All cyborgs now

AuTCRONE comes from a future where the climate is raging out of control. 

In Europe, Governments have become almost completely decentralised, in control only of armed forces and certain elements of the transport and energy infrastructure. They are supported, unwillingly, by numerous Citizen Enclaves, which are taxed in food and labour. These Citizen Enclaves are responsible for their own immediate needs, food, energy, shelter, healthcare; must tithe a percentage of their food production to the government. Money exists only as digital currency.

Some large corporations, Google, Amazon etc, exist as corp_govs (corporate governments) now. Their workers live, eat and sleep in vast compounds. Much of the world is becoming digitised by the corp_govs and while no one has yet been able to completely digitise a human being, that is the ultimate goal.

The population is generally made up of young people. Not many live beyond the age of 40, mainly because of the effects of pollution on their bodies. Anyone older than 40, or younger people with care-intensive illnesses or disabilities are expected to be a good citizen and chose voluntary euthanasia. This is not forced on them by law, but by a strong social expectation - to live ill and old is to be selfish, citizens who chose to live on are called Boom Booms and are often subject to verbal and physical abuse.

Older citizens who chose not to euthanise and who are in fairly good physical shape can choose to become Cleenrs. This is seen as a right and noble path for old people. Cleenrs join work parties that go out from the Enclaves and do dangerous, usually suicidal, work in the ‘Out World,’ the climate battered landscape surrounding the Enclaves. This work might include shoring up flood defences, fighting fires, cleaning up damaged nuclear sites.
Cleenrs never return to the Citizen Enclaves.

A few older people who joined the Cleenrs are selected to take part in cyborgian reconstruction. While humans cannot yet be totally digitised, advances in wearable and digital technology have meant that all humans are more or less cyborgs.