SciFi versus fantasy

Discussion in 'SciFi & Fantasy' started by Dinosaur, Jun 13, 2018.

  1. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    The StarGate is Scifi while the Star Trek transporter is fantasy.

    While I do not expect the future to provide a Star Gate, it is not fantasy due to equipment at the destination.

    There never will be a Star Trek transport technology due to lack of equipment at the destination, making it fantasy.

    BTW: Even if worm holes exist, they will not be usable for transportation between two arbitrarily chosen locations.

    Time travel to the past is another fictional concept which is fantasy. The past no longer exists.

    BTW: The fictional version of time travel neglects the requirement for significant space travel. I wonder what space coordinate system is applicable to this problem.

    Perhaps if some form of time travel is invented, it will be more usable as a space travel technology. ​

    Do others here have similar examples of fantasy versus SciFi concepts.
     
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  3. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    In SciFi it's Dr. Sumgui who invents things. In fantasy the Morgon of Axelhelm has a demon deliver them.
     
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  5. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Why should equipment at the destination be the deciding factor? You don't need a receiver to make a radio transmitter work.

    I'd say that the dividing line between scifi and fantasy is whether or not a scientific explanation - no matter how vague - is offered.
     
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  7. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    For me it's easier to sort it out into "speculative fiction" and "imaginative fiction".
     
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  8. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    This is a completely unsopported assertion.

    You can certainly claim you believe one is plausible and the other is not, but that does not relegate them to one or the other genre.
     
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  9. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    True

    But then you do not get any results at the designated destination

    The radio waves continue until they fade away

    Let me know if you invent a radio transmission wave that carries its own radio to be assembled at destination so it can be received

    As ex radio tech I would be fascinated

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  10. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    You can pick up radio waves on certain naturally occurring crystals.
     
  11. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    You can pick them up on what ever they hit

    What are the odds of sending your body down and being picked up by a Acme Sprocket Human Reassembly Cabinet Mark 3 - Batteries included?

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  12. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    I made no claims as to the efficiency of the receptor.
     
  13. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    Wise to do so

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  14. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    However, imagine a world where beings naturally communicated in the radio spectrum. Those crystals, naturally occurring, would be useful for one-way messaging at least.
     
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  15. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Not much different from a device that creates a receiver at the destination. Destination device or no destination device? *shrug*
     
  16. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    We already have devices that transmit information without a special receiver being needed, just our ears. Horns, drums, things like that.
     
  17. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    A device such as...?
     
  18. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    Transmitting the information isn't the issue. Indeed receiving the information also isn't the issue if we (or the receiving device) are already at the desired location to receive it.
    The issue, as Michael 345 details, is the inability to send information which is its own receiving device.

    For example, you can focus waves at a certain point, but how do you get them to stop there and to coalesce into something more than just the information? To do so you surely need a receiving device (such as ears). But if there isn't anything, of if the only receiving device is the information being transmitted... what then?
     
  19. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    I'm not suggesting that such a device exists. We are talking about fiction, you know. We can speculate about whether or not a receiving device can be created from information but I don't think it should be the basis for defining genres.
     
  20. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    From SideShowBob Post 3
    Your are correct, but isn't it silly to transmit to a destination which has no receiver?
     
  21. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    Also from SideShowBob Post 3
    I have seen a lot of Star Trek episodes & do not remember even a vague explanation for how the transporter worked.

    BTW: While it is true (& silly) that you can transmit information signals to a destination with no receiving equipment, we are discussing the transmission of objects with mass (including human beings) to a destination with no receiving equipment.

    I feel safe in claiming that such a technology will never exist. Even if there are wormholes, they will not provide transmission between two arbitrarily chosen locations.

    Also Consider the following problems with the Star Trek transporter.

    A massive amount of information is required to specify the details of the human body, particularly the brain.

    Reconstruction of the human brain has serious real time requirements. When (for example) it is half reconstructed, it would be partially but very likely erroneously functional. This would be likely to cause a much less than perfect reconstruction.
    The Star Gate claims to transport a complete object rather than sending information for the construction of an object.
     
  22. zgmc Registered Senior Member

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  23. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Better look again.

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    Compare matter/energy scrambling/unscrambling with the ??? explanation of how magic rings work.
     

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