Sci-fi writer John Dill explains the philosophy behind his Braxin King series of novels.
The BRAXIN KING is a very complex story philosophically; a project involving creation of an entirely different reality including its universe.
The challenge for me was in selecting where to keep it consistent with the reality we're all familiar with and where to expand that reality to include charcterization and technological advancement. I responded to the challenge by adding facets to our existing reality that would explain some of the modern scientific mysteries still unresolved. And I decided early on to keep it as consistent to how I believed humanity et al, and individuals within that larger group, would actually respond to such a reality were they confronted by it. I wanted to tackle many of those larger questions that remain a mystery scientifically. The origin of humanity, for instance, is covered in Mark's conversation with Andrew. The existence of existence itself likewise became a focal point during that same conversation. I built the answer to many of these puzzles into the personification of one species within that new universe: the Braxin. I placed the onus for existence on TIME itself and assigned/created a face for time calling her MOTHER TIME. I made her the goddess creator of this universe. Her role will increase significantly in books three and four.
But I had to establish a philosophical classification system in my own mind as an outline to follow as I developed each character and inserted them into the bigger picture along the way. I began with Time then attached Existence and added Gravity and the Vacuum as the basic building blocks scientifically to enable explanations of the answers to those bigger questions; questions like why something as opposed to nothing. I summed it all up in the shell of a nut we call REALITY because REALITY depends as much on our comprehension as our comprehension depends on reality. Who is creating who in the history of existence? I built scenarios where Mark Anthony’s worldview was constantly being expanded, challenged, by new information he’d never before encountered. I held in my hand the pen of creation of an expanded worldview for Mark. That is basically the beginning of this story.
The precise point where I held the knitting needles used to create a universe for my readers that would stimulate their imaginations using references to experiences and conditions familiar to everyone in a unique weave to lead us into a reality where science has the leading role alongside a more logical religious expression yet to be fully fleshed out in Books Three and Four.
Whether devout believer or full scale anti-theist I intend to demonstrate why the universe, as we experience now, would have never survived long enough to be experienced without religion of some kind in the mix. Without an imagination capable of receiving, classifying and eventually comprehending what’s being experienced, reality ceases to exist. If there is a dimension or aspect of reality outside of ourselves that is in some way or form itself sentient, then that reality needs us as much as we need it. Without a significant Other to acknowledge its existence, existence becomes meaningless gibberish. So basically, utilizing the natural world and its assets, we are writing our own counter-factual reality one letter at a time. And maybe the sentient quality of that reality is using its assets to direct our creation along the way.
As Mother Time said, She had to choose between an eternal void or a never ending ocean of constant change where change itself is the only foundational unchanging constant. The second option seemed to her to be her best shot at producing “Something” as opposed to “Nothing”, even if there will never be a FINAL something produced. This leaves us with the question of whether that will eventually cover an “everything” as in nothing new left to see or do, or will that continue to blossom into there always being the possibility for something new to emerge?
When I ask myself why I overlay sentience onto the larger framework of reality itself I realize it is because that larger framework is meaningless without it. And the existence of meaninglessness is equivalent to the existence of nothingness. When I look around me I have to concede I see no evidence for the existence of either nothingness or meaninglessness. That I exist is the best evidence against their existence. That my existence attributes meaning to the existence of existence corroborates their being more to sentience than what we experience on one single world in a reality of almost innumerable worlds. This also tells me that which exists isn't meaningless itself but requires sentience to establish meaning. Meaning is IDENTITY and IDENTITY is established in answer to the ‘who’, what, when, where and why questions and those are the questions that are best answered by science. We exist for a reason and that reason is science. Thus science is the religion of existence and scientists are its preachers and practitioners. That means all of us are scientists at heart because science is about seeking answers to questions and until we have all the correct answers we have meaning. If we ever come to a place in our existence where we know it all, we will have effectively arrived at a place where we no longer have any meaning.
The BRAXIN KING is a very complex story philosophically; a project involving creation of an entirely different reality including its universe.
The challenge for me was in selecting where to keep it consistent with the reality we're all familiar with and where to expand that reality to include charcterization and technological advancement. I responded to the challenge by adding facets to our existing reality that would explain some of the modern scientific mysteries still unresolved. And I decided early on to keep it as consistent to how I believed humanity et al, and individuals within that larger group, would actually respond to such a reality were they confronted by it. I wanted to tackle many of those larger questions that remain a mystery scientifically. The origin of humanity, for instance, is covered in Mark's conversation with Andrew. The existence of existence itself likewise became a focal point during that same conversation. I built the answer to many of these puzzles into the personification of one species within that new universe: the Braxin. I placed the onus for existence on TIME itself and assigned/created a face for time calling her MOTHER TIME. I made her the goddess creator of this universe. Her role will increase significantly in books three and four.
But I had to establish a philosophical classification system in my own mind as an outline to follow as I developed each character and inserted them into the bigger picture along the way. I began with Time then attached Existence and added Gravity and the Vacuum as the basic building blocks scientifically to enable explanations of the answers to those bigger questions; questions like why something as opposed to nothing. I summed it all up in the shell of a nut we call REALITY because REALITY depends as much on our comprehension as our comprehension depends on reality. Who is creating who in the history of existence? I built scenarios where Mark Anthony’s worldview was constantly being expanded, challenged, by new information he’d never before encountered. I held in my hand the pen of creation of an expanded worldview for Mark. That is basically the beginning of this story.
The precise point where I held the knitting needles used to create a universe for my readers that would stimulate their imaginations using references to experiences and conditions familiar to everyone in a unique weave to lead us into a reality where science has the leading role alongside a more logical religious expression yet to be fully fleshed out in Books Three and Four.
Whether devout believer or full scale anti-theist I intend to demonstrate why the universe, as we experience now, would have never survived long enough to be experienced without religion of some kind in the mix. Without an imagination capable of receiving, classifying and eventually comprehending what’s being experienced, reality ceases to exist. If there is a dimension or aspect of reality outside of ourselves that is in some way or form itself sentient, then that reality needs us as much as we need it. Without a significant Other to acknowledge its existence, existence becomes meaningless gibberish. So basically, utilizing the natural world and its assets, we are writing our own counter-factual reality one letter at a time. And maybe the sentient quality of that reality is using its assets to direct our creation along the way.
As Mother Time said, She had to choose between an eternal void or a never ending ocean of constant change where change itself is the only foundational unchanging constant. The second option seemed to her to be her best shot at producing “Something” as opposed to “Nothing”, even if there will never be a FINAL something produced. This leaves us with the question of whether that will eventually cover an “everything” as in nothing new left to see or do, or will that continue to blossom into there always being the possibility for something new to emerge?
When I ask myself why I overlay sentience onto the larger framework of reality itself I realize it is because that larger framework is meaningless without it. And the existence of meaninglessness is equivalent to the existence of nothingness. When I look around me I have to concede I see no evidence for the existence of either nothingness or meaninglessness. That I exist is the best evidence against their existence. That my existence attributes meaning to the existence of existence corroborates their being more to sentience than what we experience on one single world in a reality of almost innumerable worlds. This also tells me that which exists isn't meaningless itself but requires sentience to establish meaning. Meaning is IDENTITY and IDENTITY is established in answer to the ‘who’, what, when, where and why questions and those are the questions that are best answered by science. We exist for a reason and that reason is science. Thus science is the religion of existence and scientists are its preachers and practitioners. That means all of us are scientists at heart because science is about seeking answers to questions and until we have all the correct answers we have meaning. If we ever come to a place in our existence where we know it all, we will have effectively arrived at a place where we no longer have any meaning.