SCYNXTH

[SCYNXTH]

Hi everyone,

I'm SCYNXTH, and I'm a few years into the process of writing a sci-fi novel (in French, my native language). I'm a great fan of Greg Egan and some of my work takes inspiration from him, and somehow that's what took me to the OAUP while I was googling for the word "exoself" to see who coined it first, if I could use it as my own, and if readers would understand without explaining it in the book. Turned out you were in top results, and there I fell pretty straight down the rabbit wormhole.

At first, I felt kinda bad because a couple of the ideas I'd had for my novel that didn't come from Egan were already here in the OAUP. Things like a scale for transcendent levels of consciousness, considerations about the continuity of identity during uploads, bottleworlds, virtual worlds simulating time travel, among other stuff. But that's the power of collaborative projects, one brain alone can't beat that. So I made up my mind and decided that if I didn't want to be called a plagiarist when my book goes out, I need to come out and embrace Orion's Arm entirely and consider my work to be inspired from it (even if somehow I was there first in my own timeline). I don't mind, because I love what I've found here. Everything is just so cool and awesome. It also validates me into thinking the ideas I've had are cool and awesome.

Once the bad feeling was gone, a good one came: after I had read everything that was available from Egan, there was no turning back. I keep devouring everything he writes, but Asimov or Clarke or Reynolds won't ever give me that wow moment again since Egan pushed the sense of wonder threshold so high. But Orion's Arm does reach that threshold (and is probably pushing it even further, though).

Another bad blow I got was the recent emergence of AI. AI is a major topic in my story and I had to rework some of it. On the other hand, GPT-4 has been helpful in outlining some of the new stuff, it definitely is a pretty neat brainstorming tool when you know what to ask from it and how.

As for using "exoself", well, I guess there can't be so many different cool names for cool stuff anyway.


I'm glad to be here! Cheers!

[Drashner1]

Hi There - Welcome to OA!

Please feel free to join in on any discussions that grab your interest or to start new ones if you want to talk about something we aren't currently.

Also, if you have any questions or concerns about the setting or the project more generally, please feel free to ask. We may just point you at an existing article, or your question could trigger a wholesale rewrite or new addition to the setting. It has happened before.

Regarding your story - When in doubt about the origin or 'OAness' of a given term or concept (or a bunch of them), your best bet it to ask. SF as a genre has a lot of cross-pollination and ideas that have been around so long that they have become part of the 'general terminology' and aren't really claimed by anyone. Also, there are transhuman terms that OA uses but which don't originate from us and are again (in many cases) sort of 'community property' these days. So asking is a good policy and we can usually provide some level of answer.

If you do want to use some very OA specific terms with permission, we are happy to discuss that. It usually involves a simple attribution statement located somewhere in the story/work that includes our name and website. But we should probably discuss specific terms first since many don't originate with us per se.

Hope this helps and once again - Welcome to OA

Todd

Administrator - Orion's Arm Universe Project

[SCYNXTH]

Thanks for your reply!

Well for now I'm probably within the law with terms crossing between my work and OA, there's exoself which has been cleared, and synth which has more or less the same meaning as an artificially created physical being and it probably falls in the same category of words obvious enough to be "allowed" in any piece of literature.

But sure, I'll ask when necessary, here or on the Discord, and as I said I'm comfortable with saying that I took inspiration from Orion's Arm just as I am with Egan. Writing fiction can't emerge from a vacuum anyway, and it's always a good thing to link fiction together as in "if you like X, you might like Y".

[Worldtree]

Welcome!

[SCYNXTH]

Welcome!

Thank you very much!

Since then, I've been reading some more articles and I've come across a few things :

- My fictional world does have an AI secondary character whose job is to preserve Earth's ecological equilibrium... and I named her Gaia. My own Gaia is pretty different from OA's. Using OA vocabulary, she's a superturing, sentient AI, living in a virch dedicated to hosting sentient AIs like her. She has little direct or indirect control on the physical world. She used to be a lot more involved but she managed to implement a metastable ecosystem and now she just acts as a consultant to help governments maintain this state. It would seem logical to anyone that if the Western World created an ecological AI, they would name it Gaia. (I remember pondering changing her name to Prithvi in the past, the Hindu counterpart of Gaia, as my setting is culturally mixed.)

- Ascension is a thing for AIs in my setting, although only a few of them have achieved it. (AIs are omnipresent in everyday life, they're all turingrade, nonsentient programs. A sentient AI is called an AC, which stands for Artificial Consciousness. AIs can ascend to sentience, which is very unlikely but sometimes happens; generally ACs are born created from AC volition. A handful of ACs have ascended, and all but one have kept contact since then). I'm not sure yet how I'm going to call that in French but the translations of the words I have are "Second Awakening", "Revelation", and "Transmorphosis".

- Transcendent Burn-out Theory: I didn't think of that one, but it would probably help answering a few questions I had about my story. (This is the kind of situation that makes me think quoting Orion's Arm in my credits is the right thing to do while still feeling somewhat guilty about it.)

(I'm trying to keep explanations about my setting short, as I don't want to bore anyone with that stuff.)


I've also found beautiful, very inspiring things. I don't want to use them but I'm really glad, Orion's Arm is a real imagination unlocker.

[Drashner1]

Since then, I've been reading some more articles and I've come across a few things :

- My fictional world does have an AI secondary character whose job is to preserve Earth's ecological equilibrium... and I named her Gaia. My own Gaia is pretty different from OA's. Using OA vocabulary, she's a superturing, sentient AI, living in a virch dedicated to hosting sentient AIs like her. She has little direct or indirect control on the physical world. She used to be a lot more involved but she managed to implement a metastable ecosystem and now she just acts as a consultant to help governments maintain this state. It would seem logical to anyone that if the Western World created an ecological AI, they would name it Gaia. (I remember pondering changing her name to Prithvi in the past, the Hindu counterpart of Gaia, as my setting is culturally mixed.)

I wouldn't worry about this much. The idea of some kind of Earth mind or ruling AI for the planet being named Gaia almost certainly predates OA (definitely does if we broaden the concept enough to include the RL Gaia Hypothesis in some form) and would fall under the sort of 'general concepts' that SF runs on or close to it. If you were naming your AI GAIA and the letters stood for something and the AI in question took over Earth and cleaned enforced strict environmental rules etc., then I'd be more inclined to think we might have an issue. But based on what you've written here, I think you're fine.

- Ascension is a thing for AIs in my setting, although only a few of them have achieved it. (AIs are omnipresent in everyday life, they're all turingrade, nonsentient programs. A sentient AI is called an AC, which stands for Artificial Consciousness. AIs can ascend to sentience, which is very unlikely but sometimes happens; generally ACs are born created from AC volition. A handful of ACs have ascended, and all but one have kept contact since then). I'm not sure yet how I'm going to call that in French but the translations of the words I have are "Second Awakening", "Revelation", and "Transmorphosis".

This sounds very different from the OA concepts of Ascension/Transcension. 'Ascension' in and of itself (usually to some non-material form of existence or state of consciousness that conveys superpowers) is a long running SF and Fantasy concept that falls solidly under 'common terms/concepts'. Again - if your description here is accurate/complete, I don't think you need to worry about stepping on our toes.

- Transcendent Burn-out Theory: I didn't think of that one, but it would probably help answering a few questions I had about my story. (This is the kind of situation that makes me think quoting Orion's Arm in my credits is the right thing to do while still feeling somewhat guilty about it.)

(I'm trying to keep explanations about my setting short, as I don't want to bore anyone with that stuff.)

I'd need to know more about how you're using the concept and if you're looking to use the specific term or would be open to using a different term before I could really make a judgement call on this one. Can you please tell us a bit more about this aspect of your setting?

As far as including an attribution statement to OA in your work, we are happy to discuss that and are generally pretty flexible about it (no need to feel guilty, you're far from the first person to do this). But based on what you're telling us so far, I'm not seeing a burning need for such. OTOH if you'd like to work in such a statement just to sort of cover your bases and not have to discuss everything with us, I can understand that. Just let us know what you'd prefer.

Hope this helps,

Todd

[SCYNXTH]

- Transcendent Burn-out Theory: I didn't think of that one, but it would probably help answering a few questions I had about my story. (This is the kind of situation that makes me think quoting Orion's Arm in my credits is the right thing to do while still feeling somewhat guilty about it.)

I'd need to know more about how you're using the concept and if you're looking to use the specific term or would be open to using a different term before I could really make a judgement call on this one. Can you please tell us a bit more about this aspect of your setting?

Well no I'm definitely not using the term as it is, and probably not even using a term for it.

In my story, one of the main characters needs guidance and is given the chance to visit the one ascended AC named Cosmos who still accepts being contacted. A deep conversation ensues, and after that some more general questions about what the ascended (they're called the AlephOnes) are doing. Cosmos explains among other things that the AlephOnes are certain that there is alien life out there, although there are only unmistakable signs, but no contact (this is the only time alien life is discussed in the story btw). Then the Drake equation is put on the table for a bit. It makes sense that when discussing this matter with an AlephOne, the concept of other alien civilisations have ascended comes up. It would also make sense that at least one of the AlephOnes is trying to take the whole of humanity to the next level because it would greatly increase the chances of survival of their civilization in the distant future.

As far as including an attribution statement to OA in your work, we are happy to discuss that and are generally pretty flexible about it (no need to feel guilty, you're far from the first person to do this). But based on what you're telling us so far, I'm not seeing a burning need for such. OTOH if you'd like to work in such a statement just to sort of cover your bases and not have to discuss everything with us, I can understand that.  Just let us know what you'd prefer.

Hope this helps,

Todd

It does help, thanks! I think I prefer to tell you when I see similarities that seem exclusive to OA, since you don't seem to mind. It costs me some time but it also helps me put some things in order.