The Rising Sea

FACT AND FICTION IN THE RISING SEA

Fans often ask how much of a book is real and how much pure imagination? I find it’s always a mix of the two. As a writer, one of the interesting things is how often research into a particular subject results in new ideas for a story. For instance…

The central premise of The Rising Sea is that a new method of deep-sea mining taps into a vast reservoir of water hidden beneath the Earth’s crust. The release of this water is described like the breaking the seal on a shaken soda bottle, allowing the pressurized liquid to escape. This would be the beginning of a worldwide flood, one that would drown every coastline and perhaps every landmass on the planet. Many readers might think this is the most fictional part of the book, but it’s firmly based on reality.

The water referred to in The Rising Sea really does exist. In 2014, geologists studying minerals brought up from deep within the Earth discovered a rare form of water trapped inside diamonds and a mineral known as ringwoodite.

The water made up only a small portion of the mineral’s weight, but ringwoodite makes up a large portion of the transition zone between Earth’s crust and the deeper layers of rock known as the mantle. The volume of this transition zone is the fascinating part. It’s two hundred and fifty miles thick and it encircles the entire sphere of the Earth.

That’s a lot of volume, a lot of ringwoodite, and a lot of hidden water.

Initial estimates suggested the transition zone held at least as much water as there was on the surface of the Earth.

Later, more accurate estimates put the amount at two or three times the initial guess. To put this in perspective, that is enough water to flood the planet in a worldwide ocean, ten miles deep.

If all of this water was forced to the surface, the Earth would literally become a water-world. The top of Mount Everest would be reachable only by diving in a Bathysphere to a depth nearly as deep as the bottom of the Mariana Trench is today.

Of course, the question is, could this water actually be forced from the depths of the Earth?

Yes, to some extent it’s being released every day. Water and steam accompany every volcanic eruption. This water is brought up from deep within the Earth. Fortunately for us, the amounts are negligible in comparison to the surface area of the planet. Still, the water held in the ringwoodite is under massive pressure, so let’s hope no one taps the seal and starts a gusher or we might all need to start building boats.

Another important element in The Rising Sea is the use of advanced robotics. At various places in the book, robots and androids impersonate and even replace humans. So how close is this to reality and how much is just science fiction?

The truth is simple: machines that look and act human are already here. Some experts even suggest that the next phase of human evolution is not biological but mechanical. I have my doubts about that, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

As you might imagine, robots are very popular in Japan. The race to build the most realistic robot is already on, and design studios are already creating human-looking robots that are as realistic in appearance as figures in a wax museum. At the pace technology is evolving, machines that appear perfectly human are right around the corner.

For The Rising Sea, we took liberties in the design and added features like breathing, sweating, and artificial skin. We put in other details that robotic manufacturers have no real need to incorporate — unless they want to fool the public. But the truth is, getting a machine to look human is the easy part. Getting it to act human — to seem human — that’s the hard part.

Currently, even the most realistic-looking androids are easy to spot, with their blank stares and the odd expressions they often project. Human behavior is too dynamic and nuanced to be copied or mimicked — just yet.

Don’t kid yourself, though, designers are working on ways to help robots master the small traits that make us human. Robots that blink and fidget are on the horizon. With each generation, their software and hardware improve. As designers incorporate hundreds of other instinctive acts that we take for granted, each new advance will make it harder to tell the real thing from the manufactured one.

Another way robots are becoming more human is the reduction in the size of their machinery. The world is rapidly progressing toward the era where nanotechnology and biotechnology merge. At some point, it will become possible to design robots using artificial cells, instead of building them with gears, hydraulics, and wires. Once that happens, robots will truly function like manufactured organisms, and it will become impossible to distinguish between human and machine without studying skin and blood samples under a microscope.

At any rate, traditional robots — machines more like the warbots of the novel — are already in use. Military and police units have bomb inspection and disposal robots to keep humans out of harm’s way. Drones are essentially reconnaissance robots. Walking robots, used to carry equipment, are being developed for the military, along with powered exoskeletons that will make each human soldier into a powered blend of man and machine.

At a smaller scale, crawling robots examine the interiors of nuclear reactors and toxic waste dumps, they search through burning buildings, and have even been used to inspect tiny shafts in the great pyramids where no human can fit.

The future of robotics certainly begins with the more dangerous jobs being taken over by machines, but the question of who controls them remains. Currently, remote operation is the preferred method of controlling a robot, but autonomous thinking and artificial intelligence are being incorporated more thoroughly every year. One day, robots may decide what to do completely on their own. For now, just how much autonomy to give a robot is the question.

Hashima Island is a surreal and beautiful landscape that looks as if it came from the imagination of a comic book artist or as a futuristic rendering of the post-apocalyptic landscape, but make no mistake, Hashima and its crumbling buildings are very real.

Just off the coast of Nagasaki, Hashima Island was originally developed as a coal mine over a century ago. Shafts extend deep into the island and spread in the ground beneath the surrounding sea. At least one tunnel is said to connect with a neighboring island — something Kurt and Joe considered using to get on or off the island, although the likelihood that it had collapsed made them choose other methods.

In its day, Hashima Island was home to more than five thousand miners, family members, and support staff. During World War II, when the Japanese occupied Korea, thousands of Korean laborers were forced to work there.

The island has been abandoned since the seventies, and for many years setting foot on Hashima was forbidden, but limited tours began being offered in 2009. For now, visitors only get to see a very small portion of the island, with the rest remaining protected and untouched. In 2015, Hashima became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It remains a unique place in the world.

And a great setting for The Rising Sea!