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Yeah, I stopped watching once the paranormal stuff started. Why can’t we have just realistic SciFi?

by baxtr 9y ago

nootropicat 9y ago
What paranormal stuff? Are you calling aliens paranormal?
- baxtr 9y ago
  I was referring to the protomolcule stuff, clearly to explainable by our current understanding of science Citing Wikipedia: Paranormal events are phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described to lie beyond normal experience or scientific explanation.
  - laumars 9y ago
    In that case 99% of sci-fi would be classed as "paranormal". Be it warp drives, replicators, holodecks, teleporters, deep space communication platforms, shapeshifting lifeforms / changelings (DS9), ascended lifeforms (SG1) / the Q (TNG), aliens that drink lifeforce (Atlantis), artificial lifeforms, cold fusion bombs / red matter (or pretty much anything from those shitty Star Trek reboots). And lets not forget time travel. I think it's also worth remembering that the "fi" part of "sci-fi" actually stands for "fiction" and not "factual information" :P
    - baxtr 9y ago
      True :-) I just liked that about the expanse that everything else was really realistic. Achievable by humans within the next couple of hundred years
  - aaron695 9y ago
    You are right in that the Expanse is far far from Hard SciFi, but it's probably in the top 1% since people really don't get FTL is just a plan nut job level idea. Protomolcule does go nutty (FTL, disrespecting inertia, gravity and stuff)but I didn't mind personally, I also like magic shows. But the human stuff is not bad, which is why a lot of people love it. There's a huge section of it that kinda has some respect for science. But it's not Paranormal IMO because everyone can see it happening, hence it's normal (In this universe) I would not say a movie where ghosts are everywhere in society and everyone sees them a paranormal movie.
  - Paradigma11 9y ago
    The protomolecule is magic not paranormal. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke -"
Aaargh20318 9y ago
As someone who has read the first 5 books in the series, there is not a single paranormal thing in the Expanse.
- thousandautumns 9y ago
  SPOILERS I’ve only read the first 3 but thats definitely not true. FTL communication, physics-defying space maneuvering, the giant space ring thing controlling the speed of the surrounding armadas... Even if there are attempts to create some explanation for it, in a hard sci-if story, it’s basically paranormal in all but name.
  - Aaargh20318 9y ago
    In this story there is nothing supernatural about any of these things. They may be things that are as of yet unexplained, but just because we don't understand them yet doesn't make them paranormal. Just like there was nothing supernatural about flying before we understood how it works. It's just physics we haven't figured out yet. Paranormal are things that are by definition outside the explainable universe. It's not that we don't have an explanation, it's that they are by their very nature unexplainable.
akvadrako 9y ago
POSSIBLE SPOILER The proto-molecule isn't paranormal, except for one aspect - the FTL communication. It's basically just a species-generic virus with an embedded AI.
- DoofusOfDeath 9y ago
  Dammit, please start your post with "SPOILER ALERT "!
  - akvadrako 9y ago
    Well I'll add it, but it's not a spoiler, it's just my idea.
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      Well, it has some other means of abusing spacetime beyond FTL communications, but your description is mostly accurate. It's a sophisticated piece of nanotech built by someone with much better grasp of (in-universe) physics than humans have.
    - DoofusOfDeath 9y ago
      Thanks. The spoiler part (for me) was the FTL communication.
      - TeMPOraL 9y ago
        I think there were hints of that already in S2, but I don't recall it was mentioned explicitly so far. You could piece that out from the show if you knew what to look for. The books have been more explicit about it earlier in the storyline.
        DoofusOfDeath 9y ago
        Thanks. A little off-topic, but for someone in my situation whose already watched seasons 1 and 2, would you recommend still reading the books?

Yeah, I stopped watching once the paranormal stuff started. Why can’t we have just realistic SciFi?

by baxtr 9y ago

Yeah, I stopped watching once the paranormal stuff started. Why can’t we have just realistic SciFi?

nootropicat 9y ago

What paranormal stuff? Are you calling aliens paranormal?

baxtr 9y ago
I was referring to the protomolcule stuff, clearly to explainable by our current understanding of science Citing Wikipedia: Paranormal events are phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described to lie beyond normal experience or scientific explanation.
- laumars 9y ago
  In that case 99% of sci-fi would be classed as "paranormal". Be it warp drives, replicators, holodecks, teleporters, deep space communication platforms, shapeshifting lifeforms / changelings (DS9), ascended lifeforms (SG1) / the Q (TNG), aliens that drink lifeforce (Atlantis), artificial lifeforms, cold fusion bombs / red matter (or pretty much anything from those shitty Star Trek reboots). And lets not forget time travel. I think it's also worth remembering that the "fi" part of "sci-fi" actually stands for "fiction" and not "factual information" :P
  - baxtr 9y ago
    True :-) I just liked that about the expanse that everything else was really realistic. Achievable by humans within the next couple of hundred years
- aaron695 9y ago
  You are right in that the Expanse is far far from Hard SciFi, but it's probably in the top 1% since people really don't get FTL is just a plan nut job level idea. Protomolcule does go nutty (FTL, disrespecting inertia, gravity and stuff)but I didn't mind personally, I also like magic shows. But the human stuff is not bad, which is why a lot of people love it. There's a huge section of it that kinda has some respect for science. But it's not Paranormal IMO because everyone can see it happening, hence it's normal (In this universe) I would not say a movie where ghosts are everywhere in society and everyone sees them a paranormal movie.
- Paradigma11 9y ago
  The protomolecule is magic not paranormal. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke -"

Aaargh20318 9y ago

As someone who has read the first 5 books in the series, there is not a single paranormal thing in the Expanse.

thousandautumns 9y ago
SPOILERS I’ve only read the first 3 but thats definitely not true. FTL communication, physics-defying space maneuvering, the giant space ring thing controlling the speed of the surrounding armadas... Even if there are attempts to create some explanation for it, in a hard sci-if story, it’s basically paranormal in all but name.
- Aaargh20318 9y ago
  In this story there is nothing supernatural about any of these things. They may be things that are as of yet unexplained, but just because we don't understand them yet doesn't make them paranormal. Just like there was nothing supernatural about flying before we understood how it works. It's just physics we haven't figured out yet. Paranormal are things that are by definition outside the explainable universe. It's not that we don't have an explanation, it's that they are by their very nature unexplainable.

akvadrako 9y ago

POSSIBLE SPOILER The proto-molecule isn't paranormal, except for one aspect - the FTL communication. It's basically just a species-generic virus with an embedded AI.

DoofusOfDeath 9y ago
Dammit, please start your post with "SPOILER ALERT "!
- akvadrako 9y ago
  Well I'll add it, but it's not a spoiler, it's just my idea.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Well, it has some other means of abusing spacetime beyond FTL communications, but your description is mostly accurate. It's a sophisticated piece of nanotech built by someone with much better grasp of (in-universe) physics than humans have.
  - DoofusOfDeath 9y ago
    Thanks. The spoiler part (for me) was the FTL communication.
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      I think there were hints of that already in S2, but I don't recall it was mentioned explicitly so far. You could piece that out from the show if you knew what to look for. The books have been more explicit about it earlier in the storyline.
      - DoofusOfDeath 9y ago
        Thanks. A little off-topic, but for someone in my situation whose already watched seasons 1 and 2, would you recommend still reading the books?