Thread: Plausibility in Sci-Fi

A lot of us here have been banging on about plausibility in sci-fi, and how many shows let us down in the 'reality' stakes for the sake of entertainment.

Sure - much of it is good entertainment, and it doesn't really detract from the objective of the story, but from time to time, something really grates. You may not notice it straight away, because the entertainment is so good, that you don't realise - you get sucked in by the plot, and enjoy the story for what it is, only later realising 'But how did they...?' or 'Why didn't they do...?' or 'How come this...?'

So, without picking up on the obvious (like Avatar, Sunlight, 2012 *cough*, Trek, B5, '1999 etc), and the glaringly obvious in the storylines, such as going from chemical rockets to insterstellar flight in just one or two minutes... here's my first:

Contact:

An alien signal is identified, and it sends pulses of data that... "Hey! It's primary numbers!" - yeah, base-10 primaries. You'd be up shit creek if the aliens were three fingered and had tri-lateral symmetry, thus pumping out numbers in base-9.

So why wasn't data transmitted in binary chunks? Oh, yeah, I forgot. The audience is too damned stupid to realise that a sequence of 'off' and 'on' data makes much more sense. And the world would have been a considerably different place if base-10 wasn't the dominant counting system: it could have easily have been different number bases, especially as our counting system was originally based on the calendar (why have we still got 60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day, and 360+5 days in a year?) - we don't get rid of those hangovers that easily.

And we could have just as easily been able to count to 1024 on our fingers, had base-2 taken off earlier in our education evolution - and this is going to be the most likely method of initial communication with an alien race too: simple 'off' and 'on' signals: prime numbers don't matter in the context of binary - only when we convert the binary to different number bases do primes start to have meaning.

Although the Avengers is fantasy, it does have science fiction elements. It made $207 million in one weekend and asked us to believe that the Navy, today, can build a battleship air carrier that can fly up in the sky and become invisible.

I don't think asking today's audiences to believe a moon can fly is going to be much more difficult than it was in 1975, even with contempoary sophistication. Bill Nye was booed in Texas for suggesting that the Moon was not a celestial light(quoting Genesis), but merely reflected the sun. People will believe anything if you tell the story properly (and plausibly enough).

Originally Posted by Christopher Piri

Although the Avengers is fantasy, it does have science fiction elements. It made $207 million in one weekend and asked us to believe that the Navy, today, can build a battleship air carrier that can fly up in the sky and become invisible.

As a comic strip, plausibility isn't the primary concern though.

This is more of an issue:

Originally Posted by Christopher Piri

Bill Nye was booed in Texas for suggesting that the Moon was not a celestial light(quoting Genesis), but merely reflected the sun. People will believe anything if you tell the story properly (and plausibly enough).

And there are still plenty of Creationists, Intelligent Designers and Flat Earthers out there that'll never be convinced. I suspect that even if the creator turned up in person and said 'Look, you stupid fuckers, this is how it is!' they'd still doubt and argue against reality.


But...

Originally Posted by Christopher Piri

I don't think asking today's audiences to believe a moon can fly is going to be much more difficult than it was in 1975, even with contempoary sophistication.

With the right kind of implausibility - the plausible kind, and there have been some damned good ideas on this board - it'll be no problem. Just plucking the moon out of orbit and hurling it into deep space due to a nuclear explosion, or blaming god, or 'Shoot! Space aliens done took mah pappy!' just isn't going to work. And a MUF just seems like... an excuse, a get out of jail free card: "We couldn't be bothered to think of anything, so we'll just blame it on something that we can't or won't explain"

Thanks for this article help, I've been looking for this? Now finally found. Thank you.

This article is very informative and it such a big help for science fiction reader.It is important to know how theoretically possible and makes sense in not just as science but within context of the novels, plots and characters too. SF should make atleast a good faith effort with the plausibility of its technology, as it is known when the story or novel or written.

Originally Posted by Christopher Piri

... People will believe anything if you tell the story properly (and plausibly enough).

You have just explained American politics. Our elected leaders borrow 40 cents out of dollar they spend and use baseline budgeting to convince voters that increasing the budget at a lesser rate than had originally been proposed is a cut. Is it a surprise to any thinking voter that we have cities in California literally going bankrupt?

The moon can leave earth orbit.

Originally Posted by al feersum

...And a MUF just seems like... an excuse, a get out of jail free card: "We couldn't be bothered to think of anything, so we'll just blame it on something that we can't or won't explain"

You're beginning to sound like a Year Two character. Be careful. You know the dangers. The Year One people need to show you the error of your ways. Lol!

Einstein once said imagination is more important than knowledge. I heard he was a smart man. One side of the brain is creative, and the other side is analytical. Geniuses used both imagination and logic. Most people are dominant one way or the other.

Anyone that discounts the importance of imagination and science fiction is just uneducated