Future timeline I created.

[Junghalli]

Others have already adressed the political implausibilities, I'll offer this.

I advise you to either move some of the alien contacts farther up in time or have humanity spread out farther and faster. As it is you've got serious problems with the Fermi Paradox. You've got multiple alien contacts within a volume of space less than 20 light years wide, including aliens snooping around the closest star to Sol; it strains plausibility that Earth hasn't been visited if the neighborhood is that crowded. The only good explanation I could think of would be that the portal to Sol was nonfunctional, cutting it off from the rest of the universe until humans did something to it.

Also Sirius, Procyon, and Tau Ceti are really bad candidates for Earthlike (especially the first two) FYI.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Alright, thanks for the advice.

I'll completely scrap the far-left-wet-dream. I realized at the time that it seemed a little left-leaning, but apparently far more than I thought. So perhaps I've been blind to the extremity of my own views and should re-examine that.

I'll see what I can come up with for why no extraterrestrials have visited earth as well.

The names I chose for star-systems were kind of random place-holders because 1) I'm not an astrologist, and 2) I wanted to grab a few that were relatively close to sol, and in my brief affair with Google, I could come up with little better than that. So I have a question: Does anyone know a link to a 'map' of this corner of the Milky Way, with names?

*All* the names can be changed if necessary. 'Lectrids' were actually an idea that came to me in a dream, and I'd like to see if I can make them work. The 'Metalloids' were what I envision as bio-wank done right, basically combining genetic engineering with technology to the point that each individual's body becomes its own smelting plant. While the demons were biowank I wanted to do plausibly, which is yeah, they have organic ships that would be worse than useless in reality, but they also live in an area where the laws of physics and biology don't apply the same way, thus negating that weakness.

Oh, and I didn't intend for the Freethought Alliance to be my vision of the 'perfect' government. I intended for them to be mostly ruthless assholes who did what they could to secure their planet. Obviously it didn't come off that way, so if I keep them at all, I'll have to make some changes as to how I put that out.

[Hawkwings]

stars close to sol:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... rclos.html

I'm not an astrologist

And a good thing too! Perhaps you mean astronomer?

[Oni Koneko Damien]

I'm not an astrologist

And a good thing too! Perhaps you mean astronomer?

I can't believe I made that mistake, as I've spent a good deal of time mocking them (astrologers).



Oh, and thanks for that, it should come in handy.

[Morilore]

I'll completely scrap the far-left-wet-dream. I realized at the time that it seemed a little left-leaning, but apparently far more than I thought. So perhaps I've been blind to the extremity of my own views and should re-examine that.

It's not your political views that are the problem. The problem is the extent to which you were letting them dictate your ideas on the course of the future. The most egregious violation was probably when the Heroes of Mankind fly out of your ass:

2100 - A new force appears rather suddenly. A government operating out of bunkers and protected areas in several provinces of Canada. The government is a meritocracy of scientists, engineers, and social and psychological experts.

Don't have a group like that just ride in on a white horse; it makes no sense. In fact, if you are going to write stories set in 2275, then just come up with a vague backstory for the current government and focus on the nature of your universe in the "present." The less you deliberately try to "connect" the setting (in any sense) to the twenty-first century, the less vulnerable you will be to having your own intellectual blind spots damage your creation.

One more thing:

The term "Freethought Alliance" is incredibly Orwellian. Don't use it unless you intend it to be at least somewhat satirical.

[Junghalli]

The names I chose for star-systems were kind of random place-holders because 1) I'm not an astrologist, and 2) I wanted to grab a few that were relatively close to sol, and in my brief affair with Google, I could come up with little better than that. So I have a question: Does anyone know a link to a 'map' of this corner of the Milky Way, with names?

Try these.

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/12lys.html
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/20lys.html
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/250lys.html

For research for good stars for habitable worlds I suggest these sites.

http://www.solstation.com/stars.htm
http://www.stellar-database.com/
http://www.astronexus.com/node/20
http://www.ancientsuns.com/planets/huma ... trich.html

You might also try this site, it has descriptions of extrasolar planetary systems already known to exist.

http://www.extrasolar.net/evmain.asp

It's complicated but the basic rule for Earthlike planets is you probably want a star that's at least 3-4 billion years old, more than 25% metallicity, between spectral class K3-F5, not a giant or a subgiant, does not have any gas giants orbiting inside of 2 AU, and isn't a variable. The stars in the immediate neighborhood (< 20 ly) that probably have the best chances of having an Earthlike planet are Alpha Centauri, 40 Eridani, Eta Cassiopeiae, and 82 Eridani.

Sirius is a terrible candidate because it's only 500 million years old and has a white dwarf that would probably disrupt its life zone. Procyon is a terrible candidate because it's in the process of evolving into a red giant, any habitable planet would be fried by now. Tau Ceti is a bad candidate because it's metal-poor ("metal" here means everything heavier than hydrogen) and has a huge icy asteroid/comet field that probably translates into a real high impact rate on any terrestrial planets.

Hope this helps.

[Nyrath]

The names I chose for star-systems were kind of random place-holders because 1) I'm not an astrologist, and 2) I wanted to grab a few that were relatively close to sol, and in my brief affair with Google, I could come up with little better than that. So I have a question: Does anyone know a link to a 'map' of this corner of the Milky Way, with names?

{ modest cough }

Well, there is my website.
http://www.projectrho.com/starmap.html

There are some quickie maps I whipped up that you can download here:
http://www.projectrho.com/smap12.html#winch
Scroll up for some commercial maps you can order.

If you want the raw star data, there are star catalogs here:
http://www.projectrho.com/smap06.html

[The Duchess of Zeon]

One more thing:

The term "Freethought Alliance" is incredibly Orwellian. Don't use it unless you intend it to be at least somewhat satirical.

In this case it made plenty of sense, since they were allowing Iraq-during-the-embargo like conditions to exist in all of the world that wasn't part of their "Alliance", with the goal of forcibly annexing those countries! This would not only not work, but would prompt a world-wide alliance against such an evil regime, and probably a major war. There'd certainly be people in occupied territories carrying on guerrilla conflicts for decades.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I am not going to comment on your backstory, as it has been pretty thoroughly covered above, but I just want to give some helpful advice. Don't fall into the same trap that the majority of sci-fi writers fall into (fantasy, too, but it just seems so damned prominent with modern sci-fi writers). Good backstories and well-developed universes are certainly a key component of any story, but don't get caught-up trying to show-off your vision of the future by abandoning character development and plot. The universe, in the end, is nothing else than a plot device.

I'm not saying DON'T develop the universe, I'm just saying don't get so caught up in that you abandon all else.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

I'm not saying DON'T develop the universe, I'm just saying don't get so caught up in that you abandon all else.

Oh no, not at all. Everything I do focuses first and foremost on a small number of characters, whatever the hell they're doing, and how they relate to each other and the universe at large.

I just like to have a relatively self-consistent background for them to operate against.[/quote]