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Sunday, January 6, 2013

We create worlds.


Reposting from a comment on Google+.

In The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein, the main characters use a device to travel to alternate universes -- and winds up in fictional universes.

Many years ago I had a dream in which I was giving a presentation or teaching a class. I said, "This is why we're here." I raised my hand, and I created a universe.

Years later, I found myself in a dream, going to a particular time and place on a world I had created. I was as a deity, complete with people fighting each other in my name (two groups indistinguishable to me) and at least one woman petitioning me to bring her son back to life. (I did not, for it would have bound me to that place and time.)

I went to a particular time and place on this world and looked up to watch the birth of the heavens, knowing that while there were other people on the planet, I was the only one looking up and seeing this event. What I saw was the transformation from a mathematical abstraction of a universe to a living, organic universe. It was so beautiful that I collapsed to the ground and wept. (The only time I have cried from overwhelming beauty.)

We, authors, create worlds. Are they real enough that a device may someday allow someone to physically traverse from our world to one of our creation? It would be delightful to think so. All I can say is that it is why I am here. It isn't to be worshiped in isolation, but to share the beauty with others.

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