Knowledge Types

(Copied straight from .XML 'backup' file, needs formatting and corrections. ZM User (talk) 20:15, 22 April 2024 (PDT))

   This page is not a reference about the Swarm Cycle specifically.  Instead, it is about general writing concepts as applied to the "Swarm Cycle" shared-author universe.  A writer must keep track of several different 'types' of knowledge.  Failure to keep this straight leads to reader confusion.

Types of Knowledge

1: First, there are concepts that the authors are discussing but haven't agreed on yet.  How Sa'arm communicate is a good example.  A writer should not write a story that explains this, as the final decision may very well be different from what is written.
2: Second, there are things that 'everyone knows' because they have been published in various Swarm Cycle stories.  We use a particular ship design -the "Castle" small patrol corvette or frigate- for a lot of examples simply because everyone knows about them.  A Castle has one short-range main weapon, a "Plasma Torpedo", and two longer-range secondary weapons, a pair of "Particle Beam Projector" turrets.  Everyone, from writer to character to reader, knows this.
3: Third, there are things that 'everyone knows' if they are characters in the stories but the authors don't, simply because we don't actually live in that science-fiction story universe.  What does a Confederacy toilet look like and how does it actually work? Every one of our characters knows this because they use one every day.  None of us authors know anything about the subject.  We can write about a 'Code Brown' incident where someone must go visit a restroom for a bit, but we shouldn't put any details into it because none of us know anything about it.
4: Fourth, there are things that only the authors know, as they have to be able to write intelligently about how the Sa'arm act.  How our enemy behaves is a good example of this.  As authors, we have to understand this so we can write stories that work well and fit into the 'canon' of the already-published stories.  However, none of our characters know any of this 'knowledge'.

   This 'true but unknown' category is the most awkward, as that data can only become 'known' if an author writes a story where the Sa'arm actions make it clear.  Zen Master's story "Independent Command" was written with a specific arrangement of attacks on the story's central system specifically to allow one of his characters to reach a conclusion, the Moraes Conjecture, about Sa'arm behavior.  The authors know the truth about how the Sa'arm act.  All our characters have is conclusions they have reached.  Is the Moraes Conjecture correct?  Can we trust it?  What if it's wrong?  Sometimes the characters guess right.  Sometimes they don't.  Okay, that leads to one final type of 'knowledge':

5: Fifth and last, there are conclusions that the humans have reached that happen to be incorrect because there were unknown factors forcing the Sa'arm behavior.

   A prime example of this last is when two separate gestalts meet as in what happened in the middle of the 3rd Battle of Earthat.  The authors know what happens because The Thinking Horndog has told us, but several stories have been written about this incident and the humans don't react appropriately because they don't understand what is going on inside the gestalts.

(The above was written as a public service by Zen Master and may well be refuted or expanded by other writers.)

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