Crises

Man, sometimes the world just washes over me. This last month has been one of those times where all the mistakes I've made catch back up a while, before ebbing again to let me push forward. But I hardly expect things to change quickly. This past while I got sucked into the courts again for a month, solely due to errors on the part of others. And our courts do not move fast. Two months for them to look at a piece of paper I had in order to say that they had screwed up. And bleeding me for another hundred in the process? Hardly out of the question.

Which leads me to my most startling discovery of the last year--that our "justice" system is not trying to rehabilitate, but bleed our inmates. Bleed them of their money and time, and, in most cases, make it impossible to recover once they are free. I feel as though this is especially the case with the drug courts in our country (speaking from what I've gleaned from others, and in this case not my own personal experience). So very many people get involved for little more than personal use, and are then involved for years. Job applications ask for criminal history (which I cannot blame them for) and any sign of a troubled past exempts you from employment. This is active discrimination. I, personally, now have a misdemeanor marked on my record, and already I have lost too many opportunities. A stupid mistake on my part, and now I have to pay the courts with money I need to get from a job, I can't get because I'm involved in the courts. Fuck.

But that's enough of a rant for now. I'm sure I will expand upon this later, once my seething rage subsides further.

World Building - Part 1 - Layer

Layer takes place on a giant multi-generational ship, and probably won't leave it's confines. Science Fiction often places emphasis on planets or moons or some such non-sense, however these are very small parts of the vast blackness of space, so I want to focus on where we know people will be if we ever leave earth, the ships they travel on.

The distances between stars is vast, and the ships that would travel between these spaces would need to house people for extended periods of time. This means: Food, air and water must have sources that are reusable; a number of generations will live (and in my case have already lived) on board; and that various systems of governance must exist (both in terms of ship functionality, and the crew of the ship).

Layer is essentially a four-tiered ship. Going from top to bottom (gravity is "down") the main sections are: Shielding, navigation, habitation, and systems.

Shielding: Space is a hazardous place for travel. In addition to vacuum there is interstellar debris to contend with. Layer is protected by a planetoid hung above the navigation systems by a projected gravity well. The well both functions as propulsion (as the ship is pulled toward it, the projection is pushed forward, essentially causing the ship to "fall" through space), and defense (the planetoid catches small debris, and deflects larger).

Navigation: The upper most section connected to the ship. This section houses the AI that sustain ship functions, as well as the Navigators (genetically modified humans in charge of the ship).

Habitation: The area of the ship in charge of food production, air recycling, etc. Houses the largest portion of the ship's population.

Systems: The bottom most section, houses the gravity well projectors, water recycling plants, and various other mechanical ship functions.

(Note: more on Navigation, Habitation and Systems in later posts.)

Layer shall take place within these confines.

World Building - Intro

I find that story comes more easily when there is a well defined and established setting. This is easy when the setting is our own earth--all the rules are already established--however, when I want to move beyond or native world, I find I can get lost in conflicting ideas unless I preset the rules I want to use. My newest project (science-fiction) takes place off of earth, and so first I am going to develop the setting for "Layer" before I begin writing.

First things first, literal setting (places i will use), then culture and religion and other flesh to make the setting more real and believable. Over the next few posts I will try to posit how I create the world of Layer, and go about writing the stories within it.

Late lonesome nights

It is indeed a misfortune to want to talk about some specific thing when the only person you normally talk to is part of the problem...

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Thoughts

I have been hearing a lot about theories of consciousness lately. The other day My friend October, and his cousin got into one such conversation. I found it interesting that October and I have a very similar end view about how consciousness exists, albeit via different methods. His father is very into Urantia [link], and I find the ideas portrayed in this nouveau-religion. I find the idea of a modern science based religion that takes into account that it's central text may not be entirely accurate even after a short time (talked about in the intro).

October and I both feel that consciousness is not inside of us, though in slightly different forms. His view is that we (humans) are "remote controlled" by an external force, that uses our brain as a sort of transmission system. A not insignificant amount of modern neuro-psychology and neuro-chemistry supports this. Scientists have been slowly making headway in how our brains are able to communicate with our bodies, but still have no idea what causes initial thoughts. We can trace how our thought of moving our arm pulses through our neurons, but cannot identify where the thought is formed. We see cascades of electricity forming our actions and responses, but there is no part of the brain that can be specifically identified as the cause of self awareness. October takes this as an indication that our consciousness is elsewhere, and transmitted to and through us (yes, this idea is taken of faith).

This is where my view begins to differ. I don't feel as though our world is actually separate from consciousness, but is a facet of it. Imagine a great gem, cut into some delicate and intricate pattern. Looking through each face you will see a different pattern (read: reality), but none of the patterns seen are actually the gem, just some part that may indeed look very different than the entirety. I am not the first to think this. The Allegory of the Cave is another way of seeing this, as is the Hindu idea of Atman-Brahman. Plato saw the world as but a reflection of the "real" world outside the cave, where our views of chairs, cats, cars, etc. just show some facet of "real" version of itself. The idea of Atman-Brahman is similar, but goes even a step further. Beyond even the objects of our world being facets of some real thing, our souls (Atman) are part of the "real" soul (Brahman). This is extended even further; none of the objects in our universe (the one of our five senses) are actually even fragments of perfect versions of themselves, they are also just facets of Brahman. This ancient religious view isn't some outdated mode of thought, either, physics is beginning to hold this view as well. People familiar with string theory (or possibly m-brane theory) know that all of our reality is just the vibrations of strings on a higher plane of existence (in this case not so much heaven, but other dimensions).

This whole idea personally speaks to me, and I have based my own philosophy and theology off of this duality between Hinduism and Physics. But I still do not believe that everything in our world is nonexistent. The actual physical things are just dream-shadows, but the intellectual and emotional content of conversations, books, music, and art are real. If all of this reality is just some super-consciousness "dreaming" (perhaps to pass the time, perhaps for some specific purpose) then as facets of the super-consciousness our own thoughts and emotions are the only truly real experiences we have. The sounds of our voices, the instruments, the paint or ink on paper, these things are not real; but the meaning behind the words, the emotions carried by music and art, the new ways for us to see ourselves and this ever-changing universe we inhabit--these ideas are real, even within our unreal world.

Stumbling

I do not know how many of you utilize the wonder of the Internet and the web-app "Stubledupon," but I am one of those many who do.
But to the point, I find it strange that in all my stublings, only one page consistently comes up for me to look at [link]. It seems particularly bizarre in that I always have loved that movie, and have always been the one person who disparages on myself more than any other person ever has. Maybe it is a sign from the Internet Gods that I should, indeed, hold myself in higher regard, or maybe there is a bug in their system that allows this one link to come up more often than other (sometimes as frequently as ten times in a day). Regardless of which it is, I always find it brings a little smile to my face to see Edward Norton looking as confused about his (fictional) life as I am with my (real) one.

Insomnia

There is something undeniably appealing about never sleeping. The way my mind aches in strange new directions and the things I would dream seep into my open eyes is just eternally appealing. I've done my share of chemical impairment, and even including all of those (oft enjoyable, occasionally not) experiences sleeplessness is so much more inspirational and inviting. I never thought I would be so glad to have a bidaily sleep schedule, and yet here I am doting on it. Enough for now. I'm going to go drink more coffee.