Future Societies in Unearthed Stories

Origin & Themes

Science fiction is, among many other genres, one we all have opinions about. There are always some blurred edges between its subgenres.

On the one hand, as a literature genre derived from science, a key element of science fiction is its speculation about technology; its evolution has marked humankind, changing us and taking our societies into never-imagined paths. Analog Magazine defines science fiction as “stories in which some aspect of future science or technology is so integral to the plot that, if that aspect were removed, the story would collapse.”¹ This point of view focuses on the speculation of technology, first and foremost, or in plots based on (or enabled by) technology.

On the other hand, though, we also have things like social sci-fi, a subgenre of science fiction in which technological speculation takes a second place, to allow writers to focus on societal speculation. Technology is still important, but society is at the forefront here. If you’re keen on reading academic papers, Gerlach and Hamilton (2003)² covered much of its history.

(There are many other subgenres and/or styles of sci-fi, but this is not an essay on the taxonomic structure of the genre.)

However, as I see it, in large-scale sci-fi plots, speculating about technology is impossible without speculating on society, because tech is derived by and for society, thus creating a feedback loop when they affect each other. On top of that, I particularly like science fiction as “the literature of big ideas”–those that are pushed to the nth degree of speculation and pondering of what if, even if those what ifs may not be entirely accurate. I have quite a thorough discussion on this matter over in BookTube³.

But beyond the genres, it turns out that this year–2024, at the time of Unearthed Stories: Future Societies update release–I read a lot of social sci-fi, including Steven Erikson’s Rejoice (which I podcasted about⁴), World War Z, After The Syzygy, The Left Hand of Darkness, Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man… and the bug to write some social sci-fi hit hard. The update’s name came almost instantaneously, so after releasing The Genesis of Change I promptly started to write.

About the Books

All books have an origin, so let me tell you what inspired the two books-with-choices within this update: Tales of the Stars and Static Signal Living Legacy.

Tales of the Stars

There is a very poignant phrase with regards to world-building in speculative fiction and, particularly, about sci-fi–that the aliens we imagine are just “humans in a costume”. Of course, this has its roots in cinema, when–due to the lack of advanced CGI–most alien characters were effectively portrayed by actors in literal costumes… which then affected the alien’s bodily shape.

But beyond that, the phrase is also a cultural commentary–that the writers/creatives behind that work anthropomorphised those fictional societies until their likeness with humanity was undeniable. For example, nothing says that alien races must share the concept of “family”, yet most do (Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney has an excellent example of a different society); they may not have genders or may have more than two⁵, yet most do; they may not all be humanoids, but they often are (Star Trek, we’re all looking at you). You get the gist.

So, I was once again ranting⁶ about this, when I came up with an idea–why not explore these issues through collected shorts? Cue in that update about social sci-fi that was already itching at my writerly fingertips, and the idea for Tales of the Stars took root.

Tales of the Stars is a cosy, low-stakes, low-sci collection. Science is never the point–people (non-humans) are the point. Let me explain:

• This is a collection of “thematically related” shorts–like a slice-of-life, more accurately. The only connecting thread is that Luca, our journalist protagonist, arrives at a deep space station (that’s actually a cultural hub and not a military strategic point) to meet non-humans and document their stories. Every subsequent short is a conversation/encounter.

• I planned those encounters with the goal of hypothesising (worldbuilding, more accurately) races that are not anthropomorphised. Every short is a conversation between Luca and the alien in question and, as it unfolds, we slowly understand their differences. From a race that does not know what loneliness is, to another whose collective memory is “uploaded” (it’s more complex than that), another that lacks a lot of the concepts we humans rely on, and so forth.

• It is marked as “ongoing” because whenever I have an idea for a new race to explore, I’ll add a short or two.

So how does it work? The only quirk this story has is that you always start on Chapter 1, when Luca arrives at Nightstorm Station 11… and from there, you can go to any chapter, in any order. Perks of it being interactive; not the fanciest thing I’ve done in Unearthed Stories, but enough for this cosy tale.

Especially when the other book-with_choices consumed me greatly.

Static Signal Living Legacy

This is the star of the show and the one where I experimented the most.

One thing about books is that some may be written expeditely, while others may take decades to be put on paper. Some may live like an unfinished idea for years–or decades!–only to be written after a long time… while many may never be written. To be honest, Static Signal Living Legacy may fall into some of those categories.

Around 22 years ago⁷, I read Carl Sagan’s novel Contact. It was the Spanish translation, actually, but I loved it; the movie was a great adaptation, but the book had a more complex mystery that very-young-me really liked. Fast-forward many years, and I completely forgot about it. A severe case of life happens.

Around 2021, that desire found its way back to my waking mind, and so I wrote a 28,000-word novella as a series of audio-only transmissions—meaning, an epistolary narrative with only dialogue. It had a plot-related purpose (which I shall not spoil here), a training-related purpose (I wanted to experiment with writing a story with only dialogue), and a hope (I imagined it as dramatised audio for a podcast). That was a very primitive version of SSLL but, as you may have guessed, it lay dormant for a few more years.

In 2024 (finally!), I mentioned my plan about a sci-fi update for Unearthed Stories to my partner—aka, the developer—and he suggested I convert that barebones version of SSLL into a book-with-choices. It was not an easy task, yet something very interesting came out of it.

SSLL’s Worldbuilding

Sagan’s Contact was based on radio astronomy, and so that was my starting point. However, although I loved the novel (and read four other of Sagan’s books) my knowledge of astronomy remains very limited. Furthermore, there was another writerly itch I wanted to scratch: to write a story set in Australia… and so I started researching famous radio observatories in Australia.

It was then that I found out about a projected plan to build two extraordinary radio observatories in Australia and South Africa: the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO)⁸. It began building in 2022, and it’s projected to be finalised in 2029. You can see them in the image below–they are not the traditional telescopes with dishes; the Australian ones are like… radio-trees. So, the more I read about this project the more it fascinated me, and it became the core setting of SSLL.

I did change its name to ARA (Astronomical Radio Array), just like I changed the name of some organisations.

Now, in terms of the broader world, I decided on something near-future and settled for the year 2088 (for reasons)… and while everything indicates that 63 years in the future we will all be neck-deep in tech I wanted to speculate. I didn’t want a hyper-technological world, so I imagined a setting in which AIs are heavily restricted by law and where some old technology is fashionable again.

Do I think it will happen in the future? No. Do I see this setting as plausible? No. Can I write it? Yes. ‘Nuff said.

The Mechanics

This is nowhere near as grandiose as Means of Egress’ metafictional approach and its breakage of the fourth wall⁹, but it is quite special and different–this is the first Unearthed Story I write with playable multi-PoVs.

Multi PoVs are becoming increasingly common in fantasy and sci-fi books, and I’ve been craving to bring this to Unearthed Stories. Both Reflections and Means of Egress (both released in the Elusive Pathways update) experimented with the alternation of a playable PoV with a non-playable one⁹… but I wanted more.

Alas, the main mechanic of Static Signal Living Legacy was born. It can be summarised as:

1. Rotating non-selectable playable PoVs, following
2. limited, “small” people that are never leaders, with
3. a real-life-like limited agency (a common theme in my writing), where
4. everyone’s choices are interrelated.

Regarding the rotating PoVs, you (as the reader) cannot choose who to play as. On the contrary, the story forces you to play as many characters as the PoV switches from character to character in every chapter… very much like a book would do. For example, you are playing as Alessia DeLuca, radio astronomer, but in the next chapter you may be playing as Wraith, a hacker.

Purposefully, (and leading to #2) all the playable characters are “small” people and never leaders. For example, a tenure-track immigrant researcher alone in a country, a radio amateur living in the middle of nowhere (aka, Western Australia), a civil engineer in South Korea, or a hacker that belongs to a weird organisation. This means that the character’s knowledge is always limited–in real life, it is highly unlikely any of them would know what intelligence agencies are doing…

Therefore, there are no overt choices (ingredient #3). For example, Mien has very direct and explicit choices: you can literally choose whether to kill or spare a character, or to side with one or another, or to ravage or reshape a country. None of that happens in Static Signal Living Legacy. This is always about the small choices and the many unintended consequences they may have. This approach may be frustrating because it is very difficult to gauge the impact of a choice; most of the time the reader/player is left gambling… purposefully, and just like it happens in life.

Up to here, everything sounded well on paper, but could I link everyone’s choices (point #4)? How could I give a sense of progression and impact to the choices when the PoVs are always rotating, and when the reader/player can only take small, day-to-day choices?

Well then, we are a society, right? We are all interrelated.

Someone may choose to drink too much one night… and then drive. Someone else may decide to text their friend and pull out the phone while crossing the street. Grim example, but hopefully you get the gist–it is what we often blame to randomness when actually, it is just causality. In Static Signal Living Legacy, if we allow one character to indulge in a thought, that may open or close opportunities in later chapters, just like letting a character adopt an attitude may prevent you from reaching specific endings.

It wasn’t easy to manage, but it was certainly quite a learning experience.

Some Shenanigans

Before signing off, I need to thank those that helped us with the cover reveals! Also, check their sites, because it’s really worth it!

• Jamedi Blogs
• SFF Insiders
• FanfiAddict (by Charlie Cavendish)
• Bibliotheory (aka Aaron)

Overall, Future Societies brings a breath of fresh sci-fi to Unearthed Stories (Restorers was the only sci-fi before this update), while again adding new mechanics to the mix. Nevermind that Static Signal Living Legacy is the longest novel in the app so far and, perhaps, the second-longest idea for a book I’ve had¹⁰!

That said, Future Societies lands on both Android and iOS on November 1st, 2024 EST time. You can prepare yourself by installing Unearthed Stories now! It’s free, and you’ll make me very, very happy!