Neomen

[Badger]

Re: Neomen

 

Have to bring this up: what's the economic point behind their existence?

 

Slavery is an economic condition. Owning people only makes economic sense when you need large quantities of labour that only humans can provide. This is why slavery experienced a massive drop-off in Europe after the invention of the Horse-Collar (which allowed a Horse, which costs roughly the same to maintain as a man, to do more work than a human being), a further drop off during the Industrial Revolution's beginnings (why a man when it can be a machine?) and why it persisted in the US so long (Cotton. Only human labour could pick it).

 

What do the Neomen provide that machines, animals or hired labour can't provide more economically?

 

The machine part is somewhat easy. The enviroment causes the malfunctioning of the inner workings of machinery if exposed to the enviroment for long periods of time. (course, this causes some other workings that need to be figured)

[Old Man]

Re: Neomen

 

Machines require some support infrastructure for repairs and maintenance. That's harder to do when you're operating way outside the core systems.

 

Animals are generally not smart enough to operate machines or build anything.

 

It is expensive to pay people enough for them to be willing to get off the couch and go on a one-way trip to a hostile environment. (Of course, it's probably also expensive to engineer a new humanoid race for use as an expendable workforce... but we can overlook that.)

[Lucius]

Re: Neomen

 

Machines require some support infrastructure for repairs and maintenance. That's harder to do when you're operating way outside the core systems.

 

Animals are generally not smart enough to operate machines or build anything.

 

It is expensive to pay people enough for them to be willing to get off the couch and go on a one-way trip to a hostile environment. (Of course, it's probably also expensive to engineer a new humanoid race for use as an expendable workforce... but we can overlook that.)

 

But once you have some, making more can be unskilled labor.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Palindromedary Enterprises

[Kristopher]

Re: Neomen

 

The new Kazei 5 book has quite a lot on replicates (which humans think of as organic robots). I'd recommend it for a look on this subject.

 

What he said.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Neomen

 

Machines require some support infrastructure for repairs and maintenance. That's harder to do when you're operating way outside the core systems.

 

Animals are generally not smart enough to operate machines or build anything.

 

It is expensive to pay people enough for them to be willing to get off the couch and go on a one-way trip to a hostile environment. (Of course, it's probably also expensive to engineer a new humanoid race for use as an expendable workforce... but we can overlook that.)

 

I may be the only person to think of the Moreau series in this whole thread (then again, maybe not). The Moreaus were human/animal hybrids designed as expendable soldiers. I'm sure there would be a certain amount of interest in "recreational" use as well as practical applications. To an extent, they'd be like autonomous robots -- you can use them for jobs that are too dangerous, too tedious, ot too menial for "real" humans. Besides, if they look like animals, its easy to treat them like "nice" white folks used to treat "colored folks" in the 30's. As late as the '50s my mom had a friend who boasted that sometimes she'd even sit down and have tea with her ("colored") maid, just so long as she (the maid) remembered "her place". Even well-meaning people could (and did) get it all wrong when it came to race relations. You might like your Labratory Retriever very much, but he's a combination of housepet and appliance, so you might not automatically see how your behavior towards him might be deficient in compassion and respect, and if you did, you might not see why it matters. In any case, I'd expect the PCs (regular human and Neo) to have a more enlightened attitude.