GURPS Fifth Millennium

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

The former. Of course I'll need to hash out just which things count as incremental TL improvements and which are new tech appearing at TL 10.

I'm going to have to do the corresponding thing in regard to my SF setting.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by D10

Thats a very good question, with TL12 Biotech, the solar system would probably be much more hospitable to colonists, with crazy TL12 things terraforming all sorts of envyroments, and by the time the campaign starts, its very possible that several autosuficient colonies would exist in mars and other places.

Reason to get there in the first place could be scarce, but with the help of AIs and the adventurous spirit that humans always had, I doubt it wouldnt happen unless there were something that prevented it from happening.

That's one reason I'm going to stick with a narrower reading of CHSF on biotech. You can do a lot with TL9. I did a cheap and fairly good (IMO) TL 9 variant Spacer parahuman build a while back, in THS. But at 10 and up with full tech, you are right that the obstacles become much more manageable.
At full 12, what obstacles?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by D10

If a whole sleeper ship appears... these guys want more than simple exploration!

Baptism? Ordination?

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by D10

Could be Aliens AI's as well, since its probably easier to get a super smart computer thro space if its an exploratory mission ...

If a whole sleeper ship appears... these guys want more than simple exploration!

Indeed. History just got jump-started!

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

For some reason I'm reminded of what Earth was like in Simmon's Illium and Olympos (which is neither conservative nor especially hard).

I haven't read those, but I liked Hyperion.

[D10]

What is religion like, is there any science behind the afterlife, mind separated from matter, and etc...

And following on that line, I think that if there are still violence, terrorism and war going about, a lot of it would be fueled by some sort of racial purity maxim.

With all these parahumans and etc... being created, its bound to get some people ****** off enough to take up arms and try to purify the race of all these ungodly creations of man.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by D10

What is religion like, is there any science behind the afterlife, mind separated from matter, and etc...

And following on that line, I think that if there are still violence, terrorism and war going about, a lot of it would be fueled by some sort of racial purity maxim.

With all these parahumans and etc... being created, its bound to get some people ****** off enough to take up arms and try to purify the race of all these ungodly creations of man.

Oh yes, slavery, terrorism, racial hatred, religious bigotry and all that is part of the world.

In THS terms, you have the full spectrum of PSR attitudes and beliefs. The biggest difference is that nonhuman and parahuman intelligences created by humans have been around long enough that they are no longer new and shocking as categories. That is, humans in general have had time to adapt to/process the idea. Which doesn't mean that they all like it.



The great mysteries of the afterlife, mind separated from matter, and so on have not been solved by science. People have ideas and insights, but no definitive answers that don't come from faith and tradition.

I have not worked out the particulars on religions, and am open to suggestions. As a general guideline, you would see a mix of old and new religions. If we look at the real world, there are religious traditions that have survived for thousands of years. I don't think all the major world religions are gone in FM, but they would have evolved. Some things change, and some things remain the same. Many smaller sects may have died out, but new religions, philosophies, political movements and such would form in time.

One of those three pontifices I mentioned might be a parahuman.

[Keiko]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

In fact, I'm not contemptuous of space exploration IRL. I support sending more probes and collecting more information. I would be happy to see mining of extraterrestrial resources if it could ever be made practical.

You need to distinguish between exploring space and living in space or on other planets. A lot of exploration has been done with probes. AI might increase that trend. If an AI can do the job just as well, why send a human with all that expensive life support?

What I don't think is likely with conservative projections based on current technology (5M is a CHSF tech path setting) and related social and economic factors is human colonization of the Solar System. Not impossible, but implausible.

Fair enough. It is a creative idea and far different from most proposed settings that distant into the future. Probably not my cup of Joe (I'm not into conservative or "hard" sci fi and one my big issues with THS is AIs doing everything I consider interesting and exciting thought that might be "realistic") though and that's biasing my read so I'll step back to Lurker mode. Thank you for the patience.

[Seneschal]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

That's the second W040K comment.

I really like WH40K, but I'm not seeing the connection.

What about this world is so bleak?
What makes it bleaker than our world?

Is it the human modification and non-human intelligence stuff that is so disturbing?

I apologize if I got the tone wrong. It's clear you don't mean it to be grim. A lot of modern sci-fi (that isn't described as "dystopian") generally paints an optimistic and forward-looking, if somewhat alien picture of mankind (or what it transforms into)...but only because it's typically written by technophile progressives. Military sci-fi may avert this trend, but even then it assumes there is something, perhaps whole interstellar civilizations, worth fighting for.

Seeing as our own progress doesn't seem to be doing anything but accelerating, having it slow down, and having humanity turn introspective always comes across as a societal failure. It's probably a modern prejudice - we expect fantastical things from our descendants, regardless of whether it would be practical (or even appealing) to them.

[combatmedic]

Oh, no need to apologize, Seneschal.

The world concept runs against the grain of so much SF, at least in gaming, that I possibly should have added more context in the first post.
And just like the real world, it may be grim or happy or in-between depending on one's perspective, expectations, and experience. I don't think there's only one right way to see the setting.