Hi guys, just finished reading through the entire thread; Maldevious is an absolute GENIUS to make a game like this, and you guys are doing a fantastic job creating & handling different situations. I'd like to join if I could; my specialty would be in Human psychology and cybernetic augmentations. Always gives me a thrill. If you have someone doing that already it's OK, but here's my thoughts on the Maven program...
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I'm always leery of Human augmentation of any sort, because a major unifying factor among Humans is their equality as regards one another; if some are more fortunate than others, there will be jealousy among the rest of them, and the potential that the augmented may seek power over the 'lessers'. It happened big time in Deus Ex. Of course, right now we have a small population firmly under our control and the Maven program is still only in its experimental stages, but as things get bigger and bigger we will eventually have to deal with the issue of augmentation vs. equality. Can't let people start to feel like they're being left out; the only things to fix it then would be 1. Terminate or otherwise remove the source of contention, i.e the Mavens, 2. Convince the greater population that the Mavens are necessary instruments to move forward (being treated as tools would seriously screw with the minds of most people though), or 3. Make augmentation available to anyone who desires it, of course warning them beforehand of the dangers involved in the process. Nothing pisses a man off more than being denied his due; whether that 'due' is from his own opinion of what he is entitled to or not. Most people, though, are simply scared of those who are different, which will likely lead to discrimination at the very least.
All in all I suggest we keep the program small, and triple check every applicant to ensure that they have the proper psychological profile to understand and cope with the dangers, changes, and all that is to be expected of them once they've taken that next step in forced evolution. The very, very last thing we need, is for one of our super-agents to go on a crazy killing spree and take about 30 people with him before the security bots put enough tranquilizer in him to bring down a bull Boatmurdered Elephant. I suggest secretly installing either a killswitch, or a simple 'off' switch that immediately knocks the subject unconscious if the proper radio frequency is broadcasted. If we're putting stuff in their brains, this should be trivial -- but it's still highly important. People are going to hold us responsible when something gets out of hand, so we need to be as careful as possible when making any change that seriously impacts our colonists in any way, shape or form.
> Summary:
> See if we have a psychologist among our people, and see if we can come up with a comprehensive series of tests and surveys designed to identify aforementioned desirable psychological qualities in potential applicants for the Maven program.
> Conduct extensive research into making the implants safer for implementation -- the last time we tried this 4/5ths of our test subjects were either terminated or rendered insane. I am more for safety, practicality and maintaining a high rate of survival among potential applicants before we go crazy with performance augmentations. This technology is still very much in its infancy.
> Look into possible repercussions of this research and prepare ourselves for every possible scenario we can. It's important that if this tech is made public (which I'm sure it already is), that a majority of the populace supports it or at least accepts it as a necessary step to ensure long-term prosperity. Stress that last bit when explaining it to the Human parliament.