That has to flauta some natural law.

If Youtube existed in the 19th century:

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on May 14, 2023, 09:11:41 AMFor some damn reason nobody explains.

I think it was a reference to Dune. 🤔

Quote from: Unbeliever on May 14, 2023, 01:12:42 PMI think it was a reference to Dune. 🤔

I read Dune when it hit the Stars and Stripes Book Stores in Saigon. Nobody explains WHAT the spice does, only that it allows space travel. Lazy writing.

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on May 14, 2023, 02:42:33 PMI read Dune when it hit the Stars and Stripes Book Stores in Saigon. Nobody explains WHAT the spice does, only that it allows space travel. Lazy writing.

Oh, you were seriously asking.

I believe that Dune is a work of fiction. Therefore, psionic powers exist and the spice gives you/boosts your ability to see the future and similar gubbins so that you can actually pilot a spaceship through the vastness of space and deal with the myriad variables that would drive normal men to drink.

I guess.

Yeah yeah. The Dune wiki has this:

Quoteit could awaken dormant parts of the human mind and encourage expanded sensory perceptions. In some humans (notably the Bene Gesserit, Guild Navigators, and some members of the Atreides bloodline), heavy doses led to powerful abilities that include prescience;

QuotePrescience was the term commonly used to describe the ability to see into both the past, present and future. Some awareness spectrum narcotics allowed their users to become prescient. The spice melange was one example among many in the Imperium.

QuoteDuring The Butlerian Jihad, all "thinking machines" were hunted down and destroyed, with a commandment against their ever being used again, "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind". Instead, human Guild Navigators and their spice-warped abilities, serve the function normally performed by a navigational computer. Hence, interstellar travel relies on spice.

So, basically, computers are outlawed, so the spacers use drugs to improve, not diminish their mental abilities in order to do what a computer can. Mathematical calculations for "folding space" and whatever. It sound difficult.

I was just curious about the Guild Highliner "pilots".

However! My current hissy fit is WHAT THE FUCK DO THEY PUT IN THOSE BALLONS???? I mean the ones that purportedly pick up the spice harvesters. The harvesters are the size of a USN destroyer. The lift from four balloons has to be incredible. As in "without credibility".

Rant off/

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on May 14, 2023, 02:42:33 PMNobody explains WHAT the spice does, only that it allows space travel. Lazy writing.

Remind me to never show you soft scifi (Dune, Star Wars, etc) and like 90% of fantasy.  Cause there is plenty of stuff that never gets explained.

Personally, I'm pretty sure that spice was meant as either an allegory for western dependence on oil (only found in certain parts of the world, it is essential for travel and civilization as we know it).  That or spice is a metaphor for spirituality (those with it are aware of a greater reality, a third eye sort of thing).

I've been reading scifi since 1963. I like it. But I have no problem complaining about lazy writing.

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on May 15, 2023, 06:06:23 AMI've been reading scifi since 1963. I like it. But I have no problem complaining about lazy writing.

In speculative fiction, there's a concept called Applied Phlebotinum.  Essentially, this stuff powers FTL drives, makes giant robots work, gives the Green Lantern Corps their powers, powers the Death Star, etc.  This stuff is the central conceit of basically any fiction story that differs greatly from reality.  This is the stuff that makes the plotline possible.

The reason no writer explains it is because no writer can explain it.  No one knows how to make FTL or giant robots or planet-destroying lasers a reality (this is the speculative part of speculative fiction, i.e. the "what if?" part).

Sometimes, writers use technobabble to paper over this fact - "we use dilithium crystals to go FTL" or "The Force is created by midachlorians" - but these aren't exactly satisfying answers, are they?  Because no answer would be satisfying because these are areas we don't understand, hence the speculation.

Therefore, the writer is forced to leave some stuff unexplained and the audience has to suspend disbelief.  This is a basic requirement for enjoying fiction.

That is the greatest sci-fi debate, I guess. Hence the reason of old sci-fi written by scientists or the rare writer who knows what they are writing about is elevated to hardcore or real science-fiction.

But I think fantasy generally has this problem since it exploded.

Terry Pratchett says, if you want to write fantasy stop reading fantasy, chances are you have read enough. Find a theme, a subject that exists in reality and research it then introduce it to fantasy. Something like that.

Quote from: drunkenshoe on May 15, 2023, 10:39:20 AMTerry Pratchett says, if you want to write fantasy stop reading fantasy, chances are you have read enough.

Fantastic advice!  And this is because fantasy writers are likely to pen something based on something based on Tolkien.  The end result is a genre that looks a lot like the Hapsburgs.

QuoteFind a theme, a subject that exists in reality and research it then introduce it to fantasy. Something like that.

Ha, imagine someone wanting to have a story at a small town near some swampland and then spending years pouring over books about swamp types and associated ecosystems.  That'd be crazy...

I guess I'm screwed.

You just need a bit of OJ and vodka... 🥂

Quote from: drunkenshoe on May 15, 2023, 10:39:20 AMThat is the greatest sci-fi debate, I guess. Hence the reason of old sci-fi written by scientists or the rare writer who knows what they are writing about is elevated to hardcore or real science-fiction.

But I think fantasy generally has this problem since it exploded.

Terry Pratchett says, if you want to write fantasy stop reading fantasy, chances are you have read enough. Find a theme, a subject that exists in reality and research it then introduce it to fantasy. Something like that.

I agree. Jurassic Park checks those boxes. The storyline seems almost probable when real scientists are growing tissue in labs, creating GMO crops and inventing mRNA vaccines. Sci-Fi that detours into the supernatural just aggravates me. 'Contact' with Jodie Foster comes to mind. Kinda of a "lets show atheists how wrong they are" plot, IMHO. Any movie that reveals in the end that the meaning of life is "to just believe" sucks.