3 ms·

I re-read the book a few weeks ago in anticipation of the series. The inconsistencies that you notice are real and present in the source material. I didn't noti

I re-read the book a few weeks ago in anticipation of the series. The inconsistencies that you notice are real and present in the source material. I didn't notice them so much the first time I read the book 10+ years ago. The relentless action was fresh the first time around and helped paper over weaknesses in the logic of the world. Also I've apparently become less able to overlook internal inconsistencies with time. The vast majority of SF uses technologies as cool set props for minor variations on familiar kinds of stories and social dynamics. Star Trek was/is terrible about this too. It's hard for a creator to model the higher-order effects that would be introduced from (e.g.) starships, teleporters, AI, or what-have-you. Do that hard work too well and most of the audience won't be able to understand what's going on without lengthy infodumps. The only current show I can think of that tries to show how technologies could drastically change societies is Black Mirror. Almost everything else is "familiar social dynamics, Amazing Gizmos are just props for the adventure." The proportion of internally consistent works is somewhat higher in written SF, but I'd say over half still follows the Amazing Gizmos Somehow Leave Society Basically Familiar template.

carapace 9y ago
(Oh man, Star Trek... Artificial gravity that no one ever talks about. Gravity control would be a total game-changer. Also, One day I realized, how does the Klingon disintegrator ray stop at the soles of the boots? It never disintegrates the floor.)
- amag 9y ago
  Ah, but it works the same way light sabers in StarWars shoot out super-focused light (in fact so focused that it acts as solid matter) and then suddenly terminates about a yard from the shaft.
  - Joeri 9y ago
    I always understood lightsabers to be a force field confining plasma, with the plasma leaking through the force field, especially when the field is deflected by impact.
- dingaling 9y ago
  > Artificial gravity that no one ever talks about. Much the same as how most people today don't talk about how 4G works, or how pressurisation on an airliner prevents them from asphyxiating. Until it stops working, like in Star Trek VI...
  - carapace 9y ago
    Yeah, but we mention 4G, pressurized cabins, what-have-you. My point is that of all the futuristic fictional technologies that ST presents and deals with: teleporters, replicators, phasors, warp drive, etc... they never ever even mention the artificial gravity. (Spoiler alert: There is one part in one of the movies where the bad guys turn it off on a ship during an attack. But still no one actually talks about it.) Arguably, gravity control would be a huge thing (Larry Niven has a book where one of the characters has developed g.c. and done spectacular things with it.)

carapace 9y ago

(Oh man, Star Trek... Artificial gravity that no one ever talks about. Gravity control would be a total game-changer. Also, One day I realized, how does the Klingon disintegrator ray stop at the soles of the boots? It never disintegrates the floor.)

amag 9y ago
Ah, but it works the same way light sabers in StarWars shoot out super-focused light (in fact so focused that it acts as solid matter) and then suddenly terminates about a yard from the shaft.
- Joeri 9y ago
  I always understood lightsabers to be a force field confining plasma, with the plasma leaking through the force field, especially when the field is deflected by impact.
dingaling 9y ago
> Artificial gravity that no one ever talks about. Much the same as how most people today don't talk about how 4G works, or how pressurisation on an airliner prevents them from asphyxiating. Until it stops working, like in Star Trek VI...
- carapace 9y ago
  Yeah, but we mention 4G, pressurized cabins, what-have-you. My point is that of all the futuristic fictional technologies that ST presents and deals with: teleporters, replicators, phasors, warp drive, etc... they never ever even mention the artificial gravity. (Spoiler alert: There is one part in one of the movies where the bad guys turn it off on a ship during an attack. But still no one actually talks about it.) Arguably, gravity control would be a huge thing (Larry Niven has a book where one of the characters has developed g.c. and done spectacular things with it.)