Rise of Homo Superior article- slightly bumping Godwin's law

[Drashner1]

I recognize that. Eugenics still seems to be an odd subject for the first sentence though.

There are various indications or offhand statements in a number of the older EG articles that give an impression that parts of the Interplanetary Age might have been rather...offputting (or even downright unpleasant) by our current standards.

Off the top of my head, these include indications of:

a) Vecs treated as something very much like slaves.

b) Various hu supremicist or other groups running around that seem to fill the role of RL white supremicists or similar groups.

c) Genetic engineering having both bright and dark sides.

d) Indications of extreme poverty in some form or other (see the other thread about proles).

Alan (one of the founding members of the project) often said that he saw OA as a 'brooding noir setting' with a much grittier and dark tone in some spots than what we generally depict. Whether the above points were supposed to help give that impression or whether they represented various elements that were thrown in the mix with an idea to expand on them later (or maybe just to sink or swim on their own merits and the groups interest level) isn't clear at this late date.

Over time we've been tweaking one or another to make them better fit into the conception of OA that we've developed more recently. Although at the same time, I'm not sure that we want to get rid of the idea that the Interplanetary Age had a darker side to it (we aren't trying to create utopias here). But we might want to polish and refine what was originally described, including improving the explanations or history given (a bit, not a huge amount) and presenting a more cohesive vision with fewer apparent contradictions.

I think the first step on that road would be trying to come to a cohesive vision of how we see this period in history, in terms of both positive and negative elements (by our standards anyway).

Todd