Infinite Dimensions as a setting-science fantasy

Look up Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett's Long Earth series. Only infinite Earths, not people, but might be a good place to get some ideas for how they made it work.

LOL, all my stories are set in infinite dimensions, even if I'm writing social realism. I also enjoy the 'reality is defined by perception and nothing is what it seems' trope. But I like your take on this, the challenge is always winnowing down an infinite setting to a manageable theater of action.

Yeah, I came here to mention The Long Earth, but that's already been covered. I'd google "multiverse" and see what else is out there. ... As to what I'd do differently, if I did anything at all, I'd wonder what happens when they realize that somewhere there's a version where none of the other versions are possible (i.e. one of the possibilities must be that there are NOT infinite possibilities) and how the whole place doesn't fold like a house of cards on that realization. A la Douglas Adams, every time someone almost figures out the universe, it restarts, maybe. "Can't have that, missy."

Actually a number of our members have crafted tales in this science fantasy genre, myself included. It's potentially a very rich environment in which to delve. I loosely structured an entire series (THE STEWARD) on the Multiverse, as proposed/extrapolated via Membrane Theory, and speculative evolutionary theory. In short there are accessible realms with differing laws of physics and sentient inhabitants who strongly resemble certain beings from our own familiar myth and folklore (many of whom turn out to be evolved from the human genome - and some of whom still reside in our home realm, hiding in plain sight).

You can craft a cohesive story from almost anything your mind can imagine. Go for it! Best of luck!

I think you’re describing a setting where people experience more than the standard four dimensions? Whereas The Long Earth is a tad different. That setting is more to do with parallel universes, eh.

The best hard SF description of how multiple dimensions would be experienced, in my opinion, can be found in Cixing Liu’s, Three Body Problem trilogy. That description is how scientists think it would actually work. And, no spoilers, it’s pretty wicked.

So I'm also writing a multiverse setting and i find the 'alien worlds' metaphor is an apt one. Within the rules you make for your universe, the same concepts in creating those worlds apply. Even if you are explicitly doing parallel "Earth" and mean to have it recognizable to an Earthling of this universe, think of all the things on the grand scale of geological time that could have changed, not just human history. (Where I differ: I've elected not to go with the concept of parallel 'selves'. I figure the points of diversion are potentially infinite and of indeterminate number, so while it's theoretically possible to meet your double while traveling through the worlds, the chance is infinitesimally small. However, some greater trends do foment similarities, like a high ratio of intelligent bipedal sophonts. Given similar conditions, evolution is not unlikely to produce similar outcomes; even in our world, many traits have evolved independently on multiple occasions.)

What changes from the interplanetary alien setting is how those worlds interact with each other. Again depending on the rules of your universe, it may be possible to fall into another universe by sudden accident, for example, something that could never happen when visiting another world requires getting in a spaceship. You could have the residents of one world clash, or trade, with another, for no more effort than it takes to walk across town. You could have organizations forming to attempt to exploit and/or regulate interdimentional affairs. From the consequences of these, and similar scenarios, you have the seeds of story.

Alex37 said:

By dimensions, I mean transcending the three or four dimensions, and the three or four dimensional limits we face. Alternate universes don’t play as big of a story as that. That’s what I meant it’s like our universe *and* *us* but on an infinitely larger scale (space, time, etc).

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By "dimensions", people usually mean parallel universes or overlapping universes, like some etheric plane whose inhabitants can cross over into our familiar universe plane. Something like how a kitchen magnet's magnetic field overlaps with the air around it.

Dimensions in the sense of extra space dimensions? If they exist, then they would be curled up into a very tiny ball. Macroscopic extra dimensions would have very observable effects, like keeping stable orbits from happening.

Chronicles of Amber (roger zelazny) is an epic fantasy series set in a universe of infinite multiple dimensions, with a "true" dimension at either end (Order and Chaos). I would certainly read the series as they're famous, landmark fantasy novels.

Alex37 said:

My question is, if someone else tried to write a similar story and setting, what might they do differently? Thanks so much in advance.

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Have a look at the Three Body Problem - I am pretty sure that's a comparable story, and what you are looking for. Other suggestions all strike me as parallel world stories.

Alex37 said:

My major goal is to make some of the most powerful characters and main characters in written fiction that are also highly relatable.

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Sounds easy, heh.

lpetrich said:

By "dimensions", people usually mean parallel universes or overlapping universes, like some etheric plane whose inhabitants can cross over into our familiar universe plane. Something like how a kitchen magnet's magnetic field overlaps with the air around it.

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I disagree with this. Extra dimensions have a very specific meaning in science fiction. A lot of people confuse "another dimension" with "parallel worlds". The OP is very clearly describing a situation where ?humans? can observe multiple other dimensions as part of their reality. This is different to a parallel worlds story.

Alex37 said:

Thanks so much for the reply. I really appreciate it.

I mean dimensions as in a combination of extra space dimensions and overlapping realities. Please note this is Not a hard science fiction take on the concepts. It’s more Like a science fantasy / fantastical take on the concepts. I’m loosely basing it off a concept that each successive dimension is infinitely more vast than the previous dimensions, no matter how curled up the extra dimensions might be (ex a five dimensional object would have a fourth and fifth dimensional mass greater than zero while a three dimensional object would lack any mass in the fourth and fifth dimensions) It’s also very loosely based on the theoretical theory of infinite Hilbert spaces. Finally, I’m going by the somewhat comic book-esque concept that higher dimensional beings cannot interact with lower dimensional beings directly and would use other means to get to them(avatars, etc).

Put simply, it’s just my fantasy based take on the concepts. I hope this clears things up.

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Got ya. But if you're going for a totally made-up way of observing things, why are you interested in how people would describe it? Clearly, people would describe it very differently to you given that yours is fantasy. If the idea is cool, then go with it.
As I've mentioned above, if you want to see what scientists think observable extra dimensions would look like, then read the TBP series.