Using AI for world building

How I have been using ChatGPT and Microsoft's Bing Image Creator powered by DALL-E for research and world building in my new Speculative Fiction Novel I am currently writing.

AI is here, and it is already making tidal waves in the worlds of writing and illustration. It is inevitable as climate change, death, and taxes. As a writer, I figured I better see exactly how it works and what it can do.

It is a matter of survival in my mind. As creators, we either see how to use it to better our craft and use it as a tool or get left behind.

Let me say first that I do not believe creative writers, those that are telling stories of human experience, connection, and personal growth, will be replaced by AI. We have to up our game and rise to the occasion.

An AI just will not be able to have those real-life experiences that writers draw upon to weave their stories. So we will always have a leg up on crafting stories that other humans can relate to on a personal level.

That being said…

For the past few months, I have been hard at work crafting my newest novel. I am returning to fiction for this project. The idea sprouted out of being asked many times in major media interviews and speaking engagements what I thought the future of the United States might be if we continue on our current trajectory.

My story is set thirty years in the future, in the United States fractured by civil war and tribal cultural division. Devolving into allegiances of states and territories dived along the lines of red and blue. Tentatively titled ‘The Propagandist’s Daughters.’

My story includes aspects of high technology embraced by the blue states, which results in a very cyberpunk feel, and other parts of the book where the characters seem to be in a Western novel setting.

One of the ways I have been using AI is by researching for my world-building to project where the technology may evolve. For example, today, I was writing a scene where one of my antagonist characters was hunting down my main characters across the red-blue border between Colorado and Wyoming. I wanted to give this hunter an advanced weapon.

I want this novel to be set in the future but still have technology that looks familiar to the reader. Lasers would be too advanced, so I began thinking if it would be viable to have a handheld rail gun, somewhat like a modern rifle.

Previously when working on world-building, I would start with a notebook, take notes, then move to my whiteboard as I finalize my thoughts before writing the chapter. Along with taking an edible while talking to my rockstar, genius father (an electronic engineer.)

I have now used ChatGPT while researching how modern rail gun systems work and asking it to project where the technology may evolve in thirty years.

Here are some examples of the prompts I used in this research:

First I had some questions about future tracking systems but then asked:

ME: I am also looking at giving the tracker a newly developed rail gun weapon system, but small enough to be carried like a rifle. What do you project the future of rail guns might be?

CHATGPT: Rail guns are electromagnetic projectile launchers that use high-power electric currents to accelerate projectiles to high velocities. They have been a topic of interest for military and scientific applications due to their potential to deliver projectiles with higher speeds and greater kinetic energy than traditional firearms. Here are some potential ways rail gun technology might evolve over the next thirty years:

1. Miniaturization: Currently, rail guns are large and unwieldy, with most prototypes requiring significant power sources and specialized equipment to operate. However, there are ongoing efforts to miniaturize the technology, with the goal of creating portable rail guns that could be used by soldiers in the field. It's possible that future rail guns could be small enough to be carried like a rifle, as you've suggested.

2. Increased power: One of the key challenges with rail gun technology is delivering enough power to accelerate projectiles to high speeds. However, advancements in energy storage and generation technologies could allow for rail guns with greater power output. This could result in rail guns that are capable of delivering projectiles at even higher velocities and with greater kinetic energy.

3. Improved reliability: Currently, rail guns are prone to a number of technical issues, including overheating and projectile instability. However, ongoing research could lead to improvements in the reliability of rail guns, making them more practical for military use.

4. Integration with other technologies: Rail guns could potentially be integrated with other technologies, such as artificial intelligence and targeting systems, to create more sophisticated weapons platforms. For example, an AI-powered rail gun system could be used to autonomously target and engage enemy forces, potentially giving soldiers a significant tactical advantage.

It's worth noting that rail gun technology is still in the development stage, and it's unclear how quickly or extensively it will be adopted for military use. However, the potential benefits of rail guns, including their high velocity and kinetic energy, make them an attractive area of research for military applications.

We then discussed how we might be able to power such a weapon. Here is the exchange:

Me: Please tell me more about fuel cells and ultracapacitors would the two technologies possibly be able to be combined in the future?

ChatGPT: Fuel cells and ultracapacitors are both energy storage technologies that have different strengths and weaknesses, so combining them could potentially result in a power supply that offers the benefits of both.

Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that convert the energy stored in a fuel, such as hydrogen, into electricity. They can operate continuously as long as fuel is supplied, and they have a high energy density compared to batteries. However, fuel cells typically have a lower power density than other energy storage technologies, such as ultracapacitors, which makes them less suitable for applications that require high power outputs over short periods of time.

Ultracapacitors, on the other hand, are energy storage devices that store electrical energy in an electric field. They have a very high power density, meaning they can deliver high current pulses over short periods of time, but their energy density is lower than other energy storage technologies, such as batteries or fuel cells.

Combining fuel cells and ultracapacitors could potentially result in a power supply that offers the best of both worlds. The fuel cell could provide a steady supply of energy to charge the ultracapacitor, which could then deliver high-current pulses to power a rail gun. This would allow the power supply to operate continuously, while still being able to deliver the high power outputs required by the rail gun.

There are already some research projects investigating the combination of fuel cells and ultracapacitors for various applications, so it's possible that this technology could be further developed in the future to meet the specific power requirements of a handheld rail gun.

After all of that, I wanted to see if the visualization I had developed might line up with how an AI might visualize the rifle. Here is the whiteboard sketch I did of the rail gun system I came up with:

I then asked Chat GPT to describe in words what the rail gun we had been discussing might look like visually. So that I could use it as a prompt in an image generator. Today I used Microsoft's Bing Image Creator powered by DALL-E.

Here is the prompt I used: What would a handheld rifle-like railgun system look like if it used water as an energy source, run through a PEM fuel cell combined with an ultracapacitor using tungsten projectiles? With thirty years of technological advancement.

Here are a couple of the images it came up with for the rail gun:

Granted, the images DALL-E came up with are much more cinematic. It gave me more confidence that my idea would be plausible and on the right track. The images also stoked my creative fires.

I feel that when used judicially for research, world-building, and editing (Grammarly will release a Chat GPT-powered update in the next month or so.) AI can help to create more believable worlds to set our human storytelling in.

And just for fun, I also asked the image generator to come up with some illustrations of a scene I had written in the book: Here is what it came up with:

I think I might be able to get my prompts someday down well enough to illustrate a cover of one of my books. Or to use as a reference image to start from.

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