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| What Is Your Favorite Sci-Fi Concept/Story and Why? |
| The Star Wars Universe |
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30% |
[ 10 ] |
| Battlestar Galactica |
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12% |
[ 4 ] |
| Frank Herbert's Dune |
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15% |
[ 5 ] |
| Star Trek |
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27% |
[ 9 ] |
| Asimov's Foundation Universe, Robots and All |
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15% |
[ 5 ] |
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| Total Votes : 33 |
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ChimpumCallao
Joined: 17 May 2005
Location: your mom
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 Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 7:49 pm Post subject: |
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| futurama |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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I'm of the opinion that Star Wars (and just about anything and everything else) actually happened. With the number of stars in the universe and considering that solar systems have waaay more interplanetary objects than we thought, many with their own chance of life, I think one in a million systems harbouring life would still be a very conservative estimate. At that rate, multiplied by the number of systems with life, a total of about 2 billion years of 'history' is being created in the universe every second, and that's a lot of time to do stuff.
What's that you say? Most stars in the universe are red dwarfs and couldn't possibly support life? Not so!
http://www.kencroswell.com/reddwarflife.html |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:01 pm Post subject: |
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[deleted]
Last edited by Gopher on Sat Jun 17, 2006 3:40 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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| mithridates wrote: |
I'm of the opinion that Star Wars (and just about anything and everything else) actually happened.
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Say, you're not about to suggest we all get hooked up to 'X'-meters and audit our personal 'Force' emotions in order to rid ourselves of 'body jawas' and thus become happy without the need for the quackery better known as psychiatry, are you?
Just checking. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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| If Star Wars did happen, there ought to be lightsabers somewhere. And I've always wanted a blue lightsaber. I'd promise to do only good with it, too. |
Yeah, somewhere, heh. Well, space is pretty big. Another (rough) calculation I made is that there are about 7,000 stars in the universe for each and every insect on the Earth. Add that to the 15 billion years or so of history and it's not that easy to find a lightsaber. Probably better to just make one here first.
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Lightsabers, made of immaterial beams of light, collide whereas they should pass right through one another without a sound. Moreover, laser beams propagate in a straight line as long as they do not meet an obstacle, therefore scientifically correct lightsaber blades would cut right though a starship's hull. This would mean that dueling with lightsabers would be like dueling with flashlights, because the blades would pass right through each other and continue to travel until they hit an object, not reflecting back onto themselves.
Instead of a laser-based device, the most believable design for a lightsaber-like device would use plasma confined by a magnetic field. Plasma is a super-heated gas and is also the 4th state of matter, the color and luminosity of which varies depending on the temperature and composition. Plasma could be ionized by a particle beam from a compact particle accelerator; at relativistic energies, the beam would produce its own blue glow along its axis due to Cherenkov radiation.
Keeping a gas in the plasma-state requires considerable energy: 40 kW are necessary for a 4 inch (10 cm) saber at 18,000 ��F (10 000 ��C). It would be difficult to fit the required generator into the saber's hilt. To control and increase the length of the blade, the plasma would need to be confined within a magnetic field. Although this design would behave like a lightsaber from the Star Wars movies, it is considered foolhardy to confine plasma magnetically. A handful of magnets would disrupt the confinement field, and plasma would spill onto the saber's wielder. Furthermore, the magnetic field would prevent the plasma from performing any cutting action as it would always be shielded from whatever the blade struck by the magnetic field.
In order to make a semi-solid beam of energy which could interact with both matter and energy would require containing a quasar and quantum singularity inside the hilt. The gravitational field would pull all the quasar's expelled plasma back moments after the quasar releases them. The speed of the returning plasma would form a chainsaw effect allowing it to cut through the matter with ease, while when being stopped by an opposing beam. A modulated gravity field would bounce allow for the reflection of energy beams. Yet, no known substance exists which is able to contain a quantum singularity. |
Creating one would also be a better process to audit our Force emotions to get rid of body jawas. |
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riley
Joined: 08 Feb 2003
Location: where creditors can find me
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| Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:08 am Post subject: |
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I have to say that David Brin's the Uplift series is the best. He's a good writer and has interesting aliens.
A good writer that others may not have heard of would be H. Beam Piper. He is most famous for the Lord Kalvan series and the Fuzzysapiens. Both are a good collection of stories though slightly outdated in cultural attitudes. |
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Greekfreak
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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Am a big fan of the original Star Trek series, and was a big fan of TNG, mostly because of the writing. Even if it defied conventional logic, it conformed to the logic of the show, at least until Braga and co. got ahold of the franchise.
Besides, Charles Napier as a guitar hippie? I'm there. |
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freewayxx
Joined: 21 Feb 2006
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| Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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What about everything written by Philip K. D.ick?
I like his material much more than anything listed. |
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Pak Yu Man
Joined: 02 Jun 2005
Location: The Ida galaxy
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| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:14 am Post subject: |
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| Stargate. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:11 pm Post subject: |
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| freewayxx wrote: |
What about everything written by Philip K. D.ick?
I like his material much more than anything listed. |
PKD was hot on the road to being enshrined as one of those rare sci fi authors who are read and studied by academia. Dare I say "literature". PKD is kind of the grandfather of the cyberpunk movement, without even trying. Many considered him visionary. Then his FBI files were released. It turns out he was schizophrenic. He was constantly writing the FBI trying to finger other sci fi writers as being communists. His image was somewhat tarnished by his ready desire to destroy the lives of other authors. |
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Barking Mad Lord Snapcase
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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Hyperion series by Dan Simmons
Culture series by Iain M. Banks
Saga of the Exiles / Intervention / Galactic Milieu by Julian May |
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Barking Mad Lord Snapcase
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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| mithridates wrote: |
I'm of the opinion that Star Wars (and just about anything and everything else) actually happened. With the number of stars in the universe and considering that solar systems have waaay more interplanetary objects than we thought, many with their own chance of life, I think one in a million systems harbouring life would still be a very conservative estimate. At that rate, multiplied by the number of systems with life, a total of about 2 billion years of 'history' is being created in the universe every second, and that's a lot of time to do stuff.
What's that you say? Most stars in the universe are red dwarfs and couldn't possibly support life? Not so!
http://www.kencroswell.com/reddwarflife.html |
If a galactic civil war took place elsewhere in the universe, it would have probably been very different from the events in Star Wars.
1: The protagonists probably would not have been humanoid.
2: Interstellar travel may take a different form - perhaps wormhole networks or slower-than-light travel (with increased longevity & hibernation, this may be tolerable for those involved). But then I guess warp / hyperdrive might also be feasible after thousands of years of progress.
3: AI would not consist of dunderheads like the battledroids or neurotic head cases like C3PO. Think more in terms of HAL, Skynet, even the Matrix. |
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Dan The Chainsawman
Joined: 05 May 2005
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| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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| riley wrote: |
I have to say that David Brin's the Uplift series is the best. He's a good writer and has interesting aliens.
A good writer that others may not have heard of would be H. Beam Piper. He is most famous for the Lord Kalvan series and the Fuzzysapiens. Both are a good collection of stories though slightly outdated in cultural attitudes. |
I still am a huge David Drake Junkie... Nothing like mechanized murder for pay to get the blood flowing.
However, Brin's Uplift War was a rather clever read. |
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freewayxx
Joined: 21 Feb 2006
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| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:11 pm Post subject: |
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Mindmetoo,
Thanks for the anecdotal information on PKD. I know it can
sometimes be difficult to separate the author from his body
of work. But, in most cases, I think the separation is necessary.
Especially when much of the information about the authors life
is so suspect. And if you don't believe the evidence you submitted
to be something close to pure crap consider your source.
really.... the FBI?
come on... |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:54 pm Post subject: |
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Star Trek: The Next Generation is my favorite.
Great characters. Well, most of them. I hate how counsellor Troi was used in such a blatent way to represent the touchy-feely PC 80's.
Data might be my favorite character in all Sci-fi.
"I'm fully functional in multiple techniques"
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