This doesn’t sound like a good market strategy and doesn’t consider everyone’s feelings. There are more people in the mainstream market, but the biggest problem is that I simply can’t do it… I would be more successful if I could write mainstream.

Writing is a very lonely, long-term endeavor, and I must choose a path that prioritizes my own feelings above all. I’m an INTJ, with Fe as my seventh function—I’m naturally poor at considering everyone’s feelings, and I even struggle to perceive my own emotions.

Since I can’t go broad, I can only go deep.

What I’m writing is a hardcore science fiction universe with strong worldbuilding. My core values are the love of wisdom and a belief in the power of technological civilization.

The Science Fiction Authors Who Influenced Me Most

My favorite science fiction novel is Asimov’s Foundation because it addresses the demons of Western civilization—the inevitable decline after Western civilization reaches its peak and the subsequent dark age. The Foundation is about how to shorten the dark age of the Galactic Empire.

This concept alone is fascinating. It also created the concept of psychohistory—the idea that the direction of human society can be predicted mathematically, though individual behavior cannot be predicted. It’s absolutely thrilling to read.

I remember spending an entire day reading the Foundation novels after a professor recommended them to me. I was completely captivated by the story and felt incredibly excited.

Foundation also inspired my science fiction writing, making me think about the circumstances of different civilizations in a sci-fi context. The Computational Crisis tells the story of the Xinglong civilization’s unique civilizational experience—falling into galaxy-wide involution after reaching its peak.

One of Asimov’s quotes remains my motto: “I have a firm conviction that the fight against ignorance will ultimately triumph.”

Strong Worldbuilding

I’m a worldbuilding fanatic because I grew up playing games. Role-playing in World of Warcraft was when I first started writing stories. Well-made games always have captivating worldbuilding.

Before I started writing the Computational Universe, I already had over 100,000 words of worldbuilding. I also teach worldbuilding on Bilibili because creating worlds is like language to Tolkien—it’s a fine wine for me.

Creating worlds has become my instinct.

People of my generation who grew up gaming will also resonate with this. We’ve all been immersed in other worlds, and this isn’t necessarily escapism—it’s a form of art.

Gaming is rightfully the ninth art form, creating entirely new narrative methods and representing a sunrise industry with top-tier talent.

Writing novels “like games” was derogatory in the past, but now, with cultural shifts, it is a cultural choice.

Stories with strong worldbuilding sometimes become more challenging to read due to excessive new concepts, but—

I want to serve core hardcore sci-fi readers. They have undergraduate degrees or higher, are typically rational and reserved, enjoy gaming as the ninth art form, appreciate strong worldbuilding, and love high-intensity thinking. They suffer from the lack of sufficiently hardcore works in Chinese science fiction.

I also believe we shouldn’t speculate about what readers like—we just need to respect them as adults with normal intelligence. Readers aren’t stupid.

The Power of Technological Civilization

I firmly believe this, though others don’t agree. Technology is the foundation of civilization, while culture is its protective coating.

Therefore, I believe all modern civilizations must become technological civilizations, steadily accumulating technology to be sufficiently competitive. Technology is not just a tool but an ideology.

Technological civilization requires a scientific community and an engineering culture.

In my The Computational Universe Octology, I tell how the Xinglong civilization became a technological civilization, including the stories and difficulties encountered.

Technology will make the future more optimistic, so I generally don’t write cyberpunk but rather present a cyber-industrial future.

I was once a tech entrepreneur and may pursue that career again. I worship technology romantically, even to the point of being somewhat biased against other things.

I can write computer-based science fiction. I’ve been a programmer for over ten years, and code has trained my mind because there’s right and wrong in the world of code.

If your code has bugs, the computer won’t let you pass, and sometimes, you must find that bug among tens of thousands of lines of code. This is how it trains the mind. There’s no way to fake it, and there’s no relativism.

Chinese Science Fiction

This is a significant and challenging topic.

Many friends are already well aware of the current predicament of Chinese science fiction, so I won’t elaborate here. I want to discuss how the Computational Universe can find new paths for Chinese science fiction through strong worldbuilding novels and AI film production.

If an author is just ordinarily self-indulgent, they might have expression problems. But they will likely be captivating, if indulgent, to the point of mysterious confidence.

I sincerely believe there are too few novels about Chinese people adventuring and pioneering in space, and there are even fewer movies depicting such stories. We just need to push it forward a little.

My friends and I are preparing an AI film overseas project, so I can’t guarantee I won’t write about foreigners in sci-fi. But The Computational Universe, The Computational Crisis, The Computational Wandering, The Computational Era—this entire series of stories beginning with “Computational”—are all Chinese science fiction.

And I keep writing.

Going Deep, Not Mainstream

How can a science fiction novel be hardcore enough? Look at The Martian—it started as a self-published novel on Amazon KDP. Only then did it gain reader recognition and move to traditional publishing.

Can I be hardcore enough? In physics, no—I only studied half a computer science degree. But in computers and philosophy, I can be hardcore.

I’ve already explained why I don’t go mainstream—I can’t do it. I’ve tried, and the result was very insincere and unsuccessful. Writers must at least be honest with themselves.

A science fiction author must ensure that what they write are stories that must be written, stories that must be told, stories that exist deep in the heart yet reach the cosmic dome.

I hope my readers are more hardcore than me, love technology more, and appreciate its details more. You would understand what I mean if you’ve seen Star Trek fan gatherings in the US like I have.

So, follow the Computational Universe—this plan is as vast as the Xeelee universe. How far can it go? Perhaps to the edge of the universe.