I really like this a lot! I like the way you address questions of humanity and post-humanity in your blog that most other people tend to take for granted.
I do have a question about Gwen's original background, though. Gwen's father transferred assets to small corporations that he owned, and shifted the corporations to be GalFed-based, correct? Why did he then return to Achura and accept a devastating demotion, instead of simply leaving the State along with the corporations he owned? I think the fact that he didn't do this probably points to some interesting core values on his part.
You're half right. Achura, as I understand it, has a
very traditional and internally focused society that is in many ways divorced from the rest of the cluster, and even the State. Very few people ever leave, meaning the culture is essentially unique. As a result, ties - both spiritual and social - are likely very deep, and hard to walk away from, if one would even consider the notion. Gwen's family especially is very old and pretty wealthy, with her father at the head of it.
So I figured in spite of his personal greed and lack of "honor", and slightly more cosmopolitan thinking then most, the idea of utterly abandoning hundreds of years worth of family roots - and walking out of the social context that he's existed in for his entire life - would be essentially unthinkable to him.
...Also, though, you should take all the information from the bio with a grain of salt. Not only did I intend for it to be only the stuff that people could dig up ICLy (Which would obviously be missing a lot of important details) But it's also LONG due for a revising with a few changes I made back in January. Which I keep putting off. For some reason. (For instance, I've since shortened the amount of time Gwen spent at the mining colony as an infant from 6 years to only a single year.)
And I appreciate your compliment! I worry that I'm probably treading old ground with a lot of it, but I've just been trying to go with what I feel would be on my characters mind.