Avatar photoSteven Savage

Way With Worlds: Intelligent Life

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Intelligent Life

[Way With Worlds appears at Seventh Sanctum at at MuseHack]

I’m going to start by assuming the setting of your story has intelligent life in it. If not, well that sounds like a challenging write, and feel free to skip this part until you need it.  Or don’t because hey, you never know.

Now first, allow me to define intelligent life, so we’re on the same sheet of virtual paper here. Intelligent life is that form of life that can process information, adapt and retain this information, pass this information on to others, and possesses a level of self-consciousness or self-awareness. Intelligent life is essentially a kind of conscious computing, even if I personally dislike that simplistic terminology.

I would especially argue that intelligence contains a level of self-awareness as intelligence life as we think of itis self-modifying and self-directing. You can’t separate intelligence from consciousness, because someone has to “be in there” to be intelligent. “I think therefore I am” is also “I know I am as I think.”

With that all-to brief (and doubtlessly incomplete) journey into the philosophy of intelligence, let’s continue a to why it’s important. I’ll also try not to overdo the words “intelligent life,” but no promises here.

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Way With Worlds: Ecology and Ecologies

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OldNatureScene

[Way With Worlds appears at Seventh Sanctum at at MuseHack]

So you’ve got the origin of your universe (or perhaps you used our universe as a template, which does save a lot of effort). So now that you know how it all began, it’s time to move things to the next level. Namely, what’s going on in the places your characters will be living, working, loving, dying, and in other ways advancing the plot.

Cosmology is decided. Time to move to Ecology

Now when I talk Ecology, that’s a word with a lot of meanings and a lot of applications. So for the sake of the column I’m defining Ecology in world building as how you define how the living parts of your setting (world, worlds, etc.) work, relate, interact, etc. Your plants, animals, biospheres, diseases, and the like. I’ll refer to it as Ecology with a capital “E” for general purposes, and with a small “e” for specifics.

You know, where life comes from and/or lives. Life in short, like your characters, or the things they’ll be interacting with, domesticating, fighting, eating, and so on. Or come to think of it the reverse as well . . .

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Steve’s Update 1/5/2014

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Whew!  Busy time over the holidays – and by busy I mean I goofed off a lot, kind of.  I also got a lot done at the same time, so it was an odd mix.  One thing that did slide is my updates, and here’s what’s up!

  • The next book is in the last editing phase.  The cover is done.  So I’ve got one more edit to do – I print it out in rough and go over it physically – and then I can start formatting it for print.  Still looking like March right now.  I think you’ll be pleased . . . and wait until you see the cover!
  • You’ll see a few more Way With Worlds here – but then they’ll be over at . . . the new Seventh Sanctum Codex!  I’ve added codex.seventhsanctum.com, a subdomain that contains a content system so I can post updated, columns, and more, and I’m looking for contributors!  I want to add a bit more to the Sanctum to help authors and artists out.
  • My Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Career just sold more copies than Fan To Pro, my flagship book.  Holiday sales were definitely up, and a lot were physical books.  Big lesson is some books make good gift books and I think eBooks have their limits, at least for some titles. Anyone think my smaller job booklets would be good as a physical book?
  • Over at the Informotron, I updated my list of Geeky Professional Associations.  I plan to work on adding more resources to this and other sites I work on to help people out.
  • I have some more work with Seventh Sanctum and MuseHack coming up.  Stay tuned . . .
  • Starbound, even in crude beta, is very addictive.  Just figured you should know that.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.