A Problem with Writing
Jan. 4th, 2010 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesSo, recently I've read a couple of books with the premise of 'magic returns and suddenly our advance technology stops working', and I start thinking about 'why?'. I mean, the idea of a magic natural disaster makes sense -- people love disaster fiction and apocalypses, and losing 5 centuries worth of technology would be pretty bad.
Related to a Dresden Files RPG list discussion about why the wizards bollocks up technology, and why some forms and not the others -- Harry Dresden, for example, decided that hot water and light bulbs aren't worth the fact they burn out, but he still drives, albeit, a 1960s-era Volkswagen. The workings of a light bulb are far less intricate than a car, and are basically the same as an electric stove -- basically, you run current through a filament until it gets hot enough to glow. Someone on the ML suggested it was because of human understanding. Most drivers have a good idea about how cars work, thanks to roadside repairs and the fact many people work on cars*. Some people know how home wiring and plumbing work. Fewer people could tell you how a computer works in any sort of generality. Heck, I only have the vaguest ideas about what's going on in the laptop, though I've taken computer classes which include knowing something how computers work.
So, now I have this story idea, where suddenly stuff stops working and 'magic' comes back. So cars only work if you understand internal combustion... or have an alternate theory that explains what happens in a car (magic!), one that might let you burn water. It was kind of fun thinking about what technologies would survive, and what could be salvaged by pooling the tradespeople and high school teachers. Cars would. Light and heat would, as would indoor plumbing -- you'd need the techs at the water and power stations to make the power, but most people could learn enough about plumbing and electricity to survive. Computers probably wouldn't. Phones might not since so much is digital and cellular now, though a local network could probably be reconstructed. TV and radio might go with phones. Surprisingly, a lot of tech, maybe up to the 1950s would be salvageable, but it would take educated folks to sort out the bits that would take a specialized operator.
(Some things might be easier -- I wonder if a chemist could persuade molecules to grow into a certain compound by noting that s/he put in the right atoms and the right amount of energy to overcome the barriers. Or really having a magical viewpoint might let you do things like control the weather via prayer.)
The one loophole I'm thinking comes with living things, which are wonderfully complex bits of chemistry, but the fact everything is following instructions makes them not subject to this rule. Humans don't fall over dead if they don't understand how they work -- plus it would mean ecosystems would need humans to remember them, and I don't want to go there. So we still work (and fail to work, in cases like cancer or genetic disorders) the same way, which means the medical profession still needs what we've gained. Faith healing tends to still not work, because the body 'knows' what it's doing, even if it's cancer that is following a corrupted set of instructions which is killing things. The one exception might be early in development, before birth, when the instructions are turning on.
One thing that means is that a lot of biologists and chemists (and scientists in general) and engineers might be useful as doctor support, since 'magic' (alternate theories as to How Stuff Works) doesn't work on living things. So you want the physicist telling your MRI it's a MRI, or your chemist making heart medication. Also means that university towns will probably be the best places to go for hospitals, and have some pull in the local area. Also I'd suspect that medical tech would be a lot more important than any other tech that needs a specialist, since the lack of magic working on humans and animals, and the fact that we're not accustomed to dying young, since we remember better.
Also, the social aspects would probably mean less central and more local government. Things would also be a mess for years after, and the US might lose territory with the initial fall of communications. I suspect one of the reasons we're trending towards a more centralized government is because increased communications and travel.
So, I have all this worldbuilding, but few story ideas. Which stinks, and is par for the course. So I'm working on constructing a plot for this. I got two ideas:
1. When the disaster strikes, a lot of folks will be in places that need technology to exist -- Antarctica, the Space Station, etc. Heck, a lot of folks in 'safe' places and cities will die just because our economy (at least in the First World) is structured around being able to shuffle resources around, and the heavy use of technology in food production. So a rescue story might be fun to write, and it plays into the disaster movie thing. My original idea was the Space Station/a Space Shuttle, but I don't know if I can pull that off, since it would require a lot of research. Antarctica would also work.
2. Something later, about the doctors and staff keeping people alive, and about scientists trying to figure out the new rules. The idea was an obstetrician discovering about that embryonic humans can be affected via will, and that someone is taking advantage of that. I don't know how, though** -- if someone could affect human development via thought, and one was unscrupulous, what would one do with that? I mean, the first thing that would come to mind is something mostly cosmetic that would make people freak out, then just raise the kids as 'we are the only ones who will take care of you, since you are monsters'. Or eugenics, I suppose. Or psychological warfare -- instead of committing genocide by killing folks, just make sure any children they bear won't survive. Or won't resemble them.
I'm very good at worldbuilding, but I need to work on coming up with plots for my worldbuilding. Or just writing the darn things.
--
* Though that might be less true as cars get more computerized parts.
** Besides kidnapping pregnant women (or, more probably, women and impregnating them -- ew) and manipulating them to change their offspring.
Related to a Dresden Files RPG list discussion about why the wizards bollocks up technology, and why some forms and not the others -- Harry Dresden, for example, decided that hot water and light bulbs aren't worth the fact they burn out, but he still drives, albeit, a 1960s-era Volkswagen. The workings of a light bulb are far less intricate than a car, and are basically the same as an electric stove -- basically, you run current through a filament until it gets hot enough to glow. Someone on the ML suggested it was because of human understanding. Most drivers have a good idea about how cars work, thanks to roadside repairs and the fact many people work on cars*. Some people know how home wiring and plumbing work. Fewer people could tell you how a computer works in any sort of generality. Heck, I only have the vaguest ideas about what's going on in the laptop, though I've taken computer classes which include knowing something how computers work.
So, now I have this story idea, where suddenly stuff stops working and 'magic' comes back. So cars only work if you understand internal combustion... or have an alternate theory that explains what happens in a car (magic!), one that might let you burn water. It was kind of fun thinking about what technologies would survive, and what could be salvaged by pooling the tradespeople and high school teachers. Cars would. Light and heat would, as would indoor plumbing -- you'd need the techs at the water and power stations to make the power, but most people could learn enough about plumbing and electricity to survive. Computers probably wouldn't. Phones might not since so much is digital and cellular now, though a local network could probably be reconstructed. TV and radio might go with phones. Surprisingly, a lot of tech, maybe up to the 1950s would be salvageable, but it would take educated folks to sort out the bits that would take a specialized operator.
(Some things might be easier -- I wonder if a chemist could persuade molecules to grow into a certain compound by noting that s/he put in the right atoms and the right amount of energy to overcome the barriers. Or really having a magical viewpoint might let you do things like control the weather via prayer.)
The one loophole I'm thinking comes with living things, which are wonderfully complex bits of chemistry, but the fact everything is following instructions makes them not subject to this rule. Humans don't fall over dead if they don't understand how they work -- plus it would mean ecosystems would need humans to remember them, and I don't want to go there. So we still work (and fail to work, in cases like cancer or genetic disorders) the same way, which means the medical profession still needs what we've gained. Faith healing tends to still not work, because the body 'knows' what it's doing, even if it's cancer that is following a corrupted set of instructions which is killing things. The one exception might be early in development, before birth, when the instructions are turning on.
One thing that means is that a lot of biologists and chemists (and scientists in general) and engineers might be useful as doctor support, since 'magic' (alternate theories as to How Stuff Works) doesn't work on living things. So you want the physicist telling your MRI it's a MRI, or your chemist making heart medication. Also means that university towns will probably be the best places to go for hospitals, and have some pull in the local area. Also I'd suspect that medical tech would be a lot more important than any other tech that needs a specialist, since the lack of magic working on humans and animals, and the fact that we're not accustomed to dying young, since we remember better.
Also, the social aspects would probably mean less central and more local government. Things would also be a mess for years after, and the US might lose territory with the initial fall of communications. I suspect one of the reasons we're trending towards a more centralized government is because increased communications and travel.
So, I have all this worldbuilding, but few story ideas. Which stinks, and is par for the course. So I'm working on constructing a plot for this. I got two ideas:
1. When the disaster strikes, a lot of folks will be in places that need technology to exist -- Antarctica, the Space Station, etc. Heck, a lot of folks in 'safe' places and cities will die just because our economy (at least in the First World) is structured around being able to shuffle resources around, and the heavy use of technology in food production. So a rescue story might be fun to write, and it plays into the disaster movie thing. My original idea was the Space Station/a Space Shuttle, but I don't know if I can pull that off, since it would require a lot of research. Antarctica would also work.
2. Something later, about the doctors and staff keeping people alive, and about scientists trying to figure out the new rules. The idea was an obstetrician discovering about that embryonic humans can be affected via will, and that someone is taking advantage of that. I don't know how, though** -- if someone could affect human development via thought, and one was unscrupulous, what would one do with that? I mean, the first thing that would come to mind is something mostly cosmetic that would make people freak out, then just raise the kids as 'we are the only ones who will take care of you, since you are monsters'. Or eugenics, I suppose. Or psychological warfare -- instead of committing genocide by killing folks, just make sure any children they bear won't survive. Or won't resemble them.
I'm very good at worldbuilding, but I need to work on coming up with plots for my worldbuilding. Or just writing the darn things.
--
* Though that might be less true as cars get more computerized parts.
** Besides kidnapping pregnant women (or, more probably, women and impregnating them -- ew) and manipulating them to change their offspring.
