Preface

This work began as an exercise in speculative physics.

I am convinced that the field of immersive virtual reality will see an explosion in the near middle future. More people will spend more time in realities that are separate from the reality we call real. These worlds will teem with life and action - some human, some artificial, some fantastic. They will have their own rules and histories, even their physics will differ from ours. I suspect that in the more distant future, the line between what we now call real, and new-made realities will become irrelevant. I believe what we call virtual reality (and its spawn) encompass our destiny.

When I began this little work, virtual realities were mostly barren deserts. Almost all of them were concerned with gaming or simulation, none was robust enough to support intelligent life. To amuse myself, I wanted to design one where whole populations could live wholly.

Given the purpose of the exercise, what follows is necessarily heavy on exposition and light on plot - I didn't even know the theme until it popped up in the last sentence. If you're looking for serious drama or mystery you will be disappointed. I've been building universes for over twenty-five years (for software testing, simulations and counter espionage) but I've never tried to make one for living in, nor have I ever attempted a novel, if you can even call this a novel. This is my amateur attempt to articulate some concepts and make the ideas accessible.

I have chosen the serial format to motivate myself. I started writing the story a couple of years back and finished months ago, but a read-through reveals so much cringeworthy prose, it makes my face ache. So I'm cleaning it up as far as my inexperience allows, and posting it a bit at a time. I hope to get some criticism that will allow for improvement - I hope it's good enough to be worthy of criticism.

I began with basic questions. How big would a universe need to be to hold every person who ever lived, and have plenty of elbow room? How would such a universe be put together? How would the people arrange themselves? What would be the same and what would be different? Beginning with these questions, I followed the trail marked by my answers to them.

This is where the trail led.

Robert Shannon

The Ozarks

January 2011