A:
I'm actually really interested in all that stuff. The whole idea that, you know, the world is definitely one way, I'm a very big believer in Truth, you know, with a capital T, and that history and everything really did happen one way, even if we don't know what that way was or is. But, there are different ways the world could go, you could imagine things happen differently, and things being better or worse because of that. And, so the really interesting part, I think, is what if we can take things from the better worlds into ours?
B:
Just magically?
A:
No, not magically. These other worlds don't exist in any real sense, you know. But, if one of them did have a philosophy, or an idea, that was better than what we have, the idea or philosophy could make it into our world.
B:
How? The other places aren't real.
A:
Well, they're not actually real, but they're real as ideas. And so, if all you're trying to do is take an idea from them, that's totally possible. Like, you could imagine a world where something was different, and so they had a different idea, but then it turns out that idea is actually useful, back here in the real world.
B:
Like
A:
Well, like a silly example, is imagine a cartoon world. Like for kids
B:
An actual cartoon?
A:
Yeah. So in this cartoon world, which isn't real, like REALLY real, but is real as fiction, the characters have some adventure, say, and they learn a valuable lesson about friendship, or diversity or whatever. So, kids watching it learn that even though some kids may look different than them, all kids have something to offer. Those kids learned a genuine life lesson from a made-up, fictional world.
B:
Well, yeah, but that's just because the writers, or artists, or whatever, put those things into the other world. I can't draw a cartoon Einstein, have him talk about relativity, and say, "Oh wow! I just learned about relativity from a fiction! Neat!"
A:
You can if you don't tell people you drew it. If you don't tell the people you put the information in, it still matters to them when they pull it out.
B:
That's religion, right? A bunch of people made up a fictional world, where miracles happen and everything, and then pretended they didn't make it up. People bought it, I'll never know why
A:
Well, I think that's a pretty cynical take.
B:
Skeptical take, maybe. Sure.
A:
Well...
B:
So why do you think this is interesting?
A:
Just the idea that truth can come from fiction.
B:
I mean. Sure, ok. Of course.
A:
I want to write a novel about it.
B:
Really?
A:
Yeah.
B:
I'll give you a title: "I really like Umberto Eco and Jorge Luis Borges, especially Foucault's Pendulum and Tlon, Uqbar, Whatever, so, here's a book I wrote."
A:
That's not being fair, I'm genuinely interested
B:
Hey, hey. Maybe for a sort of spiritual successor, you could write a book about, like, what if we are all just MACHINES, you know? Haha, yeah, you could call that one "The first Matrix movie was on Spike this weekend. I was going to just watch the first part where the one dude punches through a wall, but I ended up watching the whole thing, and I really think it has some interesting ideas." You might have to cut the title down a little, but
A:
You're a jerk, you know that? A total jerk.