I'm not sure if a self-aware fictional universe is really likely to form, considering that fiction that permanently breaks the "4th wall" tends to be pretty uninteresting. The closest thing I have run across was in a Guardians of Flame-style RPG. In GoF (haven't read it, yet), a bunch of Gamers get their fondest wish - the RPG they're playing in is actually going to end up dumping them in a fantasy world with new bodies to match. It is, of course, not as easy as it looks.
In the game - that took only the overall theme of the beginning from the novel, one of the longest-lasting of the "Earther's" ended up asking a bunch of meta-questions of the gods. If the guy running things had let him, his character probably would have ended up finding out that not only was he "playing" another person in this (real) fantasy world, but that "he" himself was an avatar for a third (Presumably) real person seeking an afternoon's entertainment. That is fucking daft. What benefit is gained by having our fictions recognize that they aren't actually being generated from the "ultimate substrate" of reality?
I know I exist, my creations know they exist, I'm not sure if further knowledge is that important for either of us.
Now, on the other hand, self-perpetuating fictions are old hat at this point. The fictionverse is filthy with little side-branches of creation that draw themselves further and further from whatever gave them birth. Star Trek was a fertile enough bed to start spinning off side realities by the early seventies, atleast. ST's a pretty good example anyway, as it's one of the few fictions that has started to make inroads back on the seedbed reality (as evidenced by whatever family it was that speaks only Klingon at home). Farcical, discontinuous, and woefully ignorant of both physics and information design as it is, old man Roddeberry's worlds are approaching a level of reality unseen outside of religion. Heathen help us.
In the game - that took only the overall theme of the beginning from the novel, one of the longest-lasting of the "Earther's" ended up asking a bunch of meta-questions of the gods. If the guy running things had let him, his character probably would have ended up finding out that not only was he "playing" another person in this (real) fantasy world, but that "he" himself was an avatar for a third (Presumably) real person seeking an afternoon's entertainment. That is fucking daft. What benefit is gained by having our fictions recognize that they aren't actually being generated from the "ultimate substrate" of reality?
I know I exist, my creations know they exist, I'm not sure if further knowledge is that important for either of us.
Now, on the other hand, self-perpetuating fictions are old hat at this point. The fictionverse is filthy with little side-branches of creation that draw themselves further and further from whatever gave them birth. Star Trek was a fertile enough bed to start spinning off side realities by the early seventies, atleast. ST's a pretty good example anyway, as it's one of the few fictions that has started to make inroads back on the seedbed reality (as evidenced by whatever family it was that speaks only Klingon at home). Farcical, discontinuous, and woefully ignorant of both physics and information design as it is, old man Roddeberry's worlds are approaching a level of reality unseen outside of religion. Heathen help us.
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