Uplifted Terran Animals

[epicenter00]

In all seriousness it does come across as a pretty blatant troll, grymlocke. I don't know if that's your intention, but that's how it comes across.

And no, Brin certainly isn't original for the idea of uplifting animals. Really, the idea exists in pulp even before Clarke. You have things like The Island of Doctor Moreau and so on which Brin himself cites as part of the seed for his Uplift concepts - specifically that he wanted to do a different take on Uplift instead of humans just ruthlessly exploiting such beings and instead the trials that would result from even a well-intentioned humanity doing such things.

So I guess really, what ideas from Brin are you speaking of specifically that the Traveller game's official materials are "stealing"? Players (like myself) can do whatever we want - I, for one, have little intention of publishing my work (for profit or not).

 

[aramis]

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[aramis]

There is little that David Brynn is likely to do about gamers doing uplift inspired stuff, so long as it doesn't use his characters or specific setings. Uplifted dolphins have appeared in several different stories by several authors. Uplifted apes are a stock in the trade... several Cyberpunk novellists, Judge Dredd, and more than a few horror movies.

GURPS Uplift was licensed. I had a copy (it was stolen). It wasn't great, and most of it could have been done without the books. It was puled because it ran the run of its license, from what I read, and most of the unique non-setting material later made the compendia.

Things that seem fairly unique to Brynn's setting: HUmans are not uplifted, but are a natural evolution, while most intelligent races are uplifted by some other race; the Galactic Government is draconian towards species which haven't paid their dues; the system of worlds being allowed to lay fallow for millenia in order for protosentients to develop and be ready for uplifting; the specific characters; The race of stacked rings.

Copyright also only protects the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. The distinctive species in Brynn's works are off limits, but as trademarks... Change the names, descriptions, dialog and setting, and you can retell the same story as Brynn and sell it... probably not for very much, and you'd be labeled a hack for so doing. Happens in romance novels all the time. (Or so my wife assures me.) But if you use his words in recognizable chunks, then you have a problem.

The Copyright office has some good materials online. I suggest people go read them; since 1996, several changes have happened... important changes... and the online circulars are usually up to date. http://copyright.gov/ Copyright Basics PDF from Copyright.gov

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ UK Intellectual Property Office
http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/en/home Canada Intellectual Property Office

 

[Trouble]

Uplifted Animals

As I recall Cordwainer Smith had uplifted cats, dogs, snakes, bears and even cows. I haven't read that stuff since high school so I could be wrong I did use my, perhaps inacurate, memories of some of it as inspiration for part of my first Traveller Campaign. I did not use uplifted cows or snakes but I remember them from the stories.

 

[Scathsealgaire]

Ships Cats

Currently I am writing a series of novels, one of the characters in one of them is an uplift Felis catus. It is not noted in the series what idiot decided to uplift cats, but they can be useful, when you can get them to work.

They are often hired by crews to monitor vents for rodents and other vermin, they can also check for piping problems and are able to help in maintance.

However there is a large problem with keeping them motivated. Which is why most people buy robots to fill these jobs.

Also gang related problems occur when large groups of cats exist on any world or large starship.

 

[far-trader]

I suppose it wouldn't be as much "fun" :smirk: if your Felis catus uplift included correcting that need for sleep 20 hours out of 24...

...however you might think about balancing it with (as in it wasn't changed because it would have eliminated) the legendary famed curiosity and nine lives. I'd suggest you give the Felis catus a huge bonus on picking up on trouble early, and getting out of it later. So while hiring them means catering to their usually curled up someplace cozy and napping habits, you gain because they do catch a lot more problems than 'bots and they tend to avoid extensive and repetitive repairs

 

[Scathsealgaire]

Don't get me wrong

I suppose it wouldn't be as much "fun" :smirk: if your Felis catus uplift included correcting that need for sleep 20 hours out of 24...

...however you might think about balancing it with (as in it wasn't changed because it would have eliminated) the legendary famed curiosity and nine lives. I'd suggest you give the Felis catus a huge bonus on picking up on trouble early, and getting out of it later. So while hiring them means catering to their usually curled up someplace cozy and napping habits, you gain because they do catch a lot more problems than 'bots and they tend to avoid extensive and repetitive repairs

I was trying not to go too far in maligning a cats work ethic. The uplifted version definitely has the same curiosity of the original, but it goes into overdrive sometimes. Young cats have been known to cause mayhem in their quest to "find out". eg. Jump drives in peices, because they heard a strange noise which turns out to be attributed to something else. But you are perfectly correct, those fortunate souls who hire Ships Cats, live longer.
Cats aren't lazy, they are just "differently motivated".

 

[RandyB]

Arise, thread!

My copy of Solomani & Aslan has the following statement in a sidebar on p. 17:

Another segment of our population is composed of uplifted sophonts. Our scientists have raised over twenty species to sentience [sic] through genetic manipulation and controlled breeding.

It seems that there is, within canon, room for local gaming groups to have whatever uplifts they want in their TU without straying away from the OTU, if the latter is of value.

 

[Cryton]

...It seems that there is, within canon, room for local gaming groups to have whatever uplifts they want in their TU without straying away from the OTU, if the latter is of value.

I'd even hazzard a guess that in that "over 20 species" a few of them were not of Terran origin.

 

[infojunky]

My take is the is room in the background and enough examples of genetic engineering that is that it has taken place throughout all of inhabited space. It is just a matter of degree and fashion.

Or the amount of drift in populations is huge considering the number of "Habitable" world occupied.

Now that is a under reported set of Scout missions, Sampling and Identifying gene-line changes throughout humanspace and the Imperium. As an extension of the Census.

 

[RandyB]

I'd even hazzard a guess that in that "over 20 species" a few of them were not of Terran origin.

I'd give that a significant likelihood, though I'd personally lean in favor of "majority Terran" and have non-Terran uplifts be much more unique.