Snigger if you will, but my group has been doing some thinking about reproduction in the Eclipse Phase universe. While some consider the Solar System to be overcrowded with infugees awaiting sleeves and consider the creation of new egos the 'old fashioned way' as irresponsible, the human urge to create progeny is a strong one. I believe there must therefore be infants and kids in the Eclipse Phase universe, not including neotenic morphs. Which leads us to the question of the mechanics of reproduction when people occupy expensive bodies that were designed and copyrighted (or patented) by hypercorporations, and which also often have built-in obsolescence. Then there's the idea of pure ego reproduction. Finally, what is it like to grow up in the Eclipse Phase universe? Physical Reproduction Between two Flat morphs or two Splicers reproduction is simple enough. I presume that the gene therapies used to turn a Flat into a Splicer are in the public domain by now, so it's reasonable to assume that Splicers breed true. It also seems like a logical step to make the modified genes that confer bonuses on a Splicer dominant, meaning that the product of a Splicer and a Flat is, in fact, a Splicer. Things get a bit trickier when you consider reproduction involving any other biomorph types, however. Given the range of genetic control exercised by morph designers it could vary by specific model, but there are three possible outcomes: 1) No Offpsring The morph is infertile. This could be a result of a deliberate choice on the part of the morph designers, or it could be a consequence of trying to breed, say, a Ghost Morph with a Ruster. 2) Offspring are Splicers This is one of the options I consider to be most likely. The morph designers have designed the genome of their product(s) such that all of the unique traits that make it what it is are recessive, meaning that they do not breed true. The offpsring of any union between two morphs where this option is chosen are therefore Splicers. Making the morph traits recessive however would lead to the possibility of gene therapy to 'turn on' the traits later, a possible copyright violation. Perhaps it's even more likely therefore that the morph creators utilise non-germline genetic techniques to create their morphs, meaning that none of the unique DNA is transmitted sexually. 3) Offspring Breed True I consider this to be the least likely option for most morph designers. First and foremost it would allow two people inhabiting the same morph type to reproduce without having to pay an expensive fee to buy the resulting morph. This might be considered a good thing where frequent purchases of maintenance packs are required, however, so the situation isn't as clear cut as it initially appears. If two Rusters breed together it's true that the company making Rusters hasn't been paid for the new morph, but on the other hand they didn't have to pay to build it, and it's an additional consumer of maintenance packs. Perhaps companies do require a fee to be paid in order for a 'reproduction license' to be purchased before a couple can reproduce with their morphs. I can't see that being a popular move, however, and in most circumstances it's rather difficult to enforce. If morphs breed true, we have to wonder about chimerae. Imagine a cross between a Ruster and an Olympian; what does it look like? That would depend on the dominance and location of the various genes involved in the respective phenotypes of this morph. The potential for strange deformities and new and horrible genetic diseases and the copyright nightmare that would result make it seem to me that, in most cases, morph designers would choose to make their morphs infertile except with their own kind. Ego Reproduction Can egos reproduce? It's easy enough to imagine that a 'blank' ego template could be created in a state of high plasticity that resembles a human infant's brain state. The question then is one of nature or nurture. Would the two egos need to subtly manipulate the infant brain such that it is predisposed to certain forms of behaviour that are a blend of its parents' traits? Or is it enough for the egos to raise the baby as its parents for it to become their child? I suspect as always that the answer will be a mix of the two. As a matter of practicality, I can imagine that parents might well wish to choose a hybrid ego/physical reproduction method, with a few possible ways they could do it. The first is a little bit disturbing, but in a setting like Eclipse Phase it seems eminently viable. They reproduce, and the baby is carried to term either inside the mother or in an exowomb. At birth the baby is uploaded via an ego bridge and run as an infomorph in a simulspace. What happens to its meat body is irrelevant from that point; perhaps it gets blanked and sold for anyone who wants to experience real infantilism? Or perhaps it would be useful for parents who wish to undertake pure ego reproduction but want to raise the child 'normally'? Anyway, once the baby is in simulspace, the parents can either fork or dedicate their originals' time to raising the child inside that simulspace. Using accelerated time, the baby could be grown to 16 'mental' years old in 97 days - just over 3 months! Of course, they could stop at any time and have their child decanted into a morph. Presumably there's a market for child morphs for real children that age and grow normally, otherwise they could use a neotenic morph for a while and then change to an 'adult' morph when ready. The same would work for a child of the mind - an ego that's the product of two egos as mentioned in the first paragraph under this entry. An interesting question of semantics, though. If a child is designed from a blank template and then developed in simulspace, does that make the child an infolife AGI? If they go the route of growing a real physical baby and then uploading it to develop in a simulspace is *that* an AGI? I suspect the answers to these questions will vary immensely from polity to polity and corp to corp. I daresay there are open source morphs out there that support and encourage chimerical mixing and matching of traits to make new and unique morphs. I'm curious if any of the designers or the rest of you have a take on any of this, or can see options for reproduction that I've missed. Be fruitful and multiply!