Science Fiction WIP/Brainstorm

[Steerpike]

[blockquote=Leetz]What if the nominal Earth government was an imperial theocracy? I think that would be keeping with the alternative sci-fi vibe I'm trying to get here. Plenty of opportunity for conflict there - heretics, nonbelievers, blasphemers, etc.[/blockquote]This does work and is totally cool, but it has also been done before - Warhammer 40000 comes to mind (sort of has the Emperor-based Empire going on but definitely has a LOT of theocratic overtones as well).

[O Senhor Leetz]

The more I think about this setting, the more I want it to be detached from modern Earth while still taking place on and around Earth. If/when I get around to doing something IC, I was thinking of making references to historic events and modern places that are altered to fit the setting. This is probably a poor example, but having Jerusalem be "Jehar-Salem, the City of the Old Gods." Something like that.

@Steerpike, I was rereading your Postcyberpunk Utopian Transhumanist Dandyism... and Monomolecular Swordcanes setting and I was surprised at how much the aesthetic appearance of that setting fit with what I'm aiming for here.

[O Senhor Leetz]

[ic=The Weave]

"What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output."
-Sheng-ji Yang

"For we exist only as data, information, and output. We are formless, we are legion. We are ghosts upon the wire."
-Kin's Creed

Near the end of the Thousand Years of Ash, humanity began to look to the creation of a world based solely upon information, bereft of physiological needs, a world regulated by input and output. At first, the solution was thought to be a simple mind-machine interface uploaded into the myriad pre-existing information networks. However, it soon became apparent that even the most advanced networks could not handle the unpredictable and powerful surges of electro-organic energy that emanated from uploaded minds.

Early experiments in organic-matrices resulted in unstable networks, crashing both servers and uploaded minds. Yet, after decades of research, the first stable organic-matrix was developed and dubbed the Weave. But despite the stability of the Weave itself, the human mind was unable to adapt to bio-electric currents within the network while also retaining the bodies own neural network. While any person can nominally access the Weave, to become part of it requires the permanent upload of ones psyche and neuro-network, and curse and gift if there ever was. When the mind enters the Weave, the body is left behind, sustained only by nutrient-fluids continuously pumped in and around the body. Word soon spread upon the pre-existing networks of the power of the Weave. The schematics of the egg-like upload-pods that gave eternal access of the network soon spread, creating a thriving underground society of pod makers and newly uploaded minds.

It wasn't long before the Weave and it's inhabitants, who would later dub themselves the Kin, assimilated every other existing information network. Many factions have tried, with no success, to control the Weave and secrets locked within. The Kin fiercely protect their virtual world and seem themselves as keepers of a great balance - power is knowledge, and knowledge is the lifeblood of the Kin.
[/ic]

[sparkletwist]

I want this pseudo-Ancient feel to the setting, like Dune had.

Oh, I get it. This is the kind of thing that I was going for in Crystalstar, too, though I went at it from a completely different direction because it was a sort of non-earth prehistoric society that evolved this way, instead of a potential future for modern humans. Enough time in between and I guess none of it matters.

For other inspirations, you might want to look at Warhammer 40000 (as mentioned already) or Stargate-- particularly if you assume there are no SG teams running around. I've always been a fan of the ancient/modern juxtaposition of the Predators (as in Aliens vs.) as well, if you want some weird weapons.

[O Senhor Leetz]

I found a great little essay on spaceship aesthetics that fitted perfectly with this setting. No surprise it dealt with Dune.

"Dune had to be made. But what kind of spaceships to use? Certainly not the degenerate and cold offspring of present day American automobiles and submarines, the very antithesis of art, usually seen in science fiction films, including 2001. No! I wanted magical entities, vibrating vehicles, like fish that swim and have their being in the mythological deeps of the surrounding ocean. The 'galactic' ships of North American technocracy are a mouse-gray insult to the divine, therefore delirious, chaos of the universe. I wanted jewels, machine-animals, soul-mechanisms. Sublime as snow crystals, myriad-faceted fly eyes, butterfly pinions. Not giant refrigerators, transistorised and riveted hulks; bloated with imperialism, pillage, arrogance and eunuchoid science.

"I affirm that next to the soul the most beautiful object in the galaxy is a spaceship! We all dreamed of womb-ships, antechambers for rebirth into other dimensions; we dreamed of whore-ships driven by the semen of our passionate ejaculations. The invincible and castrating rocket carrying our vengeance to the icy heart of a treacherous sun; humming-bird ornithopters which fly us to sip the ancient nectar of the dwarf stars giving us the juice of eternity. Yes! But far more than that: angelic splendour! We dreamed of caterpillar-tracked hotrods so vast that their tails would disappear behind the horizon."

whole article is here http://www.duneinfo.com/unseen/foss.asp

[Steerpike]

That man loves his spaceships.  Whew.