Hi everybody

[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