nick012000 wrote:

The way I read it, the Lost project wasn't an attempt at force-growing morphs. It was an attempt at force-growing [i]egos[/i], which are in short supply if you don't just want to use a bunch of forks.

It was. The whole point was to see if they could bring people from childhood to full adulthood in the same amount of time that it takes to grow a new biomorph... 3 years. It was called the Futura project because the egos their respective morphs were the "future" of our otherwise dying species. The project was meant to prove that we could repopulate Earth quickly after we gained back control of it, or perhaps to prove that we could easily fill up habitats with more humans as we built them. Either way, it was meant to prove that our low numbers was a fixable issue, and not something that people should worry about. It was a failure (though most people don't know that the Watts-Macleod virus may have been the reason it failed, and not anything particular with the project itself). I see what chrisweuve was saying though; there are plenty of infomorphs who want bodies as is, and we shouldn't be wasting our time making new egos when we already have some to spare. However, their physical needs can easily be handled with synthmorphs. What people are more worried about is the future, when we have already given every infomorph that wants one (estimated at around 50-60 million) a body, and we still need to expand the human race. Forking could work, but it also could stagnate our mental capacity, as people essentially become large clusters of the same mind, and individuality wanes. Instead, Cognite was looking to fill our ranks with new minds, speed grown in simulspace, fast enough to be an effective production system, but slow enough that they wouldn't be ready before their biomorphs were (otherwise, we could have used time acceleration to grow them to full adulthood in less than a year).

TheWanderingJewels wrote:

Then the question becomes, what sort of phenotype does one want to produce at relative speed and with what mods? what areas need people. what will the personas be comfortable with. and where will the settle. Terra is out of the question at this point...

Again, the Futura Project was a testbed, not an actual attempt to repopulate humanity. They were trying to see if it was as feasible to quick-manufacture minds as it is to quick-manufacture egos. Since we did not get an exact number of how many subjects there were in the project, we don't know exactly there were, but I think it fair to note that the total number of asyncs in existence is approximated less than 5000, so the total number of surviving and perhaps total Lost cannot be that high (of course, that number could be based on the fact that most people don't know that all of the Lost are asyncs).

TheWanderingJewels wrote:

this doesn't mean they won't try it again.....

I think new projects have already begun which probably were inspired by the Lost Generation. In fact, I wouldn't doubt it if Cognite is trying to train a cadre of async soldiers. Who wouldn't be scared shitless by a squadron of gun-toting psychics?

nick012000 wrote:

Someone who knows that psychics aren't [i]that[/i] much better than regular soldiers with suitable augmentations. They're possibly even worse, considering the advantages synthmorphs have over biomorphs in combat roles.

Tough call. Unlike in a setting like Shadowrun, severe body modification does nothing to hamper one's psi ability, so long as the brain remains organic. To that end, enough psi sleights can make someone significantly more proficient than even the most powerful machine body. Asyncs can, without affecting other minds, grant themselves extra actions, bonuses to aptitudes, gain a +10 modifier to a number of skills (essentially having the potential for 109 in certain skills), a number of other bonus modifiers, and many abilities which perfectly imitate, or even exceed, the potential of implants. To top it off? All of these abilities can be used with more implants, essentially giving them the potential for absolutely amazing levels of enhancement. Don't even get me started on the potential other advantages they receive if they are going against a biomorph, or another async for that matter. To a degree, there are more advantages for synthmorph shells, but there are ways to counter those advantages. Biomorphs can wear exoskeletons, for instance. The battle suits armor is not cumulative with any other armor, so it doesn't provide too much of an advantage to synthmorphs, but a definite advantage for biomorphs. Another thing I thought about: you never know if future releases might include a "biobrain" implant, replacing the cyberbrain of a synthmorph with a biological brain capable of psi use. How deadly would that crap be?

"Another thing I thought about: you never know if future releases might include a "biobrain" implant, replacing the cyberbrain of a synthmorph with a biological brain capable of psi use. How deadly would that crap be?" It exists...

Holy thread resleeving, batman