There's no Sci-Fi anymore.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Clarke's three laws - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Daniel, sounds like you are really lamenting the lack of hard science fiction. It's out there, but doesn't generally lend itself to flashy visual media. Making it kind of hard to find.

The rest of sci-fi, the soft, might hand wave the technology because the author is more interested in exploring how people and society adapt to a future possibility. The stories can also be character driven, and just take place in the future.

This is not fault of genre or the stories.


PS: I thought this thread was going to be about what has become of the SciFi, um, SyFy channel.

 

Perhaps reality TV replaced as Sci Fi. This is a new show. They interview couples after sex. Leave it to the UK to push the envelope.

 

I personally think that there is some great SF out there. It has changed a lot over the years, but writers like Charles Stross, C.J. Cherryh and China Mieville are putting out really excellent work. One of the basic tenants of SF is the suspension of belief, so going FTL becomes possible. If folks believe that the stories are possible, then you just have to shrug your shoulders and walk away. Physics can be pretty obscure.

 

Rats. the entire Chanur saga also by C J Cheryh is available, it is "Space Opera", a first contact story told by them, not us.
You get to view life from an alien point of view. You never really have a human POV in 5 books.
The Chanur novels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I agree with the subject title, but disagree with you on specifics.

Star Trek is a great example of great Science Fiction.
We have a number of scientists and inventors who were inspired by Star Trek to create the very things they first saw in Star Trek.

While FTL drive is rather 'out there' if you are going to have a show about exploring alien societies, you need to either put them all in our solar system, have a new set of characters with each new alien civilization (generation ships take... Well... generations to get from system to system).

Communicators inspired the cell phone, we have the beginnings of med bay diagnostic tables, replicators inspired 3D printers which are now being used to make rocket parts and other items.

There is a reason Science Fiction is not called 'Science'. The 'Fiction' part is very important. If you don't like the 'fiction' part you are left with textbooks.

 

My late wife was a lifelong SF lover who also loved hard science fiction. (She also enjoyed fantasy.) Among the more modern writers, she liked Bear, Benford, & Brin.

 

And I'm pointing out that the term isn't being misused, that your techno-fantasy falls under one of the sub-genres to sci-fi.
Science fiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a wide range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying "science fiction is what we point to when we say it",[6] a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography: you don't know what it is, but you know it when you see it.[7] Vladimir Nabokov argued that if we were rigorous with our definitions, Shakespeare's play The Tempest would have to be termed science fiction.[8]"

 

In regards to Star Trek, there are good and bad episodes/series, but overall it's been very positive. Cell phones, non-invasive surgery, and virtual reality to name a few were predicted by ST. They have had science consultants to see if the story may someday be plausible.

...and it has inspired people to make some of it's ideas reality.

NASA - The Science of Star Trek

 

Are we discussing present day science or science fiction of the future?

When I read and watched science fiction movies with dinosaurs located in lost islands I felt the same way you did. Nothing like substituting science with complete magic to make the whole plot too disconnected from reality to take seriously. Yet Michael Crichton with "Jurassic Park" managed to make his story first rate science fiction with some very innovate use of real science. Like it or not, it was not disconnected from reality, it was just a bit of stretching of what technology (today) is capable of.

I agree too much of what is called science fiction is actually fairy tales retold with the same magic relabeled as technology. However, it is how FTL is presented that makes a story disconnected. Often it is presented as easy as biking to the corner store in another system in stories where swords are the most advanced technology otherwise.

Have you ever watched "Primer" (free on Hulu)? While time travel is part of the plot, it presents it in a way that makes the story only appeal to thinkers, not passive watchers. I had to watch it three times to figure out the "timeline". If you like puzzles, this is one of the best to challenge the viewer to connect the dots.

 

Odd coincidence, a friend shared this with me just today. Very cool and they mention the same quote

 

You are applying your own, narrow definition to the term, and lamenting no one complies with it.

from Wikipedia

Also

science fiction - definition of science fiction by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.
Science fiction - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

 

I think what happened is that when Star Trek started, a lot of folks "discovered" SF, thinking it was something fairly new. I have to agree that there is a lot of fantasy stuff that really is not what I would call SF. However, it brings a lot of new people to the genre and is probably a good thing overall.

 

Daniel, in the light of your original post, you might enjoy this article from today's Salon, with complaints about inaccuracy in SF.

The 9 nerdiest criticisms of sci-fi TV and film - Salon.com

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it. The noisy explosions in space thing has always annoyed me, I must admit.

As for the Star Trek crime, you need to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 6, Episode 20 (called "The Chase"). It doesn't explain why they speak English, but it explains why they're all humanoid.

The story you mentioned sounds like a good one.

 

hmm....

This seems like much ado about nothing.
At least from my personal perspective. As the cliche goes, I might not know "art" but I know what I like. I have no problem with defining or classifying Star Trek as Science Fiction, even if the truth is that when held under the light of true "scientific" definition many of the Star Trek scientific precepts would ultimately fail. I think specifically Star Trek is Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action Adventure...all rolled into one, but for classification purposes it's probably just easier to call it Science Fiction and leave it at that.

I've watched more than one documentary on the "Star Trek" world, and if Star Treks "science" doesn't always past muster, I don't think it really matters. The truth is Star Trek inspired the name of the first REAL space shuttle..."Enterprise". From these documentaries I have watched, the truth is flawed or not, Star Treks "fantasy" science has inspired many people to become real engineers, doctors and yes, scientists. And whether you believe any of Star Treks supposed science could become reality, also doesn't really matter to me. I've gone from a childhood with phones wired into the wall, to adulthood with cell phones that look suspiciously like Star Treks communicators.

Star Trek has presented a fictional universe that introduce ideas such as time travel, alternate dimensions and universes, while also presenting a view of humanity as continued explorers. I think the failure of the Science, to fit into the confines of what it is we believe or think we know today- is actually rather immaterial. The original vision, is that of a exploratory Science Vessel, one filled with people designated as "Science Officers". If occasionally or even quite often the science presented "fails" the litmus test of actual scientific scrutiny? I'm still going to applaud what Star Trek got right as opposed to what it got wrong.

 

You mean the "walkers" are at the front door???

DBCassidy