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Where did all the starships go?

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Re: Where did all the starships go?

#251

Post by maximilianthe1 »

jaywcarman wrote: post #223
threethirtytwo wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Also, we've realized the scientific reality that traveling faster than light is likely impossible, and the vast distances to other habitable planets would mean tens of thousands of years of travel even with the most efficient technology. This makes for more epic story telling though. I've seen sci-fi stories span eons due to the vast distances limited by speed. Even at light speed it still takes a huge amount of tim…

> >Also, we've realized the scientific reality that traveling faster than light is likely impossible, and the vast distances to other habitable planets would mean tens of thousands of years of travel even with the most efficient technology. > >This makes for more epic story telling though. I've seen sci-fi stories span eons due to the vast distances limited by speed. Even at light speed it still takes a huge amount o…

Also great on the same topic - The Forever War by Joe Holdeman[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_War

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#252

Post by EdwardDiego »

thomasguide wrote: post #4

FYI, this is about the titles of these books, not the textual content of the books themselves. The implication of the article is that sci-fi is losing relative standing to fantasy, but another interpretation is that science fiction titles have become more abstract and less literal over time.

All I know is that sci-fi is still producing some great ideas from talented individuals.

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#253

Post by nrds »

chasil wrote: post #15
delichon wrote: post #7

The starships left with the optimism. In the 50s there was a greater demand for stories with an unconstrained vision of the future where growth and expansion amount to flourishing. Later generations that lived in the excesses of growth saw it as the source of an intensifying dystopia. They stood athwart history and demanded decelleration. Star Trek lost ground to Terminator, Foundation to Neuromancer. Escaping sidewa…

Also, we've realized the scientific reality that traveling faster than light is likely impossible, and the vast distances to other habitable planets would mean tens of thousands of years of travel even with the most efficient technology. Interstellar space is also hostile to life, and any life present at the destination will not use the same DNA coding for protein (if gene expression even works that way). We also do…

> Also, we've realized the scientific reality that traveling faster than light is likely impossible

I'm confused at what speculative fiction exists from before the 1910s (or thereabouts) which involves FTL? I've no doubt there's a handful of works but this is hardly a plausible explanation for a _recent_ decline in these topics.

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#254

Post by int_19h »

chasil wrote: post #247
int_19h wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Three Body Problem is not even close to hard science fiction.

Three Body Problem in the book set the alien world in Alpha Centari, which is not a three body system. Even a cursory analysis at the time of writing would have ruled out Alpha Centari. It was shockingly bad research.

Never mind that; how about sentient (AI) protons?

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#255

Post by vanviegen »

jacquesm wrote: post #120
bot403 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure your point. It's fiction. Are we closer to finding dragons, faeries, or magic? Visiting remote planets is as unlikely as riding a dragon. But both make for great stories.

These two examples are not equally unlikely. They are of different orders of unlikelihood, the one is extremely unlikely, the other simply impossible.

Genetically engineering and then riding a dragon actually sounds easy in comparison to creating FTL travel.

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#256

Post by stevedonovan »

vanviegen wrote: post #255
jacquesm wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These two examples are not equally unlikely. They are of different orders of unlikelihood, the one is extremely unlikely, the other simply impossible.

Genetically engineering and then riding a dragon actually sounds easy in comparison to creating FTL travel.

Except for the power-to-weight problem. Would need very big wings!

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#257

Post by jacquesm »

vanviegen wrote: post #255
jacquesm wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These two examples are not equally unlikely. They are of different orders of unlikelihood, the one is extremely unlikely, the other simply impossible.

Genetically engineering and then riding a dragon actually sounds easy in comparison to creating FTL travel.

It's not FTL that will get you to the stars. It's patience, eco systems, hibernation and radiation shielding.

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#258

Post by greazy »

jaywcarman wrote: post #223
threethirtytwo wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Also, we've realized the scientific reality that traveling faster than light is likely impossible, and the vast distances to other habitable planets would mean tens of thousands of years of travel even with the most efficient technology. This makes for more epic story telling though. I've seen sci-fi stories span eons due to the vast distances limited by speed. Even at light speed it still takes a huge amount of tim…

> >Also, we've realized the scientific reality that traveling faster than light is likely impossible, and the vast distances to other habitable planets would mean tens of thousands of years of travel even with the most efficient technology. > >This makes for more epic story telling though. I've seen sci-fi stories span eons due to the vast distances limited by speed. Even at light speed it still takes a huge amount o…

That was fantastic thanks for sharing.

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#259

Post by Someone »

nrds wrote: post #253
chasil wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, we've realized the scientific reality that traveling faster than light is likely impossible, and the vast distances to other habitable planets would mean tens of thousands of years of travel even with the most efficient technology. Interstellar space is also hostile to life, and any life present at the destination will not use the same DNA coding for protein (if gene expression even works that way). We also do…

> Also, we've realized the scientific reality that traveling faster than light is likely impossible I'm confused at what speculative fiction exists from before the 1910s (or thereabouts) which involves FTL? I've no doubt there's a handful of works but this is hardly a plausible explanation for a _recent_ decline in these topics.

> I'm confused at what speculative fiction exists from before the 1910s (or thereabouts) which involves FTL?

I bet very little. We didn’t really know how enormous the universe is (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_parallax: “Being very difficult to measure, only about 60 stellar parallaxes had been obtained by the end of the 19th century”), and we hadn’t known for long that the speed of light is an absolute speed limit.

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#260

Post by Joel_Mckay »

Good Sci-fi is hard to write, as it is too easy to fall for silly plot devices, gimmicks, and tired clichés.

Space cowboys were replaced with thinly veiled dogma, meaningless cycles of ritualized tribal violence, and cheap nostalgic production grifts. Those that write about speculative Futures, are almost always talking about the present worlds flaws.

Anyone can publish now, and people simply stopped asking if they should. =3

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