I'm working on an sf roleplaying game project detailing a dystopian Earth in 2050 for
fun, though I expect to eventually publish it. I'm hashing out a knotty part of the
future history and, in an effort to propose topics not likely to contribute to the
entropic heat death of the universe, thought I'd throw it out for people to chew on. :)
The setting extrapolates from two modern concerns: the environment and biotechnology;
and one classic sf idea: psi powers.
Basically, every bad thing that people are today predicting about the environment is
occurring, from overpopulation to global warming to ozone depletion. Cities are
enormous urban sprawls filled with poverty-stricken people living on streets all but
abandoned by authorities. Biotech is rampant, with designer children, genetic
engineering, parahumans, DNA discrimination, and so forth. A cabal of psions (created
by clandestine genetic engineering) has seized power and instituted a repressive world
government.
Well, I _did_ say it was dystopian. :)
It's a mix of Soylent Green, Blade Runner, some parts of David Feintuch's Seafort
books, some cyberpunk, Rollerball, The Running Man and so forth.
The thought problem -- just how did the psions manage to take over the world? They
have the advantage of global chaos due to environmental disasters, and the advantage
of having psi powers that no one knew existed (at the time).
Patrick Sweeney
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
