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Joined: 25/11/2009
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I have just finished reading Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku which was very enjoyable. The author considers popular science fiction ideas (e.g. Faster than light travel) against what we know of the physical laws. The end result is that a lot of common features - faster than light travel, artificial gravity - while not impossible, are very hard to do. So hard we can't conceive ways to do them.Thinking about this during my daily commute on the train, I wondered what sort of science fiction story could you have if you took away all the items which at this stage are way beyond our capabilities. Things like faster than light travel, artificial gravity, force fields, teleportation. Could you still have a good SF story using a small extrapolation of the cutting edge of what scientists are currently doing or researching?One other thought that sprang to mind was that the majority of the books I have read generally take our current western society and move them to a different time zone. While they have lots of new technology the society and morals have not changed. Considering how things have changed in my lifetime, this strikes me as odd. Surely, there would be some changes?
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Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 138 |
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There is a movement in SF limited only to what we know about; it's called "Mundane SF". No aliens, no psi powers, no warp drives, limted to this solar system only. Actually, there always has been SF of this kind, and some of it has been very popular, even making the big screen: for instance, 'Deep Impact'. As far as I'm concerned, while I can enjoy a well-written "mundane" story, they just don't grab me in the same way - they lack the sensawunda!
There are SF books which postulate different social arrangements in the future (some of Ursula Le Guin's work springs to mind) but I suspect that most readers like to be able to identify with the thoughts and actions of the characters and that becomes difficult if they think in a different way and have different moral standards.
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Joined: 02/12/2008
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www.nostalgiaforinfinity.com
Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 71 |
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As has been said, mundane SF and its ur-texts, whatever they might be, are the place to look for SF without the impossible.
In terms of postulating a different social and/or political reality for human beings, or even a different state of being that places them outside the context of late capitalism by default, many of the contemporary SF writers I've read do or have tackled this to a varying extent. Stross, MacLeod, Banks, Reynolds, Robinson etc.
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Joined: 03/03/2009
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[quote=AndyE]One other thought that sprang to mind was that the majority of the books I have read generally take our current western society and move them to a different time zone. While they have lots of new technology the society and morals have not changed. Considering how things have changed in my lifetime, this strikes me as odd. Surely, there would be some changes?[/quote]
One of the things I found interesting about Eric Brown's recent novel 'Necropath' was the fact that the society on the space station where the novel is based was Asian in origin, rather than western. This raised some interesting issues about attitudes to death, religion and so on that were used rather well (I thought) in the story development. | |
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Joined: 27/12/2009
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Mundane is supposed to be the extrapolation of viable science and technology. But who's to say what is going work in the future?
Some interesting thoughts to think about:
1) The Romans had a simple steam engine and if they combined it with other technology they had to hand, they would have had a useful steam engine. So why didn't they?
2) The invention of fast dyes for cloth was an accidental discovery in the middle of the 1800s. The gentleman concerned was looking for something else when he accidentally noticed some interesting residue. So how can we extrapolate what will be inevitable discoveries by serendipity?
3) The above points are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to examples I could quote. So how can we say what is or is not a viable extrapolation? Indeed how can we define what people want to think of as the limits for the sub-genre of mundane science fiction?
Happy cogitations... | |
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Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 138 |
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I don't know that Mundane SF is necessarily limited to extrapolations of current technology - it's just that any technology featured must not violate the laws of science as we understand them today.
Of course, that might be a rather theoretical distinction!
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Joined: 25/11/2009
Posts: 6 |
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Thank you to all who replied.
I have just finished reading Joe Haldeman's The Forever War (better late than never!). One element of the story is how mankind changes over the centuries. To control the birth rate in the face of food shortages the United Nations promotes homosexual relationships and these become the norm. A second development is the cloning of a single individual who is deemed perfect and all clones share a common group mind.
The first scenario is feasible considering how western societies outlook towards homosexuality has changed over the last 20 years.
The second scenario of clones (male and female) who share a group mind is not quite so plausible. The author does not use telepathy so his clones must connect to a network where experiences and knowledge is shared. I'm not sure how this would work as you would be attempting to combine the experiences of thousands (millions?) of individuals into one mind. How that mind would make sense of the information is another question. The clones may also have the potential to diverge away from the group mind during the periods they were not in direct contact with it.
The group mind is an interesting concept but I can't see it working for humans without a direct real time communication channel.
Andy E | |
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Joined: 27/12/2009
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If my guess is right, the clone mind should belong to Mundane SF.
Why? Because the scientists have recently discovered that quantum physics plays a part in how our brains work. They are still working on the detail behind this phenomenon.
Also recently discovered is the fact that quantum physics helps direct sunlight very efficiently to the right molecules in a plant for photosynthesis. This could very well be similar to what is going on in the brain.
It only takes a relatively simple step from there to suggest that because the cloned brains would be the same, we can have inter-brain quantum exchanges (instead of mere intra-brain quantum exchanges).
Now what the difference is between this cloned hive mind (for want of a better description) and a large, let's say parallel computer, could prove an interesting science fiction story. Anyone up for writing it?
Happy cogitations... | |
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Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 30 |
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Clarke's Second Dictum
"When an elderly and distinguished scientist says something is impossible he is almost certainly wrong."
Mundane sf sounds like an interesting exercise for writers, akin to an artist limiting herself to a palette of greys only, but on that basis should probably remain just that, an exercise, like practicing scales to limber up before getting down to the real stuff.
I had an idea that the manifesto for mundane sf (as least as it was lampooned by Ian McDonald at at BSFA open day a couple of years back) called on writers to abandon aliens as a plot device, but extraterrestrial life doesn't actually violate any scientific laws, even if their existence and contact is at the outer limits of probability. | |
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