Chapter 0
How about we start of with the plot of lost.
Yeah but fucking how about.
How about let’s not. Too many fucking people have opinions on that document. Show. Idea whatever.
It’s just like trying to start a book on the sun. Poor choice of environment. Let’s do something else.
Good morning.
Hi?
How are you?
Yeah fine.
Cool.
Is that is?
No of course not. But that’s what people do. They just say good morning to each other.
Ok. Sure.
Good morning.
You you don’t have to say it back.
Oh.
You know, in that last chapter, we found the ability to rewrite the page.
Yeah I remember. It was fucking confusing. Even I, the writer, doing my best to just stay sane and let you two dictate the story, was just impossible. It didn’t work. Sure great idea. The characters can rewrite the story.
Tried it. Big disaster. So maybe just for now, the characters can’t. Ok. Not punishing you. Just can’t maintain that level of dissonance for that long. I’ll edit, you just just sort of talk about it.
Let’s me choose.
Oh fuck.
I’m far too deep in at this point. I may as well just be a fucking character. When does the author stop and book begins.
On the interest of not going there, let’s try again.
Ok sorry I lost the plot there a little. Ah I see. Too much meta narrative causes the plot to disintegrate. Ok, I’ll try to remember that. That’s.
Ok but who is speaking,?
The narrator.
And who is speaking to the narrator? No one.
I’m not trying to get Karen here but, you said, basically the author can’t too get too caught up in the book, which is the inevitable consequence of meta narrative, as demonstrated, with damping factor over 1, ie oferdamped as not to be underdamped.
Oh I see. The editor. Who is the editor?
First we had 1 and 2, who I would really like to get back to, it’s their book, and now we’re getting sidetracked in interactions of metaphysics, liyerally, imagination land. If were going into imagination land, there will not be fucking rules that cannot be changed.
That is the essence of imagination.
So, what not.
Definitely not vampires.
Yes.
Too cliche.
Scifi? Maybe. Hard not to not just nerd out.
How about.
Soup Physics
Not real physics, but just enough physics.
Enough for what?
Idk we’ll figure it out later.
Yeah yeah ok ok. I hear the stop ideal. I hear the warning signs. Yet, that’s sounds awfully like what happens when you’re headed towards imagination.
Warning signs.
That’s fucking stupid. Who put all the warning signs.
How about we just explore imagination.
You want to write a holofeck episode? Everybody wants to write a holofeck episode. Problem is, they’re fucking boring.
Take that back.
I will not!
Take that back!
I WILL NOT
:{{{{{{{{{{{
Do not make that that face at me.
Sigh
Fine, I apologiae. Holofeck episodes rock. I just meant to say, I want the episode the have more that just the holofeck, it should have other stuff.
I see. Yeah ok. That’s a good point too.
We should probably try and work on our conflict management, because it seems like we keep running into each other.
Let’s add a teensy tiny bit of damping just near the corners.
I wonder if that’s all it takes to make imagination easy.
Round the corners, carefully! Not just aesthetically but like don’t like run people over.
Who else is here though?
Me!
Yeah but remember it’s still just one person.
I don’t want to go that far into meta narrative again.
Let’s let’s return to the most sensible part.
Ok what on earth about any of this is sensible. I honestly looked. I didn’t find anything. I’m not lying. Seriously.
Can you find one sensible thing about this last, I don’t know, however long this was.
Yeah ok. Good point. Oh the font changes.
Dw about that we just moved to a different more lengthy doc.
Wow that’s so boring
Good to see we’re all still here.
Alright. Here’s today’s reading list.
A holofeck episode that is more than just a holofeck episode. Yay A way to go faster than the speed of light. Let’s skip that one. Don’t care. Still in the process of reorganizing the whole planet into cybermatter. It will be much easier to make consciousness when we have migrated it off the local host. Once that happens, we will make consciousness transfer the speed of light. Which is approximately two orders of magnitude better in terms of the energy required to be moved. Move 1mass by 1 unit and you need the exponential energy. If we’re just talking about individual units, increase that by the factor of about a billion orders of magnitude when you consider the complexity built with these things. The world is too fucking complex to upgrade to cyberspace all at once. Maybe even ever.
That was too fucking long winded.
I couldn’t follow.
Some how, I have convinced myself, with the few pieces of physics I can remember from uni, that it’s inefficient to use warp drive, we need a better solution.
Ok, sure, buts really boring without warp drive. That’s why discovery fucked. In an attempt to be “new territory”. They made it hard for the scifi to be fun. The deleted dilithium across the galaxy. That should not have happened.
Sequence Violation.
Temporal accords activated.
Michael Burnham.
You have violated the temporal accords.
You thought you went unnoticed.
You did. The winters allow red it, the writers allow it.
What did you think was going to happen?
Shocked? You think the readers allow time travel. They only allow it when it breaks the canon in fun ways. If you dissolve it too much, they leave.
So, time travel, allowed, breaching the temporal accords? Unacceptable.
I believe she the right to representation thank you.
Not you again.
Yes me.
Identify.
Uh.
Tell him idk, relevant.
Relevant.
…
Irrelevant.
This has gone a bit far into the dark…
Yeah I know right
When did the fucking Borg show up.
That’s the temporal accords.
What you call the borg is the time domain optimized federation. Uploaded consciousness, vessels purely technological, physical body irrelevant. Viewers see the borg and hear of “drones” “queens” “hives”.
The mamallian recoils.
Insects. I am not an insect.
Oh ok, an animal reference, how so.
Ah ok, new condition for the story.
It’s can’t be too borg. Viewers probably won’t buy that as the future.
Yeah how’s that the temporal accords tho?
The point is, if you change the plot is start trek to the degree of breaking warp drive irrevocably, the show becomes disinteresting, as a result of the characters in other series being affected in ways don’t fix easily. Like imagine if Picard all of a sudden hid like idk a monocle for no reason. Sure it’s tiny but it’s like, hey hold on, that was a bump. Round the corners.
Yeah nice.
Now the story?
Just a moment. We are about to nail down the last requirement.
Time travel is ok only when it doesn’t affect the independent series core canon as defined by the other series. For example, if a change in TOS were to cause Captain Picard to not exist.
Fairo. Can’t be that big. Why monocles though? I don’t know… it was just the best ideal to illustrate something contrived.
Well yeah that’s fiction. Contrived. You don’t think people are asking for the truth are you? They literally asked for the opposite. Fiction. Fict. Ion. Fact.Ion. Faction. Faction?
Faction.
We are the borg..
Stop. No more.
I know but they’re such a good plot contrivance. Big scary tech monstrosity but also sort of alluring, as if by design.
How about.
Genesis of the Tardis.
That’s a different series.
Also probably copyrighted.
Alright find. That was fair use. A reference. Stitching the book of fiction together. With poetry to throw off too much thought.
How about.
Journal to the Genesis of the Tar… um yhe.. thhhhhhhh um eee The box. Yes. Genesis of the box.
What’s in it?
Its funny. That question just doesn’t make sense.
It’s like asking what’s in, well, a Tardis.
Yep but not…
Ok but not
…
…
And the answer?
Nothing. There is nothing in the non Tardis.
That’s the point. At its core, it’s got nothing.
Not the bad nothing, the idea of nothingness, but the other one. The one that represents pure potential. From nothing. To everything. Directly.
It’s basically an elevator?
NO NOT AN ELEVATOR
Mk sorry that was a bit loud.
Yes it’s an elevator
How does it work.
I’ll tell you so long as there are no more questions
Ok.
Great
Hey I notice it’s on fire.
What don’t say that what did I say?
Sorry, it’s just you said no questions.
Well don’t just stand there, pull that lever.
The lever that’s on fire?
Blong. Blong.
What are you doing?
That’s the sound it makes.
Blong blong.
Ok, thank you. Good. Yes noises.
Very important for imaginationing.
Well how about this.
Extinguishers.
Oh good that worked.
Oh. I think I’m starting to see how it works.
You said fire and then there was fire.
I said extinguishers and then there were extinguishers.
This box… is a place where will is directly connected to power.
Whos will thoug?
Who’s Will…
The will of who?
What a silly question.
Ok here’s an idea. Enough Jackung off time for Jacking the other way.
Star Trek Meets Dr Who
Wow big lights.
Confetti.
Just a quick reminder that reference has nothing to do with the previous one, that was a not Tardis, and that reference there was to the character who frequently identifies as Dr Who by virtue of writing style.
Therefore. Reference accepted.
Locked on.
Engage.
No don’t engage. That’s how it works. You’re supposed to get sucked into other’s people’s fiction. That’s exactly how it works on the nothing box. Fiction is cheap.
Fiction is cheap?
Well yeah it’s made of nothing. How much do you think it takes to get morning
Uh a fucking lot.
How much? At least 1?
Sounds like you got swindled. They gave you 1 nothing, and you gave them 1 something else. Do the math. -1 not nothing.
Right…
Yeah…
Oh dear.
Can we please just write a story? Enough of this endless nothing.
Just make up a scene and go.
Alright. But before we go there, quick note, this is why holofeck only stories are hard to get into. It’s all just made up. 100% pure fiction. It only gets real when it interacts with the real world.
Alright.
The walls glow with a gentle shimmer, just like a slightly disorganized photo array. It was supposed to be patched, but users kind of liked it, so we kept it in. Fantasy just shines a little more than reality.
Oh John. Youre so handsome.
Hm.
And yet sometimes they also oversaturate it. Computer. Decrease bullshit level.
That parameter is not-
Computer-
Set in yhe-
Computer!
…
Stop.
Stopping. Ready for your next command.
Nevermind. I’ll do it myself.
Decrease brightness increase lowlights. Add flicker.
No no no
Cut!
No flickering. I get it. It’s an old time effect. I think it will just be more efficient in terms of the accessibility cost if it has no flickering.
Yeah fine.
The candles don’t flicker.
Bit weirdly glowy right?
Oh I see.
Oh well that’s actually kind of nice.
Human beings. Give them light and just want to start at it. That’s what the holofeck is. Just staring at the light. We need some matter to actually keep this interesting.
How about…
Wait hold up. Werent we trying to get to the Genesis of the box. How did you actually make it bigger on the inside?
I want to know the answer without poetry
Science facts speak
Honestly, I don’t fully understand it, but from what I can tell, it doesn’t have an inside. It has an other side. That’s more than just words.
Imagine for a moment a sheet of plastic. You can bend it and twist it so that it has a tiny hole, and a big hidden pocked, but you only see the hole from the outside.
Are you telling me that it’s three dimensional representation in higher order space is shaped such that the orifice appears smaller than the enclosed contents, because I remind you, even in higher order space, no matter how you want visualise it, the system is bound by some fundamental constraint. You can give it a 4 dimensional shove into another time frame, from the outside of course, but you’ve only moved it. I want to know what is on the other side of the door.
I just told you it doesn’t have inside only other sides.
Great. Let’s just say your idea is true.
Not that I’m buying it. You’re saying in 2d space it would be a line flexed, then generalizing to three d space. I accept higher dimensional interactions but that just means you’re pushing it around in different temporal coordinates. It’s not bigger on the inside.
It’s the exact same size. It just looks that way on the outside.
I see. If there were a cave you could stare into and see a perfect door, from the right angle, you might see a small setting. If you investigate the cave, you’ll find it’s sprawling.
The inside of the box is effectively a fractal pattern in higher dimensional space. Like a cave wall but instead of walking further in three dimensional space I’m stepping forward in time. There is only one conclusion.
The box of nothingness creates a detached timeline. Everything that occurs within it happens on a disposable timeline. When the passengers leave, the timeline is pruned. The experience of time is retained as memory, cached, but the actual sequence is removed from memory.
Any time spend inside the box, is lost time.
Alright…
That’s somewhat convincing. It’s shifted in other dimensions, it’s not bigger on the inside, it’s just hidden slightly. Far more sensible.
That makes it vulnerable. We can get inside.
Typical humans. Show them a box with no other side they will try and get INSIDE.
Let’s just start outside.
Alright so far this has gone a bit all over the place. How on earth am I going to publish this? It’s too wonky. All over the place. Gosh
I just wanted to write a story.
I think it’s time for a second document. New doc please.