New/Semilurker with questions

[Drashner1]

Hi...

Hi There, Welcome to OA!

Please see my responses below. Others may weigh in as well with their own take on things.

I am not that great in terms of scientific knowledge (another reason for preferring an early setting), and would probably need a lot of patience from people.

It takes all kinds to make our universe The contributing membership of OA ranges from Physics Phds to people who don't have a degree (either yet or at all). Depending on what's being discussed, things may get rather technical or not so much. And we aim to explain the science and tech stuff such that everyone can (hopefully) get at least a fair idea of what's being talked about. We also like to either refer people to additional resources (here or on the web or in print) in some cases. There's no set process really.

Also, I don't think, personally, that I see transhumanist goals as a totally good thing. Perusing the EG seems to suggest a lot of ideological variance within the OA setting, and that not all characters or posters would be expected to agree with each other as long as basic civility is maintained. Would this be a correct assumption?

Yup, that's correct. Within the setting, we tend to take two major approaches to this:

a) There is almost never only one way to do something or one point of view. This is usually shorthanded to "Diversity! Diversity! Diversity!"

b) Ideological neutrality: This basically means that we are fine with saying that some group or political system or even major civilization within the setting feels a certain way about something (religion being the most common example) but that the OA project itself does not take an 'official' position on the rightness of much of anything.

Stepping outside the setting, there are some members here who deeply believe in transhumanism and the Singularity concept and others who things it's all complete BS and will never happen. And lots of folks who fall somewhere in between. The main unifying principle is that we've all agreed that *within the OA setting* that a certain set of assumptions are accurate and in play. For a list of these see our introduction pages:

http://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-intro

in particular this link here to the Canon:

http://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-p...=gen_canon

FAQs:

http://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-faq

And Netiquette (which covers our 'code of conduct' for all getting along nicely):

http://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-p...netiquette

Some of our discussions can get rather intense. But by and large it's fairly laid back and even in cases where things get intense, it's not uncommon for two people to be arguing vigorously on one thread and in total agreement and backing each other up on another. It seems to work pretty well overall.

Another question--early in vec history, I see that they were generally treated as a servant/subservient class. EG does seem to suggest that some bionts would have ignored that and treated vecs as equals, even in the early days...

Quite probably. To be honest, this entire segment of OA history could use a lot of additional information and expansion. If you're interested in putting some time and attention into this area, more power to you Because this area is relatively undeveloped there is a good bit of potential latitude in how this part of the setting could be described without coming into conflict with already established material. Not that we forbid making changes to existing content - but that sort of thing usually involves a lot more discussion and debate than 'additive changes' that fill in the empty spaces in the setting.

One more thing: maybe I'm not doing a good job locating it, but I have never found a full history of gender/sex in the OA universe, though I have found a description of what the genders are. IRL the alternate genders you describe often come with genetic disorders. I was wondering if it was ever stated exactly when and how alternate genders became common and for what purpose(s).

Not as far as I know. IIRC the closest we come to something like that is this page here:

http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/483ad310bcfd2

Plus we pretty much take it as read that by the 'present day' in the setting (actually for thousands of years before that), it is both possible and routine (at least in some places) for a person to be able to change their gender, sexual orientation, species, and substrate (That is to say the material their brain and body are made from) pretty much at will and with about the same level of social impact that buying a new set of furniture or repainting your house has in the real world (the RL in OA parlance). Of course different cultures in the setting all have their own ideas on how and how much such tech should be used.

OA theoretically is 'about' life 10,000yrs in the future, which means that we've tended to treat a lot of things as just 'read'. However, the timeline nature of the project also means that any particular 'historical' item can also be expanded and developed just as much as stuff set in the 'present day'.

As with the section on vecs, if you (or anyone really) would like to take a shot at fleshing out the history of this aspect of the setting, please feel free to do so

Hope this helps, and if you have any additional questions please feel free to ask, either on this thread or any other thread or sub-forum that you think is most appropriate. And of course feel free to join into any discussions that grab your interest.

Once again, Welcome to OA!

Todd