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I always thought that Firefly's scenario of a bunch of Earth-like worlds in close enough proximity to have regular trading ships flying between them was unreali

I always thought that Firefly's scenario of a bunch of Earth-like worlds in close enough proximity to have regular trading ships flying between them was unrealistic. Now, not so much. This system even fits in with the "Abandon Earth en-mass, move to new set of worlds" backstory. So, what did J.J. know, and when did he know it? And for that matter, how did he know?

roninb 10y ago
Just making sure, but I hope you know that JJ Abrams had literally absolutely nothing to do with Firefly and wasn't even tangentially related to its creation nor production. Also, I'm relatively positive that JJ (in the sci-fi works he actually, well, worked on), himself, knew nothing (see Armageddon for sources) and that his script supervisors dealt with any discrepancies with reality JJ had.
- DougWebb 10y ago
  Man, I feel dumb. Yeah I meant Joss Whedon. Too many J's in sci-fi I like, I guess.
deleted 10y ago
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Kluny 10y ago
Joss Whedon is the name you're looking for, not JJ Abrams.
shawn-furyan 10y ago
Corrections aside, it is an interesting observation that Firefly is less outlandish with this discovery (not a criticism, Firefly is optimized for fun, not scientific plausibility). Still, assuming light speed travel, Firefly's inhabited planets are still a heck of a lot closer, since the crew doesn't seem to noticeably age between the half dozen or so star systems that they visit, and don't appear to have any kind of tech to reversibly[1] halt their metabolisms. [1] the reversibility it the hard part. Tech for halting metabolic processes irreversibly has been around for quite some time ;)
- Dylan16807 10y ago
  > Still, assuming light speed travel, Firefly's inhabited planets are still a heck of a lot closer, since the crew doesn't seem to noticeably age between the half dozen or so star systems that they visit, and don't appear to have any kind of tech to reversibly[1] halt their metabolisms. Closer than what? This system is significantly smaller than Firefly's. Or do you mean closer than this system is to Earth? Don't worry about that, since in Firefly it's one super-system with five main stars. http://i.picresize.com/images/2013/02/06/BMhCv.jpg http://i.picresize.com/images/2013/02/06/BMhCv.jpg It's about 55 light hours across.
  - npunt 10y ago
    I never realized Firefly was in a super-system. Gravity would rip that thing apart in an instant.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - kuschku 10y ago
      They actually did numeric simulations of that system, and it seems to be stable for several millenia at least (their entire simulation time).
- cgriswald 10y ago
  > Firefly's inhabited planets are still a heck of a lot closer, since the crew doesn't seem to noticeably age between the half dozen or so star systems that they visit The 'systems' in Firefly are really all one star system. The system includes a central star orbited by planets, four other stars, and a host of "protostars" (they really mean brown dwarves). I've tried, and can't imagine a scenario where, even if such a system could form, that it could be configured in this way. The barycenter of the masses of this system can't possibly remain in the central star indefinitely, for starters. And the whole thing sounds hostile to planets - I imagine them being thrown out of the system constantly. But if you accept that, and you accept travel at some fraction of c, then you wouldn't expect them to age much like they would traveling between systems.
sn9 10y ago
The worlds in Firefly were explicitly described as having been terraformed to be Earth-like (masses aside).
rasz_pl 10y ago
or http://andromeda.wikia.com/wiki/Seefra_System http://andromeda.wikia.com/wiki/Seefra_System from Andromeda season 5

roninb 10y ago

Just making sure, but I hope you know that JJ Abrams had literally absolutely nothing to do with Firefly and wasn't even tangentially related to its creation nor production. Also, I'm relatively positive that JJ (in the sci-fi works he actually, well, worked on), himself, knew nothing (see Armageddon for sources) and that his script supervisors dealt with any discrepancies with reality JJ had.

DougWebb 10y ago
Man, I feel dumb. Yeah I meant Joss Whedon. Too many J's in sci-fi I like, I guess.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Kluny 10y ago

Joss Whedon is the name you're looking for, not JJ Abrams.

shawn-furyan 10y ago

Corrections aside, it is an interesting observation that Firefly is less outlandish with this discovery (not a criticism, Firefly is optimized for fun, not scientific plausibility). Still, assuming light speed travel, Firefly's inhabited planets are still a heck of a lot closer, since the crew doesn't seem to noticeably age between the half dozen or so star systems that they visit, and don't appear to have any kind of tech to reversibly[1] halt their metabolisms. [1] the reversibility it the hard part. Tech for halting metabolic processes irreversibly has been around for quite some time ;)

Dylan16807 10y ago
> Still, assuming light speed travel, Firefly's inhabited planets are still a heck of a lot closer, since the crew doesn't seem to noticeably age between the half dozen or so star systems that they visit, and don't appear to have any kind of tech to reversibly[1] halt their metabolisms. Closer than what? This system is significantly smaller than Firefly's. Or do you mean closer than this system is to Earth? Don't worry about that, since in Firefly it's one super-system with five main stars. http://i.picresize.com/images/2013/02/06/BMhCv.jpg http://i.picresize.com/images/2013/02/06/BMhCv.jpg It's about 55 light hours across.
- npunt 10y ago
  I never realized Firefly was in a super-system. Gravity would rip that thing apart in an instant.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - kuschku 10y ago
    They actually did numeric simulations of that system, and it seems to be stable for several millenia at least (their entire simulation time).
cgriswald 10y ago
> Firefly's inhabited planets are still a heck of a lot closer, since the crew doesn't seem to noticeably age between the half dozen or so star systems that they visit The 'systems' in Firefly are really all one star system. The system includes a central star orbited by planets, four other stars, and a host of "protostars" (they really mean brown dwarves). I've tried, and can't imagine a scenario where, even if such a system could form, that it could be configured in this way. The barycenter of the masses of this system can't possibly remain in the central star indefinitely, for starters. And the whole thing sounds hostile to planets - I imagine them being thrown out of the system constantly. But if you accept that, and you accept travel at some fraction of c, then you wouldn't expect them to age much like they would traveling between systems.

sn9 10y ago

The worlds in Firefly were explicitly described as having been terraformed to be Earth-like (masses aside).

rasz_pl 10y ago

or http://andromeda.wikia.com/wiki/Seefra_System http://andromeda.wikia.com/wiki/Seefra_System from Andromeda season 5