12-15-2016, 04:20 AM
Hi There - Welcome to OA!
As Rynn says, we have no policy (official or not) against people writing about high singularity beings in OA. Indeed, we'd be very happy to see more stories set in the OA universe. However, we generally leave it up to individual members to write about whatever they want and this has largely taken the form of worldbuilding articles rather than stories. Or stories about modosophonts or lower singularity minds. Indeed, we often have people express an interest in writing a story, provide as much support as we can to them - and then have them sort of disappear from the project with the story either never created or only partly finished
That all said, and after thinking about it - I think you make an interesting point. Historically, we've received more negative criticism about our 'overuse' of transapients and archai, with the idea being that if transapients run everything and have all the 'cool' tech, and are essentially unbeatable by human level minds - then existence is somehow meaningless and a good story can't be told. Also that OA is so different from 'standard' SF that a lot of folks struggle to understand it.
You don't appear to be coming from that direction (and you're the first person we've heard express this sentiment) and it makes me wonder if we've unconsciously reacted to the critiques by others by tending to produce a lot of stories about 'daily life among the modos' rather than stuff that plays to the 'vast cosmic reaches' that the archai and such play in.
That's something we should perhaps give some thought to and see about pushing back on a bit - since it isn't our intention to create the impression we apparently have with you and others like you. Incidentally, can you give us some specific examples of discussions or posts that have given you this impression?
That all said, there are some stories in OA that include high-S beings to one degree or another (I am taking 'high S' to mean S3 or above in this context):
Dirty Hands
A Minor Demonstration of Power
The Last Will and Testament of an Archailect
Dragons Teeth
Infanticide Ver 1
Infanticide Ver 2
Vendetta
The Two Second Interview
Heresy
Under the Looking Glass
Angel of Doubt
Hope this helps, and once again - Welcome to OA
Todd
As Rynn says, we have no policy (official or not) against people writing about high singularity beings in OA. Indeed, we'd be very happy to see more stories set in the OA universe. However, we generally leave it up to individual members to write about whatever they want and this has largely taken the form of worldbuilding articles rather than stories. Or stories about modosophonts or lower singularity minds. Indeed, we often have people express an interest in writing a story, provide as much support as we can to them - and then have them sort of disappear from the project with the story either never created or only partly finished
That all said, and after thinking about it - I think you make an interesting point. Historically, we've received more negative criticism about our 'overuse' of transapients and archai, with the idea being that if transapients run everything and have all the 'cool' tech, and are essentially unbeatable by human level minds - then existence is somehow meaningless and a good story can't be told. Also that OA is so different from 'standard' SF that a lot of folks struggle to understand it.
You don't appear to be coming from that direction (and you're the first person we've heard express this sentiment) and it makes me wonder if we've unconsciously reacted to the critiques by others by tending to produce a lot of stories about 'daily life among the modos' rather than stuff that plays to the 'vast cosmic reaches' that the archai and such play in.
That's something we should perhaps give some thought to and see about pushing back on a bit - since it isn't our intention to create the impression we apparently have with you and others like you. Incidentally, can you give us some specific examples of discussions or posts that have given you this impression?
That all said, there are some stories in OA that include high-S beings to one degree or another (I am taking 'high S' to mean S3 or above in this context):
Dirty Hands
A Minor Demonstration of Power
The Last Will and Testament of an Archailect
Dragons Teeth
Infanticide Ver 1
Infanticide Ver 2
Vendetta
The Two Second Interview
Heresy
Under the Looking Glass
Angel of Doubt
Hope this helps, and once again - Welcome to OA
Todd