The following article, entitled 'Are you Living Inside a 23rd century Literary Masterpiece?' explores the history of the simulated reality trope in Science Fiction and Quantum Fiction since the late 1950s. A worksheet included with the article also assists writers to create their own Simulated Realities stories
This piece belongs to Hermes and Sesheta: (Unheralded) Gods of the New Media Revolution, Vol. 2 of The Collected Works of Ian Irvine (Hobson). (Nonfiction)
Copyright Ian Irvine (Hobson) 2017, all rights reserved.
First Published by The Zoetics Institute, May 2017 and released over various platforms thereafter.
Go To PDF of: Are You Living Inside a 23rd Century Literary Masterpiece?
Please note: A version of this article was delivered as a talk/workshop for the Bendigo Writers Council, at Bendigo Library, on May 17th 2017. For short review of the talk click here.
I would like to thank the 35 or so writers who participated in the workshop. I would also like to thank Diploma level students enrolled in ‘Nonfiction Writing’ (2017) at Bendigo Kangan Institute and ‘Advanced Fiction’ (2017) at Victoria University/Victoria Polytechnic. Special thanks, also, to Gordon and Joanne Reece, John Charalambous, Sue King-Smith and Caleb Irvine-Kingsmith for being sounding boards for the ideas herein discussed between February and May 2017.
Dr Ian Irvine (Hobson) is the author of two novels, a book of poetry and an acclaimed nonfiction book on chronic forms of alienation and ennui. His works have featured in various Australian national writing anthologies as well as in over 100 journals and magazines. He has co-edited over 20 writing anthologies and has taught as a creative arts educator and some times course coordinator since 1994. He is the founder and chief songwriter of the alt. rock band Interstitium, and was also the lead singer and co-songwriter of Australian alt rock band "Goya's Child (Original)" before his departure in 1994.
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Perhaps because I have not been an avid science fiction reader or even kept up with all of the latest developments in physics related to the subject of science fiction like you have.
Fortunately, I have not delved into simulated worlds or the possibility that we are living in a simulated world in my more down-to-earth science-based science fiction. I have watched with some amusement the gaming development coming out of comic books and the promise of VR to bring amusement to a whole new level, but I consider most science fiction in that realm to be more fantasy than science.
I realize that quantum physics is squirrelly--stranger than can be imagined. I guess that opens the door to many writing possibilities. But I believe in time string theory or another theory will come to explain the foundation of why subatomics works the way it does. Until then, The Matrix and its ilk will be just wishful thinking to me. An extension of comic book superheroism and escapism.
I did gather that I may be rewriting stories that were written decades ago that I didn't read. No plagiarism intended.
Ron