New/Semilurker with questions

[SteelEnsouled]

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.

That's cool to know.

Nailing a characterization, working out sociological and theological implications of things are aspects that come easily to me. The character and the social events I see taking place around her formed up coherently in a matter of hours, though additional refinement is still taking place in my head.

The scientific aspects, the exact placement in the OA timeline...other minutiae of OA lore and making sure that things seen in these early days do not countermand things that happen in later days (or that I don't create weird anachronisms)...that's going to require a lot of help.

I understand that the period until 2113 is governed by strictures against writing that close to the present day, which from my reading of the timeline might present a problem, as I suspect from the state of technology as I am picturing it in my head that I could be awfully close to that line. It would be either the tail end of the Information Age, or the beginning of the Interplanetary Age, most likely.

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.

So if I correctly understand it, it's OK for a character--including a story narrator--to make absolute and definite statements from their position of belief, and that will be accepted as valid for the sake of the story, but as long as I did not then take that stance and say that no one else was allowed to write otherrwise, then I would be within the rules?

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.

To be honest, some of the outcomes seemed (and some still seem) frightening to me as I read through it.

Then the gears started turning in my head and I started to see how I (or someone I would consider relatable) might react if it did start coming to pass, and realized I might yet have potential for a story that could work. The fact that I did see ideological diversity within the cultures of the story really helped with that.

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.

I understand that it isn't a good idea for noobs to rock the boat. So you can probably expect a ton of questions which, while they might sound stupid, would be me checking my understanding to make sure I am placing my story in an appropriate period chronologically and not accidentally retconning anything.

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.

I think you probably don't want me writing in that area. I don't feel like I'd be comfortable with or qualified to do so. But I just wanted to see if I had missed something in the EG.

Once again, Welcome to OA!

Todd

Thanks.