Annex A – Project methodologyA black market for maintenance and new products, mainly from the East and Africa
emerged. Only military, law enforcement and security organisations could continue to use
invasive enhancements. Careers in these organisations became unpopular.
The other part of the world, the East, still allowed human augmentation technology, but
the market was highly regulated (for example, age limits). To overcome the known side
effects, a combination of different human augmentation technologies were used. Human
augmentation business was market driven and research and development happened in
private corporations. Africa/Nigeria became a test ground for new human augmentation
technology. Special human augmentation technologies were developed for law
enforcement and the military, for example, the development of super soldiers.
Scenario – Dark clouds in the evolution of human enhancement
Disruptive steps in human augmentation technologies during the last decades have led
to a situation where human performance enhancement is cheap, safe and practically
available to all. Human augmentation is considered highly acceptable and seen as natural
step in human evolution. Companies and nations are cooperating globally and invest
heavily into human augmentation development. The adoption and development of human
augmentation technologies was characterised by three major technological steps that
happened in parallel in both the West and in the East from 2020 until today. The first
disruptive step was the development of enhanced DNA modification technology in around
2035 which led to increased investment in research and development and growth in the
human augmentation market. The second disruptive step, which occurred around 2040
was related to the development in artificial intelligence. The third disruptive step around
2045, saw the development of, what was in effect, a universal vaccine for all diseases.
This led to global acceptance of human augmentation.
However, even though human augmentation was a global success story, tension between
the East and West endures. The United States remains the leading western nation, both
politically and technologically, and it leads on developing safety, usability and software
solutions for human augmentation. China is the leading eastern nation and leads the way
in developing components and solutions for robotics related to human augmentation.
Scenario – Globalised world, national tensions
A global understanding prevails between nations. Nations thrive and prosper, and
high-technology human enhancements are shared between nations. Inside different
nations, however, things were not as good as they seemed. The gap between normal
citizens and the elite grew larger than ever before. Between 2020 and 2030, a genetically
modified virus was released into the world, infecting and killing billions before it could
be isolated and controlled. The virus still exists and still infects people. The only way to
survive the infection is through the use of human augmentation technology. Ironically, the
virus that was designed to wipe out humanity led to widespread human enhancement.
Nevertheless, human augmentation technology is very expensive and it is created and
controlled by private organisations beyond the reach and control of the governments.
People are still dying from the virus because they are too poor to afford the cure. There
was an insurgency were people tried to topple the existing government in an attempt to
prevent further deaths amongst the poor. However, the insurgents were overpowered by
an enhanced military, although a resistance endures.