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I think I'm largely blind to such things when it comes to TV entertainment (and mostly movies). I never even thought of diesel engines not needing electricity,

by flexd 14y ago

I think I'm largely blind to such things when it comes to TV entertainment (and mostly movies). I never even thought of diesel engines not needing electricity, but that did not stop me from finding the show entertaining. I think I just naturally assume that since it's fiction anyway, the rules do not have to be followed. If entertainment and fiction always had to follow the rules of physics and our world, we wouldn't have anything like magic.

TeMPOraL 14y ago
> If entertainment and fiction always had to follow the rules of physics and our world, we wouldn't have anything like magic. OTOH I'm surprised how much in terms of magic could be expalined given the technologies we have or can imagine right now. For instance, if we ever get our hands on working nanotech, all the elixirs and magic potions that change you in different ways could be reality (you'd just be ingesting a bunch of pre-programmed nanorobots / viruses along with a tasty juice) :).
- flexd 14y ago
  That's true! You could explain 'magic' as simply being something your current technology could not explain. If you were able to show a person from the past a mobile phone, some video or even the time machine you would need to do so.. they would probably believe you were some kind of god or that the things you showed were magic.
  - jacquesm 14y ago
    That's so clever it's a miracle nobody thought about it before. Oh, wait: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws
    - sea6ear 14y ago
      Also, see A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
    - flexd 14y ago
      Does that make me as clever as the guy that first said that? :-P I think I've probably read that somewhere before.
andreasvc 14y ago
The science doesn't have to be technically correct but if you start waving around magic wands it's simply not sci-fi anymore, which is a shame if your interest was piqued by the 'sci.' Some amount of rules always has to be followed in narratives; e.g., 'the parrot did it' in a whodunnit is (most likely) not acceptable.

by flexd 14y ago

TeMPOraL 14y ago

> If entertainment and fiction always had to follow the rules of physics and our world, we wouldn't have anything like magic. OTOH I'm surprised how much in terms of magic could be expalined given the technologies we have or can imagine right now. For instance, if we ever get our hands on working nanotech, all the elixirs and magic potions that change you in different ways could be reality (you'd just be ingesting a bunch of pre-programmed nanorobots / viruses along with a tasty juice) :).

flexd 14y ago
That's true! You could explain 'magic' as simply being something your current technology could not explain. If you were able to show a person from the past a mobile phone, some video or even the time machine you would need to do so.. they would probably believe you were some kind of god or that the things you showed were magic.
- jacquesm 14y ago
  That's so clever it's a miracle nobody thought about it before. Oh, wait: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws
  - sea6ear 14y ago
    Also, see A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
  - flexd 14y ago
    Does that make me as clever as the guy that first said that? :-P I think I've probably read that somewhere before.

andreasvc 14y ago

The science doesn't have to be technically correct but if you start waving around magic wands it's simply not sci-fi anymore, which is a shame if your interest was piqued by the 'sci.' Some amount of rules always has to be followed in narratives; e.g., 'the parrot did it' in a whodunnit is (most likely) not acceptable.