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Show HN: The first issue of Compelling Science Fiction

compellingsciencefiction.com

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Re: Show HN: The first issue of Compelling Science Fiction

#32

Post by personjerry »

IndianAstronaut wrote: post #21

Finding hard scifi is so hard. Most of science fiction is purely the realm of science fantasy.

I think it's a difficult line to draw, typically (except in the case of high fantasy, like magic). We might find that our understanding of science to be "wrong" at any point, because science is not as "rigorous" as mathematics. At one point modern computing with semi-conductors would've been impossible (classical mechanics), but then we discovered that on microscopic levels quantum mechanics applies instead, and this allowed computers to the extent that we have today.[0]

[0] https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/112615/why-is-it...

Re: Show HN: The first issue of Compelling Science Fiction

#35

Post by cant_kant »

Interesting stories. Better copy editing would make them easier to read.

"Ed had shouted on them like this"

"No real kidnapper hauls around a struggling, scream-seeking captive"

"I see I need to show the adolescent asshole affecting to be me "

Broken sentences like these make the stories a bit of a chore to read.

Re: Show HN: The first issue of Compelling Science Fiction

#36

Post by eggy »

personjerry wrote: post #32
IndianAstronaut wrote: post #21

Finding hard scifi is so hard. Most of science fiction is purely the realm of science fantasy.

I think it's a difficult line to draw, typically (except in the case of high fantasy, like magic). We might find that our understanding of science to be "wrong" at any point, because science is not as "rigorous" as mathematics. At one point modern computing with semi-conductors would've been impossible (classical mechanics), but then we discovered that on microscopic levels quantum mechanics applies instead, and this…

True in some senses, but take 'Interstellar' for instance. I would personally categorize it as hard science pushing the fringe into fantasy/speculation. 'The Martian' I would consider more hard science fiction overlooking some technical issues for dramatic effect. In any case, I enjoy SF that is mainly in the realm of hard SF. I read John Cramer's 'Twistor' years ago, and although some have panned it for some stereotypes, I loved reading it at the time. I'll have to revisit it. Professor Cramer is a physics professor at Univ. of Washington in Seattle.

Re: Show HN: The first issue of Compelling Science Fiction

#37

Post by danadam »

mojoe wrote: post #7
3stripe wrote: post #6

Love the concept, good sci-fi is hard to come by. Design thought: the reading experience would be vastly improved by a larger font size and shorter line length. See https://edwardtufte.github.io/tufte-css/ or similar for inspiration.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will certainly review the link you sent! I don't have any volunteers who have front-end design experience, so there is a lot of room for improvement.

All it takes is "7 fucking declarations": http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/
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