A Written Record of Ideas for Writing
I'm always keeping track of ideas for writing.
It would be interesting to write a book on epistemology (the theory of knowledge) and reference at least these thinkers: Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Karl Popper, Jean Piaget, James Gibson, Carl Jung, Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Viktor Frankl, Endel Tulving, Jerome Bruner, Lev Vygotsky, Richard Feynman, Erwin Schrodinger. I think that I might be able to pull, or generate, something new out of that.
If you don't age when you are moving at the speed of light, then travel at the speed of light would basically be like time travel. It's really just like a pause button. I was talking about this with my dad, and it's an interesting idea. Basically Rip Van Winkle, but with space travel.
What if ghosts were subject to physics? Hard rules for magic are interesting. I haven't read "Master of the Five Magics" yet, but it did seem to revolutionize fantasy writing by taking magic and applying physics to it. This could be done with ghosts too. So, ghosts can move through things, but they move slower through things with higher densities.
What if Able had successfully defended himself against Cain? What if Cain had then lived too? What if Cain had been killed? Would Able have become paranoid? Would he have been crazy? Would he have been a dictator to control everyone to keep them safe and in-line? There are many interesting lines of thought here.
DARPA is the government agency for the United States that develops new military technology. They could be an endless source of scary science fiction (not that fictional) stories. For instance, they currently have robots that can eat biomass, like plants, to sustain themselves. They are called EATRs. One of the best sources of fuel for such a robot on a battlefield would be corpses, and if there weren't any corpses then live bodies would be even better.
She sighed; walked away. That's a four-word story that I wrote a little while ago. I think it would be cool to turn just this into a project, maybe something like a coffee table book. I messaged a photographer, but I don't think they were interested. The basic idea is that this story would be printed on each page, and each page would have a different photograph depicting a woman walking away. There could be so many different situations. It would really demonstrate the minds unique ability to fill-in narrative, to create closure. I would also include an essay on this and reference material from Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, James Joyce, Desmond Morris, and Scott McCloud. It would be a very artsy project, pretty darn modern and abstract, with a philosophy essay to boot.
Eric Weinstein has talked about how genius, and success, is about crossing adaptive valleys. About going from what you know, across what you don't know, to a new and greater knowing. It's a great geographical metaphor, and... it would make a great kids book.
There are some excellent small economics books from Leonard Read, Henry Hazlitt, and Frederic Bastiat. I think there could be another. Something like "Economics for Politicians". Just lay out something like 6 or so basic concepts maybe: subjective theory of value, creative destruction, comparative advantage, price signals, opportunity cost, medium of exchange, error cycles, Jeff's Razor, division of labor. Something like that. That list could be cleaned up. Ideas can nest inside of each other, and they interact quite a lot. This would be perfect to promote at Republican and Democrat conventions and such.
"Legend" by David Gemmell is an awesome book. I asked some book groups I was in what the greatest fiction hero was and many said Druss. I hadn't even heard of the guy. I read this a few months ago now and I think it would be a truly awesome movie, and it could be fun to adapt the screenplay.
That's enough for today.
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