My impression from the Lost experiment is that tampering too dramatically with developing young minds can be extremely dangerous for all involved. Hence, I'd imagine most experts treat the notion of putting a young teenager in a fully adult body with extreme caution. There may be those willing to push the limits, but for those willing to ignore laws, bans and social stigma to achieve a goal, the question remains: For what goal? It may be that adolescent minds, or at least *some* adolescent minds, can adjust. But given what happened with the Lost even before they got their Futura morphs, quite a few people would be unwilling to take that risk. We, of course, know the Lost experienced dramatically accelerated childhoods while exposed to virtually *no* actual human parents, and picked up the Watts-McLeod virus to boot, with all the issues that arise from even short trips to the Mesh, much less being trapped there for years of subjective time, plus the inherent sense of despair and alienation that follows around canon EP asyncs. Which might have been factors as well.

I'd say that children don't get their mesh implants until they end adolescence development, and get the basic biomods that are not result of genetic tampering at birth. Until they get the mesh inserts, they use ectos (safer as "take them out, you are safe", unless you enter in contact with a basilisk hack, in which case the child is in a very bad neighbourhood). The cortical stack would be something you get at about 10 or so, before that it would be just regular backup, probably publicly provided almost everywhere (children are rare in the setting, and very precious). The muse is, literally, tied to the child from birth: it watches the child and learns eveerything about him and is the perfect babysitter. Also, it "censors" the mesh contents for the child. Pedophilia: it's easier to go to a pleasure hotel and ask for a prostitute with a neotenic sleeve than face really hard psychosurgery to remove the compulsion if caught. As for the adults sleeved, they would be either professionals helping the children's development or people who enjoys or needs to relate to children (because it's a good psychosurgery treatment outside of VR), so it wouldn't be in their best interest to mess with the kids (not to mention the muse would be using the surrounding sensor net to keep an eye on the children).

Oh my, my, my. It's been a long time since I've posted... Wherever kids grow up, it'll be different. It's probably one of the more entertaining topics to think about, since the mindset of a new generation is inevitably both familiar and alien. 1. I imagine a good time to get your cortical stack would be around age 12 but I can't honestly imagine worrying transhuman parents waiting that long, so it's likely that around age 3-5 is normal. In places where death-by-depressurization is not a constant threat, I imagine parents are willing to be more conservative and allow their child to just get bi-annual mental back-ups until the child hits the right age for it. I imagine, though, that wherever you are, no-one really does it before the age of 3-5. 2. Toddler-observing AIs are likely readily available, but, as with a cortical stack, I imagine most kids don't get their mesh inserts until a certain age that varies based on medical advisement and social taboo. They no doubt get their muse at the same time, and any kid who was born after or not long before the Fall likely can't remember a time when they didn't have their muse. Any further implants are likely bioware your parents bought for you and are already included in your genome. Any cyberware wouldn't be implanted until much later since it wouldn't grow with your body with time. 3. I doubt anyone but the most doting of parents keep back-ups of a child younger than 3 or so. Beneath that age line, a toddler or infant that dies stays dead. Particularly attached parents may try to bring them back, but most grief-stricken parents who want their child back are likely just to clone them at that point. As for resleeving a non-adult, this has already been answered, really. 4. Muses with parental control software are likely extremely common. There's also likely more than a few companies that specialize in selling muses that let newly emancipated young adults transfer their muse's personality and learning to a new muse template that provides better functionality while eliminating child-safety features. 5. Education is largely very different by region. Luna is probably closest to the old system, in that it has a large, central body that accredits and certifies eductional programs and institutes. This is likely very similarly patterned in the Morningstar Consortium and the TC, save that the former likely has more local control involved and the latter has indoctrination and government check-ups mixed in as well. Of all things in the Titanian Commonwealth, its education system is probably the one that'd make most people twinge a little. After all, it has to instill its future citizenry with a sense of civic pride and responsibility, as well as teaching them to oppose certain selfish instincts. It's probably one of the things that comes up most often in Martian propaganda against the TC, and, while likely wildly overblown, it's probably also got grains of truth to it. Mars, meanwhile, likely has many accrediting bodies throughout the PC. It also likely has physical schools still, which are as much glorified daycare centres as institutes of learning, with most of the poorer ones being designed simply to prepare kids for a life of future drudgery. The wealthy, meanwhile, simply let their children learn from home with the best tutors money can buy. 6. I doubt pedophile predators are much of a problem in the transhuman age. Neotenic morphs and pleasure pods mean you can act out most fantasies, even violent ones, safely and with consent, even if it's only from a prostitute or an AI. As for identifying who's what, most transhumans likely have their muse pull up relevant information on anyone they talk to, so it's unlikely anyone will mistake a neotenic for a child beyond a first glance. Bringing this to something else, I have to go back to the education one. Since most schooling is now easily personalized, the difference between gifted and lower-intelligence students (which, in an age of gene-fixes and cognitive enhancements, would still be more akin to comparing super-geniuses and the merely above-average) would be even more obvious. A particularly astute youngster could breeze through a year's education in a few months, so there would likely be more hands-on learning and make-work programs involving youths. As such, by the time they're 20, most transhumans likely understand not only fairly advanced materials in maths and the sciences, they are also able to, at the very least, take care of themselves in a society. They know how to perform basic repairs, how the habitat they're in functions, how to speak a few languages, how to do basic scripting... Not because of any particular imperative, but because, if they didn't, they'd run out of things to do.

Thing is, as much as I absolutely loath school, it's an essential step stone for social skills learning and behavioral limits building. Especially in Transition Economy and New Economy societies, where commercial interactions are based on Reputation, either partly or completely And reputations are built pretty early on. Even in old economy and totallitarian regime like the Jovian Junta, school is the perfect place to see what nails stand above the others, and either smack it into the norm or make use of it, like schools nowadays

Comparing psychosurgery to modern day surgery is very much apt. None but the absolutely most insane parents would consider such a thng and would be made pariahs for it in any reasonable colony (likely with criminal consequences). Schooling to educate someone is, most anywhere in the system, more likely to resemble home-schooling than anything else (especially in PC or Anarchist habs), but there are likely exceptions. I imagine it's a part of constant debate in some areas. One of the things I fear for the Titanian Commonwealth is the lingering spectre of Jante Law, which, combined with a necessity for indoctrination at a young age, would necessitate a public schooling system so that it can be ensured that all children receive a certain level of "cultural education".

1. I suspect this depends on brain development and GM. I'd personally suspect around 15-16 for mesh inserts and somewhat earlier (6-9?) for cortical stack. In general, I'd say that implants in a growing child are finicky things and only most necessary stuff (like basic biomods) are implanted before body develops into maturity; and even then child gets a checkup every few months to tune and adjust those implants. 2. I'd say pretty soon after birth. IMHO the muse is first incarnated as some nice fuzzy toy (think talking teddy bear and/or those cats from sailor moon) and includes stuff like child safety expert system and first education softwares (you want your child to grow up learning proper BBC English/whatever). 3. As other people have noted on this thread, I'd suspect regular backups start at age 3-4. I'd also suspect that most people would then custom-grow a clone body (people who have children in this setting are *not* poor...) to appropriate stage of brain development. Or get a pod and simply emulate proper brain development. Teenagers (or younger) sleeving into adult bodies might IMHO result in persistent and "interesting" personality development problems, varying from "slightly odd" to "nearly non-functional". Still, I'd suspect that it would be relatively easy to program a pod hardware to emulate a developing brain and let the mind develop more-or-less normally. 4. Nanny software is pretty much a must, though the degree of intervention and snoopiness is something that requires constant and careful balancing. Children won't like "snitchware" and most parents will prefer their children to having muse to guard their kids from real nasty dangers instead of children conspiring to ditch their muses to eg. score age-inappropriate XPs. 5. My interpretation (stolen from earlier THS campaign): Child's muse knows it's charge's tastes, style, talents, preferences, etc. better than anyone else. Teaching software (supercharged version of "Khan Academy") is downloaded and muse functions as primary teacher, escalating any problems it can't handle to parents and/or software provider. Basic education starts before the child can even walk (and I suspect most edusoftware includes things like proper poise, pronunciation, etc.) Of course, the educational content outside ideologically neutral subjects like mathematics, physics, etc. becomes a hot potato. I'd also suspect that certain packages have reputation despite official pressure ("Everyone knows argonauts make best hard-science edusoftware.") 6. One would suspect that neotenic prostitutes and VR software have pretty much mitigated worst of the pedophilia problem, though nobody will ever voluntarily confess visiting such prostitutes and most people having such ...problems... are already getting psych treatment for it. Also, I'd suspect that many people would find sleeving in a neotenic and playing with other children (in absolutely non-sexual sense) a really neat way to have a relaxing vacation (ObSF: John Varley, _Good Bye, Robinson Crusoe_).

I wonder what family life would be like in different parts of the Solar System? I mean, how would a family on Venus be different from a family in the Jovian Junta? And what would a PC family be like compared to an anarchist family group?

Remember that, even on the same planet, or in the same orbit, cultures can still differ wildly. Venus, for example, has PC and Morningstar habs, which will be more conservative and liberal respectively, but even the PC Venusian habs will seem liberal by Martian standards. No two habitats will be the same; each is a nation unto itself, which may share some aspects with other nearby or more distant habs but is ultimately unique. This is, of course, before you get into the further cultural complications. Most likely, the families follow the modern formula, with one or two parents of either gender raising a child or children together. This pattern is likely the same in any part of the system, given the relatively libertarian style of transhuman life. Exceptions exist among early space colonists, who likely have extended family (which is a rarity among transhumans, largely due to the Fall but also due to the fractious nature of the lifestyle), but they're the exception, not the rule. Some particularly notable exceptions are extended clans, be they by familial or honourary ties. Crime syndicates, for example, or people with family in law enforcement communities, or gerontocrat groups. People in these groups aren't quite family in the conventional sense but they might as well be. In any case, family is likely not something to be sniffed at. In the transhuman world, who you know is everything. Your parents and siblings are connections and resources, and, if you are born into a family tied to one of these clans, there's likely a combination of social pressures and benefits that will have a heavy effect on your life. Beyond this generalization, there's a whole world of wonderful detail and unusual examples, but it'd take forever to outline even a fraction.

My GM skills just focused like a shark smelling blood at the "most families" part... and suddenly popped out "exhuman" "posthuman" and "ultimates". And of course "black researchs" XD. As for the backups, we should distinguish between four groups: those who can afford it and those who cannot, and those who live where it's needed and those who don't. From Mercury to Mars or so, it shouldn't be really a need. Further away, it might, and on exoplanets it really is. There isn't much need to kill children, and having a muse 24/7 watching for the child (even in an infomorph state travelling through the local mesh) prevents tons of accidents (and robots are really cheap...). People who can afford it... of course, the rich and the elite... a 6 months backup insurance is quite expensive and you have to pay monthly for it. Remove the morph ready for the child if something happens and you might get it just for 250-500 creds per month... And god forbid a fork of your child ends with Nine Lives (people can be really depraved... specially when they have all the time and money in the world and nothing to do but to fight boredom. Psychological torture of a child might be something some people want to do... Not to mention all that shady projects that would require "clean" subjects, the attemps to revive the project that made the Lost Generation...). Yeah, I'm of those old GM's that like the phrase "homo homini lupus" as a base for adventures ^^U