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Science fiction and the death of the sun

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Re: Science fiction and the death of the sun

#41

Post by bandrami »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #36
fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a case of “Whig History” that refuses to die

The scientific method didn’t exist before the Enlightenment. We had tolerant societies before the present. But the notion that science should trump religion is modern. That doesn’t imply a glorious present. Just a qualitatively different one from any period before the modern era.

I'd rather say that the distinction between disciplines of learning is an anachronism before the early modern era (and even through much of it). "Philosophy" included what we now call medicine, natural science, theology, astronomy, astrology, and even music theory. There wasn't a question of "trumping" in the sense that they weren't thought of as different things.

Re: Science fiction and the death of the sun

#43

Post by oceanplexian »

Reason077 wrote: post #18

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's 2007 film Sunshine is another great example of this genre. Rather than abandoning a frozen earth due to the dying sun, they send a mission to deliver a bomb into it to "restart" it. A real all-star cast featuring not only a young Cillian Murphy, but a young Michelle Yeoh, Chris Evans, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong, Cliff Curtis, and Rose Byrne! Highly recommended, despite never satisfa…

> Seems to me that adding humans to the mix greatly increased the complexity and risk of the mission.

We spent the last few years watching robots with state of the art 21st century technology and software crash on the moon repeatedly, and yet, in the 1960s a few hot shot test pilots could stick a landing on their first try. Given the choice between robots and humans, I’ll take the humans.

Re: Science fiction and the death of the sun

#46

Post by RaoulP »

andrewflnr wrote: post #35

This hammered home for me how incredibly recent are a lot of the scientific discoveries we take utterly for granted. Even before nuclear energy, atoms themselves were only confirmed to exist in the 20th century. Everyone knows about plate tectonics, but that was confirmed in the 60s or something.

After this morning's earthquake I was thinking how, without any theory of plate tectonics (or previous theories, if any), an earthquake must truly feel like the wrath of god. I wonder if it's been the seed for any myths.

Re: Science fiction and the death of the sun

#47

Post by jrmg »

Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men, from 1930, seems to fit this genre too. It gets a bit outlandish with telepathy, but it’s ambitious novel telling of humanity’s ebbing and flowing, evolving a lot along the way, from ‘present day’ to the far, far future when the solar system is engulfed by a supernovaing sun. Considering its ambition, it reads surprisingly well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_and_First_Men

Re: Science fiction and the death of the sun

#48

Post by RaoulP »

sircastor wrote: post #16

I recall back in 7th grade I mapped out a sci-fi story about people having to abandon the Earth after it suddenly transitioned into its red giant phase. I didn’t ever get to writing the story, but I was captivated by the concept of the need for sudden evacuation.

Around the same age, I remember first hearing about the expanse of the sun, and being afraid of experiencing it.

Re: Science fiction and the death of the sun

#49

Post by Salmoneo »

Another entry in the dying Earth/Sun or Last Civilization approach is The Phoenix in Obsidian aka The Silver Warriors from 1970 by the oft forgotten but quite seminal Micheal Moorcock of Elric fame, but He wrote way more than that. Set in a frozen Earth and with a Sun that is just a white dwarf. The last surviving sea is so salty and dense is gelatinous and ship actually "flap" over it. It's part of the John Daker/Ereköse series, and in turn part of the bigger inter-books Moorcokian Multiverse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_in_Obsidian

Re: Science fiction and the death of the sun

#50

Post by foobiekr »

jandrese wrote: post #38
radicaldreamer wrote: post #13

Liu Cixin has a novella about moving the earth to avoid a supernova https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wandering_Earth_(novella)

[flagged]

The Remembrance of Earth's Past series as a whole is also pretty terrible. Interesting concepts here and there, awful characters and writing, terrible convenient plot elements.
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