4 ms·

There was a time when Star Trek's mobile computers would be considered as negatively affecting its "hardness score", ala "these handheld devices are ridiculous!

There was a time when Star Trek's mobile computers would be considered as negatively affecting its "hardness score", ala "these handheld devices are ridiculous! computers are the size of shipping containers" So does that mean that Star Trek is "harder" now without even changing its material content simply because it inspired people to build those very devices seemingly run on 'space magic'?

Terretta 6y ago
“Exactly like that, but smaller” is less interesting and less hard than projecting completely new things within plausible bounds of known physics, or speculating new things that might require new kinds of physics but some plausible Levenshtein distance from present theory.
- expanseviewr 6y ago
  I guess part of what I am saying is that when I was younger I gained value from scifi with a wide range of 'hardness' without knowing the physics, and even now, that I've come to understand the physics, I still find value in the same. But I've found the more I know about something the more I know about all the stuff I have yet to know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_physics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_p... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_mathematics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_m... I feel the 'protomolecule' plays pretty well within these "plausible bounds" of uknown physics. I think it's a fine metric but how or where you apply the function is subjective. There is potential for issues even taking this route though. There is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Picard is musing on Fermat's Last Theorem; a yet still unsolved problem in mathematics in the 24th century. To the character the idea of solving it, even in a far future, was implausible. Yet when we watch it now it plays anachronistic because we are the 'more educated more informed viewer from 30 years later' who know Fermat's Last Theorem was solved by Andrew Wiles in 1994. But it's still fun. Both then and now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royale

Terretta 6y ago

“Exactly like that, but smaller” is less interesting and less hard than projecting completely new things within plausible bounds of known physics, or speculating new things that might require new kinds of physics but some plausible Levenshtein distance from present theory.

expanseviewr 6y ago
I guess part of what I am saying is that when I was younger I gained value from scifi with a wide range of 'hardness' without knowing the physics, and even now, that I've come to understand the physics, I still find value in the same. But I've found the more I know about something the more I know about all the stuff I have yet to know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_physics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_p... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_mathematics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_m... I feel the 'protomolecule' plays pretty well within these "plausible bounds" of uknown physics. I think it's a fine metric but how or where you apply the function is subjective. There is potential for issues even taking this route though. There is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Picard is musing on Fermat's Last Theorem; a yet still unsolved problem in mathematics in the 24th century. To the character the idea of solving it, even in a far future, was implausible. Yet when we watch it now it plays anachronistic because we are the 'more educated more informed viewer from 30 years later' who know Fermat's Last Theorem was solved by Andrew Wiles in 1994. But it's still fun. Both then and now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royale