The Orion's Arm Universe Project Forums





Hi, i'm new to this forum
#11
(10-15-2016, 10:31 AM)Avengium Wrote: Hi, i have some questions:

1) What is the meaning of Y11k? There is an article titled Y11k?

Y11K is a slang term used by the members of the OA project/community to refer to the 'Present Day' time period in Orion's Arm. That is to say, that point in the future from which we assume the creators of the EG are looking back and writing about all the history in the setting leading up to that point. Also the 'Now' from which the various worlds, habs, tech etc. are discussed when articles are speaking about life in the setting.

This period is the year 10,601 AT (After Tranquility - the 'standard' Terragen calendar has its 'Year 0' in the year that humans first landed on the moon). For conversational purposes on the forum, we've come to round that to 'Y11K', in the same way that the year 2000 came to be referred to as 'Y2K' for various reasons.

(10-15-2016, 10:31 AM)Avengium Wrote: 2) Why the future humans have 6 standard genders?

3) Are these genders standards among tweaks and other terragens too?
Splices and Provolves have their own genders or have the 6 standard genders?

Thanks. Big Grin

The idea of 6 'standard' genders is from the very beginning of the project and could probably do with some updating. At it's heart is the idea that in Terragen civilization gender is a trait that has been modified in various ways over the thousands of years of the the setting's history.

Since the beginning of the project, we've evolved this and related ideas a good bit (and should update the relevant articles when we get a moment). Specifically:

In Terragen civ, both in the 'present day' and for thousands of years before that, technology makes it possible for nearly any sophont that wishes to easily change their:

Sexual orientation - this is as easy as changing your screensaver or wallpaper on your computer is for us in RL. The sophont accesses the control system of their internal nanomedical system, adjusts the 'sexual orientation' controls, and their medical system makes the necessary adjustments to their brain and body chemistry and structure to change their orientation to whatever is desired. The actual change itself may take a few days (biology is slow).

Many cultures in the setting consider it perfectly normal to change orientation many times over the course of one's lifetime, while others choose to mainly adjust themselves to be pansexual - able to feel sexual and romantic attraction to all other genders - or 'omnisexual' - able to feel sexual and romantic attraction to other genders and species. Interspecies and inter-substrate relationships are common and not even noticed in much of the Civilized Galaxy as are various forms of group relationship.

Appearance within their species and gender - this can be done via a sophonts internal medical systems if they are willing to wait that long, or in a matter of hours or days if they choose to use external technology such as a docbox. Eye/hair/skin color can be changed very rapidly. Height and weight take a bit longer. Metabolic changes or major bodymodding (extra set of limbs for example) takes a bit longer still.

Gender - Not much different from bodymodding. Sophonts can change from one gender to any other, including neuter or hermaphrodite or others, whether 'standard' or invented solely by them. This includes being fully capable of producing children, if so desired.

Species - This involves a much more radical change and is usually done via external technology. Want to go from being a human to being a sophont octopus? No problem. Want to become a living spacecraft? We can do that. All old hat stuff.

Substrate - this is basically uploading to a computer system or downloading into a biological body. Or sometimes shifting from one type of computronium or mental architecture to another.

Note that in all the cases above, a sophont's personality may change to one degree or another as their body changes (our mind and personality arises from our brain and body both), although most people don't worry about this much - and anyway that kind of thing happens naturally all the time even with baseline humans.

Note also that virtual sophonts (AIs and uploads) can make all of these changes as fast as they can think the commands or work through the design software.

Note finally that many (possibly most) cultures in the setting take these abilities for granted, make them commonly and freely available, and take it for granted that their citizens will make use of any or all of them from an early age and then for the rest of a lifetime lasting hundreds or thousands of years.

Hope this helps,

ToddSmile
Reply
#12
Thanks for this comprehensive answer. Big Grin
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)