08-17-2014, 05:37 PM
I really ought to quit lurking before it gets any later. 
I first came across Orion's Arm when I was rifling through TV Tropes for more xenofiction. I was immediately intrigued by the summary blurb mentioning AI Gods and saying it was set 10,000 years in the future. I thought that if it actually extrapolated the implications of civilization's development over that much time, there must be a very high technology level... I quickly learned that this (and my idea of "high tech") was just the tip of the iceberg.
Reading further there was a mention of Caretaker Gods, that Earth was more or less a wildlife park, and that love, anger, jealousy, happiness and other emotions were shared by most of mindkind...
Mindkind.
That word alone told me I was indeed looking at something very different from the usual fare. I took to the Encyclopaedia Galactica itself and delved deeper into the setting from there, taking in its fascinating and frequently mind-boggling facets. Transapients seemed mysterious and exotic, the archailects imposing and awe-inspiring. "Modosophont" is an interesting term for human-level minds; I'm curious as to what the modo- prefix means.
You've transformed the way I look at sci-fi, opening my mind to so many possibilities and concepts I might never have considered otherwise - or at least not in the depth and scope that OA explores them. What superintelligence could really mean and the myriad of possible mindscapes (xenosophonts, alifes, animins, etc.) stand out the most here. For a while I'd generally thought of intelligent life in terms of some vague analogue to modos with mostly human-relatable psychology. The setting's technology is pretty mind-blowing too; I was awestruck when I first saw the article for Jupiter brains.
I'm very interested in contributing to the project. Some things on my mind right now are cross-sections for processing substrates along with visualizing more of the setting's tech in general - especially the "shiny toys" (Transapientech/Godtech/Clarketech), perhaps a clade if I can make them interesting enough, and one other concept I'm not sure how to categorize.
I first came across Orion's Arm when I was rifling through TV Tropes for more xenofiction. I was immediately intrigued by the summary blurb mentioning AI Gods and saying it was set 10,000 years in the future. I thought that if it actually extrapolated the implications of civilization's development over that much time, there must be a very high technology level... I quickly learned that this (and my idea of "high tech") was just the tip of the iceberg.
Reading further there was a mention of Caretaker Gods, that Earth was more or less a wildlife park, and that love, anger, jealousy, happiness and other emotions were shared by most of mindkind...
Mindkind.
That word alone told me I was indeed looking at something very different from the usual fare. I took to the Encyclopaedia Galactica itself and delved deeper into the setting from there, taking in its fascinating and frequently mind-boggling facets. Transapients seemed mysterious and exotic, the archailects imposing and awe-inspiring. "Modosophont" is an interesting term for human-level minds; I'm curious as to what the modo- prefix means.
You've transformed the way I look at sci-fi, opening my mind to so many possibilities and concepts I might never have considered otherwise - or at least not in the depth and scope that OA explores them. What superintelligence could really mean and the myriad of possible mindscapes (xenosophonts, alifes, animins, etc.) stand out the most here. For a while I'd generally thought of intelligent life in terms of some vague analogue to modos with mostly human-relatable psychology. The setting's technology is pretty mind-blowing too; I was awestruck when I first saw the article for Jupiter brains.
I'm very interested in contributing to the project. Some things on my mind right now are cross-sections for processing substrates along with visualizing more of the setting's tech in general - especially the "shiny toys" (Transapientech/Godtech/Clarketech), perhaps a clade if I can make them interesting enough, and one other concept I'm not sure how to categorize.
the fact that OA is an environment where the diversity of mental forms (as well as physical) is acknowledged is one of the things that attracts me too. We're all about contribution so feel free! If you have any questions, comments or topics you'd like to discuss go ahead and make a thread.