Diaspora Universe

The Diaspora Universe gets its name from the novel Diaspora. In this setting, humans invented artificial intelligence and mind uploading in the 21st century, and huge numbers of humans uploaded their minds (the "Introdus"), becoming "citizens" (conscious software) of the "polises" (computer nodes imagined as cities). The Gleisner Corporation's robots, also using mind uploads, became known as "gleisners", and "fleshers" were the remaining humans, being either "statics" (unmodified) or "exuberants" (altered into various forms).

The novel deals with the lives of a number of citizens of two polises, Konishi and Carter-Zimmerman, as the Earth and humanity face a hellish disaster and then the challenges of interstellar travel.

Recurring elements

 * Polis

Works

 * Diaspora (and its predecessor, Wang's Carpets)
 * The Planck Dive
 * Transition Dreams (published well before Diaspora, but arguably part of the same universe--albeit pre-Introdus--as it introduces Gleisners)