04-24-2013, 04:32 AM
Curiously, I think we have both conservative and radical SF in the setting, mostly because we have such a long timeline in the scenario. In the Interplanetary era, the Nanotech/Dark ages, and the early First Federation era, the technology is pretty much based on cautious extrapolation from mainstream science. The most radical techs in this pereiod are artificial intelligence, uploading and cryostasis, which have their critics but are treated quite conservatively in the timeline.
Once transapientech comes on the scene, with monopoles, wormholes and reactionless drive, we enter a different realm - the realm of radical hard SF. We could remove these elements from the scenario and still have a space opera- but it would be a much slower story to tell. Alan explored the possibility of a universe without transapienttech at one point; it may have been more realistic in some ways, but it is a difficult task to tell the story of a galaxy where news and travellers can't reach anywhere at more than c.
Thing is, I'm pretty sure that some sort of transapienttech is inevitable, once artificially intelligent beings exceed human capabilities by a significant amount. We just don't really know what form this tech will take - all our guesses are likely to be wrong in one way or another.
Once transapientech comes on the scene, with monopoles, wormholes and reactionless drive, we enter a different realm - the realm of radical hard SF. We could remove these elements from the scenario and still have a space opera- but it would be a much slower story to tell. Alan explored the possibility of a universe without transapienttech at one point; it may have been more realistic in some ways, but it is a difficult task to tell the story of a galaxy where news and travellers can't reach anywhere at more than c.
Thing is, I'm pretty sure that some sort of transapienttech is inevitable, once artificially intelligent beings exceed human capabilities by a significant amount. We just don't really know what form this tech will take - all our guesses are likely to be wrong in one way or another.