The common ground between these subjects are facts that bolster a narrative. And to be successful they must either be plausible or so over the top that you willing discard all sense of reality.
Science fiction at it’s best creates a believable alternate reality that provides insight to our everyday lives.
Conspiracy theories brew on the fringe of a society that fails to be transparent. They embody the cynicism of the disempowered. They challenge official narratives or even reality as we know it.
I enjoy both genres and have even created my own.
So, join me on this little diversion from reality.
Or is it?
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Once upon a time there was an intelligent race of primates that developed a high level of technology. They had even begun to fly off their planet and explore their solar system. There was no better planet than their own but they found resources in abundance that were scarce at home.
Over many generations it became apparent that their environment was in decline. Their protective atmosphere was growing thin and they found that their best option was to tunnel underground. They became proficient at this of course and built major cities with high-speed connections.
But the subterranean life was psychologically oppressive. With the proper protection they could still venture back to the surface but many yearned for something better. And so, a serious analysis was undertaken to evaluate their planetary options.
The best habitable planets they could find were in other solar systems. With their current technology it would take hundreds of years to reach any of those if not more. With this knowledge they turned their attention back to their own solar system.
There was really only one planet that had an environment that was already compatible for them. But the problem was the same problem there had always been. There was no land on the surface of this planet. It was covered entirely with water. There was nowhere to build. There was no way to tunnel.
The previous ideas of their colonist forefathers of building sky cities or floating on the water were big technological challenges and didn’t really appeal to their subterranean culture, though they did provoke much debate.
Then, an idea surfaced that seemed crazy at first, but the more it was analyzed the more it seemed like the best solution.
They would bring land to the water world. To be clear, there was already land under the water, they would just add more.
After making calculations it was determined that one large asteroid would be simplest and most effective. They identified the correct specimen and directed it on a collision course, knowing that the havoc it would wreak would take decades to subside.
This provided them with the time to construct a behemoth of transportation. They chose an ideal moon of their planet and commenced in excavating a colony.
The water planet’s atmosphere was thick with steam and dust and smoke for years. But as it dissipated the success of the plan became clear. The meteor had embedded itself so deeply into the planet that it had deformed the entire globe. The impact point created the largest concave feature on the planet. This had filled with water naturally. The opposite side of the globe now bowed out revealing an enormous land mass.
This would be a paradise!
Not everyone would be able to go on the maiden voyage to the new world. Truthfully, not everyone wanted to. It would be a long journey made all the longer by the chosen vehicle. And then there was the uncertainty of when they would be able to safely transfer to the surface. Plus, there would be future opportunities to travel there as well. Safer and more certain opportunities.
The hope and promise of adventure sparked excitement and pushed the moon colony to its capacity. All conceivable preparations had been made and the propulsion system slowly moved the moon colony out of its orbit.
The many months in space were not too unusual for these people who had grown accustomed to life underground. It was when they had been installed in orbit of their new home that it seemed the dream was now manifest.
The coordinates of their orbit had been precisely calculated of course, and the rotation was attuned to ensure that their primary observatory was always facing the new world.
After a series of automated probes had been installed in orbit and on the surface of the planet it was determined to be safe to visit and begin building.
They built tunnels of course, but they also built observatories and surface structures based on their ancient history that had long been impossible on their old home of Mars.
Gondwanaland on Earth was their new home now and the potential was limitless!
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I hope you enjoyed my sci-fi short story. I think it could make a pretty cool novel or movie but I like to be more succinct so there you have it.
Like any good science fiction, I don’t think it defies any laws of physics but it also explains some anomalies in our reality and presents a vision for a larger human timeline.
A conspiracy theory added to the mix could make for some good subterfuge and tension between the most relevant characters if this were to be fleshed out into a generational work like the “Dune” series.
Conspiracy theories also require some basis in fact. At least a good one that can endure. There are many conspiracy theories based on the US space program that have been around as long as it has.
To be clear though, while most commonly referring to nefarious intentions, a conspiracy can also refer to any secretive endeavor.
People commonly conspire to arrange a surprise party.
My wife and I conspired to have a baby because there were no guarantees of success. We didn’t want to be questioned about the status of our efforts until after the first trimester when we felt relatively certain of success.
Much of our common human discourse demands an absence of ambiguity from language, so the most referenced meaning tends to gain dominance.
Just like how a critical review is considered negative when a critic’s job is to analyze, adding depth and context to a subject. Examining the strengths and weaknesses of an artistic work, a critical review can be anywhere between effusive with praise to devastatingly caustic. But we choose to term a critic’s praise as a “good review” or a “glowing review”, but “critical” if bad.
Some conspiracies come to light; “Happy Birthday!”, “We’re having a baby!”, while others remain theories because of a lack of evidence or perhaps conflicting evidence.
One of the most famous conspiracies are the events leading up to 9/11. No one can deny that there were multiple hijackings in the eastern US ending in multiple planes crashing into prominent buildings.
The chance of this being coincidence is 0%.
More than one person conspired to make that happen.
A conspiracy that has launched many theories.
Even the US governments official report acknowledges the simple fact that 9/11 was a conspiracy. The fact that the report doesn’t adequately explain strange occurrences of the day and uses explanations that defy the laws of physics with some of its analysis has left the door open for history to question its integrity. The report is a bad work of fiction.
This is exactly the same as the report from the Warren Commission following the assassination of president John F Kennedy. A failure to adequately explain strange occurrences of the day and standing behind the explanation of a magic bullet defying the laws of physics leaves this a conspiracy that is only a theory because the truth will not be revealed.
I could go on and on about conspiracies but it doesn’t actually get you anywhere. That’s what the rioters at the US capitol found out on January 6, 2021. I don’t want to get political here. It’s just reflective of the Institute’s esoteric equation of “Ideas + Influential Information, Institutes Matter”.
If you add ideas that are garbage to the equation, the matter exuded is garbage.