[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Then clearly we need both a Transhuman Space reboot and a setting that both explores and critiques the Grimdark trend.

For a spherical reboot in a vacuum, here are some things I'd argue in favour of:

• Pick a date when the major divergence in the timeline occurred, and pick it in the past, probably best somewhere around the 90s.
• To make sure the rebooted setting doesn't age rapidly (which would warrant a re-reboot too soon), make sure not to steal any major themes, conflicts or extrapolations from headlines of the last 10-20 years.
• We're giving the world 20 more years to develop. Use that to andvance/upgrade the bits of tech that most need upgrading. Since the setting's title is Transhuman Space, make sure that the technologies pertaining to transhumanism and space travel/life/etc. are at the top of the list. It's extremely embarrassing that Eclipse Phase is the one where the civilisation honestly calls itself 'transhumanity' and not 'humanity' because in EP the overwhelming majority of citizens of the solar system are transhumans or not human at all, while in THS the number is pretty modest.
• Make a clear decision about the level of various fields of tech and stick to it.
• Either admit that Mars is blatantly TL^ (which would sadly result in ditching the hard-sci purity seal completely), or fix it.
• Pick five to ten hot issues that are incredibly divisive for the society and argued about in 2120, but which nobody in polite society would dare to discuss in 2100. Make sure none of these issues are talked about today, either because even admitting to think about them is a grand faux pas, or because they are inapplicable to modern life, or because a majority of people have no idea about these things and are unlikely to become informed for many decades.