Fwurg

[The Lifebringer Clans]

The announcement of this inter-species procreation summit initially threw me off, in a 'that doesn't even work?!' kind of way. I think I've been operating under the wrong paradigm, having read too much SF, and not having watched any Star Wars in quite a while. So yeah, I have some fundamental questions about how this universe works, just so I'm on the same page as the game.

1. Did sentient life evolve on different worlds, or are most sentient species related in some way (maybe grouped as human-likes, reptilians, insectoids), or are most sentient species miraculously genetically compatible?
1. Genetics? Do all races have DNA? I presume they all have similar/equivalent structures, but do they all have DNA?
3. Are races physically attracted to one another? I can sort of understand this among the human-like races, and I can also understand mental/romantic attraction through the power of the Holonet, but other than that...

[Mercury]

1. Did sentient life evolve on different worlds, or are most sentient species related in some way (maybe grouped as human-likes, reptilians, insectoids), or are most sentient species miraculously genetically compatible?

Sentient life evolved separately on many different worlds - multiple times on some worlds.

Life can take many different shapes and forms, but many features in the basic structure of most sentients follows a similar structure - this is true even for life on earth which developed various features such as eyes or winged flight multiple times independently in very similar fashion. This is due to the inherent advantages to these configurations.

At the more basic level, a similar pattern emerges, with certain proteins and cell-structures developing on many worlds in a similar fashion because they are inherently better than competing proteins. As such, the evolutionary processes produce much more similar results than one might expect from random chance.

Examples of this are Hutt and humans, both of whom have two eyes, a mouth, nose and ears in an almost identical configuration, despite the fact that one is a mammal and the other is a gastropod and both evolved on vastly different planets. Similar conditions hold at a more basic cellular level (which in turn creates the conditions for similar development at macroscopic scales).

Most species are not genetically compatible by natural means. For example, Hutt and Humans, despite their similarities, cannot interbreed. There are some exceptions: humans are especially notorious at being easily compatible with other races, and many species are called near-human especially because they are not just similar, but genetically compatible to humans by natural means. Regardless, the general rule is that species from different planets cannot procreate by natural means.

However, technology allows species to fly faster than light, to terraform planets in months and to generate artificial gravity. Similarly, technology enables many (though not all) species to interbreed - especially within the same subgroup (mammalians, reptilians, etc) this is often possible.

In most of these cases, one partner provides a lesser percentage of the genetic material - the closer the species, the larger the percentage of that partner can be without disrupting the child's ability to survive.

1. Genetics? Do all races have DNA? I presume they all have similar/equivalent structures, but do they all have DNA?

The majority of species have DNA, either as a double (most common) or as a triple helix. A few species have variations on RNA as their base encoding mechanism, but the underlying principles and protein construction mechanism are almost universal amongst them. Most species keep two copies of their base genetics, for cell division purposes, but others keep three or four to perform better error correction - this holds especially for species from high radiation worlds.

Some species rely on different material altogether however - these are often the most different from regular species, such as crystalline species. Still, double helix DNA with two copies in a nucleus is the common norm, present in most species. The more different the genetic material, the harder it is for species to procreate of course.

3. Are races physically attracted to one another? I can sort of understand this among the human-like races, and I can also understand mental/romantic attraction through the power of the Holonet, but other than that...

Some species are similar enough for regular attraction to develop between them. Humans and Zabrak are sufficiently similar that for example a human male might find a Zabrak female attractive:

http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images ... ood_bg.jpg

However, similarity is hardly a requirement: even in our single species reality, humans can and do have physical attractions to vastly different creatures, objects and even abstract concepts and sensations. Humans have sexual (and love!) relationships based on pain, with animals or even with objects. And then we haven't even gotten to the weird stuff yet! Genetic viability, rational thought and even basic common sense don't seem to factor into this. At all.

Are the majority of humans going to find, say, a Hutt an attractive mate? Probably not. However, rule 34 suggests ((I did not check )) that not only is there already porn of it out there... but someone has been looking at it. The implication is that someone out there disagrees with the majority about whether or not a Hutt could make an attractive mate.

To put it simply, people on earth have had sex with weirder things than Hutt. Much, much weirder things o_O

[The Lifebringer Clans]

To put it simply, people on earth have had sex with weirder things than Hutt. Much, much weirder things o_O

Thing is, on earth, this is rather uncommon, and there are no summits that I know of that discuss the feasibility of producing offspring with whatever these weird things are, nor government funds diverted to make this possible.

[Mercury]

I think you may be underestimating the amount of people who have non-standard sexual desires. Even so, on earth we only have one human race, which are all capable of interbreeding naturally. Presumably love is easier to form between two people than between a person and an animal or inanimate object. Thus, humans on earth would actually be less likely to be xenosexual than an individual in the Star Wars setting: there simply is no alternative species which is intelligent and capable of mutual love.

Even if only 1% of a species is attracted to aliens, on earth that would be almost 70 million people. That means there would be more xenophiles out there than Brits!

Perhaps it would help to look at it from a different perspective, outside of race and species and sexual preference.

Two adult individuals, who love each other very much, decide that not only do they want to live together forever, but they want to start a family - however, their biological details prevent them from conceiving. Nothing strange about that.

Why should an insurance company, government or even the individual themselves not pay money to help them overcome this problem? Fact is, governments, insurance companies and individuals can and do pay enormous amounts for research to solve fertility problems. As a result men and women who are infertile conceive children as can gay couples.

Now there is no normal biological way for gay men or women to procreate with their partner, but still large amounts of money are spent on this and conferences on the matter do actually occur. Apparently people do not feel that natural biological incompatibility means relationships are morally wrong or that having children should not be supported.

Of course, in this setting there may actually be alternative reasons to support research in this area. Our own western society, owning to WW-2 and limited by technological restrictions, has a great aversion of eugenics.

However, a species like the Praetorians, who genetically enhance their unborn babies, does not seem to feel that messing with the genome is morally questionable. In fact, they seem to encourage it for all their children. The Veolians likewise do not appear to have a problem with giving their children the best possible DNA regardless of the means to reach that end.

An influx of new, alien DNA might just provide their species with a biological advantage that might not normally have arisen. Since genetic enhancement is an active part of their culture, research into the area is normal, and this is just another avenue in which they might enhance their species.

Regardless of physical attractiveness or whether or not xenophilia is common, this might still motivate governments to invest in research regarding this.

That all being said, Star Wars interbreeding between species (especially by humans) is in fact supported cannon: see http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hybrid for a long list of sources. While we don't follow Star Wars cannon, it does suggest we're not the first to think of it ^_^

Of course, if you feel it is all a bit improbable, I'm open to alternative explanations and idea's.