R. Scott Bakker

Richard Scott Bakker (born February 2, 1967, Simcoe, Ontario) is a Canadian fantasy author. He also lectures in the South Western Ontario university community. He grew up on a tobacco farm in the Simcoe area. In 1986 he attended the University of Western Ontario and studied literature. He later completed an MA in theory and criticism.  After further study in philosophy at Vanderbilt University he returned to London, Ontario where he now lives with his wife and daughter. He spends his time writing fiction and study.

Works

Fiction

The Second Apocalypse 
R. Scott Bakker's major work is a series known as The Second Apocalypse, which he began developing in the 1980s. The series was first planned as series of three books. The first two books were to be the The Prince of Nothing and The Aspect-Emperor. The third book has been called The Book That Shall Not Be Named by Bakker.  He thought the title of this book was a spoiler for the first two books.

Bakker began writing the books in the early 2000s. He found he needed to split each of the three books into its own sub-series to include all of the characters, themes and ideas he wished to explore. The first two books have now become trilogies, and the third book, which is currently two volumes, may expand to a third.

Science Fiction, Thrillers, Mystery, and Other Works

Neuropath 
A science fiction novel about a serial killer whose knowledge allows them to control the human brain. Published in 2008.

The Disciple of the Dog 
The story of a private investigator, Disciple Manning, who suffers from a condition like Hyperthymesia. Published in 2010.

Philosophy 
Bakker developed ideas which are the basis of his Blind Brain Theory and Heuristic Neglect Theory.

Blind Brain Hypothesis 
A short essay about his Blind Brain Hypothesis, published 2008. It was based on ideas that were part of his novel, Neuropath. These ideas were about the limits of human consciousness, for example how the eye does not see all the colors because they are beyond our field of vision. We are only aware of a tiny part of all the information our brains process, and this means that what we experience is largely an illusion.

Bakker wrote that the scientific method and its progress would one day give us insights into human behavior that we could not imagine now. He argued in the future there would be some kind of brain–computer interface.

The Semantic Apocalypse 
In 2008, Bakker presented The End of the World As We Know It: Neuroscience and the Semantic Apocalypse at Western University's Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism. This was based on ideas from Neuropath, a  fictional world where the technologies of neuroscience have reached technical and social maturity and prevalence.

Bakker says that science is now used to explain the natural world, rather than folk stories. He says that one day science will also explain how our brains work, and how that affects our behaviour. Human behaviour is not always rational, and society has ignored this cognitive bias. Bakker's Blind Brain Hypothesis is that we are only conscious of a tiny part of the information processed by our brains. Because of this we do not fully understand our thoughts and behaviours. 

Bakker noted the amount of money now being spent to use neuroscience to improve marketing techniques.

Three Pound Brain 
In May 2010, Bakker began a blog called Three Pound Brain. Bakker has used the blog to explore and write about his philosophical ideas. He also uses it for copies of his past academic work, speculative pieces, and samples and drafts of his fiction writing.

Back to Square One 
An essay published on Scientia Salon, November 2014.

Crash Space 
Science fiction short story released in Midwest Studies in Philosophy.

From Scripture to Fantasy 
A paper published in Cosmos and History, January 2017.

On Alien Philosophy 
On Alien Philosophy was first published on Three Pound Brain, August 2015, it was later rewritten for the Journal of Consciousness Studies, Feb 2017.

Bibliography

The Prince of Nothing 

 The Darkness That Comes Before (2004)
 The Warrior-Prophet (2005)
 The Thousandfold Thought (2006)

The Aspect-Emperor 

 The Judging Eye (2009) 
 The White-Luck Warrior (2011) 
 The Great Ordeal (2016) 
 The Unholy Consult (2017)

Atrocity Tales 

 The False Sun, Three Pound Brain, published in 2017 in The Unholy Consult
 The Four Revelations of Cinial'jin, Three Pound Brain, published in 2017 in The Unholy Consult
 The Knife of Many Hands, published in two parts in Grimdark Magazine #2 & #3, 2015
 The Carathayan, published in Evil is a Matter of Perspective

Short Stories 

 Light, Time, and Gravity, Three Pound Brain
 The Long Held Breath, Three Pound Brain
 Reinstalling Eden, Nature (2013)
 What Was...And What Will Never Be, Three Pound Brain
 Crash Space, Midwest Studies in Philosophy (2015)
 The Dime Spared, Three Pound Brain

Disciple Manning novels 

 Disciple of the Dog (2010)
 The Enlightened Dead (forthcoming)

Stand-alone novels 

 Neuropath (2008)

Essay-collections 

 Through the Brain Darkly: The Blind Brain Theory of R Scott Bakker (2013)
 The Digital Dionysus: Nietzsche & the Network-Centric Condition (2016)

References

Other websites 

 Official R. Scott Bakker website
 Bakker's blog
 Second Apocalypse Forum Independently maintained fan forum endorsed by R. Scott Bakker.
 R. Scott Bakker's The Devil's Chirp (Ambrose Bierce homage)
 Bakkerfans Twitter
 R. Scott Bakker's old SFF Forum  at SFFWorld
 The Three-Seas Forum read-only archive 
 Bakker Subreddit

1967 births
Living people
Canadian novelists
Canadian science fiction writers