[Bio-Tech] Template for Female Space Colonists

[ericthered]

If you want to quickly expand the number of humans, your problem isn't birthing the children, its raising them. You don't just need children, you need people who care for the children and take responsibility for them. The raising takes a whole lot more effort than the birthing (No slight to my mother or anyone else's mother intended).

You can gene-tweak for more babies, but you're better off increasing the cultural desire for children. Birth control is a thing, after all.

[Peter Knutsen]

The real idea behind the high-female-sex-ratio thing might well be to attract a lot of male colonist applicants so as to be able to pick the most desirable ones, the most skilled. "Do you want to live in a colony where 90% of the population are female, almost all of them cuter-than-averge, and virtually all bisexual?"

Think about it. Lots of men won't find the idea of permanently abandoning Earth attractive. So you add something that changes the picture, by catering to male fantasies.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

I admit wikipedia is a poor to middling introduction at best, but it seems this choice is more about determining which male gets to be the father, than about the female being able to sense the gender of the foetus (consciously or not) and abort (or not) on that basis.

Without having read the article, that'd also be my assumption of what "female cryptic choice" referred to. The ability to have one male to help provide and protect without him being the actual father of her children.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

I admit wikipedia is a poor to middling introduction at best, but it seems this choice is more about determining which male gets to be the father, than about the female being able to sense the gender of the foetus (consciously or not) and abort (or not) on that basis.

It should be possible to gengineer a woman that can selectively kill male sperm vs female sperm. I'd put it at TL-9.

However, I disagree with the whole concept. He seems to want to attract men to the colony, despite the knowledge that women can do the same jobs as a man, as long as the job doesn't actually require a penis.

I was raised by my mother after my sperm doner committed suicide when I was 4. She became one of Johnson and Johnson's tax accountant and was paid higher than my dad when she remarried. And dad wasn't a slacker.

[Eukie]

The attractiveness and bisexuality seem like they're justified poorly - or ad hoc - in that they're not a good way to accomplish high birth rates (early sexual maturation and social factors would be better for that), but an entire subspecies of attractive bisexual women for the express purposes of sex is a potent male sexual fantasy.

If you're looking for a way to raise birth rates, as others have mentioned, good childcare support, an increased probability of twins, or just ensuring the colonists have a low median income and are exposed to lots of stress, with no access to birth control or abortions. (Which is extremely cynical and ethically questionable.)

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

However, I disagree with the whole concept. He seems to want to attract men to the colony, despite the knowledge that women can do the same jobs as a man, as long as the job doesn't actually require a penis.

He wants to attract men because it's possible to attract men.

If there was a very powerful attractor that worked very strongly on both sexes then that'd be the obvious one to use, but there isn't. Or if there was a very powerful attractor that worked on women, analogous to how the current proposed schemeworks on men, then he would use both in tandem. But there isn't.

There is no attractor that would get women to apply by the tens of millions to a comparatively low-TL and early colonization project, a dangerous, ardorous and unpleasant project, so that the corporation or governmental department managing the project can pick the elite specimens.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

He wants to attract men because it's possible to attract men.

Uh, why? If you can make enough female colonists to attract male ones, it's more reliable to just make more males. I think this was actually a genuine attempt to get a colony started faster. In which case, faster maturation and quicker learning are the ways to go fore genegineering.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Uh, why? If you can make enough female colonists to attract male ones, it's more reliable to just make more males. I think this was actually a genuine attempt to get a colony started faster. In which case, faster maturation and quicker learning are the ways to go fore genegineering.

Yes, you're right about that.

But that assumes the colony just need a lot of able-bodied generic individuals, whereas if you can attract a pool of tens of millions of applicants, you can select those few from the pool who are ultra-desirable. Near-polymaths with intelligence quotients of 150 or higher, and so forth.

[Angle]

Yeah, you'd be better off using exo-wombs. Attractiveness probably wouldn't be worthwhile, as the people involved in the colony can't be too picky- those points'd be better spent on extra HP or fatigue points or Resistant or HT or something like that. Bi sexuality might be worthwhile because it promotes a greater degree of pair bonding, which helps glue society together and should make more of the individuals there-in happier as well. I'd suggest slapping that trait into both gender, actually.

On the attracting potential colonists front, I'd point out that you probably want to be selective in WHO you try to attract. The model you've presented here looks like it's optimized to attract whiny dudebros, which do not sound like the most promising colonists. The trait's I'd want in a colonist are -

*Having useful skills and knowledge. (duh!)
*Being able to work well with others.
*Being motivated and hardworking.
*Being willing to put up with hardship.

Though of course, if you're putting together a clony mission, chances are prtty good that you already have a core of colonists picked out, and you're just trying to fill in the blanks. In which case, having high compatibility with the ideals of your core group would probably be pretty well up there as well.

So how do you attract such people? I'd probably look for an existing social group or two that had a high correlation with these traits, and aim my recruiting at them.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Yes, you're right about that.

But that assumes the colony just need a lot of able-bodied generic individuals, whereas if you can attract a pool of tens of millions of applicants, you can select those few from the pool who are ultra-desirable. Near-polymaths with intelligence quotients of 150 or higher, and so forth.

Meh. Those polymaths are likely to be highly successful either in their fields, or in general. If they want to go looking for customised catalogue-wives, they'll have better options doing it without sending themselves into a highly uncomfortable frontier.