Hi everybody

[Fsci123]

Hi everyone, im fsci... I've been reading orions arm for about a year or two. When I first found out about the site, I was kinda turned off by the transhumanistic elements but now, I consider orions arm to be among my favorite scifi works...even exceeding classics like Star Trek and Star Wars.

I also hope to eventually contribute some good things to the project.

Oh yeah, and by the way...I'm really fond of presenting stories in hard data...

[Matterplay1]

Hi everyone, im fsci... I've been reading orions arm for about a year or two. When I first found out about the site, I was kinda turned off by the transhumanistic elements but now, I consider orions arm to be among my favorite scifi works...even exceeding classics like Star Trek and Star Wars.

I also hope to eventually contribute some good things to the project.

Oh yeah, and by the way...I'm really fond of presenting stories in hard data...

Hi!
Welcome to the discussion group. I'm sure you'll find one or two or many ways to contribute to the project; as many of us know by experience there is some aspect of it for just about every taste and talent, given a basic interest in science fiction. It's all good clean fun, though with a different set of premises than settings like Star Trek or Star Wars or some of the imaginary future histories of some famous science fiction authors. One of our basics is something that might be called radical hard science fiction. Eventually we'll put that in as a link on the site's main page, but for now if you search for the term in the forum archives you'll get a sense of what is meant by it. Putting all the dials to max in an imagined future (though without contradicting current scientific consensus) pretty much inevitably leads to something that includes humans doing self-modification and humans creating other kinds of intelligence, and that shades into quite a bit of what is currently called transhumanism. Whether we the authors are transhumanists or not varies (for instance, I'm pretty sure most people who identify as transhumanists would not include me among them). I'm interested to know however what particular aspects of 'transhumanism' were a turn-off. That would help the OA project with its presentation, since first impressions can be important.

Hoping to hear more from you soon, on this or any other topic. :-)

[Drashner1]

Hi, Welcome to OA!

If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas for changes or additions to the setting, please feel free to post em for consideration and discussion in whatever part of the forum seems most appropriate. As Stephen says, we've found that the setting can accommodate almost anything with a bit of effort and sometimes not quite in the way one might expect at first blush.

I'd also be interested in hearing about any aspects of the setting/project that turned you off initially. Constructive criticism can be very useful in improving the project over time.

Cheers!

Todd

[Fsci123]

The thing about transhumanism that turned me off initially was the fact that computers and their descendants(vecs, archailects, AI) are the dominant power group in the story. Overtime I've accepted that is inevitable, based on my increasing knowledge of dehumanization of the workplace.

When I found the site I never really seen scifi this hard before and it shocked me at first.

The only thing that gets me now is how there are a lot of biological clades that haven't been made obsolete by more durable vec clades. I also get some weird vibes from the North America and California related pages, but it's cool.

Anyway, the story remains the hardest and the best out there...backed by known and theorized science and technology...and is unrelenting in its refusal to allow handwavium and magic. :-)

[Drashner1]

The thing about transhumanism that turned me off initially was the fact that computers and their descendants(vecs, archailects, AI) are the dominant power group in the story. Overtime I've accepted that is inevitable, based on my increasing knowledge of dehumanization of the workplace.

That one often throws folks a bit when they first encounter the setting. It's very different from how most SF depicts things, even most transhuman SF. Although I wasn't a member of the project when that decision was made, I know from subsequent discussions it was largely driven by a desire to do something different from what so many others had already done.

One of the big differences with OA, however, is that the ruling computer mings are (by and large) quite benevolent and protective of their citizens. In some ways this is rather like the Culture novels, but I think OA kind of hits people over the head with it a bit more. It might help to make it clearer what the set up is in a more upfront fashion.

When I found the site I never really seen scifi this hard before and it shocked me at first.

Heh I think shocking people a bit has always been one of our goals.

The only thing that gets me now is how there are a lot of biological clades that haven't been made obsolete by more durable vec clades. I also get some weird vibes from the North America and California related pages, but it's cool.

This is definitely an area where we need to do more work. We state the vast majority of the population in the setting are uploads, AIs, virtuals, etc. But we have a much larger number of biological clades that are written up and described. In a sense, those who are still biological (or even corporeal) in OA are deliberately making that choice rather than uploading and becoming discorporate machines minds - but we don't really make that clear. Any ideas/writeups that you or anyone has for new upload and AI clades and civilizations to add to the setting would be very appreciated.

Anyway, the story remains the hardest and the best out there...backed by known and theorized science and technology...and is unrelenting in its refusal to allow handwavium and magic. :-)

Thanks!

Todd

[Tornado GeGe-Almighty Dragon]

Nice to meet you.