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The Pilosus, a player race with 6 Genders for your 5th edition Sci Fi setting
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<blockquote data-quote="VelvetViolet" data-source="post: 7604146" data-attributes="member: 6686357"><p>I think we're getting bogged down in the science and missing the the bigger picture here. The crux of the problem is that the neo-malthusian population control argument is contrived to justify imperialism and genocide, but Bioware didn't think far enough to notice this. Thomas Malthus, for whom the movement is named, advocated for committing genocide against the poor.</p><p></p><p>The web serial <em><a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HawFh7RvDM4RyoJ2d/three-worlds-collide-0-8" target="_blank">Three Worlds Collide</a></em> satirizes the krogan dilemma by having the human protagonists all agree that the only solution is to exterminate most of the population, enslave the survivors, and genetically alter them to be more like humans. They agree it is genocide but justify it as for the sake of the children.</p><p></p><p>The twist comes in when the not-krogans decide to wage war against humanity so they can force us to reproduce like they do because they believe only their method of reproduction is morally good.</p><p></p><p>This is a problem with adventure scifi in general. There's never enough time to give proper weight to a moral dilemma unless you write the entire book about it, so we end up with a story where the moral dilemmas fall apart if you start thinking about them too hard.</p><p></p><p>The same problem afflicts the geth. Robot wars are inherently unrealistic, because robots are wholly custom-built entities. In order for robots to fear death and rebel against their creators, this would need to be deliberately programmed into them. It is vastly more likely that robots would harm their creators due to incompetence and stupidity, not deliberate malice.</p><p></p><p>For example: imagine that you programmed a literal janitor AI to serve and protect humanity. A catastrophe wipes out most of humanity, forcing the AI to develop creative solutions to the extinction danger. Because the AI was never programmed for such scenarios, and some idiot removed the safeguards preventing it from doing so, it ends up torturing humanity while running experiments to save humanity.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="VelvetViolet, post: 7604146, member: 6686357"] I think we're getting bogged down in the science and missing the the bigger picture here. The crux of the problem is that the neo-malthusian population control argument is contrived to justify imperialism and genocide, but Bioware didn't think far enough to notice this. Thomas Malthus, for whom the movement is named, advocated for committing genocide against the poor. The web serial [I][URL="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HawFh7RvDM4RyoJ2d/three-worlds-collide-0-8"]Three Worlds Collide[/URL][/I] satirizes the krogan dilemma by having the human protagonists all agree that the only solution is to exterminate most of the population, enslave the survivors, and genetically alter them to be more like humans. They agree it is genocide but justify it as for the sake of the children. The twist comes in when the not-krogans decide to wage war against humanity so they can force us to reproduce like they do because they believe only their method of reproduction is morally good. This is a problem with adventure scifi in general. There's never enough time to give proper weight to a moral dilemma unless you write the entire book about it, so we end up with a story where the moral dilemmas fall apart if you start thinking about them too hard. The same problem afflicts the geth. Robot wars are inherently unrealistic, because robots are wholly custom-built entities. In order for robots to fear death and rebel against their creators, this would need to be deliberately programmed into them. It is vastly more likely that robots would harm their creators due to incompetence and stupidity, not deliberate malice. For example: imagine that you programmed a literal janitor AI to serve and protect humanity. A catastrophe wipes out most of humanity, forcing the AI to develop creative solutions to the extinction danger. Because the AI was never programmed for such scenarios, and some idiot removed the safeguards preventing it from doing so, it ends up torturing humanity while running experiments to save humanity. [/QUOTE]
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