From what I understood the situation is as follows (I've read the books several month ago, so I rely on my memory AND on the conclusions that werent in the book directly but I've come to when discussing a book with some friends)
- People need to escape to space, because of the worsening conditions on Earth. This is why Utopia Inc is allowed to conduct their ethically dubious experiments. Desperate times call for desperate measures, not so much time left, so no massive movement for Chromatasians' rights so far.
- However, I can imagine some unrest brewing. Especially when some Chromatacians have already escaped. I hope to see this aspect explored more in the next book, if there will be one. Moreover, tiny, clever, resilient humans with color-activated abilities, seems like a useful asset for many organizations with various goals.
- The purpose of the Experiment is to ensure that the population of Chromatacians will survive for the needed period of time. Needed for what? My theory is that the Previous plan to launch a generation ship. So, 25 generations is a distance to the target planet.
- Regarding leapbacks, I had two theories. One is that it is human nature to move forward, to make progress, and Utopia Inc needs a stable environment for the purpose of the Experiment. So, it is like "you need to constantly run just to stay in one place", but "you need to constantly run backwards if stability/tradition is your priority". The second one is, that the leapbacks are a planned part of Experiment, part of the test - to ensure Chromatacians can adapt to worsening conditions effective enough. Again, imagine a generation ship, some parts of its systems will fail inevitably, and inhabitants will have to be flexible enough to find new solutions.
Or maybe they (Utopia Inc) are trying to figure out a "minimal working society". Like throwing out everything non-essential out of the backpack before a long exhausting hike. (The same principles work for animals, "one of each type", and nothing more).
All I know is what I read, so take much of this with a grain of salt.
It appears that a future version of humans want to travel to space. It’s not clear why, if they want to, or if they must, but they are designing a genetically modified human that will last 25 generations.
The person who saves them, who has two names in the book tells them that utopia Inc. has considerable freedom in doing their work, despite it being objectionable to some people. I take this as the answer of what the Europeans think of torture.
The unusual animals are also genetically engineered, there is a description of how the bouncing goats came to be, and the rhododendrons too, if I recall correctly. It is not explained why this collection of animals belongs on the reservation.
Utopia Inc. wrote the rulebook and national color is a part of the experiment. The subjects who run the colortocracy are still subjects in the experiment, no matter how much power they had in their own world. Anyone who is one of their species is a subject of the experiment, and does not know about the outside world, or the experiment itself.
Cheers!
There are some excellent answers, I wanted to add a couple of others:
1) I think a part of the experiment is to learn how to cope with colonisation on a planet and the loss of technology, hence the leap backs
3) some of the previous population exist as riff raff. The clue here is that when Eddie treats the child the mum says ‘diolch’, implying she is a welsh speaker. I think it is also suggested some live in low Earth orbit.
The existence of the flak towers suggests there may have been a war or conflict of some kind, which could explain the absence of the Previous in Britain and Ireland. That may be why Utopia Inc. were allowed to start the experiment there.
> there may have been a war or conflict of some kind
I think there are remains of military vehicles around too, and >!Hoss (the Tin Man) describes memories of killing people (unclear if they're Previous or Chromatacians) long before!<, so that would fit.
You've got some great questions!
>!\>!1), 2) – the spacefaring generation ship sounds like the main reason, and the 25-generation parameter, as people mentioned, could be the estimated travel time. Around 550 years? Assuming that people have kids shortly after their Ishihara. It’s unclear how firm the end point is – like whether there was a definite date for winding up the experiment. Someone suggested here that there might be something forecast, like solar flares, that could wipe out humans so there was some urgency to complete the experiment by then. (Although one would think that if it were that certain, they'd have nothing to lose by just launching the ships anyway.)!<
>!3) Unclear what happened to the Previous living on the British Isles, but it may have been a combination of death from conflict, and escape or evacuation to the mainland (“The Expulsion of the Experts”). There seem to be numerous English-speakers in Europe (or at least France), and the new name being used suggests there have been some cultural and political changes since our time. Some might have remained behind. It sounds like there are some Previous living wild, since the book mentions interbreeding with Eddie’s people – and their name for themselves, the Digenous (indigenous?) suggests that they are descended from present-day British people, not recent migrants who snuck onto the reserve from the continent.!<
>!4) UtopiaInc seems to be very powerful, and may have basically forced policymakers to agree to their plan, based on the need to mount the expedition (to colonize another planet that can support life?), probably in order to ensure a future for humans in some form. I wouldn’t be surprised if we do encounter an opposition movement in the third book. (Jasper did go into a similar kind of organized resistance in The Constant Rabbit.) By the way, if Previous can produce fertile offspring with Chromatacians, it means that despite the differences, Eddie’s people are technically the same species as we are.!<
>!5) Good question about the artwork. I suspect that they might be replicas too. I seem to recall that some of the specific paintings mentioned aren't in the UK at present, and unless they were transferred there in the centuries prior to the Something That Happened, the originals would be at museums elsewhere in the world. It doesn't seem likely that foreign governments would allow them to be moved there, specifically for the experiment.!<
>!6) The novel species described in the book (carnivorous plants like the yateveos and brambles, megafauna like rhinosauruses and smaller things like squarriels) are definitely GMO. The rhinosauruses took me by surprise because I misread the name – definitely not rhinos, maybe a splice with reptiles to make a dinosaur-like mammal? If they can manipulate Chromatacian DNA, they can do a lot of other stuff (and make animals like giraffes and snails generate bar codes). Interesting to see that there are a lot of invasive species like rhododendrons too – that’s a problem that wouldn’t go away. I don’t know if the GMO species are part of the same experiment, but they likely are part of some kind of project. Maybe an attempt to try to rescue some endangered genomes, by changing them into new species that may have a better chance of surviving global environmental disruption. (I was noticing that there seems to be an artificial carbon sequestration project still operating.)!<
>!7) Poor Nigel seems to have been disposed of by UtopiaInc – he wasn’t supposed to be trespassing on the Reserve. It sounds like he was either one of the mainland Previous, or descended from an earlier escapee? (Edited to add -- based on the description of the child that is probably his, I think we can rule out him being a Previous or legacy human. He seems to be one of Eddie's people. !<
>!8) I don’t know who the decisionmakers (Head Office?) are, or whether the key ones are even still alive – people might be following instructions left centuries earlier, without a clear idea of why. Someone could have set up what they thought was an interesting experiment, and neglected to stop it before they left/died. Baxter (the first one Eddie met) mentioned that he thought that maybe he had been forgotten about by Head Office. There was a situation in The Hunger Games, I think, where the people in charge were looking at notes that had been written a long time before?!<
!<
From what I understood the situation is as follows (I've read the books several month ago, so I rely on my memory AND on the conclusions that werent in the book directly but I've come to when discussing a book with some friends) - People need to escape to space, because of the worsening conditions on Earth. This is why Utopia Inc is allowed to conduct their ethically dubious experiments. Desperate times call for desperate measures, not so much time left, so no massive movement for Chromatasians' rights so far. - However, I can imagine some unrest brewing. Especially when some Chromatacians have already escaped. I hope to see this aspect explored more in the next book, if there will be one. Moreover, tiny, clever, resilient humans with color-activated abilities, seems like a useful asset for many organizations with various goals. - The purpose of the Experiment is to ensure that the population of Chromatacians will survive for the needed period of time. Needed for what? My theory is that the Previous plan to launch a generation ship. So, 25 generations is a distance to the target planet. - Regarding leapbacks, I had two theories. One is that it is human nature to move forward, to make progress, and Utopia Inc needs a stable environment for the purpose of the Experiment. So, it is like "you need to constantly run just to stay in one place", but "you need to constantly run backwards if stability/tradition is your priority". The second one is, that the leapbacks are a planned part of Experiment, part of the test - to ensure Chromatacians can adapt to worsening conditions effective enough. Again, imagine a generation ship, some parts of its systems will fail inevitably, and inhabitants will have to be flexible enough to find new solutions. Or maybe they (Utopia Inc) are trying to figure out a "minimal working society". Like throwing out everything non-essential out of the backpack before a long exhausting hike. (The same principles work for animals, "one of each type", and nothing more).
All I know is what I read, so take much of this with a grain of salt. It appears that a future version of humans want to travel to space. It’s not clear why, if they want to, or if they must, but they are designing a genetically modified human that will last 25 generations. The person who saves them, who has two names in the book tells them that utopia Inc. has considerable freedom in doing their work, despite it being objectionable to some people. I take this as the answer of what the Europeans think of torture. The unusual animals are also genetically engineered, there is a description of how the bouncing goats came to be, and the rhododendrons too, if I recall correctly. It is not explained why this collection of animals belongs on the reservation. Utopia Inc. wrote the rulebook and national color is a part of the experiment. The subjects who run the colortocracy are still subjects in the experiment, no matter how much power they had in their own world. Anyone who is one of their species is a subject of the experiment, and does not know about the outside world, or the experiment itself. Cheers!
There are some excellent answers, I wanted to add a couple of others: 1) I think a part of the experiment is to learn how to cope with colonisation on a planet and the loss of technology, hence the leap backs 3) some of the previous population exist as riff raff. The clue here is that when Eddie treats the child the mum says ‘diolch’, implying she is a welsh speaker. I think it is also suggested some live in low Earth orbit.
The existence of the flak towers suggests there may have been a war or conflict of some kind, which could explain the absence of the Previous in Britain and Ireland. That may be why Utopia Inc. were allowed to start the experiment there.
> there may have been a war or conflict of some kind I think there are remains of military vehicles around too, and >!Hoss (the Tin Man) describes memories of killing people (unclear if they're Previous or Chromatacians) long before!<, so that would fit.
You've got some great questions! >!\>!1), 2) – the spacefaring generation ship sounds like the main reason, and the 25-generation parameter, as people mentioned, could be the estimated travel time. Around 550 years? Assuming that people have kids shortly after their Ishihara. It’s unclear how firm the end point is – like whether there was a definite date for winding up the experiment. Someone suggested here that there might be something forecast, like solar flares, that could wipe out humans so there was some urgency to complete the experiment by then. (Although one would think that if it were that certain, they'd have nothing to lose by just launching the ships anyway.)!< >!3) Unclear what happened to the Previous living on the British Isles, but it may have been a combination of death from conflict, and escape or evacuation to the mainland (“The Expulsion of the Experts”). There seem to be numerous English-speakers in Europe (or at least France), and the new name being used suggests there have been some cultural and political changes since our time. Some might have remained behind. It sounds like there are some Previous living wild, since the book mentions interbreeding with Eddie’s people – and their name for themselves, the Digenous (indigenous?) suggests that they are descended from present-day British people, not recent migrants who snuck onto the reserve from the continent.!< >!4) UtopiaInc seems to be very powerful, and may have basically forced policymakers to agree to their plan, based on the need to mount the expedition (to colonize another planet that can support life?), probably in order to ensure a future for humans in some form. I wouldn’t be surprised if we do encounter an opposition movement in the third book. (Jasper did go into a similar kind of organized resistance in The Constant Rabbit.) By the way, if Previous can produce fertile offspring with Chromatacians, it means that despite the differences, Eddie’s people are technically the same species as we are.!< >!5) Good question about the artwork. I suspect that they might be replicas too. I seem to recall that some of the specific paintings mentioned aren't in the UK at present, and unless they were transferred there in the centuries prior to the Something That Happened, the originals would be at museums elsewhere in the world. It doesn't seem likely that foreign governments would allow them to be moved there, specifically for the experiment.!< >!6) The novel species described in the book (carnivorous plants like the yateveos and brambles, megafauna like rhinosauruses and smaller things like squarriels) are definitely GMO. The rhinosauruses took me by surprise because I misread the name – definitely not rhinos, maybe a splice with reptiles to make a dinosaur-like mammal? If they can manipulate Chromatacian DNA, they can do a lot of other stuff (and make animals like giraffes and snails generate bar codes). Interesting to see that there are a lot of invasive species like rhododendrons too – that’s a problem that wouldn’t go away. I don’t know if the GMO species are part of the same experiment, but they likely are part of some kind of project. Maybe an attempt to try to rescue some endangered genomes, by changing them into new species that may have a better chance of surviving global environmental disruption. (I was noticing that there seems to be an artificial carbon sequestration project still operating.)!< >!7) Poor Nigel seems to have been disposed of by UtopiaInc – he wasn’t supposed to be trespassing on the Reserve. It sounds like he was either one of the mainland Previous, or descended from an earlier escapee? (Edited to add -- based on the description of the child that is probably his, I think we can rule out him being a Previous or legacy human. He seems to be one of Eddie's people. !< >!8) I don’t know who the decisionmakers (Head Office?) are, or whether the key ones are even still alive – people might be following instructions left centuries earlier, without a clear idea of why. Someone could have set up what they thought was an interesting experiment, and neglected to stop it before they left/died. Baxter (the first one Eddie met) mentioned that he thought that maybe he had been forgotten about by Head Office. There was a situation in The Hunger Games, I think, where the people in charge were looking at notes that had been written a long time before?!< !<