Nothing builds intricate worlds like the attention to detail given to the story’s geography. What makes a setting compelling is the effort that goes into creating elaborate planets that are logical and familiar in terms of geology, history, climate and all that encompasses the geographical nature of the fictional world.
The more variety and complexity a world has, the further it enhances the other elements in the story. Physical environments can affect the plot and character, and determine what social organizations, culture and belief systems populate the place.
Variance is important. You can’t just have a planet depicted as having single forms of environments. Entirely desertic, or forested planets make no sense. Unless it’s an airless or complete snowball world, any grassland planets, swamp planets, ocean planets, and even a completely urbanized planet packed would have different temperate zones. They would be colder at the poles, and hotter at the equator. Mountain ranges and oceans would make a difference. And if tidally locked, the climate should provide enough variation to create a complex ecological system.
For many readers, the field of economics might seem like dry, analytical territory, a realm of graphs, supply curves, and impenetrable jargon. And let’s be honest: most literary enthusiasts, and even a fair number of science fiction fans, probably tune out at the mention of GDPs or fiscal policy. Yet, when wielded thoughtfully, economics can become one of the most fascinating and transformative tools in speculative storytelling. In fact, some of the best science fiction ever written stands out precisely because it dares to construct alternative financial systems and economic frameworks—frameworks that both challenge our current paradigm and make us question the very fabric of our lives.
It all started with a door-to-door salesman. Circa 1980, my folks bought the set of Funk And Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, opening up the world I suspect existed yet needed the data to explore it. The A to Z articles crammed with information and pictures not only confirmed and explained what was happening in the world around me but I got to understand who I was, my heritage, and how I got to where I was.
When the era of school came around, I expected to learn more and get help in comprehending the hard text and complex ideas, instead what they taught in the education industrial complex was compliance.
History was dumbed down to basic timelines and anecdotes stripped of context. No real astronomy. There were nine planets and that was it. No politics. None, except that Thatcher was bad. Science was a little more fun but nuclear energy was consigned as bad. And ACDC is evil. All that was left was maths and English and the banality that went with it.
The boredom killed me. One morning, maths had finished and we were well into religion lessons. I was called upon to answer a question. Not paying attention, I gave my answer as “obtuse’, in reference to triangles from the class earlier. The class laughed and I should have been humiliated. I wasn’t embarrassed one bit. All I felt was contempt.
The use of the carrot and stick system taught you to shut up, listen, and memorise the answers or formulas, and repeat them on command, the same way one trains a pet or circus animal. Most of the kids were compliant just to survive, the promise of the good life hanging over their heads. They were under the impression that this was what intelligence was; monkeys and puppies taught new tricks.
Some of us though had had enough, and when the boredom grew too much, nature took over and compliance went out the window, literally and figurately. Thus the cult of misbehaviour was established, with the rough kids at first, the dysfunctional ones from less ambitious backgrounds. Eventually, this rebellion infected the whole class, even the goody tow-shoes. The punishment was swift and as drastic as the propaganda. We were made to stand against the wall every lunchtime, in the summertime.
Eventually, that too got ungovernable, with the authorities giving up after a week of strict enforcement and asinine teacher-parent meetings.
Next, high school. Did that turn out any better? Did we march down the halls of discovery and enlightenment? Nope, just another six eternal years that to this day seem longer than the decades that proceeded it.
What did they teach there? Well, Keynesian economics is the only economic paradigm in existence. Communism is good since Stalin and Mao are great heroes and we need to know everything about them (except the mass murder). That God is dead (this is from a Catholic school) And they taught compliance. Do this or you are a loser. Do that or you are a loser. Comply and you’ll be safe from retribution, be included in society and be rewarded with the good life. So the kids complied to survive, even though most suspected this to be all bullshit. Teenagers, unlike children, know enough to understand that life was shit whether you complied or not.
Compliance is lazy.
And laziness is bad for you and hazardous to your health.
When an individual complies, they are trusting the authority they are submitting to, without question, without vetting the authority. Trust requires no energy or effort. If confronted by a uniform or anyone carrying a badge, the laziest thing any individual can do is trust them unreservedly.
Here are a few universal facts to consider before bowing down to somebody bearing any official insignia.
Corruption exists.
Greed exists.
Self-interest exists.
Human animals who lie to cover up the above, exist.
Go ahead and deny the existence of these facts, or pick or choose when these facts a relevant. Deny reality. See where that leads you. You can’t spend the majority of your life ‘knowing’ that the government is corrupt, knowing they lie, then all of a sudden start believing they are benevolent, that they care about you as an individual. That hypocrisy is a mental illness. Governments and bureaucracies are not sympathetic to you, they don’t give a fuck about you except when it comes time to manipulate you for your vote or support. These power-hungry human animals exist, they lie, and they prey on the vulnerable and the dumb. Whether they are your regular psychopaths, egotripping cop, keyboard warrior or nameless politician, these sheep wolves will take you down like a predator takes down an antelope.
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The psychology of compliance and how it messes with one’s morality is highlighted in an independent 2012 movie called, Compliance. People are programmed to trust every form of authority whether it be a traffic coordinator in an orange vest or a doctor with a dozen acronyms against their name. They do this because it’s easy. Do what the cop says and avoid hassles. Who wants to write letters of complaint or go to court?
Nobody.
Who wants every problem to be dealt with by a central authority?
Everyone.
Problems are hard to resolve, so it’s easier to make it someone else problem. The problem is, that this system relies on compliance. What does everyone think a Social Credit System is? It’s a reliance on centralised authorities to deal with problems nobody wants to take responsibility for. All it takes is one offender and everybody is cracked down upon by the authority given the mandate to manage the problem.
Think it too far-fetched of a Social Credit System to infect your little corner of the ‘free’ world. Try putting a piece of styrofoam in your recycling bin. Wait until you get the ‘whoops’ you’ve-been-naughty sticker from your local government. The notice will give you three strikes and you’re out. Ring them up and find out what the repercussions will be. Delve deeper, and find out about the economics of the recycling industry and what kind of dodgy mess that is, how efficient or effective it is in solving waste management issues, how corrupt or mishandled it is, or how much logic goes into exporting and importing and burning and burying of raw trash. Once you’re smacked with an infringement for non-compliance you will demand more Social Credit Systems to govern your life because you enjoy being compliant.
A false sense of security.
The promise of compliance is a safe, risk-free life. Compliance seems to buy you insurance. This is a false promise. What you are actually buying is a guarantee that a small group of people will dedicate all their energy to preserving their own existence. Solutions to problems will cease being a thing. Instead, the problems need to persist indefinitely, forever. The moment you relinquish your independence, your responsibilities, and your freedoms to some centralised authority, what do you think this authority is going to do? Once they are handed the power they will switch to survival mode. Then the problem becomes you, the existential threat to the centralised authority is you.
Does a central bank seek to create a more efficient and prosperous economy? The old problem of decentralised banknote issuance is redundant. Technology has fixed this old nineteenth-century issue of lagging markets, but reserve banks the world over refuse to modernise. If they did, they wouldn’t have a reason to exist.
Does the justice system seek to keep the peace? Catching criminals has the oversupply of lawyers well-fed, but solving and confronting hard crime is high-hanging fruit, and requires effort and skill. It’s the low-hanging fruit that the judiciary has established as its main function. Soft civilian targets are easy takedowns but also pose the biggest threat to the police-industrial complex. The old problems of murderers, criminals and crazy folk are now a tertiary mission for the judiciary.
Its number one mission is to protect the government. Stop protestors, prevent them from even happening, hunt down and stomp out defiance and disobedience. Use anti-terrorism laws against soft targets, normal citizens who voice their concerns, and who speak up against the government.
Number two is revenue.
When you comply you turn yourself into a sitting duck, low-hanging fruit that any authority can bully, coerce, or nullify. You acquire no skills to take them on, you retire all personal power to stop them. There is no hiding from them. Coping a fine for driving twenty over the speed limit is one thing most citizens can avoid, but getting smashed with a fine for driving one kilometre over, by a private enforcer hiding behind bushes, is something nobody escapes. The fines start small, but when there’s no pushback; when everyone complies, these fines grow, eating away at your slim prosperity.
Survival of the truth.
Misbehaviour trains you to survive. It teaches you defiance. It teaches you limits within social, moral and ethical frameworks. Questioning authority gets you closer to the truth. Authorities deploy the holy trinity of government, corporate and police institutions to manipulate the truth and distort reality. Even the education system has fallen prey to the sociopathic centralised bureaucrats that are obsessed with preserving their power, holding on to their existence, and taking away your ability to cull them by tricking you into handing away your freedoms.
Disobedience teaches you what freedom really is. You are not born with it, it’s not some inalienable right. Freedom is what we all give to each other and what we deny from each other. If you don’t believe this, try to infringe on another citizen’s allotted rights and you will find out promptly. It is an unadulterated mob mentality equation. What freedoms the majority grants is what goes, and the holy trinity knows this, hence the lies, the manipulation, and the eroding away of your personal liberties which were once taken for granted. Hence the enforcement of compliance in our education at the expense of knowledge and enlightenment, gateways to personal empowerment.
Noncompliance is a defensive tactic, not an offensive one. It curbs a would-be oppressor’s ambitions. It brings the cost of governance high enough to buy you the freedom you desire. It teaches you the limitations of how far you can go. Push too far and you become a liability, you disrupt more than your oppressor’s plans, and you risk upsetting the nature of things.
Defy gravity in the wrong way, gravity ends you. Kill another human being for no reason and society ends you. This doesn’t mean you take the easy route and comply.
Challenge everything. Dispute your teachers, don’t accept everything they push as fact. Question authority, don’t cower from challenging an unfair or illogical infringement that isn’t based on any element of truth. Sometimes you may be wrong, but that is how you get closer to the truth.
This is how you learn about the world and how you fit in it. Compliance takes that experience away from you, so stop complying and start educating yourself. The only thing humans should only ever totally comply with is nature and God’s will, and even then, humanity would not have survived had it not challenged the universe, this existence, this ‘reality’ we find ourselves in.
Building a platform is difficult. It takes time, dedication, learning new skill sets and much sacrifice. To pay this price, be successful, and then have some corporate goons shut you down, is a serious hazard in this strange new world.
Cliodynamics is a field of research that tries to apply scientific methods and mathematical models to the study of history and its patterns. It aims to explain and predict historical phenomena such as the rise and fall of empires, the cycles of war and peace, the dynamics of social movements, and the effects of cultural evolution. Cliodynamics is based on the idea that history is not random or chaotic, but follows certain laws and regularities that can be discovered and tested with data.
We are already living in Isaac Asimov‘s world. Big data already allow governments and corporations to make educated guesses at what’s coming around the corner. As this information age deepens, how will it change the way we live? Does big data ever get too big to predict anything?
This discipline is also available to writers. This blend of trends, mathematical modelling, history and sociology can open up a window into the future, turning anyone dedicated enough into a Nostradamus.
Big History, Microhistory, Macrohistory; used as a major or minor plot device, how could any writer get it wrong?
The Prime Radiant, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series
Cybernetics, the interdisciplinary study of communication and control in living organisms and machines, has long fascinated both scientists and science fiction writers alike. In science fiction, cybernetics serves as a captivating concept that explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and technology. It often delves into the possibilities of enhancing human capabilities through the integration of cybernetic implants, neural interfaces, and artificial intelligence.
These narratives envision a future where humans seamlessly merge with machines, allowing for extraordinary feats of strength, cognition, and connectivity. From classic works like “Neuromancer” by William Gibson to modern shows like “Black Mirror,” science fiction often examines the ethical dilemmas, existential questions, and potential consequences of a world where cybernetics reign supreme.
Whether portraying utopian or dystopian scenarios, cybernetics in science fiction offers a captivating exploration of the boundaries between humanity and technology, blurring the lines between what is real and what is artificial.
Let’s face it, we now have the technology. We can rebuild you. It’s rudimentary at the moment but scientists have proved it can be done. As more applications become possible it is hard to imagine any work of sci-fi without featuring some kind of cybernetics, cyborgs or bionics, especially if it’s already the norm in reality.
Cryonics, the practice of preserving human bodies or brains at extremely low temperatures in the hopes of a future revival, has been a fascinating subject in both scientific and speculative realms. In science fiction, cryonics often serves as a means to explore the possibilities of extending human life beyond conventional limits. It presents a concept where individuals can be frozen and preserved, awaiting a time when advanced medical technology or societal advancements can bring them back to life.
Science fiction stories frequently depict a future where cryonics is a common practice, allowing characters to embark on interstellar journeys, traverse vast expanses of time, or awaken in radically transformed societies. These narratives raise thought-provoking questions about the nature of identity, the ethics of resurrection, and the implications of defying mortality.
Whether portrayed as a utopian opportunity for a second chance or as a cautionary tale about unforeseen consequences, cryonics in science fiction provides a rich backdrop for exploring the boundaries of human existence and the longing for immortality.
This is a contentious field. There is an existing industry around this type of thing. Has been for years. Now, no one has ever revived anyone, because… there is no actual technology that has been proven to work. But people a paying big bucks for a two-way ticket without the means for the return trip. And of course, business is catering for these people with technology based on assumptions, which are based on ideas developed by science fiction writers.
A rule I use in science fiction writing is, everything is possible in this cosmos, there is always a way. Maybe freezing body tissue isn’t the right path, maybe it’s something else. It’s a challenge, and that’s why this field makes the list.
There’s nothing more bewilderingly mind-numbing than watching a science-fiction movie franchise get butchered and killed then brought to life again, re-butchered and murdered once again. It’s sad in a way because I really love this time-bending, robot monster, chase story. The potential, even without branching away from the hunter and the hunted plot device, is endless. Bewildered? With all this goodwill and talent, and money involved, how the hell could they get it so wrong? This is a major iconic brand. “The Terminator” is embedded in the brains of at least two or three generations of consumers. There is no shortage of creative talent nor money that prevent this story from working its magic, yet the IP owners have achieved nothing else but toss stools of shit at audiences across the globe. Sure, the movie industry wins, artists, technicians and executives got jobs, and the marketing machine scored, but tossing shit at the audience’s faces was still the end result.
Now the next time Skynet returns to threaten our future chances are audiences will be a little suspect before handing over money, or even waste time and bandwidth to illegally download it. Skynet will hopefully learn from past mistakes and deliver the killer blow they’ve been trying to throw since it first hatched up the plan to go back in time and kill John Conner.
Through the bustling crowd I spot a sleeping bag on the cold marble steps of a shopfront. Some loser has made the alcove underneath the Dralise shop window their home. Camping gear, pillows, and a knitted crocheted blanket.Continue reading “The Crochet Blanket”→
I must be fucked in the head, even for my standards. I go out for a walk amongst the city crowd to enjoy the crisp winter air and all I can think of is the urge to murder somebody.
This is how to time travel on the subway. Look at the platform and imagine it being the destination platform. Walk to where you imagine the exit location is, get as close to it as possible. Then board your train carriage at that location.
