Notes on Using GURPS Bio-Tech (4e) in TS (part 1: TL Overview)

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by dscheidt

One thing, about self reproducing bioroids. I think one of the reasons that they don't exist in in THS is because the people that own the rights expect to be able to sell copies. If there weren't the loss of income, people would have done them, I think.

The implication/statement in TS is that bioroids are assembled from assorted cultured tissues, which may logically not even have the same genetics (so long as they're carefully designed to be compatible), and the chromosones they do have in their tissues are designed with "slots" into which specific genes can be inserted to produce particular local effects. Splitting out half their genes and matching up with half from elsewhere isn't likely to produce a viable genome unless the other half is from something specifically designed for the purpose...

Basically, they're not self-replicating living things, and their genes aren't designed for that, and may not be internally consistent. I doubt that they could express in a viable foetus; they can't reproduce sexually any more than a toaster could. This isn't malicious copy protection; it's the simplest way to do things, and designing a reproductively viable life form from the ground up is orders of magnitude harder.