10-02-2014, 11:52 AM
No idea when this might actually happen. In the OA timeline we have what amounts to a biotechnological Industrial Revolution taking place in the late 21st/early 22nd century. No idea if that was deliberate if it just kind of shook out that way.
For an interesting examination on the impact of exo-womb tech, I recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan stories. Although more of a soft science space opera setting, biotech plays an important role in many of the stories, including exo-wombs. In particular, it's interesting to see how a low tech 'lost colony' society starts adapting to advanced tech once it is rediscovered, particularly to exo-womb tech. In a very short amount of time you have arranged marriages being set up in which the contract explicitly states that an exo-womb will be used and that the wife will never have to do a 'body birth'. The wider galactic society in the stories already views natural childbirth as only slightly less barbaric and repulsive then female genital mutilation. Something similar might happen in OA, especially over our mult-thousand year timeline.
Todd
For an interesting examination on the impact of exo-womb tech, I recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan stories. Although more of a soft science space opera setting, biotech plays an important role in many of the stories, including exo-wombs. In particular, it's interesting to see how a low tech 'lost colony' society starts adapting to advanced tech once it is rediscovered, particularly to exo-womb tech. In a very short amount of time you have arranged marriages being set up in which the contract explicitly states that an exo-womb will be used and that the wife will never have to do a 'body birth'. The wider galactic society in the stories already views natural childbirth as only slightly less barbaric and repulsive then female genital mutilation. Something similar might happen in OA, especially over our mult-thousand year timeline.
Todd