Scholris

Scholris is a fictional term used in speculative discourse to describe a coordinated, cross-disciplinary community of scholars dedicated to open and collaborative knowledge production, public pedagogy, and the civic use of research. In-universe, the concept emerged in the mid-22nd century within the city-state of Helionis, where scholars sought to dissolve traditional disciplinary silos and form inclusive knowledge commons. The word Scholris is a neologism derived from scholar and rhetoric, intended to signal both study and societal stewardship.

Core tenets include openness of data and methods, reproducibility, reciprocal mentorship, and participatory governance. Scholris communities emphasize interdisciplinary projects, transparent decision making, and the public dissemination of results through open libraries and community labs. Practitioners—often called Scholris—participate in assemblies, collaborative projects, and digital archives known as the Aetheric Archives, which host interoperable datasets, code, and publications.

Organizationally, Scholris groups typically operate through distributed councils and local academies that rotate leadership and fund projects via community grants and micro-sponsorships. Education within Scholris stresses lifelong learning, critical inquiry, and ethical engagement with stakeholders beyond academia.

Reception in in-universe discourse notes both potential benefits—accelerated innovation, diverse perspectives—and risks, including governance complexity, risk of factionalism, and unequal access to resources. Critics argue that without robust safeguards, open practices can still exclude marginalized groups or cohere into a new form of scholarly gatekeeping.

See also: open science, citizen science, peer review, knowledge commons.