4 ms·
What, no. This isn't consistant at all. You need magic to describe shit that doesn't exist. Otherwise, then nothing makes sense? How do you have FTL when any p
by NikolaeVarius 6y ago
What, no. This isn't consistant at all.
You need magic to describe shit that doesn't exist. Otherwise, then nothing makes sense? How do you have FTL when any possible explanation of how it works might as well be words chosen at random from a textbook because none of it will be plausible.
> If you just call it magic and define it by a set of arbitrary rules, then your fictional universe will look shallow and inconsistent.
Literally doesn't make any sense. All your complaints are second order issues. Good Sci-Fi places rules around its magic and is consistent about it. What "good" sci fi that relies on tech that doesn't exist is there that DOESN'T have its magic bounded by in universe rules.
Sci-Fi breaks down when you start to ignore or make up new rules around the magic, especially if its just "stupid"
- TeMPOraL 6y agoIn the limit, if you're describing something with no grounding in physics, you need magic. But you can make this magic very much constrained. There's a fundamental difference between "fusion reactors that are absurdly efficient for magical reasons" and "FTL drives that work by magic". A difference in the level of abstraction, if you like. The more lower-level your magic, the bigger and more interesting the network of potential consequences. And also the easier to keep universe self-consistent - because you have small-scale axiom, and large-scale rules are extrapolations using real-world physics and reasoning.