New/Semilurker with questions

[SteelEnsouled]

The old concept of slavery in Roman society was that the slave was a so-called 'speaking tool' (instrumentum vocale), and the slave-owner would rely on the fact that their slave was fully sophont and could act on its own initiative. This could easily be the case in some locations during the Late Interplanetary Age, and all through the Dark Ages until the Early Federation. Other periods of slavery and enforced obedience have definitely occured at other times and places in the long history of the Terragen Sphere.

Note that the mental architecture of vecs and AIs is likely to be very diverse; some quite sophisticated vec and AI minds could be partially slaved or asimoved;
Asimovec - http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47e86f053ba0f
Slaved AI - http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/478589c0a46e2
and even slaved hyperturings, transapients who are constrained to obey lesser beings
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/49abc9e77c5a2

I would imagine that especially early on, where there would probably still be a great deal of controversy and fear of what vecs could do--especially pre-Nanoswarm where the cultural memories of stories about things like the Borg, the Cylons, or the Daleks still exist--that such treatment would be quite common.

Stories have a bit more flexibility in this regard (or in regard to the setting in general) because they are presumably relating what the characters think/believe/experience not necessarily the 'facts' of the setting that the EG lays out. Canon is a bit more restricted, mainly in terms of physics (if your characters are going to be flying around in a tachyon drive FTL starship we're going to have a problem ), but we can discuss any potential issues.

No worries...I won't be developing any warp engines here anytime soon.

There are a few areas where I am quite sure I will need a technology review, though.

In terms of the timeline strictures, we'd need to look at what you want to do and when you want to do it and go from there.

Where would the best place be to make a more coherent proposal as to what I see happening in the story?

Pretty much yes. Characters can pretty much do/say what they need/want to make a good story. An author tract in the form of a story gets trickier, but again will depend on the subject matter and circumstances. As always, the best approach is to present the idea(s) to the forum and see what folks say.

I would say the plot I have in mind will go into areas that some might consider controversial, but I have already seen a number of things that could cause controversy in the EG and in other stories, so I might well be OK.

Hm. Which outcomes? Just curious and, separate from any stories, this sort of thing can make for interesting discussions and sometimes new ideas or refinement of existing ones.

The control of the archailects would be the big one. Losing sovereignty to our own creations, in effect, is quite disturbing because if there's one thing we know about human nature, we're flawed, and what we create isn't perfect either...

It would also be dishonest of me not to say that the breakdown of society in the form we recognize it today isn't frightening in some respects. That's not an attack--it's just human nature to feel that way sometimes.