Notes on Chapter Three
Ok, so some of the feedback I received for this chapter was less than positive, the two main criticisms being that the first part of the chapter was too ‘picturesque,’ and that the ‘philotic theory’ made no sense. The reasons behind both elements being presented so early on are not intended to be impossible to grasp, and certainly anyone with a basic understanding of physics or political history should be capable of grasping the concepts presented. So, lets begin.
Philotic Theory:
The concept of philotes first emerged in Orson Scott Card’s book ‘Enders Game,’ and subsequently in the rest of the quadrilogy. The version I have utilised is a greatly simplified form of the theory he details which can be found here.
(As I outlined in the chapter) a philote is a fictional physics concept stating that everything is connected by a thread of energy called a ‘philote.’ On an atomic level, each atom is connected in a random fashion to form a web of these philotic threads running between each atom in the molecule. These threads eventually come together, get wrapped together and form a string like structure (of energy once again, but this time of greater strength). This forms the molecules philotic energy, which once again forms a web with all the other molecules on the body (body being any physical object; a glass, a table, a squirrel, a drop of water, etc). Once again all of these philotic strings become ‘twined’ or wrapped together to form a thick rope, constituting the philotic energy for the body. Each of these bodies is connected in a web of philotic ropes, and if you can’t see where I’m going with this by now, I wonder how you are capable of breathing. These bodies are tethered to the Earth, the Earth tethered to the Sun, the sun to the galaxy and the galaxy to the universe. A basic (and perhaps slightly dodgy) diagram is shown below.
Now, the strength of these connections is dependant upon two different factors; the number of constituent parts (if one molecule has a philotic string formed from 4 atoms, and another’s formed by 42, the one with the more threads becomes thicker and stronger), and the physical location (again, think of the string metaphor – the further away you are, the greater the distance it has to be stretched).
A philotic connection can be broken, resulting in a release of energy (this is how fission and fusion works – the breaking of philotic connections resulting in this release of energy). For example, we are philotically connected to the earth, but should we break this philotic connection there will be nothing tethering us here, and we would escape the atmosphere. A new philotic connection would be formed, twining us to the sun as a small independent body within the galaxy.
The notion that you can influence these philotic threads is perhaps not as far fetched as you might initially think; in the 1960s Swami Rama allowed himself to be tested to demonstrate what he had learnt from his studies into tantra. He showed he was capable of changing bodily functions at will, from blood pressure to body temperature, even stopping his own heart temporarily, all functions that are meant to be autonomic and impossible to control at will. Furthermore, it explains the ability to sense when someone is watching you (sensing the philotic thread between you fluctuate), as well as shared dreams (the phenomenon, particularly between twins, who both dream the same thing at the same time) and the sense of knowing what someone else is thinking. These principles can all be explained with this fictitious theory.
The theory by ‘Orson Scott Card’ goes beyond this to include the notion of an ‘intelligent’ philote, or aiua, as well as the distinction between the universe we reside and the ‘outside’ where philotes reside prior to formation in this world. There is also the notion of gradually changing philotic strengths between individuals; for example, you won’t be connected directly to someone you have never had contact with, but they may have talked to a friend of your aunt’s, friend’s, sister’s, friends, mother, and through the chain they are linked to the philotic web. If you then came into contact, as you got to know them the philotic thread between you would grow and strengthen, leading to the result that you are most strongly philotically twined to those close to you. If this paragraph completely lost you, fear not; whilst I find it quite interesting none of this will feature in the story.
The Benevolent Dictator
The subtle thing that was apparently missed about this chapter was that, as altruistic as she is, as much as she has done her best for the people of the new world, she is still a dictator; albeit a benevolent one who has not been corrupt by power, but nonetheless is liable to make mistakes. She has not informed her people of her eventual goal, nor of her philotic abilities, nor of her real past. She even commented that previous leaders distanced themselves from their people, yet she doesn’t understand why people get drunk! She has lit up the night – this is meant to be metaphoric for lightening the darkness, where everything is plain to see, and nobody can effectively lie. A society where everyone has to be brutally honest with one another? No sparing of people’s feelings? No “that dress does not make your ass look fat?” Oh yeah, perfect. Not to mention a society where she has almost abolished the military, removed all powerful weapons (its not hard to see how badly that can go wrong).
There is indeed also a subtle hinting to the Chinese rule under Mao Zedong (not the least in the name ‘New World,’ taken from a Chinese propaganda poster that proudly read “Smash the old world, Establish a new world”); overly ambitious and believing the best in his people, his idea of ‘backyard furnaces’ backfired and resulted in one of the largest famines in human history, and indeed many who followed him were publically executed once his reign had ended. And yet despite these apparent atrocities and failures, his radical reforms which many were against at the time laid the foundations for the China we know today; the country rapidly become the next global superpower.
This idea may crop up again in future works, though here it is largely a backdrop, the subtle hinting that nobody is in fact perfect.
Philotic Theory:
The concept of philotes first emerged in Orson Scott Card’s book ‘Enders Game,’ and subsequently in the rest of the quadrilogy. The version I have utilised is a greatly simplified form of the theory he details which can be found here.
(As I outlined in the chapter) a philote is a fictional physics concept stating that everything is connected by a thread of energy called a ‘philote.’ On an atomic level, each atom is connected in a random fashion to form a web of these philotic threads running between each atom in the molecule. These threads eventually come together, get wrapped together and form a string like structure (of energy once again, but this time of greater strength). This forms the molecules philotic energy, which once again forms a web with all the other molecules on the body (body being any physical object; a glass, a table, a squirrel, a drop of water, etc). Once again all of these philotic strings become ‘twined’ or wrapped together to form a thick rope, constituting the philotic energy for the body. Each of these bodies is connected in a web of philotic ropes, and if you can’t see where I’m going with this by now, I wonder how you are capable of breathing. These bodies are tethered to the Earth, the Earth tethered to the Sun, the sun to the galaxy and the galaxy to the universe. A basic (and perhaps slightly dodgy) diagram is shown below.
Now, the strength of these connections is dependant upon two different factors; the number of constituent parts (if one molecule has a philotic string formed from 4 atoms, and another’s formed by 42, the one with the more threads becomes thicker and stronger), and the physical location (again, think of the string metaphor – the further away you are, the greater the distance it has to be stretched).
A philotic connection can be broken, resulting in a release of energy (this is how fission and fusion works – the breaking of philotic connections resulting in this release of energy). For example, we are philotically connected to the earth, but should we break this philotic connection there will be nothing tethering us here, and we would escape the atmosphere. A new philotic connection would be formed, twining us to the sun as a small independent body within the galaxy.
The notion that you can influence these philotic threads is perhaps not as far fetched as you might initially think; in the 1960s Swami Rama allowed himself to be tested to demonstrate what he had learnt from his studies into tantra. He showed he was capable of changing bodily functions at will, from blood pressure to body temperature, even stopping his own heart temporarily, all functions that are meant to be autonomic and impossible to control at will. Furthermore, it explains the ability to sense when someone is watching you (sensing the philotic thread between you fluctuate), as well as shared dreams (the phenomenon, particularly between twins, who both dream the same thing at the same time) and the sense of knowing what someone else is thinking. These principles can all be explained with this fictitious theory.
The theory by ‘Orson Scott Card’ goes beyond this to include the notion of an ‘intelligent’ philote, or aiua, as well as the distinction between the universe we reside and the ‘outside’ where philotes reside prior to formation in this world. There is also the notion of gradually changing philotic strengths between individuals; for example, you won’t be connected directly to someone you have never had contact with, but they may have talked to a friend of your aunt’s, friend’s, sister’s, friends, mother, and through the chain they are linked to the philotic web. If you then came into contact, as you got to know them the philotic thread between you would grow and strengthen, leading to the result that you are most strongly philotically twined to those close to you. If this paragraph completely lost you, fear not; whilst I find it quite interesting none of this will feature in the story.
The Benevolent Dictator
The subtle thing that was apparently missed about this chapter was that, as altruistic as she is, as much as she has done her best for the people of the new world, she is still a dictator; albeit a benevolent one who has not been corrupt by power, but nonetheless is liable to make mistakes. She has not informed her people of her eventual goal, nor of her philotic abilities, nor of her real past. She even commented that previous leaders distanced themselves from their people, yet she doesn’t understand why people get drunk! She has lit up the night – this is meant to be metaphoric for lightening the darkness, where everything is plain to see, and nobody can effectively lie. A society where everyone has to be brutally honest with one another? No sparing of people’s feelings? No “that dress does not make your ass look fat?” Oh yeah, perfect. Not to mention a society where she has almost abolished the military, removed all powerful weapons (its not hard to see how badly that can go wrong).
There is indeed also a subtle hinting to the Chinese rule under Mao Zedong (not the least in the name ‘New World,’ taken from a Chinese propaganda poster that proudly read “Smash the old world, Establish a new world”); overly ambitious and believing the best in his people, his idea of ‘backyard furnaces’ backfired and resulted in one of the largest famines in human history, and indeed many who followed him were publically executed once his reign had ended. And yet despite these apparent atrocities and failures, his radical reforms which many were against at the time laid the foundations for the China we know today; the country rapidly become the next global superpower.
This idea may crop up again in future works, though here it is largely a backdrop, the subtle hinting that nobody is in fact perfect.
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