Posthuman technology
Posthuman technology posted in Equipment, Cybertech and Weapons forum comment posted by cobalt_phoenix It may help if you start getting into more specifics with the setting, rather than remaining broad.
For example, I have been working (slowly, as it isn't at the top of my list) on a setting that takes place within a Dyson Swarm (or at least one that is under construction). However, it isn't just a bunch of solar collectors and space habitats (they are in there, of course), it is also intended to be a partial
Matrioshka brain (shortened to MB for the rest of this post). And before anyone asks, this was an idea that would let me have my cake and eat it too, mixing both hard and soft science fiction along with fantasy (you'll see in a moment).
In this setting, hundreds of billions of people live on Earth, Luna, the various space habitats, and the other worlds that have yet to be disassembled for the Dyson swarm. Inside the swarm, though, is a virtual reality housing tens if not hundreds of trillions of uploaded virtual minds. In this virtual world, gadgets and gear are computer programs. This is much the same as the Matrix from the films, but with a couple of big differences: first, everyone knows they are in there (they may forget, but they aren't being lied to about it); second, there is more than one virtual world (the whole thing can be divided into layers/levels/realms/regions/whatever, with their own rules*); third, it is easy to communicate between the virtual and real world.
In the real world, most of humanity are cyborgs. To what extent various, but most have at least nanocomputers for quick access to the MB. They can just use what would amount to a portable video phone for quick communications, but they can also upload their minds partially to allow access to the local virtual area.
For the uploaded, they can access the real world through quick communications, as well, or they can uploaded themselves into a robot body (which can be rentals) or they can upload into a fully cloned cyborg body (letting them control their appearance and cybergear, as long as they have the money, of course).
I will say that for both a cyborg and an uploaded mind, going the full distance (uploading your mind entirely and downloading your mind into an organic body, respectively) is the hardest path, and requires a very long time to complete. It isn't impossible, and there are potentially people who have bounced between the two realities hundreds of times over centuries (no real aging requirements in the virtual world, right?).
So what is their relationship with technology? It would depend. For the cyborgs, they are fixed into a more hard science fiction setting, but they do get to live in a post-scarcity society with mind augmentation (and cheap spacecraft) among other things. For the uploaded, they can write computer programs to let them do various things as desired. It is possible to have off-site memory backups, making death much more difficult, and they can create "technologies" that aren't really viable in a hard setting. Of course, others can always come up with something that can beat that. They also use what are basically grid shadows as personal assistants/gophers/servants, but they themselves can move between the various areas as desired (obviously, you may not be able to enter a private one, but you get the idea).
Both of them would also be posthuman.
* Literally, the various areas can also be thought of as their own server farms, and the rules can be written however they want. There could be areas where no one can hurt another uploaded mind without proper having the proper codes (acting as admin personnel and virtual cops), while other areas could be all-out death traps. Some regions could stipulate that they operate at a given historical time, while others may let you get away with magic. The sky is the limit.
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