My Timeline To Consilience
The predictions I've made to create the world I've used to tell the stories I've written.
Creating the Consilience Universe
The Consilience Series requires a significant amount of speculative world-building to ensure its novels sit easily within their near-future settings, without resorting to overt exposition or tedious explanation.
Facts are gathered and knowledge gained, primarily from geopolitical, environmental and technological sources. These are then assimilated, applying realistic assumptions, and the likely consequences deduced. Decisions are then made to construct a realistic course of preceding events which then inform my ideation streams. These can include the creation of pertinent locations, characters, technologies, objects, etc.
I currently use two methods to help crystallise this complex synthesis:
1. Prompted Speculations
Taken from a Future Tech essay posted in ReidItWrite, my separate short form prose & poetry newsletter.
I find it useful to speculate on a fictional future by framing provoking questions based on current trends. It’s also very rewarding if externally validated facts subsequently complement my science-backed fiction.
Some examples are listed below:
How soon will Canada be invaded from the south?
Which large country will first lay claim to Greenland?
Is pollination a prerequisite for feeding people?
When will the Arabian Peninsula become vacant territory?
Can the Rhine and Ganges become canals after the glaciers disappear?
Will genetics always matter more than ethics?
Who will Europe use as mercenaries in the first Climate War?
Can you think of others? Feel free to add your own speculations in the comments.
2. Fictional Reportage
A useful method for portraying the journey from current reality to a postulated future is fictional reportage. So I often write news extracts – often satirical – that are designed to portray various events which might contribute to The Consilience Series universe. They help to frame the implied background to the factional and environmental settings used within the series’ narratives. They can also serve as a decent writing warm-up exercise.
I’ve listed some of them below, in no particular geopolitical or chronological sequence:
A rise in both severity and frequency of tremors detected along the San Andreas fault meant the "Big One" was once again imminent, predicted ‘quake watchers as they convened for their bi-annual conference, which has been held out-of-state for the previous three years.
Mandatory evacuations have already been declared "as an abundance of caution" in the San Francisco and LA conurbations for the second time in as many years, but many citizens remain in their homes, following the previous false alarm in which widespread looting took place.
This latest evacuation order has already triggered sporadic clashes between National Guard troops and heavily-armed residents within Privilege-zoned areas.
