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> ...that just makes it hard sci-fi. As I understand the term, hard sci-fi is based on careful use of current scientific knowledge to propose plausible future
by wrp 3y ago
> ...that just makes it hard sci-fi.
As I understand the term, hard sci-fi is based on careful use of current scientific knowledge to propose plausible future technologies. Verne tried to use only technologies that had actually been implemented. So, under this definition, Verne's works were no more sci-fi than Tom Clancy.
- burkaman 3y ago> Verne tried to use only technologies that had actually been implemented. No he didn't. The technology to build the submarine he imagined had not been implemented. Additionally, a cannon that could fire humans into space had not been implemented in 1865 when he wrote From the Earth to the Moon, and the interior of volcanos and the Earth's core had not been explored when he wrote Journey to the Center of the Earth. I really think you're selling him short - he used cutting-edge scientific theories as inspiration for imaginative, speculative stories, he didn't limit himself to existing inventions. I have plenty of respect for Tom Clancy as well but they are very different writers with very different approaches.