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Who's Who

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CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture
Who's Who
So about a year ago, we had a reasonably big thread where people introduced themselves. Who they were, what they did, that kind of thing. Since then we have had a fairly steady influx of new people, so I figure it is about time that we do it all over again. I'll start. My name is Martin, I am 21, born and raised in Angus, Scotland, and I am a third year Computing student. I also do some freelance web design on the side to help pay for things around the house. I lost a few years when I turned 17 to Graves Disease (thyroid disorder), which kicked me on my ass and basically restricted me to my parents house for a year. All better now though, which is nice. My spare time basically consists of practising StarCraft 2 (Not a pro, but good enough to help with their practise sometimes), reading as much as I can, and proofreading for a few RPG companies (Posthuman included). I wasn't really into the whole transhuman thing before I started reading Eclipse Phase, but since then I have tried to at least acquire a passing knowledge on the subject. Along the way I write crappy short stories, which are slowly getting less crappy. My writing has improved so much over the last two years, it is ridiculous. Now your turn! I know we have some interesting people hidden away here.
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Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Who's Who
I'm Anders, a Swedish academic living and working in Oxford, UK. My background is in computer science and computational neuroscience, but these days I do neuroethics of human enhancement and uploading, existential risk and other things in the borderland between philosophy, science and future studies. Yes, I am actually getting paid for thinking about many of the things we play with in Eclipse Phase. I have also started a few transhumanist associations and websites in my time and been around in media quite a lot. I have also maintained a big Mage: the Ascension website, and still regard that game (1st and 2nd edition) as the most interesting rpg I have played. Otherwise I tend towards home-made science fiction or superhero settings; Eclipse Phase is slightly unique in that I do like the default setting. I also wrote the module "Cities of the Edge" for Gurps Transhuman Space. As for spare time, I do computer graphics, simulations, photography and collect beetles... when I haven't got a new obsession with something interesting (infrastructure architecture is so cool! Have you really *looked* at concrete joints? Or transformer casings?)
Extropian
root root's picture
Re: Who's Who
root@Exposed! [hr] I'm Keane, a 29 year old geek living in Iowa. I am (currently) a Computer Science student, after having been a Computer Engineering student (flunked out), and already having a background in Cognitive Psychology (BS degree). Between the Bush economy and addressing my ADHD, I've been unemployed and bombing my way through school for over a decade now, despite being a horrible, horrible student. On the plus side, I've now got a remarkably broad background in AI. In my free time, I work. One of those fun things associated with ADHD is the tendency to hyperfocus, which is a nice way to say "gets deeply obsessed and fails to notice the passage of time". I read a shitload of papers, ignore my homework, and come up with ideas at best described as "mad science", and at worst as "bat-shit lunacy". Oddly enough, I seem to have problems getting funding for any of them (low to negative r-rep). I enjoy Eclipse Phase because it's a setting where I get to work out the ethical dilemmas associated with some of the projects I want to work on. I can build and present characters that represent my fears and hopes for the future, and then see which ones people react to the most, and which ones people most want to beat with sticks and then shoot into the sun. I've been surprised, to say the least, at what people choose to find offensive, and what goes by without any sort of reaction. Oh yea, I also like this site because I get to read about dolphin psychology and meet people who wish they were squids.
[ @-rep +1 | c-rep +1 | g-rep +1 | r-rep +1 ]
Lilith Lilith's picture
Re: Who's Who
Hoo boy. So I'm 30 (as of last May), currently living in the boonies of North Carolina in the good ol' USA. While I majored in Applied Physics in my brief stint in college, I was far from an ideal student, and a combination of a lack of drive along with my inability to develop a grasp of (or interest in) Calculus lead to me dropping out after my second year. I've bounced from random job to random job afterwards, eventually settling to my current "career" as a technical writer for a government contractor. While mind-numbing in the boredom it produces, it pays the bills and leaves me with large swathes of time during my eight-hour workdays to sift through various RPG books and write stories. I harbor aspirations of perhaps becoming a real writer someday, and I like to think my writing ability has grown enormously since I stopped writing awful fan-fiction in my tween years and starting moving up to legitimate storytelling, though my challenge remains trying to find an idea worth writing about and then turning it into a story worth reading. Still, I can dream, I suppose. In my spare time I'm an avid gamer, playing the vidya games among various consoles and handhelds as well as my PC, and I also run weekly tabletop games for my group of friends, mostly consisting of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Shadowrun, though we branch off into other systems now and then to try and mix things up and keep things fresh. My dissatisfaction with D&D--the first game system we tried--led me to pursue other, less-popular avenues of roleplay, and than in turn led me to Eclipse Phase. I mentioned in one of my earliest (if not first!) posts that the good folks at Role-Playing Public Radio were the ones that drew my interest in EP, though I knew of the system before I listened to that initial actual-play. Initially I wasn't very sold on the setting (having known one too many so-called pretentious "transhumanist" jerkoffs in college that were only interested in the concepts because they seemed to feel it made them smarter than everyone else), but after listening to RPPR and reading some of the books, I couldn't help but be drawn in. I'm certainly not on the level that many on this forum seem to be in regards to transhumanism in general, being a newcomer and all, which is one of the reasons I'm relatively quiet around these parts. Still, the ideas interest me on various levels, so I try to contribute what little I can here and there. Rest assured, even if I don't post much, I'm probably still lurking about. All right, better cut myself off here before this turns into an essay. Y'all take it easy.
nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
Re: Who's Who
I'm Marc Huete. I live in the DC area. I have a degree in computer science and I do computer security for a monolithic government agency. I also do some fiction work. I do freelance work for Eclipse Phase ([i]Continuity[/i] is the only piece currently available). I do some other fiction on the side, but it's been on the back back burner and nothing is in publishable shape yet. My wife is around here somewhere and does writing as well as art for both EP and now for TechNoir. I've been fascinated by Cyberpunk basically since high school. I'm a child of the 80s (the best decade!) I played Shadowrun and just couldn't get into anything else RPG-wise. However, following Bruce Sterling got me stuck on transhumanism. Funny enough, the year after I read the Mechanist/Shaper stories, Rob & Co. started up PHS. So there's my favorite editors and creative minds, working on an RPG attached to my favorite short fiction. I was hooked. My only complaint about EP is that I love math far more than the average player, so this d100 thing is not nearly as complex as I'd like. For my hobbies, well, somehow two boys have sprung up between me and my wife, and they require much attention when not playing Minecraft. I've tried to ween myself off of computer games, with limited success, but I still read more than I should. I try to dabble in everything. I started brushing up in my physics, but physicists label their variables like they're charged by the keystroke, and as a programmer it just gets me all hot and bothered. I pick locks, practice magic (the card trick kind), study magic (the spiritual kind), read philosophy, plan out security systems and con jobs, shoot, and generally get as close as I can to wreaking havoc without breaking any laws. I do have a twitter feed, if anyone cares ( @nezumi_hebereke). I try not to post too much. Half of it is reposting science news.
Killebrew Killebrew's picture
Re: Who's Who
I'm Cody, 23 and living in the Las Vegas area of Nevada, USA. Currently I am a student here, studying Microbiology, intending to focus on Virology. I'd love to work with the real interesting stuff at a BSL 4 Laboratory, but so far my experience has been limited to a standard hospital lab as a hybrid of responsibilities of a Medical Laboratory Technician and Clinical Laboratory Scientist for the US Military. I have still yet to play Eclipse Phase as my gaming group is mostly Pathfinder and World of Darkness, with very little spare time left over, but I absolutely enjoy the setting presented. Otherwise I'm just hanging out with friends, or working on my studies.
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The Doctor The Doctor's picture
Re: Who's Who
I am called the Doctor; my given name is Bryce, and I too live in the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. Which basically means that I spend between two and four hours every day stuck in traffic on the Beltway listening to podcasts, audiobooks, and practicing my Traffic Jam Karaoke. My degree is in computer science, but I also studied mathematics, anthropology, and psychology almost enough to get degrees in those fields as well. At my day job I work as a system administrator and sometime consulting head-scratcher-and-bit-prodder. I think I discovered transhumanism from Arenamontanus' website in the mid-1990's, by way of his [u]Mage: the Ascension[/u] page. I too am a child of the 1980's, and fondly remember the Commodore 64, the rise of synthpop, and cyberpunk (no longer just science fiction). My hobbies include [url=http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/Byzantium]hacking wireless network technologies[/url], code, and electronics at [url=http://hacdc.org/]HacDC[/url], not blogging enough, experimenting with cryptographic, privacy enhancing, and anonymity related technologies, and reading. My partner and I have almost reached maximum capacity in our apartment for bookcases (17), and have one set aside exclusively for RPGs. I have a couple of homebrew synthesizers on the board and stacks of components for them, but not much room to spread everything out and get to work (mostly due to the server rack in the office). I first found out about Eclipse Phase because I am friends with one of the developers (jsnead) and got sucked headfirst into the game when it came out. I manage to run a session about once a month for a small group and every once in a while I post something to my website. So far, my players have been assaulted with basilisk hacks packed into a system-hopping virus, a thief with a smart corrosive nanoswarm implanted in his morph's abdomen (which chewed a nice hole in the ship...), the first half of [u]Nevermind the WMD[/u], Spider Jerusalem, the microgravity rugby championships, an economic hitman for whom the 'economic' is an option, the Martian space elevator, and a well meaning AGI presenting at a conference on Mars who embarassed the Planetary Consortium by open sourcing its designs for a novel power and signal distribution system.
Caernkeeper Caernkeeper's picture
Re: Who's Who
I hope that by introducing myself I'll be less of an observer and more of a participant in the community! Douglas, Brazilian, 32, born and raised in Victoria (400km north of Rio de Janeiro), a small (around 1million souls) port and industrial city (steel and paper). Oddly enough for an EP fan my degree is not in technology, but language and literature (although, I have a long background in chemistry, a bad marriage that ended in divorce). I work as a safety/security officer in a oil rig drilling 300km off the coast... living in a habitat does mean something to me!! ;-] In my free time I try to bridge the gap between latin american writers' tradition of magic realism (jorge luis borges, isabel allende, saramago, gabriel garcia marquez) with the aesthetics and rythim familiar to modern science fiction / fantasy fans. I also have an unhealthy interest in close quarter combat techniques: krav maga, mma, muai thay, wing chun. I am big fan of great authors that never quite hit it big: steven pressfield, tim powers, and alastair reynolds. My first serious contact with rpg was Shadowrun in the 90's, but as too many people I ended up narrating way too many chronicles in DnD and WoD... Mage and Werewolf were my favorites for sure. I've been following up every EP release in awe of its overall quality. What attracts me the most in EP are the the infinite new storytelling possibilites that the setting's technological possibilites allow: forking, neurosurgery, egocasting, sleeving, pandora gates, basiliks hacks, etc. The setting also reminds me a lot of Revelation Space, which I love. I intend to run a chronicle covering 3 stages prior to the Fall and thrust new players right in Firewall's labor and baptism of fire; while at the same time put them as the original brinkers rescued by the Factors' first contact (I suppose it's not even close to a new concept). I come here because EP has probably the most educated and thought provoking fan base in the whole rpg-sphere. Prazer em conhecer e até breve!
You can't break, can't change, can't take us down. (We run this town!) We stand, we'll fight, set fires all night
xPeregrine xPeregrine's picture
Re: Who's Who
I'm Leah H, 28 and I grew up abroad b/c my father was a military attaché. I've got a basic background in biology and CompSci, but pursued studio art in college. Now I'm a professional photon wrangler. I've settled in the delightfully dirty port city of Baltimore. I married nezumi & have two boys and a multitude of other small mammals. I've done some writing, map-making and arting for RPGs, including EP. Interests: Dystopias (like Baltimore), intrigue, post-apocalyptica, social disarray, counter-cultural movements, social engineering, ill-tempered Russian authors, etc. My interests stem from coming into close proximity with unexploded ordnance and anti-American riots during my tender, formative years. I required nezumi read 1984 before he could marry me (couldn't marry an uncultured brute, though he had me pretty hooked with stories from his time in Moscow). I do also enjoy art, fashion, craft, gardening, sewing, etc. I have a special place in my heart for graffiti and propaganda art. Nezumi got me hooked on RPGs in HS. I was in HS and he was in college and he was a damned flirt) We met in person and courted over a MUD, since we were long distance for 2 years. We play EP, Cthulhu, Shadowrun, Paranoia, etc. I was introduced to EP and transhumanity after encouraging nezumi to find work in the RPG sector -and preferably something that didn't gradually blanch his soul like the current monolith he works for. Long-term exposure to government fluorescents will do that. What really drew me to EP were the high production values, quality and depth of thought and science. I think some of the discussions on transhumanity, science and culture (etc) which arise in the forums and as a result of the books will ultimately add to the collective brain-trust of humanity (or, at the very least, inspire future authors). EP is not only fun to play, but it's also a theoretical playground and I love that. That and the guys at PHS have really interesting hair. Or no hair, as the case may be ;) I lurk quietly, but enjoy reading the forums. I also think Arenamontanus may be a transhuman superhero.
Technomancer Technomancer's picture
Re: Who's Who
I'm new to Eclipse Phase -- haven't played yet, but I'm loving the core book and setting. I have a BA in philosophy, and am now a graduate student in Philosophy of Religion at Yale Divinity School (starting this autumn). I like social and political theory, so that's one of the things I like most about Eclipse Phase. I'm hoping to get a PhD in a field related to ethics or cultural studies. Not sure what else to say. Married, two toddlers and a newborn (due any moment). Played 3.x D&D, 4e, Pathfinder, Eberron, Dark Sun. Used to be a hardcore PC gamer, played EverQuest many years. I mostly enjoy FPS games, though. But I'm chiefly interested in postsecular political theory.
[img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/anarc_userbar.jpg[/img] [img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/socialism_userbar.jpg[/img] [i]"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways -- the point is to change it." --Marx[/i] [i]"There are no fac
Mental-Mouse Mental-Mouse's picture
Re: Who's Who
New to Eclipse Phase but having apprently been into Transhumanism since the wee age of 8. Been Gming for 15 years, and have spent alot of time contemplating my own process and style. Beyond that I don't give out my name really online, unless i have to. As such I will say that I currently live in St.Louis, attend a local college and major in Psychology and Education. Though, due to a recent talk with my intro to coginitive science Proffessor (Can someone be made to see something they have no concept of) I've been trying to get more into other Sciences, as it will greatly expand my understanding of people and their psychology. Sometimes I draw, often I just ponder.
The Future Is Now
Tyrnis Tyrnis's picture
Re: Who's Who
Hello everyone, I'm just shy of 35 (a few weeks away) and after a decade or so of working for or with the US military, am coming home to Oklahoma to start work on my PhD in political science in August. My interests in the field revolve around international relations and comparative politics. Unless I fall in love with teaching college while I'm a TA these next few years, I'll very likely return to civil service once I'm done, though I can certainly see myself continuing to teach part-time, particularly with one of the online schools. I've played RPGs for better than 20 years now, starting with Top Secret SI, TMNT, Rifts, and various others. I was also fairly hooked on MUSHes for quite a few years. I owe two things to my interest in Eclipse Phase -- the cover art and creative commons. The cover art was intriguing enough to make me pick up the book and jot down the name to look up later when I saw a copy in my FLGS. I don't buy games that I don't play anymore, though, so it wasn't until I found out that the line was creative commons that I decided to seek out and download the main book (and have since bought it and the rest of the line -- I prefer PDFs to hard copies.) I still haven't gotten to play _much_, but I had a short-lived online game that lasted a couple of sessions, and I started a game with friends of mine RL that I hope to pick back up here in a few weeks once I get back home to stay.
The Green Slime The Green Slime's picture
Re: Who's Who
I'm in the UK, 27, male. I discovered Eclipse Phase via a friend's recommendation on Soulseek and the theme really struck a chord. My interest in the genre being mostly casual, I've never been exactly steeped in hardcore SF knowledge and my exposure to transhumanism proper was limited to a vague comprehension of Vernor Vinge's theories, which seemed eminently sensible and compelling, albeit not enough to make me want to read any of his books past the blurb. Even though I've never had much affinity for the nitty-gritty scientific aspects (or the novels fixated upon them), I've long been into what might be considered the spiritual and philosophical roots of the genre - the thinking of eminently respectable guys like Alfred North Whitehead and Tielhard de Chardin, and their tribute acts Terence McKenna, Mark Pesce, all the way down to John Lilly's talking dolphins and Joe Rogan's youtube DMT rant. I fucking love all that stuff, and discovering the expansive setting of EP in which all these crazy theories, lofty speculations and visionary predictions coalesced was quite a joy. All other pertinent facts about my life can probably be inferred from the above, but here's a summary all the same: I'm an aspiring suburban hippy pursuing an entrepreneurial flight of lunacy called aquaponics. I build my own solar panels. As a cunning autodidactic ethnobotanist I research, collect and cultivate many strange and exotic forms of flora, and catalogue the strange and exotic effects they impart upon the brain chemistry. I only eat carbohydrates on Saturdays. I like the idea of writing but hate actually writing. I unironically wear socks with my sandals. And like many RPG fans I don't actually make time to play any more, instead telling myself that checking this forum every few days constitutes full, edifying engagement in a hobby I've loved since I was 8. Sigh.
Kitsune1842 Kitsune1842's picture
Re: Who's Who
Hello, I am Noah and i am an RPG-aholic. I am a 30 year old Communicaitons Officer and Emergancy Services Dispatcher in Texas. In other words, I answer 911 calls and dispatch for Police, Fire, and Emergancy Medical Services. I hae a terminal education, i am always taking classes with no intent or idea how or if I will ever use what I learn, but thanks to a rather bad case of Depression a few years ago and an interesting mix of ADHD, dysgraphia, and aixelsyD I have no degrees but am a couple of classes, each, away form earning at least 3 or 4. My spare time, what little I have, is filled with RPGs, cooking, reading, learning anything I can, and cooking. I am an avid Sci Fi fan and have been into the Transhumanist thing for some time before a friend of mine found Eclipse Phase and picked it up mainly because of the art and great quality of the book and then introduced me too it. I have not had a chance to play the game, can't find any groups in my area and every time I run across info on an online game I waned to join they had already fallen apart. I love creating interesting and different characters, and have whole binders of characters of just about any game you can think of that I have just never had the chance to play.
Prophet710 Prophet710's picture
Re: Who's Who
Hello everyone. My name is Richard, I'm a 27 year old American war-vet gone Game Designer. I've got a bachelors in computer science and I currently do database management for a medical firm based in California. I've done small contracts for several small gaming companies and still provide reviews for indie games on a variety of people I meet at gaming conventions. I currently live in Montana with my wife and we are celebrating one year of marriage this August, I've booked us a crazy week long trip to Vegas to celebrate. I've gamed since I was very young, having a strong sense of imagination and have crossed paths with many systems including but not limited to ADND, DND 3rd and 4th edition, Shadowrun 3rd and 4th edition, Eclipse Phase (of course), GURPS, Alternity, d20 Modern and Future, several variations of the OGRE system and BESM (Not to be confused with BDSM.) My spare time consists of weight training, spending time with my wife and if I can squeeze it in I like to play Diablo 3 or Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. Though believe me, being a young professional sucks ALL of your time. I really got into EP because I have an avid curiosity about math, transhumanism, physics and other sciences and I love the way the human being can be thrown asunder and manipulated. Several members of my family carry Doctorates in the sciences including Physics and Nano-technology. Their help has been instrumental in keeping me going with my campaign (Hulahoop Dreams). As a side note, I'm in development of a fantasy novel, just to see if I can do it. Though where I find the time to write is beyond me, it just happens. Glad to meet you all! I'm a special fan of Codebreaker, Arenamontanus, and Decivre.
"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."
rogue-z rogue-z's picture
Re: Who's Who
Hi there! I've had EP for about 6 months now and haven't played it yet. But I think it's one of the best settings I've seen, if not THE best. Anyway, I'm Justin from Seattle, but for most things on the interwebs I go by rogue-z. That's an autocad pun in case anyone is wondering. I'm pretty embarrassed with all these smart computer type people to say I've got an art degree and am pretty crappy at math these days. I still know F=ma, but that's about it. I've been a big pen and paper RPG gamer since about '89. I guess I've been more or less stuck in the early '90s as far as games: Shadowrun, Cyberpunk 2020, Mekton, and god forbid, Rifts. I've been pretty active the last few years in some PBP games. I really like that medium, it fits my time constraints better than the real life version. I don't really write beyond gm stuff. I draw lots of crappy pictures though. I'm actually an industrial designer, so I guess some of my pictures aren't actually that crappy... Most of my time is spent working, parenting and reading. I like gizmos and gear. I love anodized aluminum, but anodized titanium is better. I got a shear bolt from a Boeing FOD bin, and I'm pretty sure it was anodized titanium. It was a joy to hold and weighed almost nothing. I want my house made out of that stuff!
cloudshaper2k cloudshaper2k's picture
Re: Who's Who
I'm John - late 30's, married, four kids, postal worker. Spent most of my childhood moving from place to place to accommodate my dad's work in the defense industry. We finally came to rest in Arizona. I'm a writer - mostly YA fantasy. But, I'm also a big fan of science fiction of all genres. I first stumbled upon transhuman concepts in the pages of Analog and found the idea of a game centered around it fascinating. My gaming background is . . . the word extensive doesn't quite seem to cover it. I started with the original Marvel Superheroes (back in 1984) and have hit just about every genre of RPG that's out there. My long time favorites include Deadlands, 7th Sea, Torg, and oWoD Werewolf. I've only just finished my first read through of the main book, but I'm planning on putting my captive gamers (aka wife and elder monsters) through Ego Hunter shortly.