OA

From OAM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion's_Arm

Orion's Arm website: http://www.orionsarm.com/

Orion’s Arm is a fictional universe set many thousands of years in the future, developed and actively maintained by a community of science fiction enthusiasts, science and technology experts, creative writers and artists. The Orion’s Arm website is at http://www.orionsarm.com/.

From the "Orion’s Arm” Primer":

“Over the next ten thousand years Terragens civilization, that is the sum of all races and cultures tracing their history back to the planet Earth, or Terra, would see the diversification of humanity into thousands of different species such that the original, or baseline, human form has become all but extinct. In addition, thousands of new races, genetically engineered from animal ancestors, or forged using neo-genesis, the creation of life from lifeless raw materials, would take their place next to their baseline-descended progenitors.

Moving beyond the limits of flesh and blood, cybernetic minds, spun out from strands of evolving computer code, would rise and demand their place in civilization. Some would wrap themselves in bodies of metal and carbon and become the vecs, living machines with histories and cultures all their own. Others would remain discorporate, living within the ever-growing networks of virtch spaces, computronium nodes, and cybercosms that bind civilization together. Eventually, they would be joined by the uploads, humans who transcribed their thoughts into living computer code, spinning electron flows and flashing photon beams replacing the tired plod of merely chemical minds.

And other minds as well—xenosophonts, aliens with their own histories and understandings of the cosmos. As the children of the Solar System expanded to the stars, they found others there to meet them. Races that were old when humanity was born. Races that would still be as children when humanity was old. And here and there strange artifacts of races long departed”

The OA community is built around Internet mailing lists where participants discuss proposed features of the OA universe. Besides the main list dedicated to “worldbuilding”, there are lists dedicated to creative writing, e.g. short science fiction stories set in the OA universe, and artwork. The work done so far has created a rich, coherent and consistent far future fictional universe.

An important feature of the OA universe is that it goes beyond “cheap Hollywood science fiction” by trying to provide “realistic” renderings of future technologies and societies based on today’s understanding and best ideas. The OA future world incorporates many elements of transhumanism, a scientific and cultural movement focused on future options enabled by advanced technologies.