IAMBUSFACE: Freeform Collaborative Literary Composition

This is a brief introduction to the foundations of the world I am creating. It is a fantasy world that could potentially be this one. It has magic, but the magic is the kind that could be but probably isn't(though science could easily prove it impossible at any time; it simply hasn't yet). The following are some notes I jotted down on the nature of my world's magic.

Consciousness and language co-evolved as a way of observing and manipulating probability. As the mind developed, the faculties for induction based on pattern recognition and probability analysis became the greatest survival advantage. The ability to discern causailities and the probabilities of various potential effects became the paramount goal of the evolutionary machine, along with the integration of this ability into a societal framework. The purpose of language was to communicate information, as most people realise. What is less commonly realised (though just as obvious if one thinks about it) is that the purpose of information is to provide conditions for probability analysis. The mind arose to process these second hand conditionals, but its advent allowed more complex and subtle abstract ideas to be communicated which in turn stimulated the development of the mind further in a positive feedback reaction (there's a possible chicken-egg dilemma with language and mind, but since neither one could have developed without the other, it's kind of moot).

Of course, probability analysis itself wasn't the end of these developments, only the means. The purpose is to allow the individual to influence the course of events to a more suitable outcome than that which is most likely without interference. In addition to manual manipulation, the brain, being able to generate small amounts of energy, developed the capacity to make small changes in the chaotic system of the world around it that could have huge consequences. The mind developed by the positive feedback is capable of plotting these consequences and the languages that developed with it allowed conscious implementation of these changes. The mind provided the power and the language the vehichle for alteration of probabilities which would seem to us to be magic.

Ability varied by individual, of course. There were some savants that seemed not to require language at all; they could intuit the desired effects and generate them at will. There were others at the opposite end of the spectrum that were completely incompetent when it came to such mental feats. Most people could work out most simple probability manipulations with suffificient volcabulary and grasp of syntax, but relied on a large number of mnemonic devices developed over the course of their society's history to perform simple tasks. With these, almost anyone could levitate objects, set fires, or calm animals, just to name a few, without having to figure out the probabilities themselves.


This is all in the distant past. At this point in history, almost all of humanity belongs to one large society. The society is largely literate and enlightened. I'm currently working out how this society collapses and evolves into our current world, complete with our ignorance of the way things were back then. When I have that written out, I'll post it here.

What do you guys think of the background? Personally, I think that it's kind of empty without the rest of the history I have in my head, but as of right now that's still pretty abstract, so it needs more work before I can post it all.