So let's talk about Transhumanism and how it relates to Cyberpunk,
and Space Opera. No really, it's important to me because I am indeed a Robot
Barbarian.
So where does a Robot Barbarian come from?
From the far reaches of the observable universe, where if you look at the sky
at the right time, it's pitch black. Nothing but a vast dark color of the
unknown. Think of that. Go outside right now, and look outside at night, there
are always stars.
But how do you get there? I’ll answer that in a little bit.
But Transhumanism? Cyberpunk and Space
Opera? Dungeons and Dragons? I want to say that the hottest titles that deal
with Sci-fi in table top gaming have this core assumption - that humans have
become posthuman, something more than human and are thus able to travel to the
farthest of stars.
But you know what, Transhumanism is a crux of all Sci-fi - it's a basic assumption
that we have to progress past our current biological, sociological, economical,
and psychological barriers to go to where we have never gone before. It easily
frames two very important ideas:
Cyberpunk (high tech, low life) Transhumanism is in
conflict. How does society reconcile the need to go beyond but still stay the
same? How far can we go past human before we feel that we aren't human anymore?
Why do we still care about that?
Space
Opera (high tech, high
politics) tends to use Transhumanism as a way to get past the incredible
distances between places - if you aren't entirely biological, then 1000 years
floating through space isn't a particularly big deal.
I think these two (three) ideas are pretty
important to the A Pearl in
Dark Flow setting.
Well, let's contemplate what all this Transhumanism has to do with
a game that is implicitly fascinated with Dragons, Wizards, and the haze dreams
from the 70's.
In traditional DnD, travel is either
painfully slow through horse drawn carts, or at a modicum of acceptability with
more anachronistic modes of travel like airships. But this is all travel on a
planet or “plane” as it were - anything "off planet" or other plane
is rather instantaneous, cause magic.
But let’s look at Spelljammer for a moment, and their idea of “spaceships”
and “space travel”, and again with magic it makes it more like on planet naval
engagements. I’m not the best acquainted with the setting, and the idea of
travelling between the spheres might be a lot faster than, let’s say what we
understand about moving near the speed of light and how we might get around
that…
Another note: another change of base assumptions –
while high level magic is considered rare in standard Dungeons and Dragons, it’s
not impossible. So magically travelling to different planes is something almost
expected. Travelling in a Sci-fi sort of world without being able to “Warp” or
find a faster than light travel method makes interstellar, much less
intergalactic travel sort of unfeasible. On the other hand, it’s a relatively
simple matter to travel from continent to another at this point – so overland
travel is never tedious.
Another Another Note: Science seems to have limit, up until
the limit is broken, and it again becomes mundane, and sellable.
Transhumanism, and embracing the Post-Human is what allowed early travelers and colonists to get
into the very depths of space – maybe not so far as the edge just yet; but at
least to the discovery and adoption of Technology that is capable of faster
than light travel, or bending space, or going at the speed of Plaid!
If Humanity were to traverse to the very ends of the universe, to
go past Human, maybe we could take a look at a game called Eclipse
Phase.
Humans have transcended ideas of a body,
and can move between bodies or shells, or even just become a sentient program
within the greater network. So wouldn't that effectively mean that certain
subsects of sentient life never actually die? Yeah, that would be a major
change in base assumptions here.
By solving the biological problem of “death” and biological
resource management – not needing food or air, but maybe making a personality
and memory matrix that emulates a person – soon becoming that person, travel to
the far reaches of the stars becomes doable, almost simple. Upload “soul”,
shoot out into space, land and create shell – viola, new colony.
But now we have another new
base assumption here:
While there are ways to resurrect dead
player characters - from Revivify to True Resurrection, but all involve
something to with old age, the soul, and gods. If instead, player characters
can cast off shells or bodies like shirts (or pants, I don't wear shirts, I'm a
bloody barbarian), the concept of death is gone. Without death, there is no
great equalizer, there is no avenue for divine retribution or reward. I guess
the idea of non-existence is a truly terrible thing – but it’s not divine
torment for eternity. In effect, religions that believe in such a thing are a
wash. It is arguable that the idea of a soul and gods are made superfluous by the
“digital soul” and lack of afterlife. But humans are humans – I’m sure some
rock somewhere will inspire great reverence of the divine.
So let’s TL;DR this thing:
- Transhumanism very much devalues particularly causal religions (like the good go to heaven), the concept of the soul and the afterlife.
- It (Trans/Post Humanism) is the easiest way to bypass the problem of incredibly long travel through space – you know that place that is… hostile with a vacuum and 0 degrees Kelvin.
- Science is limited, until a sufficient time that it isn’t – but its nearing super science which emulate magic.
- Once Science figures out something, it tends to make it mundane and saleable. Pan Galactic Travel becomes common, and so do Pan Galactic Gargleblasters.
- Go look at Eclipse Phase.
So how about some races that embraced the idea of the Post-Human?
Three types of humans, with all varying degrees of Posthuman that
question what it means to be human.
Robots with Selfhood - you know the deal, an obvious echo to the
question of the validity and existence of the soul. And to Warforged and the
Matrix, and Ghost in the Shell.
Speaking of Ghost in the Ghost in the Shell...Next Post might have
to do with the Ultranet, Cybernetics, Disconnects, and Overflows…
Anyway, tell me what you guys think. I’ll be raging around a
forest full of cyber-bunnies with deadly sharp teeth…
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