Jürgen Hubert
First Post
It seems to me that the vast majority of science fiction settings (and quite a few other settings as well) are defined by what constrains them. There's often some sort of explanation why nobody creates artificial intelligence or uses human genetic engineering. Or there are some powerful governments or corporations constraining what you are allowed to do. Or perhaps there's some overarching philosophy, religion or other Prime Directive which makes clear for society what is socially acceptable and what isn't. Or perhaps there's a war going on and most people have to act under wartime constraints or even a military chain of command.
Mind you, there's nothing wrong with that in itself, and many settings use those constraints to provide ample campaign and adventure seeds. Many SF settings try to make sure that problems are solved through human ingenuity instead of technological toys. In cyberpunk and other "dystopian" settings, being hunted by The Forces of Oppression is part of what the genre is all about. And it's hard to imagine Fading Suns without the Universal Church of the Celestial Sun and its impact on the setting.
But nevertheless, Transhuman Space differs from all these settings in that it is not about what limits humanity, but in what makes humanity free. In general, humans in Transhuman Space are only constrained by their wealth and the available technology - and since wealth is abundant and the technology is highly advanced and easily available, this tends to result in very few genuine limitations. Sure, many nations and regions limit certain kinds of activities, but it's almost always possible to find some place where you can do precisely what you want - and if not, it's fairly easy to go to space and found your own place where you can do what you want. And the implications are vast.
You can change yourself in myriad ways - make yourself younger, healthier, more attractive, or even smarter. You can change your mind and personality with a vast range of drugs, becoming more confident, ambitious, less requiring of sleep or anything other trait you can imagine. You can even turn yourself into a computer program, which will likely live forever (or at least as long as human civilization exists), as long as you keep on making safety backups.
And collectively, humanity has explored the solar system, terraformed Mars, colonized the oceans, and extract Helium-3 from Saturn. There's little that humanity can't do, or so it seems sometimes.
But the other side of this is that there is little that humanity won't do, and this is where the setting can be disturbing. Sapient beings are created merely for the purpose of enslaving them. Children are radically genetically altered to fit the ideals of their parents. The human mind and how it is operated is so well understood that there's commercial software available which can help you build your own ideology - even a suicide cult, if that's what you want.
Given all this, the question how humanity defines itself takes center stage. What is "human"? What is "moral"? What, if any, should be the limits to how humanity changes? Everyone has his own opinion on this - but nobody can really convincingly say that there is One True Answer.
And the freedom to explore all that is what makes Transhuman Space so fascinating - and so different from other settings.
Am I making any sense here? What are your thoughts on this?
Mind you, there's nothing wrong with that in itself, and many settings use those constraints to provide ample campaign and adventure seeds. Many SF settings try to make sure that problems are solved through human ingenuity instead of technological toys. In cyberpunk and other "dystopian" settings, being hunted by The Forces of Oppression is part of what the genre is all about. And it's hard to imagine Fading Suns without the Universal Church of the Celestial Sun and its impact on the setting.
But nevertheless, Transhuman Space differs from all these settings in that it is not about what limits humanity, but in what makes humanity free. In general, humans in Transhuman Space are only constrained by their wealth and the available technology - and since wealth is abundant and the technology is highly advanced and easily available, this tends to result in very few genuine limitations. Sure, many nations and regions limit certain kinds of activities, but it's almost always possible to find some place where you can do precisely what you want - and if not, it's fairly easy to go to space and found your own place where you can do what you want. And the implications are vast.
You can change yourself in myriad ways - make yourself younger, healthier, more attractive, or even smarter. You can change your mind and personality with a vast range of drugs, becoming more confident, ambitious, less requiring of sleep or anything other trait you can imagine. You can even turn yourself into a computer program, which will likely live forever (or at least as long as human civilization exists), as long as you keep on making safety backups.
And collectively, humanity has explored the solar system, terraformed Mars, colonized the oceans, and extract Helium-3 from Saturn. There's little that humanity can't do, or so it seems sometimes.
But the other side of this is that there is little that humanity won't do, and this is where the setting can be disturbing. Sapient beings are created merely for the purpose of enslaving them. Children are radically genetically altered to fit the ideals of their parents. The human mind and how it is operated is so well understood that there's commercial software available which can help you build your own ideology - even a suicide cult, if that's what you want.
Given all this, the question how humanity defines itself takes center stage. What is "human"? What is "moral"? What, if any, should be the limits to how humanity changes? Everyone has his own opinion on this - but nobody can really convincingly say that there is One True Answer.
And the freedom to explore all that is what makes Transhuman Space so fascinating - and so different from other settings.
Am I making any sense here? What are your thoughts on this?
