At 03:08 PM 6/21/01, Patrick Sweeney wrote:
>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).
>
That may depend on which specific psionic abilities they have:
Mind-reading only?
Mind control?
Psychokinesis?
Ability to see the future?
Other abilities?
-- Ronn! :)
