New here. Greetings.

[John Canavi]

This is quite an interesting and well developed setting, although it seems a bit biased against normal humans. Still, that's hardly a reason to dislike good writing that's just fiction anyway.

In any event, greetings. My name is John Peter Canavi, but please, just call me John. I'm a 29 year old scifi enthusiast and gamer from the East Coast of the USA. I haven't used message boards in years. I'm cautious about joining one now, but I figured it couldn't hurt, since I might meet some like-minded individuals here.

I can't really think of anything else to say about me at the moment, but I'm sure I'll be floating around at least for a while, being incompetent and largely failing to understand the colloquialisms floating around.

[Drashner1]

Hi There, Welcome to OA

It's true that 'normal' humans (or baseline humans as they are referred to in setting) are rather thin on the ground in OA. One of our base premises is that genetic engineering will play a very large role in the future such that most biological humans are genetically engineered in one way or another, sometimes to quite an extreme degree. Those baseline humans that remain do so because they have made a deliberate choice not to partake of genetic engineering, for themselves or for their children. However, despite this baseline humanity is slowly going extinct due to a gradual process of baseline individuals choosing to forsake their baseline condition and re-engineer either themselves or their offspring in various ways, transforming into one of the other races or clades of human that inhabit the setting.

Also, most SF features 'normal' humans to the exclusion of almost everything else and we wanted to do something a bit different

Beyond that, we're a pretty diverse and friendly group here and odds are good you'll find at least some people who share your interests in SF, depending on how specific they are.

Regarding the structure of the setting, terminology, and other such things, if you have any questions about any aspect of the setting or the Orion's Arm project in general, please don't hesitate to ask. Also, please feel free to take part in any discussions on the forum or start new discussion threads if you wish.

Hope this helps and once again - Welcome to OA!

Todd

[John Canavi]

Hi There, Welcome to OA

It's true that 'normal' humans (or baseline humans as they are referred to in setting) are rather thin on the ground in OA. One of our base premises is that genetic engineering will play a very large role in the future such that most biological humans are genetically engineered in one way or another, sometimes to quite an extreme degree. Those baseline humans that remain do so because they have made a deliberate choice not to partake of genetic engineering, for themselves or for their children. However, despite this baseline humanity is slowly going extinct due to a gradual process of baseline individuals choosing to forsake their baseline condition and re-engineer either themselves or their offspring in various ways, transforming into one of the other races or clades of human that inhabit the setting.

Also, most SF features 'normal' humans to the exclusion of almost everything else and we wanted to do something a bit different

Beyond that, we're a pretty diverse and friendly group here and odds are good you'll find at least some people who share your interests in SF, depending on how specific they are.

Regarding the structure of the setting, terminology, and other such things, if you have any questions about any aspect of the setting or the Orion's Arm project in general, please don't hesitate to ask.  Also, please feel free to take part in any discussions on the forum or start new discussion threads if you wish.

Hope this helps and once again - Welcome to OA!

Todd

There's nothing wrong with that. I'm just remarking because my own setting is pretty much the opposite of this one.

But I'm not here to discuss my own setting, I'm here to discuss this one.

I've read through the history up to the Great Expulsion and I find myself overwhelmed. It's going to take me a while to process all of this before I keep going.

[Drashner1]

There's nothing wrong with that. I'm just remarking because my own setting is pretty much the opposite of this one.

No worries - you may find that some of us have a tendency to explain things a lot. Comes from writing fictional encyclopedia articles for fun

If you're ever up for discussing/describing your own setting we'd be interested in hearing about it.

I've read through the history up to the Great Expulsion and I find myself overwhelmed. It's going to take me a while to process all of this before I keep going.

Have fun If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Todd

[Avengium]

Welcome John!

We also have chat: http://www.orionsarm.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2886
Orion's Arm Universe Project Discord Server.

[Rynn]

This is quite an interesting and well developed setting, although it seems a bit biased against normal humans. Still, that's hardly a reason to dislike good writing that's just fiction anyway.

Welcome to the forums In many places in the terragen sphere baseline humans are able to live just as full and happy lives as anyone else. They're even celebrated in some places. But they are a very small minority and in terms of physical and mental capability they lie near the bottom of the totem pole. In some places this will be a big disadvantage (like the competitive NoCoZo) but in most the relative difference between a baseline human and a superior human is minute compared to the transapient governors.

[stevebowers]

Hi! Welcome to OA!


It is worth remembering that very little data ls lost in OA, so that the genetic material required to recreate any number of baseline humans is available in store. Quite often the mental patterns of those humans are in store as well. So it would be entirely possible to fill an arbitrary number of worlds with humans at any time, should that be seen as desirable.