| From: | "Fisher, Victor" <Victor-Fisher@******.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: [OT sort of, with Shadowrun conotations] |
| Date: | Fri, 4 Apr 1997 13:20:28 -0500 |
>I apologize to the list for my coarse language. I should not have used it.
>
><<<Steals soapbox from the last ranter and hops on>>>
>
>
<snip>
>Hands soapbox back and quietly slinks back to lurkdom
That's okay. I think [after observing the whole debate] is that eugenics
when applied to humans has some very negative conotations [the Tuskeegee
incident really sticks in my craw], and an ill chosen word blew into a
full blown flame war. The whole idea is scary, especially when you have
to wonder who determines the criteria for 'enhanced selection'.
But, that's one of the things cyberpunk is all about; pointing out
all these rapidly emerging technologies, and how they can be horribly
misused if we're not careful.
If you really want a disturbing read about eugenics, see if you can
pick up the Eclipse trilogy, by John Shirley [That's Eclipse, Eclipse
Penumbra, and Eclipse Corona]. I particularly liked because many of the
circumstances presented were extremely plausible, given people today.
Among the running plotlines were :
1) What do you get when you combine a right wing religious association,
with eyes on politics, with a multinational facist securities firm?
2) Does anybody really know how easy it is [now] to actually
manufacture a disease that can target one specific genotype out of the
pool?
3) What do you replace them with?
4) Consider how much people believe what they see on tv. What if, thru
the use of real time feedback,holographics [not gross creations, but
tweeking a speaker's image, so it's more in sync with his public], and
interactive speech writing to create the 'perfect canidate'?
5) Just how easily are our perceptions swayed about other ethnic groups
and nationalities by what we see on tv? [think about how many programs
portray certain groups in an EXCEEDINGLY negative light]. Think
'Trolling For Orks' or the Elven 'Keeper in the Monkey House' for
Shadowrun.
6) The number of facist and paramilitary groups out there is truly
frightning. What if they exchanged info, etc. even more regularily than
they do now?
7) The public has a VERY short memory, when it comes to dark periods in
our history, never thinking they'll come again, when in truth they never
left us.
Sorry, didn't mean to go on for so long. The books have some really
good plot ideas for Shadowrun games. How a prejudicial securities
company [maybe like Lone Star] would still be able to present a 'good'
image to the public, despite the activities of a few of its people.
Certain Humanis groups, it was hinted about in the Threats
sourcebook, are already experimenting with their own 'Final Solution' to
the metahuman problem. What happens when the aspects of this brush
agains the runners' lives?
You don't have to stage big, 'Save the World' type campaigns to use
these plot ideas. Show the effects on the 'little people', and how it
affects their day to day lives. A run could be centered around getting
proof that a anti-metahuman org was secretly backing the production of
certain telee programs, where the large majority of 'criminal' elements
depicted were metahumans, and exposing it, maybe even getting the show
cancelled.
I've probably gotten TOTALLY off track from where I've started, but
I'm still sick, so I've got an excuse :-P
<hops of soap box on Speaker's Corner>
