#augs

Some time ago @remember-panchaea posed the question about whether Adam's arms shouldn't feel cold. And taking his words:

 ‘These are machinery and electronic components that NEVER are turned off. So therefore they do not have a "cool" state just a moderate "safe" temp zone. This is not to say they'd be belching steam and burn you, just you know, warm’.

And I think it's a very interesting point that I had never thought about. Before that little conversation I even caught myself thinking that Adam's arms would feel cold to the touch.

I've been thinking about it and I'd like to share my conclusions with you. Of course, feel free to add more information or to point out those things that could be incorrect :)

Strap in kids cause this is gonna be a long one.

Specifically, I'll be talking about his sense of touch.

Alright, so the premise of augmentations, fundamentally, is to have a portion of your body replaced by tech that's superior to what mother nature gave you. Makes sense, right? Otherwise they'd be no motivation to chop off a perfectly functioning limb. Well, that and if you're not augmented in the golden age of augs (pre hr to hr) it's REALLY hard to find a good job.

Adam's augmentations are top of the line, cutting edge bleeding into experimental (esp in MD, but I'd argue they're still not something you could obtain with mere purchase power unless you're a billionaire or special ops in HR).

With the above being said:

FANDOM, STOP WRITING ADAM JENSEN AS IF HE CAN'T FEEL ANYTHING WITH HIS AUGS!!!

It doesn't make ANY sense for Sarif to create augs that are weapons and also don't allow you to function in daily life. Even Namir canonically has a variety of attachments he can swap out on his... Underchassis, and he's sporting Tai Yong Medical. Quality of life is a huge driver for what brand someone would go for - you're not gonna buy a limb that's not going to do the job of a regular arm and then some. Sarif prides his brand in being the best designed.

I'd argue Adam's probably just as sensitive as he would've been with his normal limbs. He might even have some strange sensor packages that allow him to feel things that humans normally can't. This, I could see as disorienting since the human mind is only capable of processing certain types and amounts of input. He might even be able to turn his touch sensors off. THIS would be extremely disorienting, and probably the easiest way to incapacitate him, if he's not conciously choosing to turn off said sensors.

Being able to grip objects also depends on touch, and while Adam is shown to have issues controlling pressure (the cracked whiskey glass) we only ever see this lack of control displayed in his HR apartment, where he spent most of his recovery. In MD, anything that might be broken is most likely a result of emotions leading to lack of control rather than a defect in the augmentations design.

Most likely, any discomfort is borne of phantom limb syndrome. Maybe his phantom limbs not synching up with what he's seeing in terms of what and how he's moving. Given that his DNA allows him to bond very strongly with his neural/bio chip though, I don't think it would bother him after he got a certain point through his recovery.

His augs probably feel cool to the touch, but I imagine that he could probably change the temperature not just for comfort, but also to evade thermal imaging. A thermal camera isn't going to think a hot spot the shadow of a torso is a human right away.

His palms look to be the most skin like in texture, so I assume there's a high tech silicone with embedded sensors to replicate touch and grip as well.

To the Edge of the Sky Edit (Three)

Time: Eight hours

Photoshop Elements 7

Original photo credit Naver/BigHit.

Character “Three” belongs to @aeondreamstudios