When we contemplate the edges of what could be, some think "what if I had more money?". Others think, "what if the world was a giant cupcake?". Those second guys are the scifi fans. Those first guys like politics.
How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
51–60 of 85 posts
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#52Using science fiction to discuss politics is like using the Starship Enterprise to drive down to the corner grocery. Politics is small. Exploring the edges of reality is large.
Science fiction allows us to explore the ramifications of theoretical political systems in a way that is not possible in reality except over very long timescales and with extremely cooperative citizens.
I would argue that this is not really true. You can't really understand the ramifications of theoretical political systems with thought experiments in a book or movie for because political systems are complex and ramifications thereof are harder to predict than the stock market.
A lot of sci-fi instead seems to recontextualize common human issues into an environment where existing political pre-conceptions can be avoided. Obvious examples are things like the half black/half white episode[1] of Star Trek TOS or "Measure of a Man"[2] from Star Trek TNG. These are pretty highly regarded episodes and neither really has anything to do with the Federation of Planets or its political system (in fact there are very few episodes that deal with these topics). Instead they're explorations of racism and what it means to be human/sentient.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefi...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Measure_of_a_Man_(Star_Tre...
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#53Does it bother anyone else that the picture featuring the author shows a blackboard containing seemingly unrelated equations just to make it look "this-is-high-brow-complex-mathy-stuff-that-I-am-an-expert-in"? Why would someone who wants to be taken seriously as a scientist pose in front of something like that?
Yes and no. The photographer needs a nice photo, she needs the article to sell books and not get traped again in the ivory tower. Eveyone is happy. It's part of the job. Like politician using a suit and smiling. (Aparently smiling people with suits don't steal or start random wars.) I looked at the equations, they look correct but so unrelated that made me chuckle. I imagine she was chuckling while writing them. I'm…
Anyone recognize all the equations? I only recognize a few specifically and can sort of guess the general area of some of the rest.
From left to right then top to bottom:
1. No idea. Based on the E sub λ, the use of Planck's and Boltzmann's constants, and the e^(hc/λkt)-1 I'd guess its the energy of something at wavelength λ and temperature t. I don't recall ever seeing energy have a factor of 1/λ^5 before college was over 40 years ago so I might have forgotten.
2. Momentum change required to change the speed of a mass by Δv?
3. No idea on the one for dt/dλ. Nothing from the left appears explicitly on the right.
On to the second row.
4. Pythagorean theorem.
5. No idea.
Next row
6. The Drake equation.
7. Definition of average velocity.
Next row.
8. Position of free falling object in a 1 g uniform gravitational field in a vacuum.
Next row.
9. Something thermodynamic.
10. Newton's law of gravity.
11. Looks like half of this is blocked by her head, but given that it is next to Newton's law of gravity, and has 8 Pi G in it which also appears in general relativity a lot, and that it has on the right side the ratio of jerk to acceleration (assuming a is acceleration), I'm going to guess something to do with relativistic gravity.
Next row.
12. No idea.
13. The most famous equation in the world.
14. Newton's second law.
15. Too much is cut off.
Final row.
16. Seems to be calculating the ratio of successive terms of some sequence. Partly cut off but can see Planck and Boltzmann constants so guessing we are back at thermodynamics. I'll go out on a limb and guess it has something do with entropy.
16. Too much is cut off.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Boeing's bad decisions were not based on shareholder votes, but rather a cabal of bad actors. You could have this happen in any economic system. In fact, Boeing planes, even with all the cheating, are statistically safer than those produced by the former USSR.
Who cares about the USSR, a system who basically turned into Soviet (council) based modern era overnight from feudalism without stepping inside Enlightenment. Of course, it didn't end well. I'm talking about America, with a so-called democracy far older than the USSR. Regulations? New Deal? Wisdom over centuries? What's that? That doesn't make happy my shareholders, so forget that, right? Said this, Boeing it's a dis…
> I'm talking about America, with a so-called democracy far older than the USSR
Technically America is not a democracy -- it's a federal republic composed of states with widely differing interpretations of democracy.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
For good or not capitalism is efficient at incentivizing people to exploit resources. It's easy to project that into guessing that at least our early forays to heavenly bodies will be propelled by that impulse. It's probably the reason that earthly new world cultures are more capitalistic than the old world's. Some ideologies promote exploration more than others. You don't have to like it to predict it.
Space exploration and scientific missions has always been funded by states, so pretty much the inverse of capitalistic impulses. SpaceX does no scientific missions, focusing on the only somewhat profitable part of the space industry: putting satellites in orbit. Also it receives massive grants of public money. There are no economic incentives to colonize Mars.
>There are no economic incentives to colonize Mars.
Perhaps, but much has been said about the vast fortunes asteroid mining could unlock.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Science fiction allows us to explore the ramifications of theoretical political systems in a way that is not possible in reality except over very long timescales and with extremely cooperative citizens.
I would argue that this is not really true. You can't really understand the ramifications of theoretical political systems with thought experiments in a book or movie for because political systems are complex and ramifications thereof are harder to predict than the stock market. A lot of sci-fi instead seems to recontextualize common human issues into an environment where existing political pre-conceptions can be avo…
You're right that political systems are far too complex to get perfect in a thought experiment, but I would argue that thinking about it ahead of time can't possibly be worse than blindly forging ahead.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#57"...but as far as themes go, I’m more inspired by [authors who are] usually clearly anti-capitalist, criticizing scenarios used in Golden Age science fiction — such as building cities on Mars or expanding beyond the Solar System — by portraying them as capitalist hellscapes." The golden-age optimistic science fiction placed humans on a stage in the future with aliens, and confronted both with challenges on a far grea…
I think it's a bit ironic that a story that is polemic first and story second is actually less effective as polemic than a story than is story first and polemic second or third or even lower. Classic age science fiction was often polemic, but it works because the stories were prioritized above the polemic and generally decent.
Of course like any genre, "polemic first" has things that occasionally transcend their genre even so, but those are also as always the exceptions, and authors really shouldn't put all their chips on being one of those exceptions. If anything the odds are probably worse than most.
CC: Hollywood, Disney. You'd be better propagandists if you paid more attention, much more attention, to stories.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funny you say that when capitalism has no morals beyond profit. Just have a look on what Boeing it's doing.
Boeing's bad decisions were not based on shareholder votes, but rather a cabal of bad actors. You could have this happen in any economic system. In fact, Boeing planes, even with all the cheating, are statistically safer than those produced by the former USSR.
Surely those bad actors were motivated by profits? The shareholders might not have voted for a "profits over safety" motion but the entire system created the incentives that led to bad actors acquiring their positions and doing bad stuff. And the system here is shareholder focused capitalism.
Although I agree this could happen in other economic system too, in a communist system it could be simply an order from above for example.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who cares about the USSR, a system who basically turned into Soviet (council) based modern era overnight from feudalism without stepping inside Enlightenment. Of course, it didn't end well. I'm talking about America, with a so-called democracy far older than the USSR. Regulations? New Deal? Wisdom over centuries? What's that? That doesn't make happy my shareholders, so forget that, right? Said this, Boeing it's a dis…
> I'm talking about America, with a so-called democracy far older than the USSR Technically America is not a democracy -- it's a federal republic composed of states with widely differing interpretations of democracy.
Question: where does the idea that democracy and republic are incompatible comes from? I keep hearing this am curious where it started. Is it because the Founding Fathers wanted aristocratic elements to keep popular will at bay?
To me the USA is obviously a (or maybe the) federal democratic republic. There is no contradiction. Sovereignity resides in the people and there's no monarch so it's a republic and elected representatives hold most of the power so it's a (representative) democracy.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#60Most science fiction is just lazy writing about current pop-culture trends, or stories gleaned from other areas of fiction. It is a difficult genre to navigate for quality... George Lucas was considered a genius for "allegedly" copying this film scene-for-scene: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hidden_Fortress https://archive.org/details/the-hidden-fortress (1960*, Akira Kurosawa) The original film was entertaining,…
those are two great links, wow! thank you.