Race related questions.

[A. Zerran]

We all know about the races of PSP2 (well, hopefully all of us). And I just want to say that I like all the races of the series before I go into the questions so that no one will think I'm flaming or criticizing. Ok, here's my 3 questions for anyone to answer about PSP2.

1. We know that a male and female beast being together in a lover type relationship is normal, but what about a male human and a female beast/female human and a male beast...is that considered bestiality?

2. Is there something going on between Emilla and Kraz, or Ursula and Kraz?

3. Are inter-species relationships normal these days? (Take for example [SPOILER ALERT for those who didn't get this far] what made Yut. He's part newman and part beast.)

I'm just really troubled about these matters. If someone's got an answer, then please, tell me.

[blace]

1. Don't think so.

2. Ursula had a thing going during the AMF and after. Kraz was the one that moved on and got married and had a kid which were murdered in cold blood.

3. Don't think anything is wrong with it seeing that all the other races were from dabbling around with human DNA to improve certain aspects.

[Temprus]

Gods that's an annoying font.

[Zynetic]

Because it's a spoiler if you haven't finished the story yet:

Kraz and Ursula end up getting married at the end of PSP2 Episode 1, where Kraz is a Beast and Ursula is a newman. Simply because of this, I'd say that cross-species relationships are probably common in the Gurhal system. (sans CAST, obviously)

[Alisha]

has anyone noticed that Yut seems to have abnormally high hp for a newman?

[raijz]

has anyone noticed that Yut seems to have abnormally high hp for a newman?

IIRC all the AI have ridiculous amounts of HP.

[Sienna]

Which further extends to their use as meat shields

In which case, you get Newman / Human relationships as far back as the PS series, I forgot which number anyway

[Miki~]

has anyone noticed that Yut seems to have abnormally high hp for a newman?

Could that be partially due to his being half beast as well?

[StriderTuna]

Which further extends to their use as meat shields

In which case, you get Newman / Human relationships as far back as the PS series, I forgot which number anyway

The main games where that could have happened are 2 and 4 and I don't remember anything being concrete about such relationships.

[Sienna]

Bad memory

All I remember in particular was

In a relation between the two races, because the Newman gene strain is dominant, the resulting offspring would be a newman

Or something

[A. Zerran]

Ok, first of all, thank you for answering my questions, blace. That was really helpful. Second, sorry if these questions seem iffy or rather off... And third, sorry for the font. See, I was experimenting to try something that's unique to me.

I got another question. Inter-species relationships are considered normal according to blace (again, thanks sir!), but does normal account for female casts with male humans/male casts with female humans?

[Gemel]

I don't think they ever mention casts getting with any flesh races like that, I talked to a lot of the NPC in PSU offline but that was years ago. I also can't remember anyone saying anything against it either.

[Shugo17]

You have to remember, most CAST have the "CAST Supremacy" thought pattern, so such relationships would be rather rare.

[StriderTuna]

Yeah and with some of the advancement in caseals, Casts might not have any reason to pursue fleshy creatures.

[Limbo_lag]

All races belong to the same species except casts....the ability to procreate is one of the criteria which defines a species....so, asides from having longer ears and whatnot, they'd all still be fundamentally considered human...probably. >_>

[blace]

There's just one thing that bothers me a lot, and that is why do Casts get some of the more shapely features namely the female population.

Anyway, there weren't any open relationships between Casts and the other races as some have said, Cast Supremacy, but there are cases like in PSU and PSP1, where that one cast is acting as a mother figure for this human boy who lost his parents.

The way I see it, they'll act on instinct that defies the supremacy factor that comes with most Casts, but will ultimately do what they will to help or for the lack of a better term, cooperate with the other races.

[Jiero]

^ 'female' cast body structures would likely be created with serving in a house hold in mind, thus they would likely be designed to simulate the appearance of the "lady of the house", compared to the 'males' being designed to have body designs that are more functional in battle.




I got another question. Inter-species relationships are considered normal according to blace (again, thanks sir!), but does normal account for female casts with male humans/male casts with female humans?

Except that such physical interactions between humans rely on biological processes that casts would certainly lack. It would be like explaining how looking at a sunset makes you feel to a man born blind.

[Alisha]

wasnt there a cast female in psu that had a crush on ethan in psu ep1? im not talking about lou either. but i vaugely remember something to that effect.

[SeraphicDemon]

^ yeah there was. She kept flirting with Ethan and saying weird things like wanting to have a baby with him. I don't remember her name though. So I guess Casts can have those desires. Who knows, maybe they are equipped for that sort of thing. Female Casts have boobs, and they don't serve any function aside from looking nice, Casts wouldn't be able to make milk obviously. So maybe they also have the downstairs parts as well. They are after all designed to think and feel to some extent despite being inorganic, so it could be just for pleasure. I wouldn't mind being with a Cast if she was hot. She has the advantage of never getting wrinkly or anything sagging due to old age. Casts who look old only look that way because they choose to replace body parts after being around for hundreds of years like Nav for example.

[Masterflower]

You got Karen and Ethan together. As someone said, inter-species is pretty common in the PSU universe. Also to add, in PSPo (not 100%)? When you and Laia came to parum, a male cast came hitting on Laia I think or you if you were a female. Not only that, look at Nav... Damn perverted old man lol.

[Crazyleo]

If I recall correctly, there was something of a parent/child type of relation in PSU/PSP1 (Norphe, Kalam). So while Casts can't procreate, they do have the same emotions along side their biological counter-parts.

[Temprus]

^ yeah there was. She kept flirting with Ethan and saying weird things like wanting to have a baby with him. I don't remember her name though. So I guess Casts can have those desires. Who knows, maybe they are equipped for that sort of thing. Female Casts have boobs, and they don't serve any function aside from looking nice, Casts wouldn't be able to make milk obviously. So maybe they also have the downstairs parts as well. They are after all designed to think and feel to some extent despite being inorganic, so it could be just for pleasure. I wouldn't mind being with a Cast if she was hot. She has the advantage of never getting wrinkly or anything sagging due to old age. Casts who look old only look that way because they choose to replace body parts after being around for hundreds of years like Nav for example.

It's actually less of a choice and more of a law. They HAVE to age their body as they grow older. An odd law, but obviously one humans thought necessary. Or maybe it was originally implimented by Mother Brain. I suppose you don't want a young looking cast to suddenly go all ICS on you.

I personally think that casts may even be able to create an offspring with another species. After all, if you look at how PSU/PSPo has shown us how Casts work, they're pretty much nanomachine colonies in much the way we're cell colonies. I mean, just look at the example of Vivienne in PSPo. She totally altered the Lou Unit's appearance and all to her own. Who knows what those nano-machines could do with a human gene infusion. ^^

[BIG OLAF]

I voted. I'm sure most people here know which option I voted for.

Beast gals are the best.

[darkante]

I voted for Beast mostly since i admire all anthro/furry art.
But Cast/Newman are a close second tied for position. :P

Although, i wish there were a tail option in Makeover just for fun.
Nanoblast just ain´t cutting it.

Which is strange considering that PSO had tail mags (which i obviously hunted and got).
Just so my Cast and Newman could have one. :3

[lazyknight]

I voted humans, because literally "All your base are belong to us".

[Masterflower]

I voted for Beast mostly since i admire all anthro/furry art.
But Cast/Newman are a close second tied for position. :P

Although, i wish there were a tail option in Makeover just for fun.
Nanoblast just ain´t cutting it.

Which is strange considering that PSO had tail mags (which i obviously hunted and got).
Just so my Cast and Newman could have one. :3

Wait what? Since when!? Omg you better not be pulling my leg on this lol.

[lazyknight]

It's true, check this thread:

http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30609

[SeraphicDemon]

It's actually less of a choice and more of a law. They HAVE to age their body as they grow older. An odd law, but obviously one humans thought necessary. Or maybe it was originally implimented by Mother Brain. I suppose you don't want a young looking cast to suddenly go all ICS on you.

I personally think that casts may even be able to create an offspring with another species. After all, if you look at how PSU/PSPo has shown us how Casts work, they're pretty much nanomachine colonies in much the way we're cell colonies. I mean, just look at the example of Vivienne in PSPo. She totally altered the Lou Unit's appearance and all to her own. Who knows what those nano-machines could do with a human gene infusion. ^^

Almost like the Borg. But that's not really creating offspring though, just jacking another lifeform's body. Unless the Casts have some sort of maturation chamber where they could grow little half machine, half humanoid things and build them up from a cellular level. I think it would be far less complicated and less expensive for GRM to just build a Cast child for a Cast who wants a kid that badly rather than give them the ability to have babies.

I wonder though if anyone's ever tried to do it with a Cast though. What would happen? Hyuga tried hitting on Viv, but she wasn't interested. I think they are physically able to considering Casts hit on some organic lifeforms and some organic lifeforms hit on Casts. I mean, what would be the point of the flirting anyway if they weren't in some way capable of pleasureing eachother?

[DeviFoxx]

Wonder what a Duman and Beast would produce? Dubeast? Or Newman with Duman?

New Duman?

[d19xx]

How about Duman and Cast? DuSt?

[Gemel]

It's actually less of a choice and more of a law. They HAVE to age their body as they grow older. An odd law, but obviously one humans thought necessary. Or maybe it was originally implimented by Mother Brain. I suppose you don't want a young looking cast to suddenly go all ICS on you.

I personally think that casts may even be able to create an offspring with another species. After all, if you look at how PSU/PSPo has shown us how Casts work, they're pretty much nanomachine colonies in much the way we're cell colonies. I mean, just look at the example of Vivienne in PSPo. She totally altered the Lou Unit's appearance and all to her own. Who knows what those nano-machines could do with a human gene infusion. ^^

Vivienne is a special case.

[spoiler-box]Isn't she technically a synth, I forgot the specifics of it, and a special prototype of sorts?[/spoiler-box]

[Temprus]

Vivienne is a special case.

[spoiler-box]Isn't she technically a synth, I forgot the specifics of it, and a special prototype of sorts?[/spoiler-box]

[SPOILER-BOX]Actually she's a copycast of Helga. Copycasts aren't recognized as living, but Vivienne is one with a heart/soul and the power of a divine maiden or two. She kinds breaks all rules. [/SPOILER-BOX]

[Gemel]

[SPOILER-BOX]Actually she's a copycast of Helga. Copycasts aren't recognized as living, but Vivienne is one with a heart/soul and the power of a divine maiden or two. She kinds breaks all rules. [/SPOILER-BOX]

[spoiler-box]Geeze, I knew of the copycast thing but the heart/soul thing is new. Maybe because I got the bad ending? xD Even though she is a copycast I thought they were going to destroy her for disobeying orders at one point along with revoking your character's guardians license? Well, I need to replay PSPo sometime now, thanks.[/spoiler-box]

[Boney010]

Seeing how very few people voted makes me realize how small the PSPo2 population is ._.

[Emp]

Seeing how very few people voted makes me realize how small the PSPo2 population is ._.

^Lol

Now on topic. I think casts are best tho. Modest defense and great ATK but they never miss a hit unless the enemy is buffed or too high leveled.

[Alisha]

i know people that play/ed psu that ignored this one because its for psp =/

also we need more human votes! i dun like casts in this game. i just dont like how cast's look in this game. maybe if you could make a darker skinned cast like T-elos. thats also why i dont like dewmans. plus that stupid metal beard on female casts. i would like beasts more if nanoblasts were more useful at higher levels.

[lazyknight]

Well, not everyone who plays this game visits this board.

Also about that cast beard thing, I agree it's annoying. I wanted to recreate Chelsea or Vivienne, but that's impossible with the beard thing.

[StriderTuna]

I think they might have done that to make then stand out from the real fleshy characters.

[Zynetic]

I honestly really like the 'beard' on female casts, since I just view the character as a robot. I'm not too sure what problems people have with it either, since it's kind of rare that you look at the front of your character.

What I find annoying is the fact casts are fleshy, so I ended up making the skin on all my casts pure white (because I can't stand the robotic costumes that female casts get). But that's just an opinion.

[Sinue_v2]

I got another question. Inter-species relationships are considered normal according to blace (again, thanks sir!)

Isn't "inter-species" a bit of a misnomer, as the traditional definition of a species boundary the inability to breed and produce offspring who are themselves reproductively viable? Everything else is race or breed of a single species.


but does normal account for female casts with male humans/male casts with female humans?

If you believe those fools at the "American Family Association" and "In Defense of The Family Society" or whatever "Family" oriented bigot groups - if we allow gay marriage, then yes, it will soon be quite normal for people to marry their toasters and computers.


In which case, you get Newman / Human relationships as far back as the PS series, I forgot which number anyway

PSIV with Chaz x Rika and having a son name Rui. Josh Kainz had kind of a huge crush on Nei in PSII, and she had an "affinity" for him in return.. whatever that means... but he was too much of a pussy to let his true feelings known before she was axed by Neifirst. Rolf and Nei had the closest relationship, but that was more of an Older Brother/Younger Sister kind of relationship.


I don't think they ever mention casts getting with any flesh races like that, I talked to a lot of the NPC in PSU offline but that was years ago. I also can't remember anyone saying anything against it either.

Mikaris x Ethan, though I think it was considered a bit socially taboo due to the whole cast supremacy atmosphere. In PSO you had a somewhat similar situation with Callus x Elly. So love and kinky casual sex for the taboo thrill between a Cast and a meatloaf is definitely not out of the question.


Almost like the Borg. But that's not really creating offspring though, just jacking another lifeform's body. Unless the Casts have some sort of maturation chamber where they could grow little half machine, half humanoid things and build them up from a cellular level.

We're actually just on the verge of figuring out whether or not this is possible in the real world, as we've started experimenting with using DNA both as a folding pattern to provide a scaffolding that constructs non-organic parts (DNA Origami) and as a coding structure which creates unique proteins/enzymes that do the assembling - so when properly "watered" with the right base components, can actually grow inorganic material like plastics, semiconductors, etc. So one day you may "grow" a new cell phone in the same manner that you would "grow" a tomato. The problem is, neither of these techniques actually merge the inorganic with the organic... as it would just carry the instructions for assembling foreign structures inside a body - and not give the structures themselves the genes necessary to evolve and pass on.

Perhaps a functional solution could be created if casts were constructed out of a swarm of individual micromachines working as a cooperative whole - analogous to how humans are a swarm of biological micromachines called cells working as a cooperative whole. But so long as they're using large quantities of raw and undifferentiated materials like sheet metal and rubber hosing - it's not going to be possible.

A simpler and more direct method of practical Cast x Fleshsack reproduction would keep the sharp distinction between man and machine in all areas except for the mind - which it seems increasingly likely that if we want a Strong AI that shares in our emotions, reason, sapience, and other qualities. We simply emulate the organic brain in simulation within a CAST shell, and if we're emulating an organic brain... then we can reverse engineer the genetic code which creates the basal structures to preserve inherited personality traits, talents, etc. The offspring would be either entirely organic or entirely emulated - not truly a hybrid in the "borg" sense. The emulated brain would simply choose a body and genetic profile it prefers in an avatar (were it organic) and from that we could construct a genome with the added genes which govern brain development to produce a viable gamete from. To create a CAST child, the process would be similar, but inverted after the fertilization step to strip out all of the code unnecessary to brain emulation.

But... apparently this doesn't necessarily work in the PSU universe since they are evidently unable to produce Cast x Meatsack offspring. Then again... PSU also relies heavily on body/mind dualism in which consciousness and spirit are separate from the construction material of the body and holds it's own elemental properties. Since CASTS share in this, you would think it would be easier to form children... but rather than pushing boundaries in speculative science fiction and making you think a bit... they just decided to go the simple route and say they can't because machines aren't biological. Derp-a-hurpa-derp.

In the real world, body/mind dualism is bullshit... you ARE your brain and body... and so emulating a human brain within a simulation should produce a human mind (provided it's been raised and taught like a proper child... not left to isolation like a feral child). There are already endeavors to do just this via the Blue Brain Project which has successfully emulated the neocortical column.

Life is code, and code translates.

[A. Zerran]

Yes, all of what each of you said is true. Now here's a good one for you. What if male and female casts that already look like humans (new models, basically) were given Bioroid parts? (Anyone know what I'm hinting?)

[FOkyasuta]

Yes, all of what each of you said is true. Now here's a good one for you. What if male and female casts that already look like humans (new models, basically) were given Bioroid parts? (Anyone know what I'm hinting?)
My response:
[SPOILER-BOX]



OH GAWD NO. DO NOT START WITH THAT.[/SPOILER-BOX]

[Sinue_v2]

Yes, all of what each of you said is true. Now here's a good one for you. What if male and female casts that already look like humans (new models, basically) were given Bioroid parts? (Anyone know what I'm hinting?)

Uh, something to do with Armitage III and BladeRunner?

I don't understand how this is significantly different from, or a new element to, the conversation already going on. I guess, read my last post for my answer to this new one.

[SeraphicDemon]

Well maybe we wouldn't get the whole half human/half machine borg type things from Cast offspring. They would probably end up more like Chobits. Completely artificial physically, but with a heart and mind like a living human, but still able to do naughty stuff with their artificial bodies.

[Temprus]

Uh, something to do with Armitage III and BladeRunner?

I don't understand how this is significantly different from, or a new element to, the conversation already going on. I guess, read my last post for my answer to this new one.

Bioroids are from Appleseed. They were a geneticly altered human with limitations on strong emotions and given lives that would end unless they underwent a treatment to extend their lives. Also, their ability to create children was sealed away. Well, until it was unsealed by the Appleseed program.

And this is from watching the CG Appleseed movies. Sadly, I barely remember the anime and only read like one manga.

[Crazyleo]

Well, to get back on topic, I chose humans for a various reasons. The big one was mainly on game play mechanics (best race for DEF & MND). Another reason was the background I created for the character that connects PSO to the PSU series, and I played as a Ramarl when I was playing PSO.

[Emp]

i know people that play/ed psu that ignored this one because its for psp =/

also we need more human votes! i dun like casts in this game. i just dont like how cast's look in this game. maybe if you could make a darker skinned cast like T-elos. thats also why i dont like dewmans. plus that stupid metal beard on female casts. i would like beasts more if nanoblasts were more useful at higher levels.


Well, not everyone who plays this game visits this board.

Also about that cast beard thing, I agree it's annoying. I wanted to recreate Chelsea or Vivienne, but that's impossible with the beard thing.

Well be happy. They could have done something even worse than that to allow casts to have a fleshy look. Plus the chin grows on you after awhile so give it a chance.

[SeraphicDemon]

I just picked humans because they're sexy. I could care less about stats, equipment can make up for crappy stats.

Not too fond of the Cast chin thing either. My Cast is pretty cute even with that, but I still want to remove it. Also wish female Beasts had better ears, like Laia. Why don't we have those as an option? It would also be nice if you could do away with the makeup that female Newmans have. Not a fan of the pink cheeks, makes them look too innocent and cute, I wanted mine to look evil like she did in the previous game.

[A. Zerran]

Bioroids are from Appleseed. They were a geneticly altered human with limitations on strong emotions and given lives that would end unless they underwent a treatment to extend their lives. Also, their ability to create children was sealed away. Well, until it was unsealed by the Appleseed program.

And this is from watching the CG Appleseed movies. Sadly, I barely remember the anime and only read like one manga.

Yes! You have read/seen one of the greatest manga comic/anime movies of all time AND got the hinting reference I made.

Back to the subject at hand (apologies for going off topic, and HUcast lvl100, sorry for saying that -_-). Here's my final 3 question. Why is it that in PSP2, the 3 races created by humans (newmans, beasts, and casts) were meant for slave labor? Is that what lead to the war of the races? (I know that's not what they are for now, but when beasts came around, Tonnio said something about them being as workers to work under the humans or something, I don't remember. And then there was the creation of casts, which were meant for robotic assistance, which means more slaves. Newmans I'm fuzzy with the details.) And finally, what's the deal with beastlings?

[Temprus]

Beastlings were for being able to get into areas of the mines and places that normal sized people couldn't get into.

[d19xx]

^and legal age loli.

[blace]

Newmans were experiments to basically improve humans. With higher mental capability they were worried things might get out of hand and lowered their physical strength.

Basically test tube babies.

[Masterflower]

All races' roots trace back to humans. Damn humans trying to play god! >:3

[Sinue_v2]

Well maybe we wouldn't get the whole half human/half machine borg type things from Cast offspring. They would probably end up more like Chobits. Completely artificial physically, but with a heart and mind like a living human, but still able to do naughty stuff with their artificial bodies.

Well, without so much a focus on the naughty stuff, that's more or less what I'm getting at. The difference being that we still don't know very much about consciousness as a phenomena, and AI development seems to reflect this as it's continually throttled by our advances in psychology and neuroscience. We really only have one working example of consciousness (inherited via common ancestry) with slight differentiations between the various expressions. I don't think we're going to be able create a new and unique consciousness out of pure logic. So any Strong AI we're likely to come up with will be based on the human model, and therefore intrinsically, would be human.

Heart and Mind comes along with that. So do rights and dignity, and so getting excited about the naughty stuff is a bit unsettling to me. I've got no problems with sexbots in general, and an emulated human mind in a synthetic body very likely will still need the intimacy and sexual attention any other human would. But to use them as you would a sexdoll is ethically (IMO) no better than cloning porn stars to sell them into sex slavery.

I'm not saying this what you're suggesting... but it has come up in conversations far more than it should.


Bioroids are from Appleseed. They were a geneticly altered human with limitations on strong emotions and given lives that would end unless they underwent a treatment to extend their lives. Also, their ability to create children was sealed away. Well, until it was unsealed by the Appleseed program.

I'm not familiar with Appleseed, since I tended to fall more to the GitS/NDTP side of Masamune Shirow's work. In other circles, bioroids is a general term which encompasses many different man/machine concepts including synthetic genomics and cybernetics. From the example you've given, the Bioroids seem like regular run of the mill genetically altered humans. (perhaps with or without cybernetic enhancements)

That doesn't really solve or get around the problem of having a fundamental dichotomy between DNA based organic life and non-organic non-DNA based raw materials when it comes to meaningful (something that actually blends inherited traits) reproduction between man and machine. The same problem exists for one of the examples I gave earlier of DNA origami in which the DNA is used to "grow" electronics in a fundamentally different way by using the DNA structure itself as a scaffolding - rather than as a coding medium for the production of proteins that differentiate the function of the cells which build the organism.


Here's my final 3 question. Why is it that in PSP2, the 3 races created by humans (newmans, beasts, and casts) were meant for slave labor? Is that what lead to the war of the races? (I know that's not what they are for now, but when beasts came around, Tonnio said something about them being as workers to work under the humans or something, I don't remember. And then there was the creation of casts, which were meant for robotic assistance, which means more slaves. Newmans I'm fuzzy with the details.) And finally, what's the deal with beastlings?

Casts "evolved" from labor saving machines... so you could say they were bonded into slavery before they were even created. Newmans, I believe, weren't so much slave labor as they were lab experiments. They were the byproduct of research into making humans more sensitive to and adept at working with photon energy. Beasts were created as slave labor as a means to mine the planet Moatoob for mineral resources.

The deal with beastlings goes back to the real world conditions of mining, especially coal mining in the US during the early 20th century. As miners followed the coal seams through the mountains, children were often used to access and follow smaller veins which were too large for an adult (let alone a horse) to fit. Their smaller and more nimble hands also made them ideal for sorting and rigging and other tasks requiring fine motor coordination (for this reason, textile work is another favorite for child labor, even today). This put them in some of the most dangerous parts of the mine, doing some of the hardest work. Small Beasts were essentially specifically engineered to be fully adult while still having the body of a child that could mine similar areas under similar conditions.

The ethics of prohibiting child labor, necessitating the creation of a new strain of Beasts rather than just use their existing children, among a race you are enslaving and devaluating as sub-human anyhow is a bit fuzzy though. I chalk it up to just being a side effect of Sega's sacrificing writing in favor of simply wanting to have a token anime "loli" race of prepubescents for perverts to fantasize over while rationalizing their pedophilia by claiming they're actually adults.

[spoiler-box]
http://hhsapush.wikispaces.com/file/view/800px-Child_coal_miners_%281908%29.jpg/111475497/800px-Child_coal_miners_%281908%29.jpg
[/spoiler-box]

[Emp]

Kinda off topic, but dang Sinue. Must take you awhile to post a post^ like that.

[A. Zerran]

Well, without so much a focus on the naughty stuff, that's more or less what I'm getting at. The difference being that we still don't know very much about consciousness as a phenomena, and AI development seems to reflect this as it's continually throttled by our advances in psychology and neuroscience. We really only have one working example of consciousness (inherited via common ancestry) with slight differentiations between the various expressions. I don't think we're going to be able create a new and unique consciousness out of pure logic. So any Strong AI we're likely to come up with will be based on the human model, and therefore intrinsically, would be human.

Heart and Mind comes along with that. So do rights and dignity, and so getting excited about the naughty stuff is a bit unsettling to me. I've got no problems with sexbots in general, and an emulated human mind in a synthetic body very likely will still need the intimacy and sexual attention any other human would. But to use them as you would a sexdoll is ethically (IMO) no better than cloning porn stars to sell them into sex slavery.

I'm not saying this what you're suggesting... but it has come up in conversations far more than it should.



I'm not familiar with Appleseed, since I tended to fall more to the GitS/NDTP side of Masamune Shirow's work. In other circles, bioroids is a general term which encompasses many different man/machine concepts including synthetic genomics and cybernetics. From the example you've given, the Bioroids seem like regular run of the mill genetically altered humans. (perhaps with or without cybernetic enhancements)

That doesn't really solve or get around the problem of having a fundamental dichotomy between DNA based organic life and non-organic non-DNA based raw materials when it comes to meaningful (something that actually blends inherited traits) reproduction between man and machine. The same problem exists for one of the examples I gave earlier of DNA origami in which the DNA is used to "grow" electronics in a fundamentally different way by using the DNA structure itself as a scaffolding - rather than as a coding medium for the production of proteins that differentiate the function of the cells which build the organism.



Casts "evolved" from labor saving machines... so you could say they were bonded into slavery before they were even created. Newmans, I believe, weren't so much slave labor as they were lab experiments. They were the byproduct of research into making humans more sensitive to and adept at working with photon energy. Beasts were created as slave labor as a means to mine the planet Moatoob for mineral resources.

The deal with beastlings goes back to the real world conditions of mining, especially coal mining in the US during the early 20th century. As miners followed the coal seams through the mountains, children were often used to access and follow smaller veins which were too large for an adult (let alone a horse) to fit. Their smaller and more nimble hands also made them ideal for sorting and rigging and other tasks requiring fine motor coordination (for this reason, textile work is another favorite for child labor, even today). This put them in some of the most dangerous parts of the mine, doing some of the hardest work. Small Beasts were essentially specifically engineered to be fully adult while still having the body of a child that could mine similar areas under similar conditions.

The ethics of prohibiting child labor, necessitating the creation of a new strain of Beasts rather than just use their existing children, among a race you are enslaving and devaluating as sub-human anyhow is a bit fuzzy though. I chalk it up to just being a side effect of Sega's sacrificing writing in favor of simply wanting to have a token anime "loli" race of prepubescents for perverts to fantasize over while rationalizing their pedophilia by claiming they're actually adults.

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...I'm inclined to agree with everything you said. And perhaps I have over spoken my boundaries of reason...or something like that. Oh, and by the way, thank you. Are you a scientist?