Super Macross Mecha Fun Time Discussion Thread!

[JB0]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Macross Chronicle's Technology "Macross Galaxy Fleet Technology" (a Macross Frontier movie one) suggests the New UN Gov't was worried the Zentradi might use cyborg tech to become more of a threat if development wasn't carefully supervised and restricted.  Basically, the didn't want Zentradi cyborg supersoldiers in the next Zentradi riot.

That's a more boring explanation.

[Seto Kaiba]

38 minutes ago, JB0 said:

That's a more boring explanation.

It's more or less the same as your hypothesis... just slightly narrower in scope since the New UN Gov't initially apparently didn't consider more civil war a possibility. 

[pengbuzz]

15 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Macross Frontier and later works use the term "implant" as a generic/catch-all term for any kind of cybernetic implant.

Both the series proper and supplemental material indicate that there are laws governing the use of implant technology both at the local government level and the central New UN Government level.  The New UN Government imposed strict regulations and restrictions on cybernetics research after the First Space War in order to keep humanity's cybernetics research focused on humane and ethically-sound medical applications and outlaw research aimed at weaponizing cyborgs.

The kind of implants that are legal everywhere (incl. Frontier) are medically-necessary organ and limb replacements.  The kind of thing used to repair catastrophic injuries like the loss of a limb or an eye.  The few examples we've seen suggest that these implants don't exceed the performance of the original human body parts they replaced and look visibly artificial.  (Macross R's Oscar Brauhitsch has a cybernetic arm, which looks more like Ed's automail arm from Fullmetal Alchemist than a convincing counterfeit human arm.)  The restrictions on elective implants seem to have been relaxed a little c. the late 2040s, since that's when we see the Macross Galaxy fleet change its local laws to explicitly permit elective implant surgery for things like "the internet in your brain" multimedia/network implants.  We've seen a few wealthy and well-connected folks living elsewhere also have those implants, so presumably they were legalized in other places as well after restrictions were relaxed.  

Frontier's ban on all but medically necessary implants is supposedly driven mainly by the fleet's bioplant environment system which recycles all organic material.  Implants aren't biodegradable/recyclable after all, and would have to be manually removed from the body before processing could take place.

Summing up... Frontier, Uroboros, etc. are probably far more representative of the galactic norm on cybernetics.  You might get a couple rich idiots who paid a fortune to get their brains hooked up to the WiFi, but most people are in factory condition.

One example I can think of is Col. Johnson's artificial leg, which he was reconnecting while lecturing Lt. Dyson about "stupidity" in Macross Plus:

(Timestamp: 18:02)

It looked like the leg was built to look like a boot, but I cannot quite tell.

[Seto Kaiba]

5 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

One example I can think of is Col. Johnson's artificial leg, which he was reconnecting while lecturing Lt. Dyson about "stupidity" in Macross Plus:

Y'know, I'd always assumed that Millard Johnson's prosthetic leg in Macross Plus was a conventional prosthesis... but it appears you are correct.  His Macross Chronicle Character Sheet explicitly refers to his artificial leg as a "robotic prosthetic".

[pengbuzz]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Y'know, I'd always assumed that Millard Johnson's prosthetic leg in Macross Plus was a conventional prosthesis... but it appears you are correct.  His Macross Chronicle Character Sheet explicitly refers to his artificial leg as a "robotic prosthetic".

I didn't even know it was robotic; I wouldn't even call that a "lucky guess" so much as Macross Chronicle revealing something we didn't know. I just mentioned it in passing over Macross and replacement limbs/ implants. With that revealed, I suppose he has a post implanted that the leg attaches to and allows for some dexterity/ feel?

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

I didn't even know it was robotic; I wouldn't even call that a "lucky guess" so much as Macross Chronicle revealing something we didn't know. I just mentioned it in passing over Macross and replacement limbs/ implants. With that revealed, I suppose he has a post implanted that the leg attaches to and allows for some dexterity/ feel?

While I was thinking on this one I did a bit of research, and it turned out to be quite a rabbit hole when it comes to technologies for improving medical prosthetics.

Col. Johnson's artificial leg is described as a "robotic prosthetic" limb rather than a cybernetic one.  There's apparently a key distinction there in terms of how the prothesis is being controlled.  Cybernetic prosthetics would be directly integrated into the nervous system and controlled like a biological limb.  Robotic prosthetics, on the other hand, are indirectly monitoring motor nerves via EMG sensors, via magnets implanted in the muscles themselves, or using computer models to guess what the correct posture is instead of working like a biological limb.

So it sounds like Millard's leg is not actually tied into his nervous system... which explains why that was a career-ending injury.  It's enough to let him walk normally, but he likely doesn't have any feeling in that leg and limited-at-best control over the motions of the joints.