Book depository is nothing new; there've been outlets selling books internationally via mail order for many decades - the only change is that it's now easier to find and use such services.

I began my first novel when I was 15. It went through three drafts, of around 40,000 words each. If I find it, I'll burn it.

What I've learned during my life is that the near future is 90% identical to the present - if you buy a new car today, it'll probably still be on the road in 2022.

I was heavily into AD&D in my teens (late 1970s-early 1980s) but fell off the RPG habit in the mid-80s and have never gone back to it; my lifestyle today isn't very compatible with having a regular gaming group (too much travel).

Writing your own story around the same ideas is not plagiarism; at worst, it's being unoriginal.

To boldly go where no uploaded metahuman colony has gone before' has a certain ring to it, doesn't it?

[Core concepts: Human beings all have souls. Souls are software objects. Software is not immortal.]