Welcome back to the project 
how much have you kept up with the EG? At first glance I can't see any major problems with your story/polity idea. In fact it sounds quite interesting. There are a few minor things you'll probably want to consider:
1) The protagonist of any story being one of the modosophont avatars of the transap would make it much easier to write. Far less problematic in terms of how one could describe the thoughts, motivations and inner dialogue of an S1.
2) "Pilots" and comparably simple military roles likely didn't exist in the version war. But military-mind templates responsible for broader command and tactics probably did. It's entirely plausible that authentication tokens could be corrupted or lost during the conflict/over time that would make the claim difficult to verify but not totally implausible.
3) "Earning ones keep" isn't really a concern for the vast majority of the terragen sphere. Automation provides almost everything. Labour markets only really exist for niche interests (though with hundreds of millions of settled systems "niche" can be large in an absolute sense. See also the NoCoZo). That's not to say the entity wouldn't have a vocation, nor that it couldn't be translation, just that they wouldn't have to do it for material wealth.
I'm looking forward to hearing more of your idea. I reread Newton's wake for the first time in years recently and it really holds up as interesting and quirky sci-fi
how much have you kept up with the EG? At first glance I can't see any major problems with your story/polity idea. In fact it sounds quite interesting. There are a few minor things you'll probably want to consider:1) The protagonist of any story being one of the modosophont avatars of the transap would make it much easier to write. Far less problematic in terms of how one could describe the thoughts, motivations and inner dialogue of an S1.
2) "Pilots" and comparably simple military roles likely didn't exist in the version war. But military-mind templates responsible for broader command and tactics probably did. It's entirely plausible that authentication tokens could be corrupted or lost during the conflict/over time that would make the claim difficult to verify but not totally implausible.
3) "Earning ones keep" isn't really a concern for the vast majority of the terragen sphere. Automation provides almost everything. Labour markets only really exist for niche interests (though with hundreds of millions of settled systems "niche" can be large in an absolute sense. See also the NoCoZo). That's not to say the entity wouldn't have a vocation, nor that it couldn't be translation, just that they wouldn't have to do it for material wealth.
I'm looking forward to hearing more of your idea. I reread Newton's wake for the first time in years recently and it really holds up as interesting and quirky sci-fi
OA Wish list:
- DNI
- Internal medical system
- A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!