Changing the World, & the Fantasy of Certainty
- The magic system of dynamics in Herald is unusually rigorous. It pays close attention to mathematics and physics and has the stated goal of “precisely” changing the world in “expected” ways at “calculated costs”. But Robert Endicott and his classmates make several mistakes, some comical, some not. Why do they fail so often?
- The students cannot help but fail, at least some of the time. One of the reasons for this is that they—particularly Robert—are in a hurry. Robert is desperate to progress quickly. He is also young, and although he is generally quite thoughtful, he is sometimes overconfident and reductive.
- What are the other reasons?
- Robert wants to change the world, but as his uncle Arrayn told him, he needs to first understand the world. Which is impossible.
- It is impossible to understand the world?
- Yes and no. One of the big themes of the trilogy concerns the limits of knowledge and science. The goal of science is to understand the world, and the scientific method has enabled us to understand the world better. But not completely. Not ever.
- Well, what if I was a super-genius? What if I was an advanced AI? Couldn’t I figure everything out?
- No. In fact, some of the things that we have learned with the scientific method, things that we are greatly confident in, tell us emphatically no. Many nonlinear problems are unsolvable. The weather, for instance. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics is another example. Without uncertainty and quantum tunneling, our sun cannot shine. We need uncertainty. In my field of geophysics, we commonly grapple with irreducible uncertainties in seismic interpretation and problems of non-uniqueness and ill-posed questions.
- My genius AI really cannot solve your seismic problems?
- Probably not solve them, but there may be a way to estimate a solution for some of these problems. We must add information.
- Like an assumption? How well does that work?
- It depends on how true the assumption is and how large the unknown. Or we can attempt a new experiment and add new information.
- Oh, like Robert’s cake baking disaster?
- Sure. When scientists can, they organize their experiments with a specific hypothesis to be tested, one that will challenge a theory. This is the heart of the scientific method. But Robert took a shot in the dark and learned something in spectacular fashion.
- What research did you do for this cake detonating debacle?
- I estimated the heat capacity of batter.
- You didn’t blow anything up in the kitchen?
- I have blown things up in the kitchen, which taught me the principle at work, but cake is far too valuable to waste. It would never have gotten by my wife.
- Understandable. There were some other dangerous side effects with dynamics, such as the burned and frozen patterns and the buffeting of hot and cold air. And then there is the hypothermia that the students keep fighting. What’s with that?
- We are seeing two effects here. The first is the laws of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a system always increases, which both defines the arrow of time and tells us that no action happens without wasted energy. There is always some by by-product, or artefact, from the things we do. And the first law of thermodynamics is the law of conservation of energy. These laws act together to make everything have a cost. Entropy is increasing (that is, heat is being lost) and the heat losses must balance out of somewhere. That somewhere is the heat energy of the students.
- Ouch. That’s cold. What’s the other effect?
- Dynamics is hung off a framework of signal theory. The students model and affect reality with mathematical transformations, such as the Fourier transform. The cyclical artefacts in Herald are Gibbs phenomena, from the imperfect modeling of objects with this transform. And as thermodynamics tells us, there are always imperfections.
- So all these spectacular wizardry—sorry, dynamic—effects show the limits of knowledge and physics?
- Yes. Robert wants to change the world. And he does not know enough to do so without reckless outcome.
- Are you saying we should not try to change the world?
- A. The world is changing regardless of our efforts, and some people will always try to affect those changes.
- I’m still confused. You said that we can only change the world the way we want if we understand it, and you also said we cannot fully understand the world. So, isn’t it dangerous to try?
- I am not trying to tell people what to do. But—
- Aren’t you?
- People don’t need me or any writer to tell them to change the world. Everyone, variously, wants to. Herald may be a fantasy novel, but certainty is the biggest fantasy. Knowing that we won’t get a perfect and predictable outcome isn’t discouragement to try, it’s encouragement to be careful and humble.
- We can change the world, even under uncertainty?
- We have no choice. Policy decisions are always made with imperfect knowledge, but understanding uncertainty allows us to adjust as we learn new things. More cakes will explode, and they will teach us something we need to know.
Robert thought becoming a dynamicist would enable him to change the world, starting with saving all his friends from being slaughtered. He was wrong.
Acts of genuine creativity used to bring mortal punishment. But now, wizardry is dead and Robert, Koria and Eloise live in a world where change and invention is possible.
Robert hopes that mathematically-framed dynamics will enable him to change the new world. But he keeps having prophetic dreams where his friends are all murdered by a mysterious cloaked man, and the grain protestors are more menacing than ever. They declare dynamics is dangerous and that the changes must stop. They are right about one thing: dynamics is dangerous, especially for someone so hopeful, angry and impetuous as Robert.
Soon Robert’s horrific nightmares come true and a cloaked man appears on campus, stalking and murdering students –his friends are next.
Desperate to change the future, Robert recklessly pushes the bounds of both dynamics and reason. Every crushing failure dampens Robert’s hope for the future and pushes him a step closer to the powerful, nihilistic, and merciless Lonely Wizard.
Series Blurb:
Would it kill you to create something genuinely new? In Robert’s world, it used to. Supernatural vengeance for invention is now a thing of the past.
Young, optimistic, quick of mind and quick to act, Robert thinks being invited to the New School is an invitation to change the world. But change is difficult when there is no history of innovation.
He is initially successful in his studies, but nothing is as simple as he naively imagines. His classmates confuse and frustrate him. One is a drunk, while another two constantly stalk him. Is it for love or something more sinister?
Robert’s optimism is further tested by protestors who circle the campus, decrying the newly invented breed of grain. They claim it is poison and that the New School should be punished by Nimrheal, the god who formerly murdered inventors. Robert suspects foreign business influences are behind the protests, but he quickly finds that investigating their cause is dangerous.
Robert’s most difficult challenges are his unresolved childhood issues. His mother died while he was a child. Robert’s formative helplessness and inability to remember her face projects into a powerful and blinding protectiveness towards all women. When a campus assault pushes Robert over the edge, his hopes of even staying at the New School are jeopardized. He cannot aspire to change the world if he does not even know himself.
At the same time as Robert struggles on campus, a powerful, ruthless and emotionally closed man known only as the Lonely Wizard journeys across an empty wilderness to return home. As Robert and the Lonely Wizard move closer together, Robert finds that instead of entering a golden era of invention, he may instead be on the brink of a cold war and an endless, unchanging dark age.
Buy Links
Dynamicist (Book 1)
Amazon Audiobook | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CAN | B&N | Kobo | Liminal Fiction
Herald (Book 2)
Amazon Audiobook | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CAN | B&N | Kobo | Liminal Fiction
Knight in Retrograde (Book 3)
Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CAN | B&N | Kobo | Liminal Fiction
Lee is giving away a gift card with this tour:
Davyn’s whistle tore the air again, but someone lunged at him and the big man stumbled and swallowed the thing. He staggered back, choking.
Whesplurgh!
“He is liar!” roared one of the bald, stocky men in his thick accent, pointing at Endicott. “We’ll beat the truth out of him!” He stepped forward and began drawing his sword.
Cyara rallied from her shock. “No one beats anyone here!”
His bald, stocky companion pushed Cyara roughly, and she stumbled backwards into the crowd. This was too much for Endicott. His heart leapt, and without thinking, he grabbed the heavy iron bacon pan and swung it, bacon-outwards, at the thug who had struck Cyara.
Gong! Glahhr!
Bacon, grease, and pan connected ferociously, and as a unit, with the man’s rotund head, knocking him heels over cartwheeling head to the ground. His sword clattered to the floor. The other bald man came on, lunging with his sword. Endicott turned the blade aside with the pan and tried to step back, but he stumbled over Purple Hat, who was arguing with someone else behind him. The swordsman saw his opportunity and rushed forward, sword raised for an overhead strike, but stopped short with a puzzled look on his fat face. Something had caught hold of his foot. It was Cyara. She had him by the ankle in a surprisingly strong grip.
Gong! Glahhr!
Endicott struck him in the face with the pan before the swordsman could kick Cyara loose. As his attacker fell back, Endicott looked for Cyara, but she was hidden by a shift in the crowd. Then he saw Davyn. His big friend was surrounded by a group of people who were trying to help him cough out the whistle. Endicott almost laughed and was about to return to the two bald protestors when he was savagely struck on the temple by a blow he did not see.
After having the Last Rights read to him at the age of twenty-five, Lee Hunt came to appreciate the power of catharsis. He was born on a farm with only one working lung but has gone on to become an Ironman triathlete, sport rock climber, professional geophysicist, and writer.
As a scientist, Lee has published close to fifty papers, articles, or expanded abstracts, has been awarded numerous technical awards, and was even sent on a national speaking tour. He enjoys discussing the amorality of science and is useful at parties in explaining the physics of whether fracture stimulation might be a risk to the fuzzy, cuddly things of nature. After 28 years trying to understand the earth as a geophysicist, Lee turned to writing fiction. He now spends time hiking, cycling, floundering in a lake, clinging desperately to a wall, or at his desk trying to write an entertaining story.
Author Website: https://www.leehunt.org/
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