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I had a random thought, today, involving Borgs. It mainly concerns the stomach: What do you think the Borg uses to digest any food that they consume?

Signed,
Rathorc Lemenger,
President of Lemenger Biologics Unlimited.

I would rule it depends on the level of conversion; from simple soft foods for a partial-conversion 'Borg to protein paste with a 5W-30 Synthetic chaser for full-conversion 'Borgs.

Well from what I've heard, it tastes like baby food.

Alright, I should have been more specific. So, here it goes: What do you use to digest the food that the Borg consumes ( I.E. What do you use as stomach acid to digest steak and potatoes?)?

Signed,
Rathorc Lemenger,
President of Lemenger Biologics Unlimited.

Probably a Mr. Fusion.

Well borgs still have some human bits so would not be shocking if they have some some kind of stomach/colon be it original or bio system version for borg use.

kaid wrote:Well borgs still have some human bits so would not be shocking if they have some some kind of stomach/colon be it original or bio system version for borg use.

I discussed this with a player running a Quatoria from Phase World several years ago and we just assumed that most of the organs had been replaced with bio systems. I have wondered if full conversion borgs had an implant that is essential a unified digestion system. Sort of a one stop spot for nutrient extraction and waste processing. As for what chemicals are used fancy high technology chemicals that replace out natural stuff.

I'd say most of it would be replaced with biosystems to help keep the meat-bits going. Pneumatic sprayer on your waste port is optional.

we're told that many retain the skin of their face, their tongue, etc. so that they'd retain part of their digestive system isn't much of a stretch. most likely said organs would have been modified somewhat (a stomach staple seems likely for example)

honestly i wouldn't be surprised if many retain their hearts, at least one kidney, etc. normally as well. though i could see less scrupulous cyberdocs giving them biosystem or mechanical hearts, kidney, etc to drive up the conversion cost and give the cyberdoc organs they can sell as transplants to other customers.

glitterboy2098 wrote:we're told that many retain the skin of their face, their tongue, etc. so that they'd retain part of their digestive system isn't much of a stretch. most likely said organs would have been modified somewhat (a stomach staple seems likely for example)

honestly i wouldn't be surprised if many retain their hearts, at least one kidney, etc. normally as well. though i could see less scrupulous cyberdocs giving them biosystem or mechanical hearts, kidney, etc to drive up the conversion cost and give the cyberdoc organs they can sell as transplants to other customers.

I think if you are doing partial conversion it would be common to keep internal organs especially if you are on a budget. But, a full conversion it seems likely that anything below the head would be 100% replaced. Most of the full conversions we have are basically a robot body with a human head tacked on.

Also, do they still use live organ transplants anymore? I mean if you have a bio-systems with an almost zero rejection rate would you want live organs anymore?

I always figured that Full Conversion Borgs had pretty weak artificial digestive tracts that required incredibly easy-to-digest foods like baby food.

I also based this off of RoboCop eating baby food.

As early as twenty years ago I recall seeing in the scientific literature talk of prototyping artificial supplemental livers using cloned liver cells grown in solution and house in an artificial cellular 'scaffolding' undershot with tubes for blood to pass through, the idea being that the blood passing through the spongy matrix would be purified by the cells doing their thing(I recall a picture of a gizmo resemblin a. u-shaped tube that could be plugged into a dialysis machine port or ideally into a human body). I imagine that the Golden Age perfected that idea, using force-grown stem cells in a nanotech-made matrix that would serve the same roles as glands and organs.
An artificial stomach along those lines might be plausible. So cybernetics would be more than mechanical or electrical engineering, but would have a very strong biotech element involved to cultivate the stem cell cultures and find them happy hopes in an artificial support system.

Warshield73 wrote:

glitterboy2098 wrote:we're told that many retain the skin of their face, their tongue, etc. so that they'd retain part of their digestive system isn't much of a stretch. most likely said organs would have been modified somewhat (a stomach staple seems likely for example)

honestly i wouldn't be surprised if many retain their hearts, at least one kidney, etc. normally as well. though i could see less scrupulous cyberdocs giving them biosystem or mechanical hearts, kidney, etc to drive up the conversion cost and give the cyberdoc organs they can sell as transplants to other customers.

I think if you are doing partial conversion it would be common to keep internal organs especially if you are on a budget. But, a full conversion it seems likely that anything below the head would be 100% replaced. Most of the full conversions we have are basically a robot body with a human head tacked on.

Also, do they still use live organ transplants anymore? I mean if you have a bio-systems with an almost zero rejection rate would you want live organs anymore?

i just figure that if the vital organic systems are still good, people would keep them to cut down on the costs. of course, a borg expecting to do a lot of fighting probably would replace them with synthetic parts, to be more durable. most of the "pre-fab" full conversion chassis options we have are combat focused, so i'm not surprised that they'd be more mechanical over all.

and as far as transplants.. while i suspect biosystems and mechanical cybernetics are more popular, a harvested transplant would be a relatively cheaper option (if a suitably matched part for the person is available), plus it would be one that could be used by mages, psychics, and others who might be wary of using artificial replacements for whatever reason. i suspect that there would be medicine by the time of rifts that would convince the body to accept a properly matched transplant long term without the need to take anti-rejection drugs regularly.

glitterboy2098 wrote:[ I suspect that there would be medicine by the time of rifts that would convince the body to accept a properly matched transplant long term without the need to take anti-rejection drugs regularly.

Possibly nano-manufactured materials that would allow transplanted tissues to receive chemical cues to produce the appropriate required secretions or blood gases without coming into actual contact with the recipient's own cells, and thus trigger immune responses...sort of an advanced artificial cell membrane or screen similar to the brain/blood barrier, only keeping white cells out of the 'penned' donor cells. .