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Old 01-02-2020, 09:44 PM   #21
Johnny1A.2
 
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Default Re: Reboot THS

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Originally Posted by vicky_molokh View Post
Well, in THS, SAIs are neither cheap nor ubiquitous. If anything, it's the LAIs that seem to be the elephant in the room, constantly underestimated by the lore.
SAI isn't cheap like smartphones and the like, but it's cheap enough in-setting-canon to be problematic. See below.

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Do Ghosts really dominate THS, or have an 'urge' to? Because to me they seem to be a minority both going by lore and by what players seem to go for.
No, ghosts don't dominate the setting, and neither does SAI...but logically, they ought to. The advantages to being a sapient machine are so great that one would expect the THS Solar System to be essentially dominated by SAI and ghost-programs. It canonically isn't, but there's no clear reason why it isn't, other than authorial fiat. Which leaves a big hole in the background.

A SAI/ghost can operate in almost any environment, by changing bodies. Even if it's a sole executionist, that's only a minor impediment, it can still change bodies by running on a computer module can be physically switched from one body to another. They are tougher, faster, at least theoretically ageless and immortal, they can access information with an ease and convenience no other entity can match, etc. It doesn't really matter if they have any desire to do so or not, you would logically expect it to happen simply from weight of superiority.

They ought to utterly dominate the setting, but they don't. Dominating the setting would be problematic from a meta POV, but so is the lack of any reason why they don't.
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Old 01-03-2020, 10:49 AM   #22
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Default Re: Reboot THS

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That would be a different setting. Not that there's anything per se wrong with such a setting, but it hardly counts as a THS reboot.
I suppose it depends on what you think the core identity of Transhuman Space is. Is it the transhuman parts? is it about the space colonization? I'm not so sure. Granted, I haven't played with it much, but the parts that stick out to me aren't about transhumans in space. Its about ubiqitous computing, memeplexes, and flirting with the early transhuman boundaries.
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Old 01-03-2020, 10:57 AM   #23
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Default Re: Reboot THS

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Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post
And if someone says they'd never subject themselves to that, you can reasonably ask why they'd balk at that but consent to having their brain sliced and diced into ground meat in order to make a software version of themselves, which is a far more radical thing.
I cannot understand why anyone would want to do that. There are simpler and less expensive ways to commit suicide.
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Old 01-03-2020, 11:19 AM   #24
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Default Re: Reboot THS

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That would be a different setting. Not that there's anything per se wrong with such a setting, but it hardly counts as a THS reboot.
That's very much my feeling. It's one thing to say, "We're going to have a new and different transhumanist setting." It's a different thing to say, "We're going to have a new version of Transhuman Space." THS is not reducible to an abstract theme; it has a whole lot of very concrete individuating features that make it a unique entity. And if it's showing its age, well, works of art do that. Why should we assume we have to be able to go on doing a future based on transhumanism, any more than we have to be able to go on doing one with habitable Mars and Venus, or one with superhuman mutants?
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Old 01-03-2020, 12:06 PM   #25
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Default Re: Reboot THS

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I suppose it depends on what you think the core identity of Transhuman Space is.
It's named 'Transhuman Space'. Anything that removes either of those is no longer Transhuman Space.
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Old 01-03-2020, 04:50 PM   #26
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Default Re: Reboot THS

I suppose I wasn't thinking of actually doing away with the transhuman and space elements of the setting. I was thinking more of emphasizing the things THS did well rather than the parts were it didn't "go far enough"
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