadowy medical company like the Aleria Corporation in the current SyFy series Helix or the Umbrella Corporation from the Resident Evil universe.

I get this suspicion that Big Pharma, in real life, does not actually condone this sort of behaviour. Still, this is good to know for the future. 

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Thescarredman wrote:Theft of cyborg technology by NGOs is the central conflict of Rehabilitation Branch. Prime baddies are drug and arms cartels, sinister research corporations, and decommissioned foreign agencies that refuse to die.

How does RB implement this? Is there a specified scenario laid out that I'm too lazy to look up at this particular moment?

Presently, the bad guys' preferred method of obtaining cyborg tech is to suborn the handlers, who deliver their girls up for backwards engineering in the manner of Earnest and Pia.

That is an obscene level of creepy. 

In all seriousness, it takes a special kind of fucked-up to give, what is effectively a small child, up for experimentation. 

Does anyone have any idea what the legal details of sinister research corporations would entail?

You mean, like the Social Welfare Agency?

Well that's not really "sinister" so much as "questionably moral". At least, i imagine sinister as: 
"Test Subject 72 has died today." 
"Oh is that so? How sad. How go the destruction test on Subject 27?" 
"Very well, she has taken up to a .50 BMG round so far. We are planning on testing 25mm autocannon today." 
"Well take care to start at the extremities. Let's not ruin a perfectly good subject too quickly..."

"Pull harder, Claes! You should be able to make that shoulder joint pop like an egg!"

Jean: "I don't care how many cyborgs we lose in the attack. They've all died once already, after all."

And you say you hate my Jean...

...Point taken, I guess? 

Actually, you know, it might be interesting to write a story from the perspective of a civilian contractor that accidentally finds the SWA....

You mean like Priss?

I though Priscilla was a Guardia di Finanza member before the SWA?

Il Direttore wrote:I though Priscilla was a Guardia di Finanza member before the SWA?

That is correct.

Yep, but 'nilla polizia are still civvies, no?

Depends - the Carabinieri are military and the Polizia di Stato are civilian. 

The Guardia di Finanza are under the Ministry of Economy and Finance so, yes, she would be a "civilian" in that sense.

I was under the impression Il Direttore was speaking of someone not directly on the government payroll (so working for a company contracted to provide services with the government - like Boeing to NASA or the DoD) coming across the SWA.

I know, I know.  But, this gives me ideas.

"Priscilla?  What did you think of us when you first met us?"

"You and Paolo?"

"No, me and the rest of the girls."

What Kisk said. I was thinking about what might happen if you were doing some research into, say, artificial nerves, and found a paper by Bianchi or whoever, and then plot happens and you end up getting accosted by Terminettes. 

Although Taer does have a point there....

Il Directtore.... Africa?
Google "MIT Cyborg Program" and see what they are doing here in the states! And Israel is also having a a real life cyborg program for their bus-bomb victims... No, not just prosthesis, but something more which means Cybernetics.

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As for my universe, Section One had a cyborg program using vets who were dismembered during their time in service. Thing is this... They Section One Cyborgs thought indestructible and went after their target with too much enthusiasm. Their first case was when one tried to stop a train, head on, with only using his body... Well, he did stop the train and the target captured but only to have himself killed and a train derailed. All but one of their cyborgs were killed. That one is in Section Two...