Question About the Inheritance of Engineered Genetic Traits

[Iago_Smith]

I've spent the better half of the morning looking for the answer to a question.

How does the inheritance of genetically engineered traits (advantages/disadvantages) of parahumans and other engineered persons work in Transhuman Space? I realize the vast majority of children are not conceived the "old fashioned way" but say if they were, how does the mixing of different types of these persons express in offspring or even multiple generations.

Sorry if this a silly question, or even one that has been asked before. Double apologies if this is clearly explained somewhere and I've just missed it.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Iago_Smith

I've spent the better half of the morning looking for the answer to a question.

How does the inheritance of genetically engineered traits (advantages/disadvantages) of parahumans and other engineered persons work in Transhuman Space?

The traits of eugenic upgrades are passed "normally" along to any offspring they have with other upgrades or normal humans. All such are Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Note that "normallyt" may be only a 50% chance if only one parent has the trait. Maybe even worse if the trait is complex rather than simple.

Parahumans are a different species than normal humans and there will be no natural offspring. There won't even be offspring with other parahumans unless they are of the exact same sort. Each parahuman type is a different species.

[AlexanderHowl]

Human speciation is a rather large social problem in Transhuman Space, especially since it is largely unnecessary. Using Biotech, at TL10 you can create a human variant race with ST+2, DX+1, IQ+2, HT+3, and a fair number of useful traits (Combat Reflexes, Intuition, Photographic Memory, etc.) without crossing the species barrier. When people decide to make their children into parahumans, it is usually because they are making a political statement rather than increasing utility for their offspring (though the calcium hack is useful for anyone living in 0 g).

[Celjabba]

A possible concern is copyright lock on a full template or a specific upgrade, preventing inheritance of the trait(s).
I can't remember if it is the case in THS, but I would say it is likely, at least in some areas.

Since most complex traits (attributes certainly) will involve many independent change, inheritance is a very complex problem even if naturally possible, I believe.

Regarding cross-species :
From THS : Biotech 2100 :

human-parahuman (and parahuman-different parahuman) ... are producing offspring – with assistance from genetic engineers

[Iago_Smith]

Thank you, everyone, for your responses. They cleared a lot of stuff up for me.

Celjabba, I didn't even think of something like copyright but it makes perfect sense.