twitter ~ So, a few weeks ago I made the twitter plunge. It’s fun and annoying at the same time. Follow me if you dare.
particle sphere ~ 2 years in and the script is at version 0.8 with 31 pages. Dialog and descriptions are essentially complete. I am making final sweeps for consistency and story logic. Special thanks to a powerful new ally for the comix lunches.
I use this parallel approach to learning while researching and creating my comic ParticleSphere, now in the script writing phase. I seek out media that address as many of my interests as possible at the same time. This multitasking allows me to build conceptual structures that apply not only to a science fiction comic but my professional and personal interests as well. This process of assimilation and connection is why I like to use the phrase “everything is connected” as a general creative mantra.
The PS Status updates for the next few weeks will feature some of the books from my 2007 readings. These books are relevant material for anyone interested in the nature of technology past, present and future. All were in some way relevant to the story I have in mind and each one helped me better understand how I might get the thing on paper (well, in pixels at least).
This week’s book is Techgnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information
The world I’m attempting to create for ParticleSphere is my way of dealing with the coming genetic, bio- and robo- technological revolution where machines will become not only sentient but capable of taking human intelligence to the next evolutionary level. Particle’s personal avatar, Sphere, is a self aware general artificial intelligence without which Particle could not command her powers over space-time. At the same time, Particle often resents his presence because he acts as a limiting factor, a “voice of reason.”
Davis statement near the end of Techgnosis alludes to this type of human / AI relationship:
…technology is a trickster. We blame technologies for things that arise from our social structures and skewed priorities; we expect magic satisfactions from machines that they simply cannot provide; and we remain consistently hoodwinked by their unintended consequences. Technologies have their own increasingly alien agenda, and human concerns will survive and prosper only when we learn to treat them, not as slaves or simple extensions of ourselves, but as unknown constructs with whom we make creative alliances and wary pacts.
Next week, Jospeh Campbell’s The Power of Myth
As a way to start ramping up my PS efforts, I’m going to start posting status updates once a week. Since it’s Thursday, I’ll shoot for every Thursday. This will not only be for my friends who ask about PS from time to time, but will also be a means of self-motivation. What prompted this after years of apparent inactivity? Well, music of course…
Since starting my personal sci-fi comic project, Particle Sphere, back in 2001, music has been a primary creative influence second only to science fiction itself. Over the years I’ve built a list in my mind of tunes that perfectly express the essence of what I’m trying to capture with my story and characters.
I recently discovered the artist Vienna Teng. Her music just feeds my creative soul. So, when I find material like that, I work my way through it looking for things to latch onto and use for inspiration. One such object is her tune Gravity… if I had to pick a theme song for Particle this would be it. It’s just perfect.
I have wanted to compile a playlist of music that I have used for energy while thinking and working on PS. I’ll start building it and include it in a future PS Status.
The general state of the comic is currently script writing and research. I have more than 16 single-spaced, typed pages of script and sketchbooks full of notes and drawings for the origin story, ParticleSphere.Alpha. I estimate that it will be around 40 pages by the end of the year. My goal is to finish the first draft before Christmas and send it out to friends for feedback.
I have been rapidly nailing down technical conventions and major story points, such as technological capabilities, full character names, plot twists and essential events of the narrative. One of the major conceptual problems I’ve been working on is how to do space battles in a post-Singularity era.
For example, if everything is composed of smart materials and nanotech with AI driven weapons and defense systems, how do you actually damage an opponent? Wouldn’t everything end in stalemate? What I don’t want to do is recreate sea battles in space, the standard issue sci-fi space battle cliché.
I’m going for something really different here.
So I’ve been thinking of basing all the warfare on a chess paradigm. Except instead of 2 dimensions, you’d have several million dimensions both real and synthetic with a wide array of varying environmental physics. And instead of 8 pawns, you’d have a billion… self-assembling, fully sentient AI driven, massively parallel, wormhole traveling quantum reactors using nano-engineered superconducting electromagnetic containment lenses capable of firing multidimensional sub-atomic beams that could cut a planet in half and trained via evolutionary algorithm with every conceivable war tactic and technique both human and alien… or something like that.
I’m sure a nice visual metaphor would sort it all out.
Next week’s status will go into some of the research I’ve been doing, books and source materials.
~ Will
What’s up with Particle Sphere? The webcomic I started in 2001 and stopped working on circa 2004? Basically, I’m working on a script. It’s called Particle Sphere - Alpha and is the origin story for the main character, Particle. Following chapters will be named sequentially using the Greek alphabet: Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, and so on.
Why the delay? Well, for one… I’m slow. I’m a perfectionist and like to take my time on things, especially when I’m the one setting the timetable. The other major factor is my new job as Lead Web Designer/Developer at Perpetual Entertainment. My responsibilities there consume the bulk of my time and the move from Clinton, Mississippi, to San Francisco, California, was far from trivial.
My family and I have made it through the first year with a new job in a new state and hopefully 2007 will be a lot smoother. I take a commuter train to work everyday so I do have some free time that I have been using to chip away at a script for the comic. I am somewhat encouraged by the questions about Particle that come up from time to time when I talk to old friends. In fact, since we’ve been home for Christmas, I ran into a friend from my WorldCom days at the Thai House restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi, and he asked about the comic.
Since PS went on indefinite hiatus in late 2004 I have never really stopped working on it in some way or another. Sometimes I still sketch, still searching for an appropriate art style. However, most of my thought has gone into a script. So in the spirit of the season, here is the first, extremely rough draft of the prologue of Particle Sphere - Alpha…
At the edge of supermassive black hole a young woman in her early 20s with red, double-spiral curls is floating in space enclosed by a transparent, glowing electric blue bubble of light. A smaller red sphere hovers nearby preoccupied by various data displays.
Tech Reference: Super Massive Blackhole
PARTICLE: “I’ve lost everyone… why can’t I lose myself?”
PARTICLE: “Diary…”
A super-cute characterture of a diary appears. The pages open…
PARTICLE: “My father gave me eternal life…”
Words appear on the pages of the diary.
PARTICLE: “…whether I wanted it or not.”
PARTICLE: “Sphere, my ‘voice of reason,’ said I was being irrational… since there is no way in this universe to destroy me. Well…”
Particle shoots an icy stare over her shoulder at the spherical avatar. He is floating on the other side of the bubble of light that encloses them both. Despite his simplistic, emoticon face he appears deep in thought.
Sphere looks at one of the screens with dismay…
SPHERE: “Particle, two of our remotes have gone offline….”
PARTICLE: “…we’ll see about that!”
SPHERE: “What?”
Particle is looking straight “down” into the center of the black hole, in position like an Olympic diver, she leaps into the abyss…
Merry Christmas!
Will (cyb3rllama)
