Genetics, Cybernetics, and freaks, oh my

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

All this talk of psionics gets me hankering for a good old, "supressions of 850" style lynching!

(we Imperials frown upon such freakishness as Psionics... such things are for Zhodani)

I recently played a character in the "other human" category... He was a merc Geneered for Zero G Combat and such... He was made at great expense (the Corporation went under from the project) and with great difficulty, and was sort of a prototype. The point was that he was somewhat of a rarity...

I have always had the notion that the Traveller Background lacks definition as to why Biotech is not more prevalent in the galaxy... we now are on the cusp of entering a new age of Genetics (I didn't think so until I saw the "glow-in-the-dark" Mice*) and there is great potential for the science to be abused greatly. Already expectant parents can elect what sex they want their children to be for a few thousand dollars... who knows what developments will crop up 3500+ years from now? Judging from the advances made in only the last century, I reckon it would be very substantial indeed.


Was there some point in history where this happened in the Traveller mythos? Before or during the Long Night?


* A batch of Lab Mice, at Cal Berkeley, had a chromosonal alteration, adding the bioluminescence gene sequence from jellyfish to their DNA, under ultraviolet light, their skin glowed green! It was cute at first then in retrospect, quite freakish!

 

[TKalbfus]

I have always had the notion that the Traveller Background lacks definition as to why Biotech is not more prevalent in the galaxy... we now are on the cusp of entering a new age of Genetics (I didn't think so until I saw the "glow-in-the-dark" Mice*) and there is great potential for the science to be abused greatly. Already expectant parents can elect what sex they want their children to be for a few thousand dollars... who knows what developments will crop up 3500+ years from now? Judging from the advances made in only the last century, I reckon it would be very substantial indeed.
Well there is the Imperium. The Third Imperium is modeled after the Roman Empire under one of the "Good Emperors" What these empires desired most of all was stability. Things like overly common bioengineering tend to upset the social order so they are discouraged. Also consider that the OTU is composed of worlds of varying tech levels. many of those worlds have a tech level of 7 or 8 which is just like our world except for the occasional visiting starship these worlds are much like a modern setting, not a futuristic one.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

Culture? Outside the Imperium?

 

[Falkayn]

Originally posted by Baron Saarthuran:
Culture? Outside the Imperium?

Well ... seeing as the good Baron is from a backwater like Gushemege, with so little outside influence it is perhaps understandable that he has not heard of the Julian Protectorate or the Zhodani Consulate.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

Bah! Upstart Barbarians! (whacks map with cane)

 

[matrix cypher]

If I remeber correctly the Imperium is conserned with stability of trade between the systems and realy cares little about the local planetary government as long as they are not doing realy horrible things such as using Weapons of Mass Destruction. Heck Slavery is allowed as long as it is they are not transported between Systems. The Imperium does not condone slavery so it does not allow it in the space between the planets.

The Imperium is not an all encomposing jugernought that sends its jack booted thugs in every time something is not "traveller canon". Its a Collection of diverce cultures and technologies all sharing a common ground...Trading.
And its from this trade that the imperium gains its money (power) to maintain the stability of this Trading.

yours trully

TS the traveller realist (sub order of the combined traveller heretical luddite thingamajig group thingy)

Originally posted by Tom Kalbfus:
I have always had the notion that the Traveller Background lacks definition as to why Biotech is not more prevalent in the galaxy... we now are on the cusp of entering a new age of Genetics (I didn't think so until I saw the "glow-in-the-dark" Mice*) and there is great potential for the science to be abused greatly. Already expectant parents can elect what sex they want their children to be for a few thousand dollars... who knows what developments will crop up 3500+ years from now? Judging from the advances made in only the last century, I reckon it would be very substantial indeed.
Well there is the Imperium. The Third Imperium is modeled after the Roman Empire under one of the "Good Emperors" What these empires desired most of all was stability. Things like overly common bioengineering tend to upset the social order so they are discouraged. Also consider that the OTU is composed of worlds of varying tech levels. many of those worlds have a tech level of 7 or 8 which is just like our world except for the occasional visiting starship these worlds are much like a modern setting, not a futuristic one.

 

[Merchant Reaper]

I think the real reason for lack of bioware/cybernetics in Traveler is a game designer choice to stay away from an area that did not have any concrete scientific data to make any realistic determinations of what could and could not be done. 26 years later I think we have a solid enough of an idea of what is feasible to be able to run with it in a game such as traveler.

Economics would keep such technologies very limited as to who could access them. Ie rich people, rich government agencies, corporations, etc... And the "investment" would have to be for some tangible benefit, other than making a kick butt super character. Ie they are used for guarding extremely important personages, espionage missions of extreme difficulty, guarding exceptionally important secrets, an ultra secret black ops team, etc...

Of course, such a character could never truly retire, and if they were to "dissappear" they would always be hunted for recovery of highly classified trade/government secrets, called their enhancements.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

Then of course there is the factor that at Traveller's birth the concept of such technology was still in the "Six Million Dollar Man" stage of development... didn't exactly fit in so "Asimovian" Foundation type setting as Traveller's... Did change come with William Gibson? I bet he thinks so...

 

[tfornof]

I'm all for cyberware and genengineering in existence, just keeping the illegal as all hell aspect. There may be "Doctors" who, for various reasons, who had to abandon their lucrative practice back home. These would be able to set up shops/med labs on low law level worlds on the "Frontier". These may become common in these back world areas, but anybody who dared tried slipping Illegal mods past Imperial Security, say at a starport or anything remotely secure (rock concert?), would be arrested and dealt with harshly. Perhaps they would be surgically corrected without the benefit of the lost part being replaced.

The old Judge Dread comics had their Prison sentence as being on an airless mining world and the criminal had be cybernetically and Genetically modified to serve their life sentence sans any Vacc suit.

The GM may keep this area as a tiny corner somewhere away from most of what happens. The surrounding areas will be aware of attemps to slip through so they will be scanning for everything. Whether or not anything can get through is up to the GM.

 

[Ran Malia]

I think the primary problem in Traveller is that there is a fear of change. A fear that people will loose interest in the game if modifications that improve the system or the details of the storyline. A few months ago I was in a huge debate on possible psionics changes in Traveller and several posters continously fell back on the argument of "it wasn't that way argued that I couldn't (or shouldn't) make so and so changes because it wasn't that way in CT. I think that the same ideas exist when it comes to biotech.

Is biotech in Traveller? No. Have people come up with some interesting and scientifically possible uses for it? Yes. Should it then be incorporated into Traveller? Maybe. The problem isn't with the technology, as some would have it. There is definitly a stronger scientific basis for biotechnology then there is for contra-grav, and probably a stronger basis for nanotechonology too. With that said, it isn't about the plausibility of the technology, it is about the effect on the game, specifically the social structure.

Gurps came out with a game called Transhuman Space that delves pretty well in the ideas of biotechnology including nanotechnology. The main impact was social. Now some of these problems Traveller has already dealt with. Opposed to TranSpace Traveller has decided that AIs do not have rights, but some issues would be the same. What happens when people live 50-100 years longer? Also what happens when you can easily change your looks or when you are 'radically' changed for another environment? These could be interesting ideas to develop.

Also I don't think that it would be that expensive, at least some things wouldn't be. For example, a basic screening at birth to check for defects, which basically ensure that PCs don't have stats below 8. At the same time, at the right TL you could have minor modifications made that increased your physical or mental abilities. And, as someone already mentioned T20 can easily accompolish this through templates, below are a couple of examples that I made based on Gurps Transhuman space:

Genefixed Racial Traits
· No physical stat below 8
· Genefixed base speed is 9 meters
· Mediuim-size. Genefixed recieve no special bonus or penalties due to their size.
· Genefixed humans receive +4 starting skill points and +1 per level
· Genefixed humans receive one bonus feat at 1rst level
Date: 2020 Cost: $50,000
Description: Base human variations
Status: Human
Languages: Native


Ishtar Upgrade
General-pupose upgrades such as the Alpha are common, but more specific packages are designed for parents who want specific types of offspring. The Ishtar gene sequence was created to produce children optimized for professions such as dancer, gymnist, and popstar

Ishtar Racial Traits
· No physical stat below 8, except Strength
· -1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution
· Ishtar base speed is 9 meters
· Mediuim-size. Ishtars recieve no special bonus or penalties due to their size.
· +2 Fortitude save vs. disease and intoxication
· +2 reaction modifier based on appearance
· +2 to all Entertain skill checks
Date: 2064 Cost: $50,000
Description: Base human variations, with light elfin build and attractive looks
Status: Human
Languages: Native


I am not saying that this should be done, but at the same time there shouldn't be a fear of taking Traveller and re-challenging its assumptions. Will it change the storyline? A little maybe, but D20 survived its changes so why wouldn't T20?