Artificially Gestated Humans and STL Colony Ships

[jeff37923]

I got in my old copies of 2001 Nights last night and one story had an idea that struck a chord in me, Night 4: Posterity . The story is about a Slower-Than-Light colony effort where the colonists were frozen spermatozoa and egg that were combined in an artificial uterus and birthed/decanted should a suitable world be found by the ship.

Now, is this idea even feasible? It is certainly possible, but is it feasible in that after a few hundred years a computer controlled machine could combine thawed sperm and ova, then grow that into a fetus and then a human child?

Gearhead-wise, I'm wondering how large and what tech level the machine would have to be to be able to do this.

Sociology-wise and psychology-wise, I'm wondering what effects this kind of dehumanized birthing process would have on the humans themselves. The initial generation would be the primary one grown, but how would this kind of cultural blank-slate human create their civilization afterwards?

Got to admit, I'm not sure if there is a game possible in this or not. I think there is, but I'm trying to get some more free-thinking going on to see where this initial idea branches off to.

 

[Chaldfont]

If I remember the story correctly, this is how the colony in Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End starts.

Its a pretty cool idea. There's no theoretical reason it wouldn't work. The real issue would be the psychological effects of being raised by machines, even AI-class ones.

Another cool topic to mess around with: This new society would only have access to information left by the builders of the colony ship. Do the builders give the colony their true history/culture or an edited version. Maybe the history/culture is entirely manufactured.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Maybe the history/culture is entirely manufactured.

Indeed-- if you were in charge of this project, wouldn't you take the opportunity to clean up the "rough edges" of your culture? Or would you even want to leave it to chance by using anything less than the very best utopian ideals you could dream of?

 

[Ymdar]

In my opinion this machine should be available at PL early 6 or 7.
And this campaign would be cool to show the players an all powerful computer vs. humans scenario. Maybe the computer itself went mad (if its an AI) during the time it waited for the first humans to grow up, or malfunctioned and started breeding humans a million years later than the normal human civilisation reached itsw peak and was destroyed. Or a Dark City like approach: You're in a city where there are no exits. But you don't know about it. There are no children, people are always newcomers. Noone knows each other. The computer enforces this anonymity. And those who start investigating suffer accidents. The point would be that people wouldn't know about a generation long journey.
Cool

 

[KaosDevice]

Well, you could always end around on the whole raised by the macines vibe by having them decanted as adult clones or what have you and then have the stored personalities of adult exploresed 'flashed' onto them. (With a nod towards the whole SJ Games braintaping meme)

They would then have all the memories of the homeworld counterparts including childhood, etc. Obviously those counter parts would be hundreds of years dead but hey, there you go.

A funny alternative would be ALL the character's accidentally recieving the same personality. Then half of the opening campaign would just be the clones trying to diferentiate themselves. But I'm just spitballing ideas now.

 

[Chaldfont]

A funny alternative would be ALL the character's accidentally recieving the same personality. Then half of the opening campaign would just be the clones trying to diferentiate themselves. But I'm just spitballing ideas now.

That would be great! Just make one pregen character and give each player a copy! Let them work it out.

Freakin cool.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

That would be great! Just make one pregen character and give each player a copy! Let them work it out.

God, that's brilliant. Start at very low-level (so advancement and differentiation goes quicker) and watch the characters try to make themselves stand out.

Hell, make most of the major NPCs versions of themselves, too...

 

[KaosDevice]

God, that's brilliant. Start at very low-level (so advancement and differentiation goes quicker) and watch the characters try to make themselves stand out.

Hell, make most of the major NPCs versions of themselves, too...

I think the fun part would be seeing where everyone spent their skill points as they advanced, etc. Some getting exposed to radiation and mutating with psionics, etc. You could get some really strange 'branches' among clones after awhile. Then throw in the fun of an alien world or another STL gen ship and hey what fun.


Another variation, same personality, but all the different bodies (male and female) that were brought along for 'flash memory dump'. Different physical stats, identical mental and skill sets at the get go. All sorts of variations of a theme on that one.

 

[KaosDevice]

God, that's brilliant. Start at very low-level (so advancement and differentiation goes quicker) and watch the characters try to make themselves stand out.

Hell, make most of the major NPCs versions of themselves, too...

Wait wait, his idea brilliant, or my idea brilliant? Because you know the whole me first thing....ah crap I hate being vain...

(still, me first, my idea)

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Wait wait, his idea brilliant, or my idea brilliant?

Both, really. You for the personality idea, and him for the idea of handing every player the same pre-gen.

I think the fun part would be seeing where everyone spent their skill points as they advanced, etc. Some getting exposed to radiation and mutating with psionics, etc. You could get some really strange 'branches' among clones after awhile. Then throw in the fun of an alien world or another STL gen ship and hey what fun.

"Getting" exposed? I think the real fun would be watching the PCs' reactions to groups of... well, themselves, deliberately exposing themselves, either in hopes of mutating (differentiation by any means necessary) or as attempted suicide resulting in mutation.

Let them really dig deep into the whole shared psyche.