This project was originally inspired by my experience in mechanical engineering. Thermodynamics is the study of energy, but in the context of engineering the focus was on cycles. The primary question being how much mechanical work could be derived in each cycle. A cycle is defined as a series of processes that ultimately return to the original properties of the system. These properties are usually pressure, volume, and temperature for simple systems. While there are many cycles used to model thermodynamic processes, they each have different efficiencies. Some amount of useful energy is always lost to entropy whenever a process occurs. While reading “The Gone World” I became interested in the Inadmissible Future Trajectories, particularly how information could be derived from these timelines that could be beneficial in the Terra Firma. This information changes how the present timeline progresses by allowing crimes to be solved. While this information is beneficial, I wanted to explore the losses that might occur from participating in such a cycle. To complete this project, I needed to get a greater perspective on how societies collapse. Demenocal and Cook’s paper “Perspectives on Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” explores this theme and concludes that the management of resources including the responses to internal and external pressures are responsible for the collapse of civilizations. I incorporated this theme into the story by relating it to disease. I also chose to write the narrative in the second person to engage the reader directly in the decisions made. Either path has an option that loops back to the original timeline, but both options have a cost for returning. Ultimately, the question is whether the sense of belonging and home is worth bringing the apocalypse closer to that same home.
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References
“A Very Fast Intro to Decision Theory.” There Are 4 Basic Elements in Decision Theory: Acts, Events, Outcomes and Payoffs, South Illinois University Edwardsville, www.siue.edu/~evailat/decision.htm.
Davis, Philip. “Entropy and Society: Can the Physical/Mathematical Notions of Entropy Be Usefully Imported into the Social Sphere?” Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, vol. 1, no. 1, 2011, pp. 119–136., doi:10.5642/jhummath.201101.09.
Demenocal, and Cook. “CA Forum on Anthropology in Public: Perspectives on Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.” Current Anthropology, vol. 46, 2005, doi:10.2307/3597146.
“A Very Fast Intro to Decision Theory.” There Are 4 Basic Elements in Decision Theory: Acts, Events, Outcomes and Payoffs, South Illinois University Edwardsville, www.siue.edu/~evailat/decision.htm.
Davis, Philip. “Entropy and Society: Can the Physical/Mathematical Notions of Entropy Be Usefully Imported into the Social Sphere?” Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, vol. 1, no. 1, 2011, pp. 119–136., doi:10.5642/jhummath.201101.09.
Demenocal, and Cook. “CA Forum on Anthropology in Public: Perspectives on Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.” Current Anthropology, vol. 46, 2005, doi:10.2307/3597146.