gamelord
Registered Senior Member
I have revised my phlebotinum, to say that it is not merely "energy", but some kind of substance that can pass through solids, maybe similar to how X-rays do.
SciFi versus fantasy
- Thread starter Dinosaur
- Start date
DaveC426913
Valued Senior Member
X-rays are photons.
gamelord
Registered Senior Member
Maybe in the future they make some kind of photon that can slow down and develop a mass?
If that isnt feasible, simply make a mass that can pass through objects for a certain amount of time, then turn into denser mass.
Gawdzilla Sama
Valued Senior Member
You need to get help from Dr. Sumgui.
gamelord
Registered Senior Member
Who is that?
Gawdzilla Sama
Valued Senior Member
Say the next sentence out loud. "Sumgai invented a way to transmit matter through matter safely."
Gawdzilla Sama
Valued Senior Member
I used to work with Prof. Sumwon, but the Millennial Gender Neutrality Act made that a won-loss scenario.Didn't Prof Sumgal go to the same Uni as Dr Sumgai?
That was my line.
I was just observing that the descriptions of Fantasy vs Science Fiction seem to resemble descriptions of good vs bad writing, not the genres themselves.
For example:
Le Guin has written an entire series of books set in an imaginary archipelagic world she named "Earthsea", that she and everyone else classified automatically and easily as Fantasy. Not Science Fiction. Definitely not Science Fiction. Not even close - straight up dragons and wizards and magic spells and enchanted places and temple princesses and heroic quests and so forth.
Your description matches it perfectly. You were describing well-written Fantasy.
Le Guin provides interesting examples here, because she wrote - and with equivalent care and quality - stories firmly classified in one of each of the three genres on the table here: Fantasy, SF, and Realist. (As well as a fair amount of stuff very difficult to classify in that fashion).
From Seattle Post 4
The Hobbit & Ring Trilogy stories would surely be classified as fantasy by most people.
Superman stories include some fantasies which are actually silly. Two examples:
The distinction might be difficult to define precisely, but it is usually easy to put a given story into one category or the other. Examples:
The Sherlock Holmes stories are obviously fiction: There never was such a person. No rational person would classify any of those stories as fantasy.
The Hobbit & Ring Trilogy stories would surely be classified as fantasy by most people.
Superman stories include some fantasies which are actually silly. Two examples:
Kryptonite’s effect on him seems like fantasy since it does not seem to affect ordinary humans.
In at least one episode, he orbits the Earth opposite to its rotation & travels backwards in time.
BTW: Where would it fit in the Periodic Table?
In at least one episode, he orbits the Earth opposite to its rotation & travels backwards in time.
I was not a fan of Superman. I am sure than a person more familiar with stories about him could provide other examples.
From DaveC426913 Post 5
My remarks were not unsupported assertions: They were supported by the bold remarks above which you ignored in your Post.
The above in reply to my following from Post 1
You are cherry picking your quotes when you omit the above bold remarks from my Post #1.
My remarks were not unsupported assertions: They were supported by the bold remarks above which you ignored in your Post.
DaveC426913
Valued Senior Member
One does not normally quote an entire post, simply the crux of the issue.
The bolded remarks you've re-asserted change nothing, because they are likewise completely unsupported. They are simply more of your personal idea of what you think is plausible. That's not support; that's simply adding detail to your opinion.
There is TNG episode with two Will Rikers and Geordy explains how it could happen. The Heisenberg Compensator is mentioned a few times also.
This thread really seems to be about the plausibility of concepts presented in SF stories. we do not all have the same standard of plausibility. I regard Stargates and transporters as equally implausible.
I think the use of science fiction is to be mind expanding. I would have regarded smartphones as implausible if you had asked me in the 1980s when I worked for IBM.
I think the use of science fiction is to be mind expanding. I would have regarded smartphones as implausible if you had asked me in the 1980s when I worked for IBM.
I saw the greatest sci/fi movie ever made, six times in the first 12 months in 1968, and although always awesome and breathtaking movie even by today's standards, I was still unable to fathom the underlying message and plot of that movie....Until!! until I got the book. The movie of course was 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Off topic, but do you speak loudly? I imagine you saying all of this ^^ very loudly, with your Aussie accent. lol
Why the bloody hell would a decent sheila like you imagine such? I must admit though that when I'm singing in the tub, the cheese and kisses often yells at me to shut my gob!
On the thread topic, in my own mind I alwasy distinguish sci/fi from sci/fantasy...Star Wars is fantasy, Star Trek is fiction.
And I would hazard a guess and say that anyone born before we discovered and knew what electricity was, and what it has achieved since, would deem it all magic.
Star Trek transporters, warp travel via spacetime bubbles, wormholes etc are not really forbidden by our laws and GR, but whether any of it will come to fruition is another thing.
I can remember as a tin lid [that's another for you wegs ] people and some scientists saying we'll never get to Mars, or even the Moon for that matter....A great scientist of the past, Lord Kelvin said the following....
"I am afraid I am not in the flight for “aerial navigation”. I was greatly interested in your work with kites; but I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of. So you will understand that I would not care to be a member of the aëronautical Society."
I even live in hope that before the time comes for me to kick the bucket, that we will have the required extraordinary evidence to conclude that life does exist elsewhere.
And I would hazard a guess and say that anyone born before we discovered and knew what electricity was, and what it has achieved since, would deem it all magic.
Star Trek transporters, warp travel via spacetime bubbles, wormholes etc are not really forbidden by our laws and GR, but whether any of it will come to fruition is another thing.
I can remember as a tin lid [that's another for you wegs
] people and some scientists saying we'll never get to Mars, or even the Moon for that matter....A great scientist of the past, Lord Kelvin said the following...."I am afraid I am not in the flight for “aerial navigation”. I was greatly interested in your work with kites; but I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of. So you will understand that I would not care to be a member of the aëronautical Society."
I even live in hope that before the time comes for me to kick the bucket, that we will have the required extraordinary evidence to conclude that life does exist elsewhere.
I wrote a computer program that counts science and fantasy words in text files and computes densities. 1.00 means 1 science or fantasy word per 1000 characters. Ender's Game scores 0.455 while Dune is somewhat lower with 0.415 for science densities. The Harry Potter series is less than 0.20 for science density but greater than 0.70 for fantasy density.
Most SF works that I have tested have Fantasy Densities of less than 0.15. A hard SF work like A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke has an SF density of 1.409.