10-30-2024, 10:13 PM
Welcome to OA/the forums!
Regarding your questions:
1) The founders of the OA project were of a mind that a) the near constant treatment in the SF of the time of Drexlerian nanotech being something that would be going strong in the early 21st century (think 2030 onwards) was becoming boring and repetitive (also the focus of the setting was 8000 - later 10,000 - years in the future, so the exact dates of nanotech dev and most else in the early timeline, weren't thought to be something would care about). b) The idea of Drexlerian nanotech happening that soon was probably overly optimistic. That all said, there were various passing mentions in articles discussing the earlier timeline that spoke of nanotech use at a 'Drexlerian' level, although I think we've mostly cleaned those up by now.
In later years, we had new members join who had greater familiarity with the real life state of nanotech development, including one who did research work in the field. They were also of the opinion that the early 21st century nanotech explosion scenario was overly optimistic (to say the least), so that firmed up our thinking on that point, leading to further edits of the setting, and now here we are.
2) I was surfing the internet back around 2000 or 2001 and did a google on 'encyclopedia galactica' on a whim and the EG popped up in the search results.
3) Not anything that Worldtree hasn't already covered in his reply.
Hope this helps and once again - Welcome to OA!
Todd
Regarding your questions:
1) The founders of the OA project were of a mind that a) the near constant treatment in the SF of the time of Drexlerian nanotech being something that would be going strong in the early 21st century (think 2030 onwards) was becoming boring and repetitive (also the focus of the setting was 8000 - later 10,000 - years in the future, so the exact dates of nanotech dev and most else in the early timeline, weren't thought to be something would care about). b) The idea of Drexlerian nanotech happening that soon was probably overly optimistic. That all said, there were various passing mentions in articles discussing the earlier timeline that spoke of nanotech use at a 'Drexlerian' level, although I think we've mostly cleaned those up by now.
In later years, we had new members join who had greater familiarity with the real life state of nanotech development, including one who did research work in the field. They were also of the opinion that the early 21st century nanotech explosion scenario was overly optimistic (to say the least), so that firmed up our thinking on that point, leading to further edits of the setting, and now here we are.
2) I was surfing the internet back around 2000 or 2001 and did a google on 'encyclopedia galactica' on a whim and the EG popped up in the search results.
3) Not anything that Worldtree hasn't already covered in his reply.
Hope this helps and once again - Welcome to OA!
Todd
Introverts of the World - Unite! Separately....In our own homes.