I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Eric Klein for his Feature Friday Futures column. Here’s the transcript:
Today we have Ken Goudsward with us to tell us about his novel “Symphony Of Destruction”, book 1 of The Spindown Saga.
Hi Ken, let’s get right into it
Why did you choose this setting?
The setting is a spaceship that has basically been crippled and depopulated. It is barely holding together and is being operated by a robot who was not designed for the task.
I love this setting because it provides a lot of isolation and hopelessness.
The main character, Hannah, is stuck here. She’s alone. She not technically savvy. She hates robots. She has to deal with all these challenges if she’s going to have any chance of survival.
What’s unique about your world?
The world per se is not really unique. It’s a fairly typical near future mining colony operation in the asteroid belt. However, what I seek to do within that world is at least somewhat unique, I think, in that I focus on the personal struggle more than a typical adventure or political empire story. In some ways, my goals in writing are similar to what some of the pioneers of sci-fi addressed – themes that explore what it really means to be human
How real do you think the science is in your book?
So far, it’s totally plausible, and barely even high-tech really. Spaceships are real. I use realistic Newtonian orbital trajectories, but this is all done behind the scenes. Most of the more technical parts of book one deal with computation and programming. A robot must perform beyond his original design so some reprogramming is involved. This is also a metaphor for human personal growth. We have to learn to unlearn, and to leap over our own boundaries and assumptions. This can be very challenging but it is possible. It is scientifically possible. It also has a metaphysical or perhaps spiritual element.
In book two, which I’m currently writing, there is a bit more speculation in terms of technology. Some of the tech is based on quantum entanglement, but I don’t get into much detail about that (at least not yet). We also start getting into some (dare I say it?) time travel aspects of the story. These technologies, yes even the time travel, are backed by scientifically plausible explanations of the technology, but the story is not really about that, it mainly assumes that it is known current tech. I try to throw in a small amount of hinting around how that tech might work, without allowing technical explanations to sidetrack the story. Sometimes the tech might actually parallel the story themes, so I’ll expand a bit, but I do it from the perspective of thematic reinforcement rather than techsplaining. Perhaps one day I’ll release some of my behind-the-scenes supplementary material explaining the tech itself more directly.
What was the most mundane item that you used that really has cool tech behind it? What is the tech?
Honestly, I’d have to say the thrustertug is a really amazing piece of equipment. It’s essentially a “Bobcat” tractor with a couple small rocket thruster attached. But I am frankly fascinated by hydraulics, so even without the rockets, this thing is very cool. We take this kind of thing for granted, but a hydraulic ram and a few levers and pivots are quite incredible. Each of these components by itself is really a miracle of physical engineering. Not to mention the steel we use to fabricate it. Oh right, I also assume that there’s a few new high-tech materials around, not so much on the thrustertug, but the ship itself. Various forms of “plas-steel” and “plas-glass” make cameo appearances.
What did you include that you wish was real today?
Probably the biggest difference from today’s technology, is also the element that will have the biggest impact – not only on the story, but on our own story when we do invent it. I call it “the tanglebase” and I don’t go into much detail about it so far in the story itself, but it is essentially a scaled up and evolved internet of databases that uses quantum entanglement with the end result that all data is instantaneously accessible anywhere. It opens up the technological aspect of the information bottleneck. However, all the technology in the world will likely never change human greed and control, so even this technology, which started as an open and freely accessible service, was soon mired in economics, scarcity, and divisiveness. To a degree. Even despotic drug dealers give out free samples.
What technology or science do you think will most affect the world of tomorrow?
Tomorrow is coming fast. I look at the kinds of things that guys like Elon Musk are up to and it’s quite mind-blowing to think what we could accomplish if their plans are not thwarted by “other interests”. These other interests are the single biggest factor in what we may or may not accomplish. It’s not “what can we invent?”, it’s “how can we get this into the hands of people?”. Science and technology don’t have a chance of affecting anything tomorrow unless we can change the way politics affects the world of today. Had we stopped being such jerks about everything yesterday, we would have already solved all of today’s problems.