- Joined
- May 28, 2018
- Messages
- 106
- Reaction score
- 7
- Location
- Pennsylvania
- Website
- writingstudiosarah.blogspot.com
Hello dear folks,
In my work on my Science Fiction novel I am really getting along, almost to where I'll be ready to tie in some major conclusion plot points. Anyways, I'll really need to iron out details before I get there, so I thought I'd try to air them out here and ask if they are believable/ practical.
My story takes place multi generations after an apocalyptic war, and they're living under a large Dome. My MC is a young man who takes a placement test designed to assign him the best career. Only his test results don't turn out very good because his mind is not exactly normal. They determine he is not able to function at the same level as the other citizens, and they place him into a special home with like persons to be supported by a social welfare type thing. Anyways...Those he meets in this facility are not all dumbos, in fact some are very smart, just not traditionally so.
Back to the spoilerish sci-fi:
I established early on that my MC is very gifted in math, and engineering skills. He was so far ahead of his peers growing up that he invented his own math, symbols and all. Once he found an intelligent mentor he was taught to use traditional symbols instead, but he kept his own partially on the side. It evolved as he became more skilled.
The Dome's mechanics: a large Dish on ground level has energy projector's fixed on the side. A separate computer regulates how much energy goes to the projectors to keep the dome up, no matter what crashes against it. This Regulator features a screen with numbers. The computer uses a series of regression equations to calculate things out, and the next set of numbers can be predicted by those who know the equations.
During the story, some of the characters, those in the facility mentioned above, acquire a set of instructions, from which they derive how to build a smaller model dome. Why???Why not. They do this in secret, using stuff they can pull out of the trash, and stuff "re-purposed" from job sites. (The governor has them doing unskilled labor, as a means of saving money in his budget).
When taking the test he, my MC, gets stuck on a very advanced problem. It features a picture of the Dome's Regulator screen. Something is just wrong with those numbers, and when my MC uses his own math, the issue gets worse. Yet my MC didn't have knowledge in the background workings of the Regulator to be able to figure it out. It distracts him, and his mind is one that just can't turn off a problem like that. It distracts him during the rest of the test.
~I read once how some people are born sensing differently, they see smells and feel sounds and such. I thought I'd play it similarly with my character and math, that in his mind the numbers take on physical characteristics, or some type of visual property. But I'm not settled on this.
Their model dome is a smaller version of the main Dome, so it needs some reworking to get the software to work on the Regulator. My MC learns a lot about how it functions in this.
As was evident in the screen during my MC's test, there is something wrong with the Dome. Only because the Dome is so large, it has thousands of Projectors, it is very easy to overlook when one or two projector's burn out. And it's going to take my MC to be able to identify and fix the issue.
What I need to work out is: what is causing this problem?
1. The Dome was built generations ago, so it could be simply aging of the mechanics. But then the builders would have built it with a purpose of it lasting, and shouldn't the residents have maintained it.
2. It could be atmospheric. Some change in the atmosphere could be changing the whole math thing... Perhaps things are getting better outside the Dome, or the effect of other, as of yet, unknown survivors on the environment is going uncalculated.
I'm not sure where I am going to go. I realize that it is a lot to go through, the sci-fi elements of a book, condensed. But to the probable only few who've managed to read all that, Any thoughts? Does it seem practical/ believable?
In my work on my Science Fiction novel I am really getting along, almost to where I'll be ready to tie in some major conclusion plot points. Anyways, I'll really need to iron out details before I get there, so I thought I'd try to air them out here and ask if they are believable/ practical.
My story takes place multi generations after an apocalyptic war, and they're living under a large Dome. My MC is a young man who takes a placement test designed to assign him the best career. Only his test results don't turn out very good because his mind is not exactly normal. They determine he is not able to function at the same level as the other citizens, and they place him into a special home with like persons to be supported by a social welfare type thing. Anyways...Those he meets in this facility are not all dumbos, in fact some are very smart, just not traditionally so.
Back to the spoilerish sci-fi:
I established early on that my MC is very gifted in math, and engineering skills. He was so far ahead of his peers growing up that he invented his own math, symbols and all. Once he found an intelligent mentor he was taught to use traditional symbols instead, but he kept his own partially on the side. It evolved as he became more skilled.
The Dome's mechanics: a large Dish on ground level has energy projector's fixed on the side. A separate computer regulates how much energy goes to the projectors to keep the dome up, no matter what crashes against it. This Regulator features a screen with numbers. The computer uses a series of regression equations to calculate things out, and the next set of numbers can be predicted by those who know the equations.
During the story, some of the characters, those in the facility mentioned above, acquire a set of instructions, from which they derive how to build a smaller model dome. Why???Why not. They do this in secret, using stuff they can pull out of the trash, and stuff "re-purposed" from job sites. (The governor has them doing unskilled labor, as a means of saving money in his budget).
When taking the test he, my MC, gets stuck on a very advanced problem. It features a picture of the Dome's Regulator screen. Something is just wrong with those numbers, and when my MC uses his own math, the issue gets worse. Yet my MC didn't have knowledge in the background workings of the Regulator to be able to figure it out. It distracts him, and his mind is one that just can't turn off a problem like that. It distracts him during the rest of the test.
~I read once how some people are born sensing differently, they see smells and feel sounds and such. I thought I'd play it similarly with my character and math, that in his mind the numbers take on physical characteristics, or some type of visual property. But I'm not settled on this.
Their model dome is a smaller version of the main Dome, so it needs some reworking to get the software to work on the Regulator. My MC learns a lot about how it functions in this.
As was evident in the screen during my MC's test, there is something wrong with the Dome. Only because the Dome is so large, it has thousands of Projectors, it is very easy to overlook when one or two projector's burn out. And it's going to take my MC to be able to identify and fix the issue.
What I need to work out is: what is causing this problem?
1. The Dome was built generations ago, so it could be simply aging of the mechanics. But then the builders would have built it with a purpose of it lasting, and shouldn't the residents have maintained it.
2. It could be atmospheric. Some change in the atmosphere could be changing the whole math thing... Perhaps things are getting better outside the Dome, or the effect of other, as of yet, unknown survivors on the environment is going uncalculated.
I'm not sure where I am going to go. I realize that it is a lot to go through, the sci-fi elements of a book, condensed. But to the probable only few who've managed to read all that, Any thoughts? Does it seem practical/ believable?