Authors and Contributors
in Alphabetic
Order by Surname
(current active members of the Orion's Arm group (either writing or worldbuilding forums) in large font
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Authors and Contributorsin Alphabetic
Order by Surname
(current active members of the Orion's Arm group (either writing or worldbuilding forums) in large font |
the AI Vin
is yet another alias of a mysterious entity who has given
so many pseudonyms in his WEB life even he can't tell fact from fiction
anymore. It has been rumored he is a Free Citizen of The Republic of Cascadia.
Johnny Nanonic
aka Espen
Antonsen
was a Star Wars \ Trek fan for years before he stumbled
upon Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, and since then he's never been quite
the same. He
is currently studying computer science and has delusions of becoming a
professional writer. While waiting for the miracle that will allow this
to happen he do things like worldbuilding.
John B (aka
discarnate, discarn8, and various alternatives thereof) is himself, no
more, no less. Some of the things this involves (but by no means all of
them - we do need to worry about the proton death of this
branch of surreality, after all) include dogs, way-out science,
battering computers until they behave, battering users just because,
battering coworkers for even less motive, battering sensibilities for
no reason whatsoever, random acts of creativity/sanity/kindness/oddity,
the commission of poesy, etcetera. He can be found in front of various
computers which are usually located in the Upstate NY region (NO! not
New York City!), behind the wheel on roads in the same general region,
asleep, eating, and/or surrounded by Labrador Retrievers.
D. David Barbeau
grew up on science fiction, beginning with Star Trek and
then was a Star Wars geek for a few years before
graduating to novels like the Dune and Foundation
series. The creation of the Sci Fi Channel helped him to begin his
interest in scifi. He had been looking quite awhile for a space opera
site before he found Orion's Arm. He is currently
(besides writing for Orion's Arm) attending classes in
hopes of someday getting a job and making enough money to buy his own
personal island chain in the Seychelles Islands.
Basu is the
biological shell of an pre-singularity mind. This 'shell' is somewhere
in the middle of what humans call the "teens". When the mind gathers
some currency it wants to trade in this shell for something more
lasting (say a few thousand years at least) and more efficient. In the
meanwhile, the mind is interested in stuff such as physics, computers,
medieval fantasy literature and of course the strange yet interesting
concepts called "science fiction" and "philosophy". The mind is also
considering studying something mundane and attending a thing that
humans call "college" in the hope of getting something called a "job"
(preferably one that brings him lots of currency). The shell is so
useless that the mind prefers not to comment much on it. The mind also
hopes to become a Godling and eventually participate in the Omega Point
(if it gets a better shell that is). Discovered OA by accident while
looking for information on destructive futuristic weaponry.
Blog
Websites: Lungfish Alpha (link review)
Planet Exists
"Well, if we destroy Kansas, the world might not hear about it for a
few years
"
Hi, I'm Blofeld, you might remember me from such films as "On Her
Majesty's Secret Service" and "Diamonds are Forever". Due to the
exploits of a secret agent, who's name is no secret to anybody, my
organisation has suffered but it still lives on. As the Prodigy once
sed, I've decided to take my work back underground, to stop it
falling into the wrong hands!
Whether
it is singing with the Appleton Boy choir's men's chorus, the
Mastersingers, studying art at UW Oshkosh, teaching himself the art of
website and graphic design or writing short stories and RPG
supplements, Michael
Boncher has been involved in the arts for most of his life.
While in college, Michael did comic book storyboarding and scripting with other local area artists, wrote an unpublished novella and a small set of short stories. He first taught himself how to use computer graphic programs by colorizing black and white photographs. Determined to use his artistic skill in business, he began to learn the new art of website development. Since then, he has developed over 25 websites and worked on hundreds of advertising projects.
A few years, Michael discovered 3D Graphic Illustration. Excited by the new tools for creating fine art, he has thrown himself head first into the new medium. The results of this are now yours to enjoy.
Recently, he discovered Orion's Arm when searching for information
on Nanotechnology, and became enamored with its concept and desired
greatly to help make OA the next big SF franchise.
Steve Bowers a spacemad madman who lives in York, England and has read too much science fiction but wants more, maps to the futures that will never happen but should. He works in a Control Office but prefers to lose control when he can.
Jonathan Burns
(informally Jonno)
Born in the year of the Hydrogen Bomb. Watched Sputnik from the front
lawn. Brought up in Canberra, Australia with two-year stays in London
and Princeton NJ.
Took maths and physics at Australian National University. Conscripted
for Vietnam War; granted Conscientious Objector status.
Taught high school in Malaysia for two years. Took computer science
diploma. Did programming for public service.
Moved to Melbourne, took digital electronics. During '70s and '80s,
worked for ambitious but doomed startup companies in commercial
software, robotics and an anticipation of the Web.
Teamed up with artist Malcolm Thain to plan graphics software for the
arts. Entered Latrobe University to research maths and 3D graphics;
found undergraduate tutoring more involving than research. Finally
submitted PhD thesis on programming languages, geometry and category
theory, but burnt out when resubmission was required.
Presently programming a strategic multiplayer wargame with partner in
Extreme Programming mode, and producing the user manual for some home
video surveillance software.
Enrolled for Swinburne University's Astronomy Online course in 2003,
with prospect of Masters in computational astronomy.
Secular idealist, lapsed neo-pagan, skeptical transhumanist, critic of
reductionism.
Harmony and understanding
sympathy and trust abounding
no more falsehood or derision
golden living dreams of vision
mystic crystal revelation
and the mind's true liberation
Martin Andreas Cieslik says about himself
I am Martin Andreas Cieslik, aka MAC or Aethertaeter. I was
born on. I was born on
December 4, 1980 in Freiburg in Southern Germany. Spent most of my
childhood in a nice little town close to Duesseldorf, southern rim of
the Ruhr industrialized zone.
I had always been interested in sciences, especially if there were fun
effects like sparks, fire or explosions. Thus I took math and physics
as my major subjects for graduation. Then I served my ten months in
the German Air Force, or Bundesluftwaffe, being a pencil soldier after
eight weeks of boot camp.
Currently I am enrolled as a process engineering student at the
Technical University of Clausthal. That is pretty much chemical
engineering with a little more machine construction and thermal
processing added.
Since about age ten I am addicted to SciFi literature after starting
to read the classics out of my father's book case (Asimov, Clarke and
German Hans Dominik mainly). The scientific ideas always fascinated
me. Especially after I had decided to become an engineer I always
tried to think about how it could be done. When I had first contact
with universes like shadowrun and battletech I realized that the
background worldbuilding was so much more interesting than the actually
stories. One day I was looking for some data on megascale engineering
projects and came across the site of the one true superbright of our
time, Anders Sandberg. Obviously I was instantly
hooked and thus had
to absorb OA (that could be done in a week back then, at least the
basics of everything) and wrote a couple of comments to Alan
about
some things, He invited me onto the list and now I am here
"Mark Clutton"
a.k.a. Raije, (or Duck to his friends), is a student at the University
of New England, in Australia. He is studying a combined Bachelor of
Arts/Bachelor of Teaching degree, specialising in English, Drama, and
Political Science. On the off times when he isn't sleeping,
roleplaying, checking e-mail, eating, listening to music or having a
shower...he works. He looks upon anarchists as creatures worthy of
pity, and everyone else as idiots who don't seem to see what's
happening in the world. Currently, he is consulting other-worldly
oracles to figure out what to do with his life.
Website: SGtoC
M.K. Capriola, Jr is the pen name for writers Michelle Maus and Penelope Arcade, and artist April Phool. They are currently working on getting funding from the Radical Lesbian Front for a pilgrimage to Lesbos, which is their way of spending the winter in Greece while getting someone else to pay for it.
Fernando
Peña
D'Andrea Fernando
Peña D'Andrea was born and still lives in
Porto Alegre, Brasil, and has 25 years. He works as artist in a Brasil
settled computer game company. Has recently (2002) concluded his
graduation in Computer Science by the Universidade Federal do Rio
Grande do Sul, but is interested in and likes to study a wide variety
of topics and themes, like Physics,
Linguistics, History, Astronomy, Cabbalah, etc. Likes reading several
kinds of books, science fiction included, and consider himself to be
giving his first baby-steps in this area. He thinks that any story or
setting has to be very believable and detailed to be immersive, and
hates seeing movies and shows where things he knows that doesn't makes
any sense happening. One day, wandering in the internet after
information to create a setting for a
computer game he was planning to do, he stumbled in Orion's Arm
website. Since that day, he understood what he has never liked in
Star-trek but never realized, and also what science-fiction
should really be.
D A G O N (Version
February
2006) - this "dagon" individual is a highly distracted 41-year old
bipolar from the Netherlands. Used to be hip and trendy but has grown
intense, morose and cynical. Has been worldbuilding (escaping from
mundane reality) since age 10, and early creations were undeniably
Transhuman ... but these earliest stories had, as can be expected, many
soft-SF qualities. Would love to use slow but steady artistic output as
illustrator for real movie concept art one day. Considers self to be an
ultrahard right winger Extropian (as long as the welfare system
keeps flowing). Would love to be uploaded and get a
thorough, "reconstructive" reformatting.
Niven fan, though Gibson, S.K.Robinson and Sterling evoke massive
smiles as well. Started out with O'Neil's High frontier and so steadily
flowed into hard, extropian ways of looking at SF... Space colonization
radical. A very debased human being over all.
Todd A. Drashner was born and raised in the semi-wilds of Alaska, first got into science fiction at age 9 when he picked up a copy of Clarke's Childhood's End in a bored moment. Has been hooked on SF ever since. Generally prefers 'hard' science fiction that is still not afraid to think big. Went to college at University of Arizona, Tucson intending to become engineer and discovered that higher mathematics just doesn't compute for him. Switched to English and graduated in 1993, but always remained avid science and science fiction fan. Encountered Drexler's Engines of Creation in college along with trans and post-humanism and Vinge's Singularity concept. When he grows up he wants to be a Power.
Current interests include reading, working out, music (hard rock to
classical, no rap please), and thinking about the future. Discovering Orion's
Arm one of happier moments in 32 years of life to date.
Currently lives in the Tidewater Region of Virginia and works as the
Training and Quality Manager for a call center.
John M. Dollan was born on April 17, 1970 at
some point in the early hours (which likely explains his almost
pathological fear of
waking up before 8am). From a very early age he gained a love of
the
unknown, spawning an interest in the sciences that was heavily
encouraged by his
Father and his work in the National Forest and Park Services.
From
there, the leap to science fiction was easy, although the further side
step into a
fanatic for bad monster and science fiction movies remains
unexplained.
Currently he is on the tail end of bring a new meaning to the phrase
"professional student", having already gained a degree in English at
Montana State
University-Northern. He is working on several writing projects,
the two most serious being The Leaves of Autumn (a fantasy setting) and
the
ArcBuilders Universe (an attempted hard science fiction setting).
His
Planetary Classification List has gained some renown in the appropriate
online
communities, and it is his honor to have it modified and used in
Orion's Arm. All of his projects can be found at his website,
Explorations. John himself is married to his high school
girlfriend Margo, and
together they have two children (Liam Martin and Jackson Rhys), as well
as a
menagerie of various pets. John himself aspires to become
immortal through
various genetic tweaks and mind uploading technologies, but it remains
on his
"To Do List", right after "learn Portuguese".
Addendum December 16, 2004: John and his wife Margo were pleasantly
surprised at the birth of their third child, Moira Sophie-Faith. As of
early 2005, they have yet to achieve a night's sleep
Website: Explorations
Jay Dugger aka Til Eulenspiegel
Jorge Ditchkenberg
aka Jerzy Dyczkowski is alien mind residing in spaceship orbiting
Earth, which is periodically telepathically overtaking a geek on the
surface. The poor puppet thinks that he will gain something out of it.
Puppet does bioinformatics for the living, and likes bird watching and
travel in his spare time.
John Edds ("skepticjohn") has loved
science and science fiction since early childhood. He grew up watching
Discovery Channel, PBS, National Geographic, Star Trek:TNG and various
other
things. Like many of his generation, he played video games. He embraced
his
primate heritage from a very early age: having a propensity to climb to
easily
fatal heights by the age of four. He's daydreamed of robots, machines
(flying,
walking or otherwise) and the
like for the majority of his life. He was very much into Star Wars,
before he
grew out of it. John is a deeply philosophical man. Some would call him
nihilistic. He is toward most of the ideas around: those that lack
evidence.
He's majoring in art, with an interest in eventually creating beautiful
and
accurate science fiction artwork; among other things. He was first
introduced
to hard science fiction by Arthur C. Clark's novel, and the movie,
2001: A Space
Odyssey. For many years he didn't know of the term 'hard science
fiction', only
that he liked it. He found OA thanks to Steve Bowers, and doesn't plan
on
quitting anytime soon. I'm Bill Ernoehazy, an emergency medicine specialist in
Jacksonville Florida and environs. I'm fannish enough to be invited to
speak at a couple of cons a year -- medicine in and of space (I was
once a NASA/Univ of Florida Physician Affiliate), martial arts as
they're portrayed in genre fiction (I teach Elizabethan rapier and
knifework), and punditry on futuristic developments. I keep a delighted
eye on transhumanist, nanotechnological, and extropian groups and
authors, though I often wonder how much of the unbridled optimism
relies on dubiousine and unobtanium. On the OTHER hand, I can get
pessimism all over the place, eh?
Adam Getchell Is a Programmer/Post Graduate student; read his homepage and blog here.
Bill makes his living explaining simple concepts to complex people who tend to work for large companies. Bill believes that anything you do three times should be scripted, and that if a piece of code is 100 lines long it can probably be done better in10. Bill is a Pisces who enjoys long walks in the hills, full personal state vector uploads, and chatting about completely harmless things over strong, public key encryption.
Website www.billglover.com
Daniel Harle
(aka Daniel
Snarl, Harle, Harlequins,
Snarlequins, Snarl, Quins and Maniacal Fishman) can be found in random
places around the world, but most commonly in a small village in the
North East of England, or on the internet on his (thus-far incomplete)
website www.maniacalfishman.tk.
Young Daniel is an avid fan of metal music, with such bands as System
of a Down, Mudvayne, Metallica, Iron Maiden and Rammstein appearing in
his record collection. Daniel is a fan on Final Fantasy games, and is
currently writing a science-fiction novel, which as of yet lacks a
title. If you want to learn more about him, and have first checked
yourself into a mental asylum for having such thoughts, consult the Me,
Myself and Maniacal Fishman on Daniel's website. Enjoy.
home page
Bernd
Helfert is a German designer who got hooked by the
Kheper
website, following to Orion's Arm. "I have always been excited watching
sci fi movies from the 70s. I experienced THX1138 and Dark Star, New
York 1999 and the Omega Man being broadcast on my teenage tiny b/w
portable TV set, sitting stunned on my bed. And don't forget about
books: back issues of 50s + 60s pulp magazines best, Cordwainer Smith,
Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert and Stanislaw Lem. Even Orwell + Huxley
gave me kicks." And today? of course he is still paying attention to
the Gibsons and
Stephensons,
the Sterlings, Egans and Jeff Noons of the new millennium
as he can't write stories by himself - but at least create images.
home
page,
including Orion's Arm
Graphics
Ben Higginbottom
- Electronics engineer and archetypical nerd, has watched and read far,
far too much science fiction, regional director of the Illuminati in
the north west of England (we don't need orbital mind control lasers
when Manchester United can be used to keep the proles in line), the
scream of "Arrrgh when did I get old" can still be heard echoing
around the hills of Lancashire when learning that the last series of
Doctor Who was screened twelve years ago.
Donna Malcolm
Hirsekorn is with Alan
the co-founder of
OA. I am a Writer and Artist forming words and art with lines that go
beneath the surface of humanity. When I draw lines I define form and
shape, thus enhancing the compositions by creating rhythm. By deepening
dimensions of space, the lines become intuitive and bring order into my
chaotic universe.
By writing with lines my worlds become defined and my characters are
placed in settings that describe their realities. Humanity is the
source of the pioneering spirit in the OA universe. Keeping humanity
alive in the future and in the depths of other galaxies and universes
give a rational meaning to evolution of humankind in the future. With
the perfection of lines comes balance, harmony, unity, and variety.
Without developing these principles, intrinsic in humanity, then OA
will be a vastly hollow place that is as cold as a black hole.
I have created art my entire life from the early age of seven. Writing
often takes a backseat to the pursuit of abstractions coming from peace
in my soul when I have brush and paint in my hands. Colors bursting
from the surface planes of paper and canvas fill me with energy and
freshness. The opposite is true in my writing as pure energy takes over
when the keyboard or pen begins to move, rapping out words that are
often automatically extracted from the self that is deep within me and
as a result peace is found in my fundamental core. I create human
characters that live in the realm of the OA universe. Keeping humanity
alive is my objective and day by day routines are an important aspect
of life in the future and are key to my storylines.
Life has created many ruts in the road and digging out has taken the
form of introspection and the ability to formulate words that breathe
life into characters that everyone can relate to. Esoteric poetry is a
hobby that is inspired by the gentle breezes of the wind passing over
the terrain of earth and the horizons of earth and sky coming together
to form an endless whole. The rhythm of life gives shape to the future
and the continuation of humankind.
Website: Donna's
World
Jules H-G is author of the Akady 2 write-up
Graham 228221 Graham is twenty-two, lives in the UK and currently works in London for a charity helping young people find employment in financial services. Although short on scientific-knowledge (but working on it) and quite new in the Orion's Arm Universe (again, working on it), he enjoys trying to keep up with the sometimes baffling conversations on the list. Aspiring to one day make a living from sci-fi, Graham is very much commited to exploring and expanding the OA-verse (much to the chagrin of his long-suffering and neglected partner).
Stephen Inniss relishes this peculiar opportunity to speak of himself in the third person. He started reading science fiction and fantasy shortly after he learned to read. He has been a researcher, prospector, and agricultural worker, and at one point he even wrote some material for one of the larger RPG companies. Though he did remain with a mining company long enough to find a small copper deposit, he did not stay long term and full time in any of these fields. Stephen's first degree was in zoology. Later, when he wanted a steadier work and better pay, he acquired various other certificates and qualifications, and later took a Masters degree in a completely unrelated field. This allows him to make a good living using early 21st century memetic engineering techniques. (No, not sales or advertising, and not politics either).
Mikael Johansson is studying Latin and mathematics at the university of Stockholm.
"The Cat's Whiskers"
or Liam Jones, has been interested in Science
Fiction, and science since a
very young age. He spends most of his time using a computer, and plans
to become an upload sometime in
the next century. He lives in a relatively obscure town in the United
Kingdom.
My name is Michael Jones, and I was actually directed to your list from a very soft SciFi story-debate forum after asking a question on Wormholes. I like to think of myself as an amateur SciFi author, and your setting has inspired me. I hate commercial TV SciFi for the drivel it produces, and have long searched for a more realistic SciFi setting. I'm a registered nurse with an interest in anatomy and physiology - and I guess you could say my "specialty" is xenobiology, because I love fleshing out (heh - pun) alien races and biology in a scientifically plausible, utterly non-bipedal way. I'm 25 years old, and I work at the Childrens Hospital at Westmead, in Sydney, NSW, Australia. My lifestyle with work is very busy, so much to my dismay I haven't had much time for SciFi reading for a couple of years now. Before that, my favourite authors were relatively soft SciFi - Anne McCaffrey, among others. My tastes have certainly matured since them - the exposure of the internet has helped...*grin*.
Website: Home Page
Tony Jones
is British, a
software/systems engineer working for BAE Systems
and
living in
London, and has a Ph.D. in high temperature superconductivity at the
Interdisciplinary
Research Centre in Superconductivity at the University of Cambridge
(where he was a member
of Christ's College). Before that he completed a degree in physics at
the University of
Portsmouth (Portsmouth Polytechnic as it was then). And he was born in
November 1966.
Outside of work, he does a number of things. Primary amongst these is
roleplaying games,
which he both runs and plays in. He has an extensive roleplaying
website at
www.wolfram.demon.co.uk/roleplaying_top.html.
He also spends a considerable amount of resources on comics and science
fiction. As for his religion (if anyone cares), he is an atheist.
Website: The Tony
Jones Roleplaying Page
email
M.Alan Kazlev,
originated the Orion's Arm project with Donna
because he felt the time for a new and original, high quality and
realistic "space opera" was well overdue. He has loved science fiction
since he was a kid; some of his fondest memories are of watching the
original Star Trek when he was 10 or 11 years old. As a
teenager he read most of the classic masters of the genre, before
turning to explore other areas of knowledge. His various interests
include hard science fiction, worldbuilding (of course!), futurism,
anime, space opera of any kind, metaphysics, environmentalism, biology,
palaeontology, meditation, and self-transformation. As the "Director"
of OA he constantly tries to ensure a balance between grand
worldbuilding and the everyday human concerns, diamond-hard science
& tech and imaginative speculation, and intelligent SF ideas and
popular Sci Fi entertainment. His ambition is to establish OA as a
powerful new constellation in the Geek Universe. He is currently
working on a sci fi novel set in the OA universe.
Other Websites:
Kheper - Metamorphosis and Evolution
Palaeos
email
Peter D Kisner
Majored in biology and sculpture in college. Worked in maintenance,
warehouse, retail book sales, and hellish clerical work before
following my girlfriend to Boston to get lab assistant work at the
Whitehead Institute center for genomic studies (sounds exciting maybe,
but really just entails mixing stock solutions). If anyone asks I
prefer they
believe I run the genetic engineering division in charge of two headed
cat design.
Still trying to pursue spirituality among the Christians. Trying to
design my own role-playing game(s) from scratch or find one that fits
my infinitely demanding criteria (for a list of criteria just ask), and
the "Galactic Noir"-White Wolf derived side project. Also, trying to
jot down a few stories, spawn a couple of universes, and find a few
folks
interested in RPGs within the area around Boston.
Eric Lo aka "Quakfusion" is the list's resident objectivist
Loopquanta137 is a conglomerate entity
comprised of a biont living in Western Australia and the
loopquanta137 personality on the
internet. He has been reading science fiction ever since he could read,
and possibly for some time beforehand.
He has an unhealthy obsession with 3d scenery rendering and image
editing software, as well as setting things on fire. He is an avid
story writer, and can write for hours at a time when he has a very good
idea.
He also has three alternate personalities, at least one of which is
completely insane. He has recently begun programming in the Python
language.
His OA Geek Code is
GWB/GCW >H++ OA++++ M+++ L+ P+ B+++ S+ D- Sp+++ SF++ TS?
He has a home page at
http://www.fixedstars.com.au/linus
Brian McKinley
Graphic designer and aspiring comic book artist. Brian is working on
his own epic length sci-fi comic
'Mancer'. You'll find almost regular updates at www.mancer.com.
Brian works in advertising at a newspaper and as a result has
absolutely no faith in the media.
Website: Mancer
J.P. Martin is a
19-year old college freshman in Portland, Oregon, USA. He's a mass of
apparent contradictions: a scientist (insofar as anyone who practices
science can be said to
be one), a Fortean, a Christian (admittedly some Fundamentalists would
argue the point), a
pacifist, a war buff, an Extropian, a Transhumanist, a Discordian and
an esotericist. Born
schizophrenic, he has always had an unusual mindset and perspective on
matters, and finds it
easy to understand the perspective of others. He taught himself to read
at the age of 3 and
has been doing it ever since; he is never seen without a book in hand,
preferably anything
that blends science fact and science fiction. He is eager to learn,
ever more eager to
debate, and constantly upgrades, shifts and cleans his memes (indeed,
he'd argue that the
only reason he has not gone insane is because the many
mutually-antagonistic memes he holds
have formed a truce). He suffers from acute Brent Spiner-itis, and
enjoys both reading and
writing science fiction. His favorite topic by far is aliens; he was
inspired at age 14 by
the creations of Anders Sandburg, and now writes for the Ragamuffin
project. He discovered OA
in February and hopes to find an idea he can run with which will result
in a nice addition to
the milieu. He is both fond and critical of mainstream science in
almost every field (is
proud of the organized bodies of knowledge, but feels conservatism,
dogmatism and lack of
imagination has begun to pollute the meme complex). Although he is
nearly obsessed with
abstract knowledge, privately he feels that, as a guy, the only really
valuable knowledge is
that which creates colorful, but survivable, explosions in one's home
or backyard. Despite
majoring in Physics, he privately hopes that nobody will be stupid
enough to allow him within
a hundred miles of any supercollider. He is a fan of out-there ideas,
and believes in the
possibility of FTL, psychic powers and various other questionable
things.
Charles Mosteller is a baseline human (Homo sapiens sapiens) who, one day, inadvertently wandered off of the baseline habitat reserve where he lives, and stumbled across M.Alan Kazlev's futuristic space opera project, Orion's Arm.
He was immediately captured, and subjected to lengthy sessions of intellectual torture by a group known as "The Brains." During each of these torture sessions, Charles' brain was painfully extracted, dissected, and on occasion - exploded. Supposedly, this was all done in the name and interest of "hard science." Prior to his capture, Charles' interests included American constitutional law, poetry, writing, and on rare occasion - chess. While languishing in captivity, held prisoner against what remained of his will by "The Brains," his interests were reduced solely to watching Jell-O form in a bowl (Strawberry with pineapple chunks only, please!). Charles managed to recently escape from the evil clutch of "The Brains," by unexpectedly unleashing a nano-swarm of message postings in the Orion's Arm discussion group. His current location is unknown, but "The Brains" are believed to be close to tracking him down, so that they may resume their scientific experiments.
Pran Mukherjee:
Born, raised, and trapped in Michigan. I write
because my muse
(Melpomene)
wakes me up at ridiculous hours of the night if I don't. I'm working on
a
Ph.D. in space instrumentation, primarily MEMS-based. I've left a
programming career behind since I don't want to move to India in the
next
decade. And I can say what other people only think, the things that
need to
be said.
Narthalion/Dirk is a 23 years old computer science student from Hamburg/Germany.
Trond Nilsen
is a Software Engineer
and is the guiding light behind Orion's Arm's website.
Website: LiveJournal
email
Joshua D. O'Connor
aka SpirareCogita! is not a science fiction junkie
per se. I have no gaming experience. I am a painter (also to be
debated), an illustrator, I do work in digital imaging of all kinds. I
read extensively on philosophy, history, politics and yes science
fiction. I was once a self proclaimed discordian but now proclaim
myself a human being. I was formerly trained as an industrial designer,
graphic designer, have extensive background in engineering and land
surveying.
I currently work as a CAD drafter/designer for an engineering firm, and
as mentioned previously have written about 230 pages in four different
novels all of which are incomplete and abandoned.
email
Juan Ochoa
Juan is really a potted fern on the space station Freedom,
telepathically controlling a human 29 year old in Colombia, South
America. He hopes to instill a sense of uneasiness on his mammal host
and have him move elsewhere on Terra. You can contact him at botch@007mundo.com,
and see his channelled scribbles at pwp.007mundo.com/botch
Website: Juan
Ochoa portfolio - pwp.007mundo.com/botch
email
Octachoron is a student of
philosophy and science with a transhumanist bent.
Michael Henry Parisi
was born: 6-17-1972, and graduated Rhode Island College with a B.
S. in
Management. Everyone he knows says he bears a striking
resemblance to Clark Kent. He has been interested in sci-fi from an
early age (at least since he was 5 or 6). Not really serious about it
until 1995 or 1996 when began writing short SF stories with a decidedly
Hard SF bent for own amusement. Once got part of one of his stories
published in my college newspaper, The Anchor. Other interests include
Professional Wrestling (favorite wrestler: "The Game" Triple-H) and
Karaoke (favorite song to do: "Beat It" by Michael Jackson, which I put
my own unique spin on). All his stories contain a generous amount of
knock-down-drag-out action and steamy sex scenes (where appropriate).
Personal Outlook: Not an atheist by any measure, but has been a skeptic
at least since was 5 or 6; sees himself as a nondenominational Deist or
an agnostic, and considers that no one blind man can have entirely the
correct impression of the
whole elephant. Favorite Movies: Ruthless People, Aliens,
and Die Hard. Favorite Book: Ender's Game,
by Orson Scott Card. Current Occupation: (besides worldbuilding and
story writing): Security Officer (which gives him lots of time to think
about worldbuilding and story writing).
email
Robin
Lee Powell
Website: Home Page
James Joseph Micheal
Ramsey aka LordRavenHawk aka JamieMage is a 21 year old from
the rural parts of the eastern Tennessee and Kentucky mountains.
Philosopher, dreamer, thinker, and sometimes artist. Interests include
just about anything intellectually stimulating. Also Recent addition to
the Fur net communities. Preferred interests, world building, writing,
drawing, internet, fur art (especially felinoids) and anything with
cinnamon in it. Psychic gifts remote viewing, empathy, memory reading,
past reading, body reading, astral projectionist, as well as minor
precog abilities.
Dreams of having cybernetic implants so he never has to be disconnected
from the internet and so he can remember where he put his shoes.
Marcus Rauchfuß describes himself as follows
I'm 30 yeas old, currently residing in Munich with my fiancee, we are both goths and sci-fi buffs and my OA Geek code is
Darren
Ryding was born and raised in Western Australia. He
graduated
from Curtin University with a Bachelors degree in English, majoring in
Creative Writing. While computer graphics has been a sideline hobby for
many years, writing has been Darren's passion. He has had a handful of
short works published, mostly in Australian fanzines. He has also
written a large science fantasy novel (Book One of his proposed Elixir
Trilogy), and a screenplay based upon this novel. In 2002, Darren moved
to South Korea to teach English for a whole year. Months after
returning to Australia, he commenced a certificate course in
Multimedia.
Darren is presently hoping to hear from any publishers, studios or
agents some time this decade.
Anders Sandberg is an
obsessive worldbuilder, ever since starting out with making roleplaying
worlds in the 80s he has written a large number of science fiction
scenarios, as well as future studies scenario building. He considers
the creation of worlds, be they literary scenarios or simulated
universes, to be one of the greatest pleasures in existence. His other
interests include physics, astronomy, biomedicine, psychology,
complexity theory, art, philosophy, computer graphics, artificial
intelligence and transhumanism. He is presently working on a Ph.D. in
computational neuroscience.
The image at the left shows him vacationing on YTS-4376437-4376 IV
Website: Anders
Main Page
Brian Shores aka Artillo says about himself:
I have been a hardcore scifi fan for just about as long as I have been able to read (or watch TV!). I have been an avid RPG player for about 20 years as well... playing scifi (Traveller, Star Wars, Gamma World, Battletech, and even one we invented ourselves called PortalRiders) and fantasy (mostly AD&D) games. I have played many online games (Anarchy Online and Planetside to name a few). I have also been involved in many different VR programs online (ActiveWorlds, There.com, Second Life, and tested out many others).
As for education and work experience, I have a 2 year degree in Architecture and a 4 year degree in Business Administration specializing in MIS. I have worked for many years in the simulation industry (commercial and military aviation mostly) doing mechanical design and have great interest in the future of VR. I am a CAD engineer and MIS guy by trade.
I am also interested in Nanotech, Extropianism, other
advanced technology of all sorts, and politics. I am an avid reader and
music lover as well (just about anything but country!!!).
John Snead After
getting degrees in Math, History, and Anthropology, John Snead became
one of a number of disillusioned grad students who learned that he
could have better job security and more fun writing about aliens and
magicians than about cultural anthropology. As such he is now a
professional freelance writer of role-playing games.
He is also a 3rd degree Wiccan priest, a serious SF fan, a gourmet
cook, and a geeky eccentric. With favorite authors like Linda Nagata,
Iain M. Banks, and Gregory Benford, OA was a natural interest. John
also recommends books by Alastair Reynolds, Melissa Scott, Ken McLeod,
and Karl Schroeder to folks who like OA.
Of course, the fact that John occasionally takes a break from paying
RPG projects to help tinker with the OA RPG rules combines both
geekyness and eccentricity beyond all reason. In his mundane existence,
John lives in Portland Oregon, USA.
Thorbjørn
Steen (alias Rubberduck) 21 years old, originates from the
land of vikings, bridges and dairy products; Denmark. While he has
generally decided that reality is too boring to divert much attention
to, he does believe that he would make a nice world dictator. Or
million dollar lottery winner. He ain't picky.
He reads lots of books of every kind, whenever he isn't glued to his
computer playing games, participating in online roleplaying or working
on one of the million projects, of which only a minuscule percentage is
going to get finished. Considering the fact that he uses close to 16
hours a day in front of the computer it is surprising that he knows
nothing of RAM, defragging and other such mysterious techie terms.
When he can drag himself away from his computer or other projects, he
currently attends university, trying to learn a bit of physics, so that
he might get a better idea of how the universe is put together.
Terrafamilia
says about himself:
I'm a forty-something sf/comics geekboy who doesn't want to
grow up. I'm also apparently one of the few Star Trek fans who found
enjoyment in Voyager in spite of it all (all us trekkies now what I'm
talking about :-)). My reading preferences run towards superheroes and
space opera, whether hard or soft, though I also enjoy some out and out
fantasy as well. Non-fiction favorites range from nano-speculation to
history, especially that dealing with everyday life and culture rather
than the Big Important Events. What I mainly want from the hopefully
inevitable nanotech revolution are an expert mathematics brain implant,
my entire library and comic book collection compiled into one slim
high-resolution interactive volume with associated VR system, and a
heroic physique complete with the oft dreamed of but never achieved
washboard abs. ^_^
Grant Thomas
has Been Interested Science-fiction, probably since age 10 or
earlier. He remembers watching the Old Star trek Series,
but was great fan of the Old British Scifi tv shows Like UFO,Thunderbirds,
and Dr Who and the Much later Blake 7 and Tripods.
He has played Role-playing games for about 15 years , Mostly traveller
and table-top Space games. Other interests Include Reading (a lot), Web
design (current getting an advanced certificate in Web designing and
Graphics). Stock car racing and Writing short stories, which None have
been published Yet! He is currently married, with 3 Kids and a Grand
daughter. At present he is In-between Jobs.
Orion
Tales Ezine
Joshua
Underwood says by way of introduction:
Hello, cultured and dementedly insane people of the
Internet. The name's Underwood - Joshua Underwood, to be a little more
precise. I am known by a myriad of titles online: Grand Master, the
Admiral, the Warmaster, His Immortal Highness the God-Emperor of
Reydovan, among others. I'm an egomaniacal freak, what can I say?
I live in Poway, a small town about thirty miles north of San Diego,
California. Nestled at the foot of the mountains in East County, Poway
is a small but busy place to live. We have about 50,000 people around
us, most of them lunatic drivers and teenagers - or a combination of
the two. I'm thankful I live as far away from the commotion as I do...
Anyway - I found OA by sheer chance, seeing as I was incredibly bored
one May afternoon and browsing the Internet to find something
interesting to do. When OA came up, I thought, "Whoa! Semi-sane
universe builders! THANK YOU, GOD!" Though some of my ideas have been
somewhat....eh....I'm generally accepted by the community, which gives
me a few pointers as to how I can do this thing RIGHT.
My long-time interest in science fiction has always been Star Trek. (As
is evidenced by the picture of me in Vegas, where Star Trek: The
Experience is located.....though I was at the Luxor for this
picture.) Since age two, I have become a total Trek maniac. My two
Trek-related interests of late have been from the Internet. The first
is the game Klingon Academy, which has been extensively modified by a
large community of people who thought Interplay did a piss-poor job on
it. The second is Hidden Frontier, a fan film series based up in Los
Angeles. I have gotten to know several of the people involved in that,
and have contributed some ideas to them, but like here, I get pointers
to make them work.
And did I mention I was a George Carlin fanatic...? Nevermind, that's
not entirely relevant. Or is it? "They tell me to get on the plane.
'Get on the plane.' Not me, my friends. I'm getting IN the plane! Let
Evel Kinevel get ON the plane."
Joe Vadalma aka "Papa Joe" describes himself as follows:
"I am 67 years old, married almost 50 years, have 4
children, all girls, 10 grandchildren & 1 great grandchild. I am a
retired technical writer who used to work for a major computer
manufacturer. I have been reading fantasy & science-fiction since I
learned how. My favorite authors are Tad Williams, Piers Anthony,
Philip Jose Farmer. But I love them all (SF & fantasy authors that
Is). My favorite movies are House of Frankenstein, 2001, the Alien
series, the Wizard of Oz (love the Oz books too; I have a great
collection). My favorite TV series is Dark Shadows. My website contains
stories & serials by me, and art by my relatives. All in a fantasy
or SF vein." Website: Papa Joe Home Page
James Ward
has
been into SF for as long as he can remember, and into creating it for
several years now. Currently enrolled in Appalachian State University
in NC, he claims he's getting close to publishing a story. If he could
just keep focused, that is.
Keith
Wigdor: HUMAN Born: August 10, 1965
"I recently exhibited at GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY on August
18, 2002 in an Exhibit/Faculty Presentation called, "THE OMEGA POINT"
based on the writings of French Theologian and Philosopher, Tielhard de
Chardin. "THE OMEGA POINT" was run by Chief Scientist Aliana J.Maren (www.theeagleforce.com) who
used my artwork, "REPRESENTATION OF COGNITION IN ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE" for the exhibit/faculty presentation. You can see this
artwork online at THE HAMMOND GALLERY (www.hammondgallery.co.uk)
My Artwork also appeared in CHURN ART MAGAZINE, one issue with ROGER
DEAN and another issue along with the Legendary H.R.GIGER and Horror
Artists, MIKE BOHATCH and CANIGLIA( both are friends as well). I am
also friends with GREG BEAR who I occasionally show my most rare
pieces, (I dedicated a couple to Greg) and I am a Contributor to the
Surreal/Horror Underground E-Zine, THE DREAM PEOPLE (www.dreampeople.org). I will be
creating the next CD Cover for the Industrial Trance Band Distant Sun (
I create all the art for their website as well), so please stay tuned, http://www.metalforums.com/~distantsun
I did the Cover Art for THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY WRITERS
ASSOCIATION MAGAZINE, "THE BULLETIN" winter issue 2001 (www.sfwa.org) and I am a Huge Science
Fiction Fan and I just love Orions Arm!!!"
Jim Wisniewski
a.k.a. Xaonon, can quote extensively from the
works
of both Monty Python and Larry Niven. He studies Esperanto and Klingon,
is learning to work with C++, perl, and Linux, and contributes to the Orion's
Arm project on the rare occasions when he has a good idea. He
spends the rest of his time in his studently duties, learning
everything he can in the hopes that it might someday get him a job.
Website: The
Nexus Of All Coolness
Related links:
Art Credits - details and homepages of other artists
Acknowledgements
- SF writers, futurists, and visionaries who have inspired the OA
scenario
