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David's implants before the Sandevistan
- I remember there's talk about how David hasn't been chromed up before he gets the Sandevistan implanted, but doesn't he have implants beforehand? He seems to have cybereyes (you can see his eyes glow when he watches the braindance with the cyberpsycho right at the beginning, he receives calls like V does in Cyberpunk 2077, and he's got an Arasaka shard that Lucy tries to steal from him, so presumably he's got some cyberware already.
- Yes, he has at least neural interface.
- It's likely that the basic neural interface/phone cyberware that he's running is so ubiquitous that it's considered not to even count.
- Likewise with V, who can do remote hacking without being considered 'cromed'. The term generally refers to full replacements, not small scale augmentations (that honestly even the poorest of the city have access to).
How do braindances really work?
- There are several times characters appear as themselves within a braindance sequence and interact with their environment. This seems to directly contradict the portrayal of braindances in the game, where they are more like movies or TV shows that envelop all of the senses, and aren't interactive.
- The difference is probably for entertainment purposes - it's much more interesting to see David and Lucy bounce around on the moon and develop their relationship actively than to watch them watch other people bounce around on the moon and bond that way, while it's more like a movie in the game because of the general interactivity of the medium. As for an explanation, maybe appearing as oneself is specifically Kurosaki's gimmick, which Lucy copied to the moon braindance to pretend to actually be on the moon - she is noted as having modified the temperature settings so it's not out of the question that she made it more interactive.
- JK mentioned he modified some of his XBDs for the express purpose of making the watcher experience the events more directly rather than vicariously through another.
- Brain dances of particular events have the user experience them from the view of whoever scrolled them. Brain dances of desirable locations or the like extrapolate based on the actions of the user, applying specific feelings or conditions like extremely low gravity but otherwise letting the user run the session. Presumably the latter kind are more simple with everyone else part of the simulation operating on a set schedule of what they did when the BD was scrolled rather then interacting realistically.
How does the Sandevistan actually work?
- Seriously, how does a spinal implant give David speed force level super speed even when it was his only cybernetic augment? I get that it slows his perception of time and improves his reflexes when activated, but how does that allow him to run at supersonic speeds and seemingly ignore inertia? Also the ripper doc warns him that overusing the implant will put a massive strain on his brain, but how does it seemingly not put any extra strain on his muscles or joints?
- Can't say for the how, but the wear on his body is mentioned by Maine, who advises that David get some extra augments in the future as eventually his bones and muscles won't be able to keep up.
- A potential explanation for the how is based on a couple of factors with where the Sandevistan is installed and the general principles behind Cyberware as a whole. First, David’s Sandevistan seems to replace his entire spine and spinal cord, meaning it has direct access to basically every nerve in his body. The Sandevistan is thus replacing the nervous tissue and allowing the brain to send/receive feedback far quicker then would normally be possible. David can thus use his body to it's full potential due to being able to react far, far faster then average but still within human capability. As for the actual process behind them, thats likely a mix of artificial neuro-transmitters and other chemicals that the Sandevistan provides (given that the spine has a lot of important fluids and functions that rely on such) as well as nanomachines (which most cyberware seems to make use of to some degree). Nanomachines might also be the reason why David can put his body under such stress without entirely giving out mitigating/repairing the damage caused by usage, or the Sandevistan coordinates with other implants to limit the users actions to what their body can physically handle.
