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Voyage of the Arcturus
Culture and Society > Fine Arts > Narrative
Technology > Technology Type or Material > Virtual/Infotech
Technology > Technology Type or Material > Virtual/Infotech
 Image from Steve Bowers |
Popular SI:<1 to SI:<<1 virch interactive produced by Novamedia.
Tells the story of an S2 sentient ship, the Arcturus, a relativistic freighter in an uncharted region of the Outer Volumes, carrying a supply of nanomodules and SCMs (Santa Clause Machines), and eir crew of four bumbling but lovable SI:<1 sophonts, a vec, a splice, a virtual, and one of the galaxy's last remaining pure baseline humans, and the various adventures they have along the way.
While the setting is obviously fantastic and can be seen to be absurd even to the dullest nearbaseline, and the story lines are almost always appallingly cliched - Voyage nevertheless has become extremely popular, so much so that entire clades and Houses follow the old episodes religiously, many adopting mannerisms and even the phenotypes of their favourite characters. Part of the appeal is the sheer wide-ranging spectrum of the cast of characters, who between them signify the major categories of SI:<1 beings. Part is the underlying moral of the series: that no-matter how incompetent you may be, there is always someone, somewhere, out there who is even more appallingly incompetent. In a universe in which SI:<1 entities are so manifestly inadequate next to hyperturings and posthumans, this is a comforting message.
Approximately 20,000 adventure modules were produced between 9023 - 9445. In 9802 production was resumed when Novamedia was taken over by the hyperturing Riklist-K, and a further 50,000 modules were produced over the next three centuries. The interactive has recently entered a third production run.
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- Space Frontier Epics - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Popular Interplanetary through to late and post- First Federation Age fabulist genre, featuring a romanticized interpretation of the deep space frontier. Replaced both the Western and Science Fiction as Important archetypal narratives of the Pre-Consolidation Age. - Spacer - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
[1] A crewmember of a ship, who spend eir entire existence in space, and usually suffers from agoraphobia or other chronic anxieties at the thought of being on a planetary surface or even in a large habitat.
[2] Any species or clade of tweaks especially adapted for a microgravity, and partially or even totally for a vacuum, environment. - Xanax and Lucinda
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Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 12 December 2001.
Initially published on 12 December 2001.
