How much realism is required in sci-fi?

Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by doggiedude, May 19, 2016.

  1. doggiedude

    doggiedude Contributor Contributor

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    Yeah, I'm starting to think the best solution to this whole issue is to have some great technological experiment cause the problem to begin with.
    I wouldn't need to come up with an explanation of all the details. This would also allow me to use man's disregard for nature in pursuit of new power sources and technological development as a metaphor for today's society.
     
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  2. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    @Lifeline works in earthquakery (that's a word). Maybe she'll have some insight?
     
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  3. Lifeline

    Lifeline South. Supporter Contributor

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    Yep, I am a seismologist - but NOT a climatologist. I am reasoning my way here, don't forget. So I feel qualified to answer, but I don't insist that my answer is right. To say it famously: Don't quote me ;)

    My answers are in the text below.

    It is your story. However, there are quite a lot of people who care in sci-fi that it the storyline is at least vaguely realistic. I don't mean invented technology or new races. I mean about basic logic unreason.

    I can't enjoy 'the core' and '2012' for example. Because of logical inconsistencies. And I am not the only one who wants at least basic logic to be right.

    My five cents :)
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2016
  4. ToBeInspired

    ToBeInspired Senior Member

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    It would take millions of years for the Earth to be livable again? Unless we're talking about constant sun radiation due to the complete destruction of any form of ozone layer... I guess, maybe? Not sure where they get their data at.

    Any nuclear radiation would disappear a lot faster than that.

    Oh, maybe they're accounting for the mutated evolved sentient creatures sprouting from the land, sea, and sky. Ya, that makes more sense now.

    My answer: None.
     
  5. The Triarii

    The Triarii Member

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    The thing about science fiction is that you explain the story based on real science. Now if you are writing science fantasy (like star wars) then you can hand wave a lot of things. However, in science fiction, the science always comes first. For instance the star engines, all they are is a mini Dyson sphere and a powerful contained fusion reaction. It sounds crazy but has been already been looked over by science. on the other hand the exact effects of climate change on tectonics is a less supported possibility. Climate change would much more likely raise temps and kill off major ecosystems, cause disease carrying animals to spread outside of their historical home and infect people who have no natural immunity, or cause major violent storms and floods etc. If climate change has been linked to tectonic shifts then you would need to share that knowledge with the reader because that is not common knowledge.

    In science fiction, the science always comes first. If you have the science, it defends the fiction.
     
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  6. SighFieGuy

    SighFieGuy Member

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    I was reading through this thread the whole time wondering why no one was bringing up Star Wars-- and then there was you.

    But yeah, it's all in the rules you set up at the top. If you set up the world with rules that are essentially unrealistic, then it's totally fine to write sci-fi without much realism. But if you rationalize things and try to explain things in a scientific manner-- that's when realism is indeed necessary.
     
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  7. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    I beg your pardon? :)

     
  8. SighFieGuy

    SighFieGuy Member

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    Alas, I am thwarted
     
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  9. doggiedude

    doggiedude Contributor Contributor

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    I keep thinking about Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. The fantasy aspects of the series I accepted and loved. The plants reacting like animals, I couldn't. The presentation of "nature" acting wrong drove me nuts.

    The same sort of problem occurred with Patrick Rothfus and his The Wise Man's Fear story. In that novel, there was a group of people that simply didn't participate in the natural order of procreation. Human men had no part of whether a woman would become pregnant. They still had sex, just not as a form of procreation. That drove me nuts.
     
  10. Gareth MH

    Gareth MH Member

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    But in that case we were in a fantasy world. Did the magic swords and armour not give that away? And the plants reacting to the environment the way that they did made sense because of a different path evolution would take on a planet that is constantly ravaged by storms. Plants that were not able to protect themselves from being ripped out of the ground in some way would simply have gone extinct leaving space for others that could to evolve.

    Plus from a biological perspective there's no reason that plants can't react like that. Venus fly traps and other plants like that respond and move according to stimuli. A fly walks over the trap, the trap closes on the fly. In the stromlight archive something touches the plant the plant retracts to safety. There was sound logical reasons for those things happening.
     
  11. Ziggy.

    Ziggy. Active Member

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    I remember a while back I was jotting down some notes for a little sci-fi horror story. I remember thinking to myself "Well shit, I know fuck all about gravity in space, how to create artificial gravity, and I also know fuck all about science-fiction as an art genre." So I spent a week reading some Arthur C. Clarke, studying science-fiction guides, playing Alien Isolation, Dead Space--reading anything I could to digest information of tropes within Science-Fiction, and in the end I came down to a simple discovery;

    Science-Fiction can be as real as the Earth we are on, or it can be constructed to fit a non-linear, non-explicable, esoteric mess with a barely competent plot which can be held together with duct-tape.

    If somebody says that your science-fiction story doesn't make sense. Then you can either find an illogical way to fix the 'mistake' or allow it to be a norm within your universe. It's science-fiction, you don't have to explain anything apart from the characters and the story. While it helps to know basic science, and get information of technical aspects of your world, politics, and such--you can create a universe where it is possible for global warming to happen or tectonic plates to speed up. It's all about artistic freedom.
     
  12. Slemmen447

    Slemmen447 Member

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    You really don't need any realism in science fiction. Just ask yourself: 'What if we could do that', or 'What if we did that'. The answer to your question would be your science fiction story.
     
  13. Anamana

    Anamana New Member

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    The best sci-if I have read have a high degree of realism. They must be extensions of what we see around us today, but cast far into the future or into another world where we can understand and empathise. Anything too remote from our minds makes it something we cannot anchor our reality too. There must also be clear rules about the world that should be adhered too, just like reality. These rules must be consistent through your story.
     

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