Bridging Physics And Fiction To Redefine Consciousness
Arnie Benn discusses merging hard science with gripping storytelling, the cultural influences shaping his work, and humanity’s need to transcend instinctual fear for a more enlightened future.
Arnie Benn is a rare voice in contemporary literature—one that seamlessly bridges the worlds of hard science and profound storytelling. A South African-born polymath now based in California, his work defies easy categorisation, weaving together chemistry, music, philosophy, and cutting-edge physics into narratives that challenge and inspire. Whether through his hard sci-fi novel The Intrepid: Dawn of the Interstellar Age or his incisive non-fiction exploration of human nature in The Animal in the Mirror, Benn compels readers to question inherited assumptions and reimagine humanity’s potential.
In this Reader’s House interview, he discusses the delicate art of balancing scientific precision with compelling fiction, the cultural perspectives that shape his writing, and why he believes transcending instinctual fear is the key to our collective evolution. For Benn, storytelling isn’t just entertainment—it’s a vital tool for expanding consciousness. Join us as we explore the mind of an author whose work is as intellectually rigorous as it is visionary.
A visionary thinker, Benn masterfully blends scientific rigor with profound storytelling, challenging readers to expand their minds and reimagine human potential.
‘The Intrepid: Dawn of the Interstellar Age’ intertwines accurate scientific details with storytelling. How did you balance scientific accuracy with narrative engagement?
Yes, that was quite important to me. Science is so incredibly interesting, and a lot of it is also far more intuitive and beautiful than people think, so I wanted to show that, to share that passion. As a former science teacher, I also know that you have to give the content over in a way that the audience can hear. In story, that means subtly, and sometimes conversationally. It also means sharing the most amazing and inspiring parts of science, things like the recent discovery that an electron is actually made of light. It is a single gamma ray, caught in a self-sustaining double-loop knot. (If you understand that light ‘energy’ is ‘E’… and the electron has mass, ‘m’… and light travels at a speed of ‘c’… then all of a sudden, E=mc2 makes perfect, intuitive sense.)
On the other hand, it has always bothered me a little when sci-fi stories miss on a science concept. Han Solo claimed to have done the 39 light-year Kessel Run. If he had, though — at light speed — he would have returned 78 years after he left, local time. That’s relativity for you. You can’t do that and be in a relationship with a princess. Not happening.
So I wanted to get the science right. Anyway, we don’t have to invent cleverer science that the universe already has. It’s definitely plenty interesting already.
The novel explores human nature amidst interstellar conflict. What inspired you to delve into these themes within a sci-fi setting?
My main ‘life mission,’ if you will, is my non-fiction book, The Animal In The Mirror, which is coming out very soon. It is about how most of our thoughts and emotions (and all of our dysfunction and anxieties) are actually shaped by our survival instinct, not by our intelligence. And it is also about how to recognize that, learn to better manage it, and hopefully, even transcend it to one degree or another in order to find greater inner peace.
But how many people are going to pick up a non-fiction book about human behavior and conscious evolution? So I decided to write a fictional story where I could layer in these ideas and reach some of the non-nonfiction readers with some really meaningful stuff.
I chose to develop a story world in which I could paint a picture of how our fear is currently running the show, geopolitically. (We are actually heading towards the ‘Water Wars’ over the Nile and Indus unless we do something about it.) I wanted to offer both a cautionary tale of where things could go if we don’t start reining in our reactions and justifications, and also a vision of how we can actually rise above that fate. Because we can.
A story world, set in the near future, not only allows me to do all of that, but the science context also allows me to publicize some of the research coming out of the physics think tank I am a part of, quicycle.com (which is short for the Quantum Bicycle Society — named after the electron’s internal bi-cycle rotation, in fact).
Raised in South Africa and later moving to the U.S., how have these diverse cultural experiences shaped your perspectives in your writings?
I think it is so valuable to experience what life is like in different places around the world and in different cultures, especially because our instinctive thinking can really blind us into thinking that our perspective is right, true, or ‘better.’ (Because that is how we feel safe.) Unfortunately, such objectivity is never true, for any of us. (I’m sorry if you are hearing this here for the first time.)
So I think traveling and moving cannot but influence one’s writing, and everything else about the way we see the world and our place in it too.
In terms of The Intrepid, I would say it helped with character development, since the ‘ensemble cast’ is a decent cross-section of humanity. In terms of The Animal In The Mirror, diverse cultural experiences have helped teach me about humans in a way that monoculture never could.
With degrees in chemistry and music, how do these disciplines influence your approach to writing fiction and non-fiction?
Actually, some of our latest research has revealed that atomic particles are all harmonic states. They are literally waves of light resonating together. Back when I studied chemistry and music years ago, I never anticipated that both disciplines were really talking about the same thing. There is nothing stable in the universe that is not in a state of harmonic resonance. The same with what comes out of my piano, assuming it’s in tune, that is.
I suppose I cannot help being deeply influenced by all of these ideas because I see them in everything, interwoven throughout nature and reality, and even in human interactions. So I suppose they come out naturally in my writing as a result.
What advice would you offer aspiring authors aiming to explore complex scientific and psychological themes in their work?
Mostly I would say, write about the topics you are most passionate about. Write about what you love to think about and research about, because you will have to do a bunch of both. You will be inhabiting that mental universe for a while, so choose one you will love.
