Prophetic Scifi (part 4)

Solar Echoes is—on the outside—a fun space opera with colorful aliens, Faster Than Light speed travel (FTL), and starship dogfights. However, spend a little time in this universe and you'll start to see more realistic themes based on present-day problems, spun forward into the future. These problems involve ethical and moral quandaries that are embodied in the societies of the different alien cultures. The plant-like Erwani, for example, have embraced technology and developed powerful AI's, even integrating their own bodies with “cyberware” technology. Behind the scenes, however, Erwani society faces a growing problem that involves a threatening technological power structure. Another race, the reptilian Krissethi, has embraced materialism as a form of social status, where the rich govern and those below them struggle to gain wealth and overthrow each other. By contrast, the humanoid Reln place priority on education over all else, and a rising educational inflation has made their lives a competitive race to earn more degrees and higher accolades. Reln biology has suffered as a result, as they produce fewer and fewer offspring in their pursuit of higher educational status. The gelatinous race of Omuls faces its own challenges as their own brand of pure freedom results in volatile anarchy. These are only a few hints at the condition of life in the Solar Echoes universe, and the problems are an extension of real-world problems we face today, taken to an extreme. But how does this involve the Humans?