There's no Sci-Fi anymore.

Been watching the Zombie marathon all week.

 

The noise in space in some stories, possibly even in the script notes of Star Wars, is computer generated within a ship. Hearing is an important sense. So sensors see an enemy craft firing, the computer generates a sound it thinks best matches what that weapon would be in atmosphere with the cockpit surround sound system. This gives the pilot another sensory input beyond sight to aid them.

As for the original topic here, too much emphasis is being applied to the wrong term of science fiction. This isn't a scientific discipline like chemistry or physics. It is a literary one. The operative word of the genre is fiction. Yes, there is some hard sci-fi stories that keep the faith with scientific principles. They are the minority of the genre.

So, take it up with an English major, or chill the nerd rage.

 

Sure within The Star Trek cannon, and other Sci-Fi offerings pseudo-science often get's used as "magic". When Scotty fires up the "Transporter" and beams people to the planet surface he might as well be waving a magic wand and saying "Abracadabra".

But I guess my standards in application of the term "Sci-Fi" or Science Fiction just aren't as high as yours.

I guess I also believe that one of the primary steps in realization of anything, is the ability to dream about it's existence, whether the understanding or "science" behind it exists or not.

When I was a kid, I watched Star Trek episodes in which Captain Kirk talked into computer monitors that were big television like tube sized monitors. At the time? It was neat because it did not exist, either in reality or fiction. I've lived long enough now, where I can sit in front of a flat screen monitor and "Skype" all around the world. To deny that Star Trek at least on some fundamental level has not inspired or caught the inspiration of many people, Scientists, Engineers and likewise, is IMO denial.

This debate reminds me of an episode from my "nerd" adolescence. About the 8th grade/Freshman age, I had a group of friends, I like to think I was the "cool" kid among the nerds but that is probably just revisionist history on my behalf. But anyway, we had rented on VCR tape, a movie called something like "Cave Girl". This was a low-low budget piece of fantasy . It's appeal to a group of male adolescents was primarily that the whole movie was basically women in leopard print short cave girl outfits with push up bra's, running around. Tame stuff actually. Lame stuff actually.

But I remember becoming really angry at most of my friends that day. As one scene had "Cave Girl" in a cave with a pile of human skeletons and bones. My friends started to debate and discuss how "unreal" the scene was because the skulls in the scene had no cranial fissures....and REAL skulls do...

I think I mounted my soap box and called all my friends out that day. I delivered a long "anti-nerd" lecture, pointing out, what I thought was unnecessary to point out, that the movie was called "Cave Girl" and that if you were looking for anthropological and scientific inaccuracies you were likely to find countless number. And I really refused to sit there for 90 minutes while the nerds debated such reality as the skulls.

If any of them were really insulted that day? They probably got their "Revenge of The Nerds" as I suppose most of them went on to become Doctors or Scientists.

Meanwhile, I still enjoy "Science Fiction" and women in short tight clothes. But the pay is horrible.

My point? Your definition of the lack of real science in science fiction is ultimately unassailable, but I believe entirely unnecessary.

 

I'd be happy to explain, but it will contain spoilers. Perhaps the best thing to do is for you to follow this link.

The Chase (Star Trek: The Next Generation) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That explains it fairly completely.

I think there are a couple of key arguments there.

First, not everyone watches Star Trek. In fact, I'd guess that only a tiny minority of the population are seriously into it. So that leaves plenty of space for people who are completely unaffected by it.

And second, imagine how bad things could be in terms of a lack of interest in science if it hadn't been for Star Trek.

 

One writer made a clear distinction between writing "science fiction" and "science in fiction". The former was invariably "the science is the fiction" and the later was a very small niche market where the science had to conform to peer review.

 

Yeah. But imagine an episode where the exposition speech was "The reason there are so many humanoid races around the galaxy is that it's a lot easier for our SFX people to stick pointy ears or crinkly skulls on people than it is to work on a new shape of alien every week. Also, Kirk wouldn't have known where to stick it when he met sexy aliens if they weren't lady-shaped." I think it might have broken Brecht's fourth wall a bit.

 

I don't know: for me, that can ruin the narrative. And wasn't there a Tom and Jerry episode where this happened too?

I'm a big fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, especially the radio version.

And I'm a big fan of swearing.

 

Yes. The TV version from when I was a kid was good too.

 

Code:

http://www.amazon.com/Falling-Free-Vorkosigan-Saga-ebook/dp/B005SHX1CE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1381498832&sr=8-2&keywords=falling+free

Genetic obsolescence.

Code:

http://www.amazon.com/Ethan-Athos-Vorkosigan-McMaster-Bujold-ebook/dp/B0055EFASI/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2

Test tube reproduction.

 

Daniel,

IMNSHO here's what this boils down to: in the world of mathematics, there are 10 types of people - those who understand binary, and everyone else.

In the world of Sci-Fi, there are 10 types of people - those who demand Hard Science in their Science Fiction, and everyone else.

 

The most beautiful women, the coolest spaceships and the best landscapes are always on books or on the radio.

I get interviewed on the radio, in newspapers and on TV quite often about Chinese business stuff. I can assure you that I am way thinner and better-looking in my radio and newspaper interviews than I am on TV.

 

Squeaky wheel gets the grease. . .

"Enders Game" coming to a big screen near you on Nov. 1.

Ender's Game - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ender's Game | Trailer & Official Movie Site | November 1st