Authorpreneur Dashboard – Marie Lavirrealista
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Change of State First Phase
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Change of State is a two part novel. In "First Phase" the world is divided between Unionians, who understand, use and keep developing new technology and Outsiders, who don't. However, a sense of optimism pervades the book. In a future of virtual worlds and robotics a small team of scientists chances upon an incredible discovery about the origin of life on earth. But they must escape from a mind controlling trap prepared by dangerous humans who are secretly preparing a nightmarish dystopia for the world’s inhabitants. The narrative is influenced by today's scientific, technological, and social awareness and lets the readers experience a tomorrow that could be. Included at the end is "Accidental Warrior" which sets the scene for the book.
Book Bubbles from Change of State First Phase
Are we ready for the future?
From the balcony of a wooden chalet, I was admiring lush terraced rice fields when I remembered a passage from Clarke’s book of the late seventies, The Fountains Of Paradise, and I started to visualize an organised army of mini-robots monitoring the rice crops: “Far below, the emerald-green landscape was waking into life. Like brightly-coloured beetles, a swarm of little robot tractors was heading towards the rice-fields.”
But then, coming out of my thoughts, I realised that the figures bent over the fields were humans.
Later, in a car, the timid hopes of the driver for a far better future for his son than himself was promptly reassured by a chorus of tourists. They had to cross oceans to enjoy such a wonderful simple and primitive life - adding that they were very happy to eat organic rice hand planted and picked!
The driver smiled sadly in silence.
Back in my city apartment, I “admired” the silhouettes of skyscrapers emerging out of the deep smoke haze from the burning forests of Borneo. The tourists must be back in their own countries by now, I thought and I am sure they have already shared via the cloud images of their exaggeratedly smiling faces while fantasizing, in their Luddite dreams, of working the land themselves with hoes and picks!
A Virtual Reality Theatrical Experience
I like theatre and whenever I have the opportunity I go. Of course cinema is great too but there is a difference for me. Theatre is something immediate, it’s real, happening here and now, unpredictable. Actors enter and exit a scene, they cry, laugh, shout or whisper. It’s an illusion of reality but not a reproduction, not even an illusion; I experience it the moment it takes shape. Perhaps it’s a bit like playing with a virtual reality system. The player is not an observer of something happening somewhere else but is immersed in something happening around him or her in that specific moment. This is why emotions run deep in virtual reality games and during a theatrical show; we could say the same for flash-backs, hallucinations or déjà vu; it is the "time factor" that makes the difference!
So, what kind of experience could there be in the future to match such powerful real time emotions, I asked myself?
In this passage the setting is within a theatrical venue of sorts, the Icosagon (see previous bubble). Each member of the audience is connected with their sensorial devices, receiving and interpreting not just fact but also sensations and emotions so that what is real and what is virtual are mixed to shape a new reality.
A Futurist Trial
A common fictional device is to use an interview and a trial to reveal parts of the plot and aspects of the characters, but in a visionary world of cutting edge technology there has to be something more. Especially in a society where extreme mind connectivity has almost surrealistic dimensions the jury and the audience could not just be limited to a small group of people talking and reasoning via verbal communications!
So I have tried to evoke emotions rather than just words, built virtual experiences, broadened the participants to thousands of individuals and included as many characters as possible so that the reader can perceive not just the plot but some important elements of the whole story as well. The result I believe I obtained was more in the nature of a theatrical experience.
In this extract I describe the venue, The Icosagon. My next bubble will focus on the actual "show".
The idea for the Icosagon was inspired partly by the famous twenty sided Shakespearian theatre but presented in modern form, including a central raised platform “able to rise further and turn on its axis when required”. In this way the stage with all the actors is able to reach the same level as anyone of the public who might want to take part in the proceedings.
Brain Waves, Sensations and Emotions
These days researchers can use brain waves to correct robot's mistakes. So current technology and machine learning algorithms are now so powerful that it is possible to capture and interpret mental physical signaling. This might not yet be perfect, but it has huge implications for the coming era of artificial humans.
Researchers have also revealed maps of bodily sensations associated with different emotions and they are studying the effects of our brain chemical releases. We might be lucky enough to witness the beginning of a revolution in our social interactions and huge advances in medicine and social care.
There are many opinions on the subject, of course. But from a fictional viewpoint we cannot deny that we have surely progressed from the 19th century Mary Shelley's creature crudely made from body parts! So how can we possibly extrapolate current developments into a credible fictional setting a thousand years in the future? That is the time of Change of State and in a society where technology is definitely not a distant myth.
Where will humanity be after that many centuries? Will there be perfect artificial replicas of the human brain or, more sinisterly, its total manipulation and control? Or perhaps after so long we will have had the time to experiment with both and moved on?
Decryption Of A Front Cover
Images, words, colours and symbols are among the elements of the front cover of a book that convey a meaning. Summarizing in pixels an underlying message is challenging, yes, but also fun and it is part of the freedom of expression of modern authors. For me at least so it was in designing the front cover of Change of State.
In the emptiness of sidereal Space, from an old world represented by an ocean a new world is rising. Both are under the same Sun. This new emerging planet, however, is different from the one below: it is as if it were made not from rock, fire or water, but air and for this it appears ethereal.
Its fragility and immateriality have a deep meaning; it is a new world that needs to protect itself from a hostile and polluted environment so its renewed beings have to live under engineered domes inside of which are whole worlds of simulations and virtualities!
Above the Sun there is the molecular structure suggesting a transformation, a “Change of State” and another 'phase' is expected as the book is the first of two part novel. Finally there is the obvious ambiguity in the word “State”.
Twist On Conspiracy Theories
What if a society becomes reluctant to accept scientific evidence, denying the scientific method based on observation and data and begins instead to favour only applied technologies that, notwithstanding their power and utility, do not progress human thought and understanding.
Could such a society start to demand cuts to budgets funding pure research and, even worse, become hostile to scientists from different parts of the world because geopolitics demands it? Will the figure of the scientist lose his curiosity and integrity?
While creating the central plot of Change of State, a couple of years ago, I was asking myself such questions and I must say that my passion for the work was intensified by the news of the time which is continuing along the same direction to this day.
The output is a major conspiracy story within a technologically dominated society that protects itself behind giant biobarrierrs from a doomed “outside world”.
Future, People and the Big Issue: Living Space
The chaotic metropoles of Southern East Asia are a good source of inspiration when I begin to imagine the Future.
I easily found myself surrounded by matter and sometimes it’s difficult moving between bodies and things. Stale sweat and toxic smoke mixed with the acrid smell of spices and burnt meat. Sticky heat and a grey-white sky. Voices and noise. A crazy jumble of neon lights, plastic, videowalls with giant adverts, people with masks, shop windows and rain... nearly a Gibsonian vision! But this is only one version of this reality. Move away a bit and everything is different. Sounds, luminosity, granites and marbles, clean silence, steels, crystals and mirrors... orchids, exotic plants, jewels and perfumes. However, you also find that there is a common denominator: lack of space!
A little interlude in Change of State explores the positive connection between technology and our possible crowded Future. The estate agent here is another humoristic caricature who represents one of the many whom I have encountered during my Asian experience, finding tenants for living spaces.
Incidentally, this interlude is the first of three which are written in reverse order of time but also fit well within the overall plot.
The Yuppies of the Future
Woody Allen and technology is not perhaps the best match we can possibly imagine. But to my judgment in his hilarious film,Sleeper, Allen releases a great parody of the Future to the sound of his inimitable jazz. In a neat and tidy underpopulated world, dominated by an incompetent police state, the owner of a health food store gets defrosted after two centuries of cryogenic freezing. To his shocking surprise deep fat, cream pies and good doses of tobacco, are all considered extremely healthy!
In my book, inspired by the power of anachronism and caricature, I used in few occasions a touch of gallows humour. The figure of the so called 'Private' for example is a sort of rampant yuppie who belongs to an earlier time and is out of place in the society of Change of State. Towards the end of the book, however, I excuse the apparent social mismatch of the Private character being in reality the victim of a sinister experiment.
In this scene a Private is reduced to “selling” his services for money which is not very common, as normally Unionians exchange products and services with each other in an "open source model of society" and money is considered to be a dead thing of the past.
See my latest essay: “ITech 2.0...”
Love, Passion and Obsession in Science Fiction
Science fiction often reduces the ideas of fantastic future technology to become mere background to a love story or a murder or espionage mystery or alien invasions with very present day plotting just dropped into a future setting. I find this is not to my taste; nor is tinkering with 'super men' or 'super women' saving the Universe. On the other hand, at the other extreme, over concentration on the future can lead to sometimes one dimensional and wooden characters and over emphasis on science and the big picture which can make a story very dry. So how can the human aspects, personal feelings and motivations be reconciled and balanced in a future world of robotics, artificial intelligence and virtuality?
In Change of State the relationship between two of the characters is a blend of bodily desire, the drive towards knowledge and the domination of a persistent idea. In three words: Love, Passion and Obsession! Each of these have their space throughout the story... of course they are not the main lead but the astute reader will comfortably be able to experience all three in the different scenes: I hope you enjoy them.
The Merchant of the Future
Can you see yourself, your friend, your children in, let’s say a decade’s time, going to a shop to buy something? And with cash? There is no doubt that technology is rapidly facilitating a transformation of the old concepts of buying and selling. For example, individuals and companies are already happily trading online. What is more, people are now able to produce products and services themselves to be sold directly online: - just think about 3D printers and smart device apps. So if this trend continues imagine where it might be two millennia in the future, which is the hyper-technological setting for Change of State. Will the overall concept of trade disappear? What will it mean “to buy and sell goods and services”? Will big corporations eventually become increasingly fragmented until they finally disappear? What will replace them? Changes, however, take their own time...
The conversation, between Igor Mac Mori and his inner thoughts, gives a flavour of the kind of society one can imagine as the result of this metamorphosis which it seems will still be underway even after two millennia!
An antidote to our real isolation
“We live together, we act on, and react to one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves", says Huxley in his The Doors of Perception. Our real self is buried deep inside us and as well as enjoying this kind of "privacy" we indeed suffer a lot with our solitude and we tend to embrace any external stimulus or art or doctrine that helps us to cope. The two surreal characters of this brief glimpse of a futuristic TV show discuss some interesting mechanisms widely used in the new world of the Union to share facts and feelings. Here as well as later on in many other passages of Change of State, I imagine what a possible future technology might bring us: an antidote to our real isolation! And if this contradicts the dubious voices of many who seem to fear this type of future, I can only say that I, as many before me, believe that people only fear what they cannot understand... but when they do, actually, they come to like it!
The TV of the Future
As a child, my first experience of the world “out there” was television. I loved going into different times and places... even the Moon! This led me to wonder what might be the equivalent of that “magic box” in the future? How will people interact with it? Virtual reality is one of my favourite themes and some have already experienced it - for now through eyes and ears only but soon we will be able to smell, feel and taste too and the involvement will become even more real. But we will still be alone in virtual space and I could not accept a future population of virtual couch potatoes! So my future gadget reproduces a total sensorial experience of “reality” by direct transmission into the brain. This allows interactions for all the people who are connected with it. That is how the “Terminal Cube” of Change of State came into being.
Artificial Intelligence -The Big Question
Artificial Intelligence is uppermost in the thoughts of many and an increasingly frequent talking point in the media. The big question is: "Are we really at the point of creating a full replica of the human brain?” With only a few thousand years of history and but a couple of centuries of technological development, can we really replicate the product of millions of years of natural evolution? Even though technology is advancing exponentially, we are not there yet, but we will surely get there one day and it is fantastic that we can think about it, dream about it and also, rightly, fear it. In my latest book I visualise a society that makes heavy use of AI. In that world there exist virtual entities which are three-dimensional interfaces of powerful programmes provided with high levels of intellectual capacity and basic perceptions. They interact directly with people through artificial senses implanted in the human body. Igor Mac Mori, one of the main characters of Change of State, is the voice of conscience, continually questioning Technology. Although he loves new gadgets and tools, and has been a major contributor of technological innovations, at the same time he is full of doubt. Of interest, my own essay on “Robotics and Virtuality” see virrealismo.com
A Virtual Run
My working environment has varied a lot, and I have lived in a number of very different places. But I think that living in South East Asia has had a great influence on Change of State. The cities are crowded, hectic, and never sleep. Green spaces only exist in your imagination and gyms are packed. One day I observed a runner whilst I was on the exercise bicycle; his muscles, his sweat, his breath. I felt his energy, his vigour. The massive glass window that separated us from the real world became darker and darker. The next moment everything disappeared, only the runner remained. I had a sudden flash back of a strong experience, years before, at an art exhibition in London. I was walking through a small but completely dark space. There were no reference points and it was pitch black, completely disorientating. I dismounted the bicycle and passed to the rowing machine. The guy was still running and I could follow his race in the luminescent panel in front of him which was when I imagined running in a long, black tunnel pursuing something luminescent, always just ahead. As I left the gym, I thought to myself: "This is the opening of my next book."
Future Society
My interest is the effects of science and technology on society and vice-versa. To express that I create futures with new social structures where, ideally, enlightened reason prevails. In Change of State First Phase, however, I examine in more detail what life might really be like in a technology driven society that "had abandoned pure science" and scientific research had been maintained as an hobby. So I asked myself: is the technology an instrument of knowledge or an end in itself?
