Biotechnology

Neural augmentation is the integration of computational systems into the central nervous system.  The integrated components are durable and protected from unauthorized external access.  They enhance the cognitive functions of their host, provide an interface to human technology, and handle communication in the form of messaging.  Cognitive tasks such as remembering names (actually unique references) are performed by augmentation.  Messaging uses electromagnetic radiation to send messages as discrete packets complete with automatic error detection and handling.

The practical implications of this technology is that individuals never forget a name, never mishear a statement, and can communicate with any other living human.  Messaging dialects exist, but the variation between dialects is small enough that they are all mutually intelligible.  Learning spoken language is difficult for individuals due to the way their brains have developed to process communications – auditory information is processed differently than in primitive humanity.  All neural augmentation is performed while a fetus develops in an exo-womb.

Modern humans are nearly identical to their primitive predecessors due to the fact that they are genetically sequenced from genebanks created during the era of biological reproduction.  The single major departure has been the near-universal sterilization of the species.  Otherwise, geneticists simply avoid introducing undesirable genes when designing new individuals.