ON CONVERGENCE PROBLEMS
In my first collection, Incomplete Solutions, I described my approach to coming up with stories as building “fiction-equations” based on some assumption and extrapolation of real-world developments. I think of these “fiction-equations” as mental models for reimagining reality using a science fiction or fantasy element. And I described the stories themselves as incomplete solutions to these limited fiction-equations. Attempts to resolve the mental model I have constructed.
But complex models can often lead to difficulties with convergence. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines convergence as “the coming together of two or more things to the same point.” In mathematical modelling and simulation, convergence more specifically refers to bringing an approximate (simplified) solution close enough to a true solution, within a given tolerance during an iterative procedure. This approach of simplification and iteration is often necessary when the models are complicated (which is often the case in the real world and therefore, I think, in fiction too). Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work smoothly and there are often difficulties in converging to a solution. In my day job as an engineer, when running simulations of complex mathematical models to find the new state of a system after some change has been implemented, I see these kinds of difficulties all the time when a model is struggling to find a solution. Convergence problems. I’ve probably seen hundreds of thousands of them at this point. I’ve seen them in my fiction too, metaphorically speaking. When re-imagining the world, thinking about the potential of some wondrous new scientific discovery or technology, some new social structure or what the world would be like if some mythical power truly existed, it is almost impossible not to see all the problems that could arise. Things will go wrong. There will be difficulties. Adjustments will have to be made. Challenges will come with any version of reality we imagine, no matter how optimistic. In other words, convergence problems will be experienced. Hence the title of this collection.
Convergence problems can be annoying, but they aren’t always bad. They can sometimes expose poor logic or inconsistent assumptions. They can even be fun to explore and think about sometimes, at least in the sense which I use them here—imagining unexpected challenges that can arise as our world changes, and in some cases, how those challenges may be resolved.
Many of these stories in this collection introduce fun and exciting concepts but they can be dark too. They deal with some of the nastier aspects of being human and they interrogate challenges to identity, independence, sense of self. But perhaps the most important thing I have learned about convergence problems is this: no matter how troublesome they are, they can always be resolved.
One way or the other.