You have arrived at my new AtB (After the Bomb®) Warehouse Blog site. Some people may recognize a few re-posts from my earlier blog, AtB Adventures. Please take some time to read through the posts and leave your comments and ideas. PALLADIUM BOOKS® INTERNET POLICY All incidents, situations, institutions, governments and people are fictional and any similarity to characters or persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
Back in 1988, the Mutants In Orbit supplement opened up the "Final Frontier" to the After the Bomb setting, and while the thought of living on a space station can, and has been romanticized with visions of Dyson Spheres, Ringworlds, Stanford Torus Rings, and other shaped habitats where we recreate Terran eco-systems to give the illusion that we are still living on Earth.
The problem with this is where do you get all that dirt and rock for the infrastructure, not to mentions all the materials and alloys needed to build the superstructure? You can't take it from Earth, since it's most likely still needed there. Water can be harvested from comets and other areas in the solar system, but fertile arable soil is not a common resource in our solar system.
Still, by the time we need to seriously consider constructing these types of space habitats, we might have the ability to create large quantities of arable soil.
Is the next step in human evolution cyborgs? Very doubtful, economically speaking it's just a really big stretch. I'd place my money on genetic enhancements trumping cybernetics, though I don't doubt cybernetic enhancements may find a short lived niche, somewhere.
The main drawback of cybernetics would be upkeep and upgrades. At the pace technological evolution is at currently, you have to change your computers and cell phones every few months to keep up with the latest advances. Would you be willing to go in and have your cybernetics upgraded as often?
Imagine the cost.
Also, cybernetic augmentations would not carry over through reproduction. So you'll have to budget each child's cybernetics.
Nanotechnology might simplify the installation and upkeep processes, but it would still be unpleasant and costly.
Biological and genetic engineering is most likely the road humanity will decide to follow if they decide to take control of their evolutionary path. The biggest benefit would be if the changes were such that they could be passed from parent to child. However, there's no saying if the parents upgrades would be compatible or cause some unforeseen mutations in the offspring.
In the end, you have to ask yourself, would it be worth it?
[UPDATE]
This article was originally written in 2009, and since then we haven't seen much public motion in the area of human cybernetic implants - though there are quite a few more wearable computers (smart phones) on the market today; but there are still those who are continuing to play with and develop the technology.
One of the pioneers in this area, Steve Mann (the father of wearable computing), was recently accosted by a group of men in a Parisian McDonalds [link] who took issue with his cybernetically attached "Digital Eye Glass" and tried to physically remove it from his head:
He angrily grabbed my eyeglass, and tried to pull it off my head. The eyeglass is permanently attached and does not come off my skull without special tools.
I tried to calm him down and I showed him the letter from my doctor and the documentation I had brought with me.
Here's a bit of filler in the vein of the sci-fi megastructures.
Proving that for some, sky is not the limit, the Megatropolis project gathered quite a few interesting ideas, emphasizing on urban life in the future. One of the concepts belongs to architect Tsvetan Toshkov and reveals a futuristic, lotus- inspired city, far above the sky-scrapers man kind is so familiar with: “City in the sky is a concept about a tranquil oasis above the mega developed and polluted city where one can escape from the everyday buzz, smog and dirt. The concept is inspired by the Lotus flower which is known for its ability to emerge above the murky waters pure and clean“. Even though the project did not make it to the final stage, the idea was taken further and presented in a short movie, that we are certain you will find original and intriguing. Have a look and don’t hold back from sharing your reactions regarding this future-city concept.
[Freshome.com]
Here we see them brought together in the form of a crystal lotus tower that would most likely spell certain death to those below if the windows blew out or some other form of structural failure caused part of the building to fall on the city below.
Still this would make for a spectacular set piece for an adventure in AtB or just about any other sci-fi game setting.
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