Hard science
- Thread starter Takei
- Start date
I know what you're saying but isn't it the case in Traveller that they genuinely don't completely know how Jump Space works?
T'Sarith DeGaalth
SOC-4
You're probably right, but I think it could be stated in a more 'hard science' manner. I've spent too much time playing office politics, and some reviewer (or potential T20 customer) will pick up on the contradiction.</font>[/QUOTE]So what you want is something more along the lines of:
"While physicists are still trying to determine the structure and properties of Jumpspace, merchants, the military, and travellers of all types know that it will get them there"
T'Sarith DeGaalth
Tom Schoene
SOC-12
It seems to me that -- at least as far as space drives are concerned -- Traveller is more Space Opera than Hard SF. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; it's quite well-done Space opera. However, Traveller maneuver and jump drives do not observe known physical laws and don't even work by currently plausible loopholes. That seems to let it out of the Hard SF label.
lord irial
SOC-12
Not knowing how it works isn't that hard to believe, for me. Most Americans don't know how a light-switch works; it's PFM to them. Considering science is still trying to figure out how bees actually manage to fly and what gravity actually IS, assuming that most people in the Imperium don't know how/why jump-drives do what they do doesn't seem so bad to me.
I do like the suggested new line better, though.
I do like the suggested new line better, though.
PFM?Originally posted by lord irial:
Not knowing how it works isn't that hard to believe, for me. Most Americans don't know how a light-switch works; it's PFM to them. Considering science is still trying to figure out how bees actually manage to fly and what gravity actually IS, assuming that most people in the Imperium don't know how/why jump-drives do what they do doesn't seem so bad to me.
I do like the suggested new line better, though.
Simon Jester
SOC-12
Pure F#@%ing Magic.
In regards to how the jumpdrives work, I do like how Gene Rodenberry put it, explaining why the crew of the Enterprise didn't go into extensive expositions each episode on how the warpdrive worked: "Do most people driving a car talk about how the internal combustion engine works?"
Simon Jester
Traveller always has been space opera If you want to get away from reality, then why not a space opera with history. You flip a switch, you don't think why it light the room, you problably don't even think of the power bill, but you are upset when you hit your shin in the dark if it doesn't work right. Jump space is the same way. The engineers who work on them know what keeps them working, but do they know the theory behind it, do they have to know the theory? Or is it good enough for them to flip the switch and see the stars go by.
