|
Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
Collapsing The Wave: An Interview with J. Frederick Arment
I really liked J. Frederick Arment's new book Backbeat - A Novel of Physics. This is a story that demonstrates real writing power; he makes the ideas behind quantum mechanics come alive in a fascinating tale about people you'll care about. How he does this, I have no idea. I highly recommend that you read this book for yourself and find out.
(Backbeat by J. Frederic Arment)
When physicist-entrepreneur Frank Whirlpool is murdered, his runaway adopted son, Romey Argasti, is named sole heir to the two-billion-dollar Whirlpool Estate—with one stipulation. The nineteen-year old must find a lost piece of music composed by his birth mother just before she and his birth father, Justin Bishop, died in a plane crash over the English Channel.
Fred Arment is not an easy man to pin down; at any given moment this fall, he's probably either on a book tour, giving lectures, working on his upcoming books, or wintering in Florida. I was able to "collapse the wave" of probability for this interview.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
A couple of years ago, I could have answered this quickly, but the
writing of Backbeat: A Novel of Physics has given me a much larger
perspective. Who I am at this moment is the superposition of every wave
of experience, past, present and future: growing up in suburbia, blue
collar father, fundamentalist Christian mother, undergraduate degree in
History, masters in the French Enlightenment, post-graduate work in
physics, teacher and lecturer, married with two children, divorced with
a second chance at love, technical writer for corporations, advertising
business owner, sailboater, peace advocate, infant of the sixties who
bought the idea that anything is possible if we just use the energy in
our minds. Like the characters in Backbeat, I’m the culmination of
foreshadowing. A waveform, in effect!
Did you read science fiction as a child? If so, what did you read?
I must confess, it was Danny Dunn that floated my boat when I was in
grade school. I went through a few of Asimov’s work and on to the Dune
series, but where abstract ideas and literature met was my real
obsession. If I didn’t learn something from fiction, it seemed
pointless. Good and evil didn’t do it for me. There is much more out
there, I believe, and the type of science fiction that flourishes where
the scientific method leaves off is really the edge that thrills me.
Unfortunately, most science fiction is still dealing with the duality
thing.
When did you start writing fiction?
In my early twenties, I decided it was about time to fulfill my
eleven-year-old dream to write a book. However, I was involved in too
many things -- politics, history, psychology, science, theology -- to
concern myself with the craft of writing. That’s why it took me twenty
years to turn those ideas into presentable stories that intrigue
people’s senses of art as well as subject. My first book was a
techno-thrill called The Synthesis (www.bluehotbooks.com) that dealt
with the end of history. Today, I’m very comfortable with writing and
hope my work shows the result of many years of craft catching up with
ideas.
What made you decide to write novels in the sf genre?
Science fiction is one of the few genres with the flexibility and depth
to deal with ideas beyond our tools of measure. Most would call it
speculation, but it is more than baseless imagination. Science fiction
allows us to take what we know and make suppositions about the next
logical step in our understanding. Backbeat: A Novel of Physics does
not stray from sound physics, but through the use of plot and
character, fiction allowed me to experiment and test my theories.
In some ways, science becomes a character in the book, and as with
other characters it takes on a life of its own. It learns and grows and
becomes an integral part of the plot. That, I believe, is the
difference between an worthwhile book and one that simply replays books
of the past (an example would be the Romance genre, which replays Jane
Austin over and over).
In Backbeat, physics is a mysterious character that grows in the
reader’s mind until the climax and resolution when the reader realizes
how science is central to the plot. Whodunit? The quantum mind!
Where, when, and how do you write? In Florida?
In the winters, my partner and I escape the Northern freeze and our
landed responsibilities to live aboard our Hunter sailboat in the Keys.
Lisa spends mornings topside letting the blue and green waters inspire
her work (she’s a ceramic artist) while I stay confined in the cabin
clicking away on my Mac. Living on a sailboat, I must say, is a very
freeing experience. The watery life lets you escape the usual busy life
simply because you can’t get here from there. Quick and always
available is the ball and chain that our sailboat unlocks and
concentration on our work is more easily found.
What gave you the idea for writing Backbeat - A Novel of Physics?
When I write, I start with the idea and then develop a plot to
investigate its validity. With Backbeat, I began with the observation
that we humans tend to separate ourselves from nature, which is absurd.
This led to the hypothesis that if at our root we really do have a
quantum nature, we must be a composite of quantum characteristics. At
the macro scale, things are smoothed out and, with our inadequate
senses, we take little notice of the quantum world. None-the-less we
are quantum beings, made of energy, interfering as waves with
frequencies and wavelengths. Since the scientific method requires me to
create an experiment to test this hypothesis -- and since our current
tools of measurement do not enable us to do that at the quantum scale
-- I chose fiction as the apparatus. All indications from readers say
the experiment worked well.
Where do you get your interest in quantum mechanics?
I’ve always been interested in fundamental questions, and quantum
physics deals with the root of our being. You can’t get much further
down into our relationship with the universe or our own nature than the
Planck scale. Because it is an evolving science, most of what we know
of quantum physics is just analogy, much like our religions. Yet it
allows us to contemplate our place in the universe with more precision
than superstition and fear.
Music plays an essential role in the book; do you have any musical
talents?
I played drums when I was in school and now have an electronic drum set
that, unfortunately, sits idle most of the time. I’ve had music
teachers say I had perfect pitch, and I must confess that mediocre
musicians drive me crazy, but a well-played song in any genre, from
jazz and classical to hip-hop and reggae, gets me closer to the
backbeat of life.
In eastern philosophy, the mind is sometimes compared to a pool of
water; thoughts and emotions are described as waves disturbing the
surface of the pool. In the book, you seem to use the idea of the
waveform hypothesis to say that this eastern concept is not a metaphor,
but a literal description. Do you think there might be scientific value
in seeing people as complex wave phenomena?
There is huge potential in finally coming to terms with our essential
nature, which is energy. Think what could happen if scientists began to
investigate the possibility that phenomena can be understood with more
precision by measuring its frequency than the antiquated way we
describe things now. Color, texture, length, width, opacity – these are
inefficient descriptors at best, antiquated at worst. If we put
research dollars into finding ways to measure the wave characteristics
of things, then we could simply apply a wave matrix to explain many of
the results and behaviors, which now only seem unsolvable mysteries.
You obviously enjoy writing about southern Europe in the book; what
personal experiences inform those pages?
I’ve taken several trips to Europe and find the history and culture of
the individual countries fascinating. I find the people of Europe are
very concerned with making this life mean something more than quantity.
They suffer inconvenience to ensure that the means of production, how
they make their living, does not control their lives. Perhaps it is
because they live with thousands of year of history that quality of
life is so strong in their minds. In the U.S., what is old is
continually destroyed or remodeled into new and with the firm ground of
antiquity goes much of our contemplative spirit.
In the novel, you write about people with very different life experience
and social status. Can you name and describe most alien human culture
you've ever encountered?
Einstein taught us that because the speed of light fixed, we only
experience reality from our own inertial frames of reference. Alien
human cultures are simply different frames of reference. The next
evolution may be that we embrace a worldview that relishes the
differences and faces the fact that we are all alien cultures to each
other. How else could everyone be so wrong, and me so right?
What projects are you working on now?
During my book tour this fall, I had a chance to stop for five days at
Pismo Beach in California and concept my next novel. It’s a sequel to
Backbeat: A Novel of Physics that follows one of the secondary
characters on a waveform of his or her own (that would be telling). I’m
intrigued with the thought that physics might help us understand and
perhaps give new energy and depth to our religious traditions. If
science can help us travel to distant moons and planets, why shouldn’t
it be used for traveling to the core of spirit?
J. Frederick Arment winters in Florida on the sailboat Serenata and summers with his family in Yellow Springs, Ohio. After an early career teaching history, Arment founded a successful writing and marketing firm and began lecturing at Wilberforce College and Wright State University. He has penned numerous technical publications for Fortune 500 companies as well as non-profit and governmental organizations.
Arment is also author of The Synthesis, an techno-thriller from the FictionNet® bookplate (1995). He was a board member of the Antioch Writers’ Workshop and a book editor for WAM publishing. He is a founding board member of the Dayton International Peace Museum project and serves as co-chair of Dayton Peace Action. In addition to a bachelor of science in history education, Arment holds a master of humanities with a focus on the eighteenth-century American and French Enlightenment. His post-graduate study has focused on the integrated disciplines of philosophy, theology, and physics.
For more information, go to his website: FredArment.com.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/30/2004)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.
| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories -
("
Entertainment
")
'Iceberg House' Of Travis Kelce Reflects Science Fiction Of Past Century
'The basement was huge... carved deep into the rock that folded up to underlie the ridge...' - Clifford Simak, 1963.
Lucid Dreams On Demand From Prophetic and Card79
'the peeper did not operate by virtue of its machinery alone, but by the reaction of the brain and the body of its user...' - Clifford Simak, 1957.
Flyboard Water Jet Shoes Lift Off
'I shall never forget that first lesson in aerial walking.' - Francis Flagg, 1930.
Cosplay Style Wings Could Work On Moon
'They're lovely! - titanalloy struts as light and strong as bird-bones...' - Robert Heinlein, 1957.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
|
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
AI Welfare Position At Anthropic Filled By Human
'You’re the robopsychologist of the plant, so you’re to study the robot itself...'
Marslink Proposed By SpaceX
'It was the heart of the Solar System's communication line...'
Simple Way To Defeat AI Face Recognition
'... designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
Wood-Panelled LignoSat Launched
'The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship...'
Laser-Beam Welding In Orbital Factories
'His contract with Space Industries required him to work summers in their orbital factory.'
'Iceberg House' Of Travis Kelce Reflects Science Fiction Of Past Century
'The basement was huge... carved deep into the rock that folded up to underlie the ridge...'
Mechazilla Arms Catch A Falling Starship, But Check Out SF Landing-ARMS
'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
A System To Defeat AI Face Recognition
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
Robot Hand Separate From Robot
'The crawling, exploring object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Hybrid Wind Solar Devices
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
Is Optimus Autonomous Or Teleoperated?
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
Robot Masseuse Rubs People The Right Way
'The automatic massager began to fumble gently...'
Solar-Powered Space Trains On The Moon
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
Drone Deliveries Instead Of Waiters In Restaurants?
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
Optimus Robot Can Charge Itself
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
Skip Movewear Arc'teryx AI Pants
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
More SF in the News Stories
More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories
|
|