That's good to read because...
... it sets up that bit of horror.
As they move out into first the Solar system and then other systems, humans are going to come across undeniable proof of aliens in the form of artifacts, ruins, and occasional encounters with live specimens. Even humanity's FTL drive is a side effect of the fumbling, "black box understanding only", use of recovered alien artifacts.
Humans are going find signs of a prior and present alien presence in the Sol system and in all the systems around Sol, so it's going to be logical to start looking for the same on Earth itself.
Indeed. Everyone now knows that there are Antediluvian ruins out there, even if they are poorly understood. Antediluvians by themselves, while marginally a horror element, are not a "deep" Mythos one, as they are, superficially, known. No one has to throw for Sanity when encountering Antediluvian ruins. However, within these ruins, especially the ones on the Fringe, there could be very, very alien things afoot. Things that force PCs to make Sanity throws.
But 2170's starfarers, unlike 1920's urban Americans, are less easily frightened by the alien. Alien life, and some of the related weirdness, is a fact of life. Horror is a deeper layer.
If there were terrible beasties all over the place out there then the perception of travellers would be different.
Yes, this will move the beasts from the "horror" category to the more ordinary "enemy" or "pest" categories.
In some instances frequency is inversely proportional to scariness. That's not to say that common risks can't be scary, but if they're well known then travellers can plan on how to deal with them, to mitigate the risk they present, and so they're then not so scary.
Indeed. Think of Event Horizon or Alien - no one has attempted a singularity jump or encountered a Xenomorph before. Aliens was less of a horror film, and more of a military sci-fi survival film, because the Xenomorphs were already known to a certain degree.
Of course, Hard Space will need somewhat frequent horror elements, as this is a core setting theme, but I will keep them in the fringes or related to them.
If how Mythos "spells" was understood within the context of a modified field theory then they would lose their mystique as some great mathematicians became great sorcerers.
If Great Old Ones were actually discovered and could be sampled, biopsied and understood then they could be dealt with by authorities compelled to limit the damage they'd do if awakened or hungry.
Exactly. This is why I was wary about computers being able to cast spells. Computers are logical beasts. If a computer can cast magic, then magic is logical. It can be analyzed and rationalized. And I don't want that.
So keeping that weird stuff out there on the fringes, whether of the settled worlds or the web or the Oort Cloud doesn't matter, can be important to maintaining the skein of unsettledness that is fun to have pervading these sorts of campaigns.
One options I've seen used is to have the players deal for a while with the consequences of what has happened before that involved the mysterious weirdness, with just hints of what the weirdness is. Travellers/PCs should have to work hard for the glimpse of that thing which rocks their understanding of How The Universe Works. That's not to say that it'd knock their sanity the same way it would for a nice 1920's first-world suburbanite, but if it's new and freaky and not entirely expected then a ref should be able to draw at least some good reactions out of the players.
Yes. There will be monsters to be fought, and tentacles to be severed, and alien maws to eat the hapless traveller, but there will always be a fleeting element to it - you can't just bring a tentacle of Cthulhu to a scientific convention and have the whole thing documented and quantified. Well, you brought that tentacle and some grainy recordings, but there won't be too much supporting evidence; and scientists are good in rationalizing things and doubting evidence.
