This is an expansion of a plot bunny I posted in 1001 story ideas. The story idea is a scifi adventure set on a colony ship. The characters are in two seperate groups. The flight crew who have been maintaining the ship during it's 100+ year journey and the colonists whose consciousnesses have been stored to be downloaded into freshly printed clone replicas of their original bodies upon arrival at the target solar system, which is known to have planets in the habital Goldilocks zone. The flight crew by this time are the descendants by several generations of the original crew born during the journey and no longer have any ties or loyalty to earth or the mission. When they arrive at the system the ship is scheduled to be cannibalised for parts and they will essentially be out of the only job they are trained for. They feel resentful that the newly awakened colonists will be the leaders while they will be relegated to menial labour. The crew discover that the clone printer is in fact reprogrammable. This is in case any physical adjustments needed to be made to the clone bodies for gravity or adverse atmosphere. As per mission protocols they rouse the bioengineer first, but then force her to reprogram the clone printer to their specifications. The colonists clones will all be given very petite and weak female bodies so they are easily controlled and the crew will intend to set themselves up as masters or mistresses with a harem of pretty little colonists. Naturally the awakened colonists will not be happy with this turn of events. What the crew and the unfortunate colonists encounter at the new star system is open. It could be the planet or planets are already habitated by sentient aliens, dangerous fauna and flora or space pirates. The colonists could try to fight back, but being weaker and smaller and with any weapons kept securely out of their reach it would need planning and subtefuge.
Depending on how it is implemented, these points might cause issues with the rules. You might need an explanation of why the bioengineer would actually do the reprogramming the way the crew intends them to do it. If the crew isn't able to do the programming themselves, they most likely can't control what the programmer is actually doing.
For what little my opinion is worth... Without commenting on the size/petite issue, regarding the clones: the age rule does not get into issues of the soul or self, but I'd argue that if they have lived for more than 18 years (really lived, so PRIOR to uploading), they're an adult, even if those memories are dumped into a brand new clone body. Essentially it's the plot from Netflix's Altered Carbon and I don't think any reasonable person has ever accused that show of portraying statutory rape/pedophilia.
You could just have the crew come up with the idea at least 18 years before the colonists are woken up. They prepare the bodies in advance with, and thus, by the time the story begins, they have existed for at least 18 years. If the bodies are prepared this way without consciousness, the crew is also able to verify the correctness of the bioengineer's programming.
That doesn't seem reasonable or necessary for quick clones with fully adult memories. I do, however, acknowledge that reasonability is NOT the goal of the rule, rather being overly broad to avoid legal threats to the website is the goal (I support this). So you could be right. Certainly, your idea is the easy fix to avoid controversy.
Correct. That a character must have physically existed for 18 years in order to be considered an adult (in addition to other factors) is explicitly stated in rule 1.
You're conflating the character existing with the body existing. If a character has the mind of an adult (third bullet point), a body with appropriate age adult physical characteristics (second bullet point), and previously lived for at least 18 actual, real life years (first bullet point), it would seem to meet all the requirements, even if the current body is a quick clone. The forth bullet point is not relevant to the quick clone issue.
I think that's just to steer clear of any possible confusion. Doing otherwise could possibly open a loophole. Imagine writing about a character with a cloned or artificial body: Erika was very satisfied with her barely five-year-old body, it still felt like new.
I would argue that there is a vast potential for difference between a "5 year old clone body" and "clone body of a 5 year-old." One could be the body of a middle aged man, the other is the body of a child. I'd also say that a smart writer would use neither of those phrases. Obviously, anyone of sufficient intelligence can find poor word choices that sound bad even if they mean something innocent if they try hard enough. Even if it were allowed in narrow circumstances, there is no point in foolishly trying to go right up to the line.
It's a new body, so they haven't existed for 18 years. Exactly. It is 5 years old. So it is younger than 18.
None of the stories I'm creating involve this issue, so I have limited personal interest in this issue. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't warn you that I think that a strict application of this rule would lead to absurd results and potentially require the deletion of a ton of chapters/stories on this site that no reasonable person would/does consider to be CSM. Edit: examples removed. I have no interest in starting a site purge.
There have already been a few cases and all of them were resolved rather easily. After all, it is quite easy to meet the requirements. (Unless it is the point not to meet them.)
I'm not doing anything. I don't believe this idea originated from anyone with a CHYOA account. The first four rules exist to protect the site from legal issues; whether they are reasonable or fair is up to personal opinion.
Unless I'm having some sort of mental breakdown (and have been for days), the duration the specific physical body has existed is not within the 4 rules. In order to reach that interpretation one must conflate the age of the character (in the rules) with the duration of existence of the specific physical body (not in the rules). Anyways, as stated above, I'm not going any deeper into analysis on this topic.
It seems you define "character" by a "soul." But a character is also defined by their body as well. These things should not be connected by logical OR, but logical AND.
A collection of electrical signals in the brain, but yes, a character should not be defined by their body. If you had an accident and had to be transferred to a replacement body, I suspect you would not be OK with them declaring you a new person, taking all your possessions, and declaring you no longer an adult, so you can't drive or make decisions for yourself. It's a ludicrous idea. Lets say I want to have sex with Emperor Palpatine from the movie Star Wars: The Last Skywalker. There are a TON of things wrong with that, generally, but one thing that it ISN'T is child pornography. With all respect, calling that child porn would be nonsensical. This is not a one-off either. This happens in countless mainstream franchises. Such a rule would ban entire GENRES from the site. I was not exaggerating when I said that actually enforcing this would require a content purge from CHYOA, and for no good reason. No legal authority considers or would consider this CSM.
It could just be a virus left behind by the people on the dying planet as a final F U to those who escaped
I think that would undercut that two tiered civilization that op wants to go towards. No protection for the travel crew.
