On World Building and Research

Let there be things wondrous but plausible

In the beginning, there was the word. No. The idea. No. There was nothing. Out of nothing popped this idea, chaotic, unruly, vast and exhausting in its glory. How on earth can we do it justice? What does it all mean? Where are all these characters coming from? Who is Senator Bosso, and why is he important? Or maybe he isn’t? Clue: he is, for now.

World building is not instant. I doubt anyone ever sat down and had everything planned out in their head and wrote it all down word by word. I drew a map. It helps. Especially if you make it all up, a whole world, as one does in Science Fiction or Fantasy. It’s not only location, it’s everything. Depending on how outlandish your material is, it can be a lot to track and balance, without getting too tedious for the reader (mind the Smeerp). Inventing new words is something I have been guilty of on occasion. Sometimes it serves a specific purpose, and readers will go with it, or so we hope.

What is a Defrag? There is the current denotation, as can be found in any dictionary. Forget that one. We are more interested in its speculative connotation in a future sense when applied to neural clusters and nodes inside the human brain. Let’s further stipulate that fragmentation is not good and could be countered with Neurobionics, thus eliminating pesky cognitive decline and other brain function-impairing ailments. Wouldn’t that be swell? A couple of companies are researching that. Neuralink is on it, and so is DARPA, although their Targeted Neuroplasticity Training (TNT) program is meant to support improved, accelerated training of military personnel in multifaceted and complex tasks.

Let’s assume we did manage all that at some point in the future. Plug in that BCI wetware! Messing with the brain? Risky. Who knows what long-term effects this might have, potentially fragmenting your thoughts and making you fly over the Cuckoo Nest? What options will there be to fix what tech messed up? Some other tech. You better pray your neural clusters won’t get corrupted in the process. Otherwise, out with the old, in with the new? Another Fronkensteen approach, where you get the brain from some Abby Normal. No. I don’t think so. If consciousness – internal and external – can be stored, it can be restored. Many works, old and new, explore that theme.

What, then, is a DEFRAG? Is it a person? A place? An action? All three?

DEFRAG /ˌdiːˈfræɡ/ n. See also DEFRAGMENTED (obs.): Augmented human clone with degraded neural performance due to repeated fragmentation of neural clusters. Symptoms range from loss of memory to hallucinations, up to cerebral haemorrhaging.
n. location: a place where fragmented neural clusters are defragged.
v. reorder neural clusters to counter the neural fragmentation effect.

SPHEREAN DICTIONARY
Copyright © 2423

Keeping a (fictional) dictionary of terms and lingo for my project helps me keep track of things. It’s also a way of ensuring suspension of disbelief on the reader’s side because everything ideally seems plausible enough. Is the term Defrag plausible? The definition does not tell us in what way these human clones are augmented or what causes the neural fragmentation, nor whether defragmentation is safe or permanent or how it is done. Does it have to? We will find out as we discover the world and its inhabitants.

And then there is the copyright notice citing a future year and source of publication, raising more questions. What is a Spherean? Speculate on that one.

I have a section called “Research” in my Scrivener project file. Every article, image, webpage, and idea is stored all in one place. It helps keep track of concepts and theories and what they are based on, such as “spooky” quantum biology might cause your DNA to mutate… come again?

That right there could be another Tale from the Defrag.

Apart from research, I like to visualize concepts. Take maglev vehicles. No, not that anti-gravitational stuff. Little Grogu floating around in his metal egg crib may be cute, but how would that work? Repulsorlift technology? We suspend our disbelief even if it’s utter nonsense, as are landspeeders and speeder bikes because it’s fun, and that’s OK.

We make the impossible possible within the story, and sometimes what once was Science Fiction is now a reality, as H.G. Wells predicted tank warfare in his short story “The Land Ironclads” (1903). This is not to say we will teleport around and have replicators make Earl Grey tea for us any time soon. Sorry, but with teleportation, there’s always that fly problem. Speaking of flies…

Marty McFly’s hoverboard, on the other hand, gets closer to the possible. Magnetic Levitation is used today in maglev high-speed trains, and some companies are working on concepts involving cars and delivery systems.

How would we travel in the year 2442? By quantum levitation pod, of course, with cheap superconductors that work at any temperature and don’t require any guidance tracks. And here’s how Stable Diffusion (created with Nightcafe) interprets this travel scenario:

Maglev Pod travel in 2442 (Stable Diffusion Text Prompt)

A bit generic, perhaps? Car designer jobs are still safe, for now. The text prompt wasn’t too specific, and the image could be tuned using the “Evolve” option, adding more keywords and tweaking all the parameters. Have you used AI for research or creating concepts for your work? Apropos work…

Now it’s time to finish chapter five, which will involve pod travel.