Colonize Atlantis!

Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
04 Mar 1999 18:45:49 +0100

Some semi-serious worldbuilding:

I'm working on a roleplaying scenario (possibly even a novel) about a number of interstellar colonies that develop isolated from each other. I have had great fun writing them up, everything from national colonies like New America and Penglai over a planet settled by fundamentalist christians to a planet inhabited by clones of the original settlers. The real interest is of course what happened after colonization - in one or two centuries the original memes have mutated quite a bit. In the scenario FTL is eventually invented, and cultures begin to mix with explosive results. Great fun!

However, one of the planets is Atlantis, and a lot of the story will likely deal with it. Atlantis was colonized by a libertarian foundation; the colonists who joined in had tired with what they considered a statist, bureaucratic solar system. So they signed a contract about non-initiation of force etc, pooled resources, bought a colonization ship and set off towards Zeta II Reticuli 3, christened Atlantis, going sublight with cryonic suspension.

Now, what I want to hear from you are ideas for various teams, organizations and groups that might want to go on this expedition, and what equipment, knowledge and other stuff they might bring with them (valuables? what species of plants and animals? culture?). What systems would they like to pool together to buy? Assume a near-future technological level with fusion power and well developed space systems, no truly dramatic transhuman technology - yet (guess what some colonists want to develop in peace?). Atlantis is known to be terrestrial, not too unlike the Earth given what can be observed by Hubble IX but has an unknown ecology.

The reason I ask is that I would like to have a broader input on the Atlantis colony; so far my would-be-coauthor has been far too fond in suggesting things and I want to spring some suprises to him.

Most likely the finished scenario will be posted to the web in a few months, after we have played it. It does involve a lot of transhumanist ideas, although maybe not in the way many people think...

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Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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