What made the Vertumna Group so marginalized on Earth?
Aside from the mandatory assimilation, it was the genetic augments (Continued from the previous post on exo-history)
I have a theory connecting why Dr. Instance became a Vertumnan that connects to (at least one reason) why the Vertumna Group was so marginalized that also is what gives Aunt Seedent so much grief, like having to care over children that have augments like *pyrokinesis*
Dr Instance's wanted to experiment with genetic augments in a way that no scientific department or research institute would let her, so she ended up with the Vertumna Group who had an aligned (sci-fi-esque) "vision", and I think that is partially what got them cast out from society at large, I think (not sure if that was explicitly stated in the humanities lessons but it seems plausible to me at least)
by extension that is then why the Chief Steward has to deal with children that can cast fireball (but, in a sci-fi way)
The many big ethical *concerns* the "respectable" scientists and bureaucracies would have about human genetic experiments as is only got amplified ten- if not hundred-fold by Dr Instance wanting to pioneer a technology to give babies specific augments that were hardly proven to be fully safe yet, and that was for the more benign and harmless-seeming ones like the calm implant where she might have gotten some supporters
But the other superhuman attributes did not go over well, and the animal DNA stuff fully made her a total persona non grata, forever unwelcome with any academic and public institution of note, with even many transhumanists not wanting to side with her (some people of the "I don't want to cure cancer, I want to turn people into dinosaurs" mentality probably liked the idea but would likely only say so in secret)
That she had stolen the machine to create genetic augments with didn’t exactly help either, of course.
The whole legitimate ethics and safety question aside most people in society and especially politicians and many other leaders would condemn it in the harshest possible terms, and either sincerely or opportunistically declare people supporting such a technology one of the biggest threats to humanity, with many more bioconservative centrists and left-wingers joining in on the criticism, even if less vitriolic.
This would isolate the Vertumna Group members a lot and would incentivize the development of their own culture, especially as keeping their own original culture would just become hard, especially if you are the only one with it in the group.
This would have really pushed the cultural separation and assimilation into a new culture forward, like it might have started with the reasons I gave above, as a hard choice (seeing it as the Lesser Evil compared to what some expected to happen), but at that point it kind of might have become almost inevitable.
Notably, though, only one adult had an augment before the Stratospheric took off, Tonin. This seems to show that augments weren’t really widely available until after launch, which means that no one wanted to wait for the technology to be ready and used to have their opinion on it, and that a lot of people and movements might have tried to prevent it from ever being completed and used at all.
As for how Tonin got his augment (and possibly where Dr. Instance stole the technology from), @pariahgraph had some thoughts on that:
“I have my own headcanons on why Tonin is the only enhanced person. Tonin was stolen from a military facility being used to research enhancements for military use by a defector to the Vertumna group when he was a toddler. Because if the tech was out there you know people would be doing unethical military shit with it"
Which I think is possible, if the military doesn't actually agree with the public government position that it's too big a risk. That of course would make the government totally hypocritical but that's nothing new!
With all that, it's not a surprise no one likes to talk about Earth much.
Although it’s not like all augments would be equally welcome among all Vertumnans either, as Pariahgraph explains:
“Considering Anne is in charge of feeding the colony AND all the childcare she should have a LOT more clout than she does
Anne should be allowed to throw a chair at Instance once a year with zero repercussions for some of those enhancements! PYROKINESIS?
Genuinely Instance should have to pull childcare shifts! Then she might think twice about some of those augments. My headcanon is that every single creche worker hates her guts.
Anne should be two people, it's no wonder she's textually an alcoholic!”
