To a science fiction writer science obviously matters. It is both a source of ideas and essential background to plot and character. I have a degree in applied science (chemical engineering) but I still have to do a significant amount of research to develop my ideas about how a piece of technology could work or already does work.
In this series of posts I want to share some of the research about science, technology and society that I do for my writing. I can't promise there wont be some of my own ideas in here (although they will be labelled as such) or the occasional rants about anti-science and other stupidity but mostly it will be real science and tech.
Next week I want to talk about fusion technology. A staple of many futuristic science fiction stories either as the central feature or as necessary background technology but what is possible and what is likely in the near and longer term future of fusion power?
A.I.Marin.
Friday, 27 February 2015
Monday, 23 February 2015
History Matters: Introduction
I write science fiction although there are probably elements of fantasy in there as well. I try to ground my story in plausible science. So why do I look at history?
The past informs the present and the present informs the future. Some trends in society and technology can only be understood when looking at a long time frame. So to project into the future requires a look at history. There's also that rather famous saying that has been paraphrased countless times by countless others:
History offers insights into a few compelling aspects of society:
A.I.Marin.
The past informs the present and the present informs the future. Some trends in society and technology can only be understood when looking at a long time frame. So to project into the future requires a look at history. There's also that rather famous saying that has been paraphrased countless times by countless others:
'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'
George Santayana (1905) Reason in Common Sense, p. 284, volume 1 of The Life of Reason
History offers insights into a few compelling aspects of society:
- Social trends, changes in social norms can both influence and be influenced by technology, conflict and the environment. For any story about 'people' the social environment they live in is likely to be an important part of the story or essential background to it.
- Technology trends sometimes take a long time to show their true nature. For example the history of agriculture has had an impact on what kind of civilization the food production can support and on global warming, a trend that will impact our future for centuries to come.
- Warfare, while the technology of war has changed and will continue to change, the tactics and strategy that made a difference centuries ago are still relevant. Sun Tzu wrote about 500BC and his "Art of War" is still considered relevant for today's military leaders, political leaders and even business leaders.
A.I.Marin.
Monday, 9 February 2015
Map of the Kingdom
This is the working map I have been using to write my books.
There are several issues with it. The first thing you'll notice is that it's not complete. Most of the cities are not named yet and not all the roads are drawn in. The most important part of the map for the first novel is the Mountain Province and it's more complete than the other regions. I was generally filling in the details as I needed them for the book.
The second problem is that the map is of the modern 'altitude' contours type. It looks pretty enough but it limits the narrative freedom to have a high mountain where the story needs it to be or rugged hills where they need to be or hidden valleys. It limits narrative freedom, full stop.
The map was generated with software that used fractal algorithms to create 'realistic' looking global maps. Then I used other software to convert the image into vector form so that I could use a vector art package to add the cities, names and other details. I prefer to do this with vectors because the writing and other features can be scaled more freely up or down.
I'm working on a new version of the map but it's not ready to show yet. It's only a background thing I do when I need a break from writing.
A.I.Marin
There are several issues with it. The first thing you'll notice is that it's not complete. Most of the cities are not named yet and not all the roads are drawn in. The most important part of the map for the first novel is the Mountain Province and it's more complete than the other regions. I was generally filling in the details as I needed them for the book.
The second problem is that the map is of the modern 'altitude' contours type. It looks pretty enough but it limits the narrative freedom to have a high mountain where the story needs it to be or rugged hills where they need to be or hidden valleys. It limits narrative freedom, full stop.
The map was generated with software that used fractal algorithms to create 'realistic' looking global maps. Then I used other software to convert the image into vector form so that I could use a vector art package to add the cities, names and other details. I prefer to do this with vectors because the writing and other features can be scaled more freely up or down.
I'm working on a new version of the map but it's not ready to show yet. It's only a background thing I do when I need a break from writing.
A.I.Marin
Thursday, 5 February 2015
Servants and the pecking order
So writing about servants in a medieval sort of society is hard. I keep wanting to bring what I know about being a paid employee in modern times into it. I'm fairly sure that the life of a servant in a manor or castle was significantly different to my experience.
So research, yeah.
The thing I discovered almost immediately was the that society I was imagining in my SciFi/Fantasy world was more like a renaissance one than a real medieval one. That's actually good news, it frees me from slavishly following medieval practices. The society I've imagined plays out in detail like a movie in my head but its not exactly the same as any historic period on Earth.
The second thing I discovered quickly is that servants were not treated anywhere near as well as I thought they might be. Nowhere near as well as I'd imagined. So again, my world is not like history but I did have to change what I was writing to make the servants life less comfortable.
Finally and terrifyingly, women were treated even worse than I had imagined. In medieval times women had no rights, at all! Wives were not partners in life, they were slaves, often taken by force from enemies or bought for money. I wanted to paint a picture of a society where women don't have anything like the equality I'm used to (as flawed as it is), so that I can draw a contrast with modern society and point out its flaws but medieval society was terrifyingly worse than even my most horrific imaginings. So again my world is different to that, I don't want to portray life for women as bad as it actually was in medieval Europe.
The pecking order, it's human nature to want to know where you stand with those around you. so confrontations to sort out the pecking order are inevitable. In medieval society servants fell into two distinct classes. The sons of people of influence/nobles doing effectively an apprenticeship as a servant. They made contacts and learned important skills until they could establish their own household. The others were women and serfs, in both cases effectively slaves paid almost nothing and expected to act with complete obedience.
So in my world I'm going for something of a hybrid model of the servant/master relationship. Two classes of servants, the noble brats and the commoners. However the commoners are paid a little in addition to room and board and basic clothes supplied. They also have some common law rights. Common law started in England in the later part of the medieval period. So my world is something like late middle ages with a touch of renaissance and a touch of SciFi/fantasy.
Some links to things I found:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_household
http://www.ancientfortresses.org/medieval-castle-life.htm
http://mail.islux.lu/librarylinks/Medieval+3rd+grade/Servants.htm
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gbetcher/373/guilds.htm
http://www.eelkat.com/MedievalServants.html
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/40275569?sid=21105789168813&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3737536
http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-life/
...and many others.
A.I.Marin.
So research, yeah.
The thing I discovered almost immediately was the that society I was imagining in my SciFi/Fantasy world was more like a renaissance one than a real medieval one. That's actually good news, it frees me from slavishly following medieval practices. The society I've imagined plays out in detail like a movie in my head but its not exactly the same as any historic period on Earth.
The second thing I discovered quickly is that servants were not treated anywhere near as well as I thought they might be. Nowhere near as well as I'd imagined. So again, my world is not like history but I did have to change what I was writing to make the servants life less comfortable.
Finally and terrifyingly, women were treated even worse than I had imagined. In medieval times women had no rights, at all! Wives were not partners in life, they were slaves, often taken by force from enemies or bought for money. I wanted to paint a picture of a society where women don't have anything like the equality I'm used to (as flawed as it is), so that I can draw a contrast with modern society and point out its flaws but medieval society was terrifyingly worse than even my most horrific imaginings. So again my world is different to that, I don't want to portray life for women as bad as it actually was in medieval Europe.
The pecking order, it's human nature to want to know where you stand with those around you. so confrontations to sort out the pecking order are inevitable. In medieval society servants fell into two distinct classes. The sons of people of influence/nobles doing effectively an apprenticeship as a servant. They made contacts and learned important skills until they could establish their own household. The others were women and serfs, in both cases effectively slaves paid almost nothing and expected to act with complete obedience.
So in my world I'm going for something of a hybrid model of the servant/master relationship. Two classes of servants, the noble brats and the commoners. However the commoners are paid a little in addition to room and board and basic clothes supplied. They also have some common law rights. Common law started in England in the later part of the medieval period. So my world is something like late middle ages with a touch of renaissance and a touch of SciFi/fantasy.
Some links to things I found:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_household
http://www.ancientfortresses.org/medieval-castle-life.htm
http://mail.islux.lu/librarylinks/Medieval+3rd+grade/Servants.htm
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gbetcher/373/guilds.htm
http://www.eelkat.com/MedievalServants.html
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/40275569?sid=21105789168813&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3737536
http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-life/
...and many others.
A.I.Marin.
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