The year is 2100; the future hangs in the balance. There has been no global nuclear war, no great catastrophe; pollution and global warming, though by no means ended, have been more or less brought under control; resources mostly meet needs. But this isn't a utopia. There are wars, tyrannies, and gross inequalities, and privacy is hard to find. Indeed, new sciences have created new evils.
Bioroids are synthetic beings, mostly created as servants and lacking some human complexity – but they still think and feel. Biotechnology can also "uplift" other species to near-human intelligence, create exotic farm animals and pets, and synthesize drugs which can modify the human mind to order.
Infomorphs are artificial intelligences ranging from nonsapient "NAIs" – clever talking user interfaces – through low-sapient "LAIs" – versatile, self-motivated, but not-quite-human minds – to fully sapient "SAIs." It's also possible to scan a human brain to create a ghost, an apparently perfect infomorph model. But as this destroys the brain, opinions are divided over whether it's a path to immortality or an expensive form of suicide.
Fusion-powered ships can cross the Solar System in a few months. Indeed, fusion power is one key to humanity's wealth, but it depends on helium-3, a rare isotope which must be mined from the surface of the Moon or the atmosphere of Saturn. Meanwhile, a Chinese-dominated colony on Mars is terraforming the planet while modifying humanity to live there. Space navies, criminals, and bizarre ideologies are expanding through the void.
Memetics, a young science of the mind, sees "memes" (ideas and thought-patterns) as propagating like genes, using minds as their hosts, mutating and adapting as they go. Memetics isn't magic mind control; rather, it raises the ancient arts of propaganda, rhetoric, and teaching to new heights. Populations are increasingly seen as a memetic battleground for radicals, politicians, and pranksters.
Technology determines much about the state of human society. The first great "wave" of technology was defined by agriculture, the second by the Industrial Revolution, and the third by digital computing. In the 21st Century, most of the world experienced a Fourth Wave based on genetic technology; now, it seems, a Fifth Wave is rising, based on a combination of nanotechnology, memetics, and artificial intelligence. Fifth Wave societies are wealthy, but no one can be sure where they are heading.
This Powered by GURPS book opens with nearly a hundred pages of world and background material, and includes customized GURPS Lite rules. No other rulebooks are required, although many of the supplements in this offer also benefit from the GURPS Third Edition core rulebook and its first Compendium expansion.
- A history of the century ahead: the rise of China, the terraforming of Mars, and the birth of the first artificial intelligence.
- A gazetteer of the Solar System, from Earth to the thriving colonies on Luna, Mars, and beyond.
- Dozens of transhuman character templates, from space-adapted parahumans to digital infomorphs. Play an AI or an intelligent octopus!
- Complete rules for spacecraft design, travel, and combat.
Includes four free "Teralogos News" mini-supplements. Learn more at the Steve Jackson Games website.
Transhuman Space Classic Powered by GURPS copyright © 2002 Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. All rights reserved. "GURPS," "Transhuman Space," and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license.
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