Interesting start. Wonder how far their 'wiring' extends.

As time goes on we keep moving further away from primary resource manipulation - in that respect a backwoods mining town was the ideal thing for Flint to send back. With much higher technology cut off from its roots...

Ah. I should have made it clear this is set within an O'Neil style colony. :) The wiring goes all the way to the microwave power rectifier (which no longer has any microwaves to rectify) and some emergancy fusion generators, which because of poor maintinance (governments are still cheapskates in the future) haven't worked quite as well as their manufacture intended.

And higher technology is going to be an issue, especially for the AI residents. Computer parts don't last forever...

Oh, when I said wiring I meant how much the people and uplifted animals have been modified. They seem to have direct cerebral interfaces, and (at minimum) gengineering for strengthened skeletons. Does this extend to further body enhancements, a la Mutineer's Moon - strength, reaction time, etc?

(Unless it's not spoilerific, don't tell me, 'cause I'd rather read it through the story.)

Ah, that kind of wiring...
Implants are generally limited to the nerves going in and out of the brain. Like a very personal computer that can act as a full VR/holodeck interface.

Direfox skeleton strength was engineered when they were created 200 years ago. That kind of biological enhancement is usually pre birth, either of the individual or species. Radical technological enhancement is (unlike many works) limited by the laws of physics, and rather uncommon. There are about a hundred 'nova' species on New Folkestone, some of which have very odd anatomy and appearance.