The Asherverse

The Asherverse consists of a series of constructs in which Asher spends his time or, more accurately, his mind and his being.

The Basis of Contructs

All space is constructed, apart from being demonstrably 'real', because the boundaries and significance of that space, its operative use, and its relation to ourselves is constructed. Once we accept that all space is constructed, we can construe any coherent pattern of meaning that constitutes or symbolizes the locus of our thoughts at a given time as a construct of equal reality with any physical space. In this sense, there are no imaginary constructs, only inauthentic ones.

The Art of Building

A construct is a constructed place, person, cosmological reality, event, or other constructed reality. For example, any building is a construct. But who each of us are is also constructed. A gathering or friendship is constructed. A nation is constructed.

Buildings are built on certain dimensions, defined by a certain architecture, and consist of certain rules, which are the basic mathematics of their existence.

Such constructs are inherently physical places. But even there are similar rules, norms, architectural features that constrain and constitute any combination of physical, temporal, virtual, intellectual, emotional, volitional, social, personal, consensual, mythic, literary, and artistic constructs.

Reality is Non-Local

The Arena, for instance, is obviously a virtual space, since it exists here on the web. It is also a social space, since it exists in certain social interactions, some of which are virtual and some of which are not. Written in a story or painting, it might also be an artistic space, involving an interaction between artist, art, and audience. It might, at the same time, if an actual building were purchased for it (e.g. The Office), be a physical space. It is, however, already physical in that you can find it physically on the web, or see it in physical interactions, or find it in physical art, or find it contained within a person.

In this way, constructs are realities that generally exceed merely local designation. A cathedral is more than a destination; in the Orthodox Faith, it is in some of its parts the actual presence of Heaven and a place where "God walks around".

Some Reality is Consensual

A construct is a consensual reality, requiring one or more persons to create or identify it. Constructs require construction; a build requires a builder. Places do not merely thrust their reality upon us, thought they may do that. Stand on the shores of a desert island staring into the endless sea, and the space is both defining your experience and contributing your construction of that space. We also thrust upon spaces our aspirations, desires, fears, and other creative impulses. Constructs, then, are necessarily personal. Which is more powerful, the sea or our estimation of it—this is an unsolvable conundrum. We build the ocean upon which we contemplate the ocean.

Constructs then, whether findable on a map or located in other experiences such as a friendship, patriotism, or the unstructured imagination, are given full reality by their builders; they are created by the decision to build and treat them as real. They have the same kinds of impact upon persons as any other reality. They affect the mind, will, emotions, and body, just as the local coffee shop might.

Constructs, then, are the intersection of what is commonly called reality and what is usually called perception. Again, they have the same kinds of effects (and usually some additional ones) on a person as anything else we take as real. Asher is a builder of such spaces, an appraiser of their architecture, and an inspector of the soundness of their construction.