Genaesthetics

The technologies and repercussions related to genetic engineering are far from unknown to the tower population. During the Fifth Decade of the Technocracy, there were many advances in the science of directly manipulating the genetic structures of embryos to affect the attributes of the growing child. Attempts were made to enhance the physical abilities, health, intelligence, and - looks.

Several subcultures developed around the quest for the perfect human beauty, with couples contesting about having the most beautiful children. The ideas of what was beautiful varied between and within the subcultures: among the many desired traits were height, shortness, classic athletic build, round features, smooth silver hair, and snow white skin tone.

The general public disapproved of this kind of meddling but most found it unappropriate to interfere with the choices of others. Only when several genetic defects introduced by the procedures were discovered, did the Technocracy forbid the use of such techniques by law, until the time when interconnections within the genome would be better understood.

The corrective side of the genetic engineering research continued, eliminating many genetic defects from the population by the launch of the Seed ships. The other application areas never got advanced enough to be called true eugenics or superhuman research. The branch of science also became rather unpopular, and in the following decades many subcultures formed, advocating more "natural" ways of life.

The legacy of genaesthetics still remains in the many people born with various degrees of the popular characteristics like albino skin, excessive features, peculiar hair colors... Many of them also populate the terraforming colonies.

Check. And yes, please remind me when the time draws near. I wouldn't have remembered Dustman's notice for this week had you not posted. (What's the situation, by the way, Dustman?)

An orc crying a very large black tear?

Series continued at Lore section.

Seemed nice (the second one, couldn't see the first).

So, how much cheating (skilled video editing) does it take to create something like that? That is, how close to that kind of experience do you get by playing SWG? Was that one bar night? Is there music when entertainers play and was that background music played in game (not very Star Warsy that one, IMO)? Do people actually manage to synch their movements so they seem to dance to music etc etc?

The Vision

The vision of Sebastian - and by extension, The Horizon - is ambitious, grand, and appealing. In his view, the entire Da Vinci will be colonized via terraforming, in a joint effort of all the colonists. The projected end result of the colonization is frequently illustrated on the holographic walls of the Dawn Club.

The "Future of Da Vinci", as they call the scenery, is a combination of the most beautiful elements of both Earth and Da Vinci. Chrystalline glaziers and snow-covered mountains cover half of both hemispheres, with coniferous and broad-leaved forests growing on the mointainsides and in the valleys, populated by the genetic descendants of the arctic animals of Earth. Humans live in communities ranging in size from a few great cities to small villages. They move around in the environment without protective gear other than warm clothing, working on their hydroponic farms and playing with their children. In the polar regions, where temperatures are still below -70, they use special heat suits and live in domed communities.

The equatorian region is warm enough to melt the snow, giving way to lush vegetation with a climate close to the old Earth Mediterranean. This is the most populate area, with people living amongst the nature, swimming in the lakes and the ocean, walking in magnificent parks in the middle of majestetic edifices reaching towards the sky.

The oceans will be filled with plankton in order to produce the necessary oxygen, as well as a variety of fish and other marine fauna. Spherically domed underwater cities similar to New Atlantis on old Earth drift slowly in the currents.

No one knows for sure how detailed a plan Sebastian has for reaching this. It is known, though, that it involves a traditional terraforming process similar in many ways to that on Mars but improved and adjusted to Da Vinci conditions. The atmosphere will be Earth-like in thickness and composition but due to Da Vinci's greater distance to its star the temperature will be lower, from -90 to +30 degrees Celcius ((FEASIBLE WITH ALL THE PLANTS???)). The biosphere will be genetically modified as needed in order to survive in the lower temperature, as well as the microbiological conditions of Da Vinci, but it'll retain its Eartly appearance.

To questions about genetic manipulation of humans, Sebastian's only reply is: "Our humanity will not be compromised."

Everyday Ring Activities

Large quantities of minerals and power are delivered to Canyon C at a constant rate, making it a perfect place for factories, especially those producing tools, spare parts, and other mineral products. Thus, it's no wonder that factory observation, maintenance, recalibration, and manual assembly of rarer components are familiar activities to most members of the ring. The Horizon also maintains a visible presense in the Canyon area, repairing and maintaining Tower infrastructure.

The observation of the factories is performed from the Canyon C Observation Den, located below the ground level. Here, a handful of specialists observe the diagnostic data from all the factories. (There are also necklink interfaces, allowing this kind of things to be done remotely, but many functions still haven't been converted to those.) Often, when there's a problem with some factory or the diagnostics system is malfunctioning, members may have to stand by the factory and observe it with plain eye.

Factory maintenance, as well as repairs on Tower infrastructure, are performed by teams of three to five people. Each team has an area of expertice (such as robotics, factory control protocols, structural engineering etc). In addition, at least one person, preferably two, in each team is required to have training in first aid.

The general protocol is that whenever an observer notices a problem he can't fix, he reports to the ring channel to request help. Then either Nanto, Tino, or Bengu assigns a team to the task. With bigger problems, several teams may be sent.

Factory recalibrations are larger jobs, lasting from a few hours to several days and often requiring tens of people to help it out. Often, to enable producing new kinds of things, you need to rearrange large sets of machinery, build unique components to the product line by hand, modify the controlling software... generally a lot of work for lots of different people. Thus, the leadership often turns these projects into great ring efforts to improve team spirit.

(This kind of large efforts aren't always needed to change what's being produced, though. The factories are relatively versatile and modular, allowing many recalibrations with minimal effort. Many factories shift regularly between products in order to produce a greater variety of items. It often seems like a matter of pure luck when this works and when it doesn't.)

Last but not least, many colonists specialize in manual assembly, meaning they build by hand those things that can't be built automatically at the given moment. The reason for this need is usually that the production would need a very specific kind of factory but the product isn't needed in large quantities.

In addition to all this, many members of The Horizon work full or part time in projects led by other rings but approved by The Horizon leadership.

Well, my only guess is they may have been made by the same company, but they seem to have made lots and lots of games, so I give up.

I have a LARP writing meeting next Sunday so we won't be able to play then. So who's in if we reschedule to Saturday?