WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.640 Welcome back to the deep dive. Today we are strapping 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:07.620 in for a journey into a genre where I guess imagination 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:10.220 meets really rigorous calculation. We're talking 00:00:10.220 --> 00:00:12.140 about hard science fiction. Yeah, that's right. 00:00:12.179 --> 00:00:14.759 This is this is the corner of the bookstore where 00:00:14.759 --> 00:00:16.940 the laws of physics aren't just suggestions. 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:20.199 There are the actual plot points. Exactly. I 00:00:20.199 --> 00:00:22.620 think for a lot of people, you know, when you 00:00:22.620 --> 00:00:24.980 hear sci fi, you immediately think of wizards 00:00:24.980 --> 00:00:28.640 with laser swords or like ships that can magically 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:32.009 zip across the entire galaxy in two seconds flat. 00:00:32.229 --> 00:00:34.810 Right. Space operas. Yeah. But hard science fiction 00:00:34.810 --> 00:00:36.630 is a totally different beast, isn't it? It really 00:00:36.630 --> 00:00:38.750 is. And the mission of this deep dive today is 00:00:38.750 --> 00:00:41.509 to explore how authors in this specific genre 00:00:41.509 --> 00:00:44.969 turn things like astrophysics, biology, and engineering 00:00:44.969 --> 00:00:47.770 into gripping narratives. And they do it without 00:00:47.770 --> 00:00:49.829 breaking the rules of reality. Which is the hard 00:00:49.829 --> 00:00:52.409 part. Very hard. Unlike those space operas or 00:00:52.409 --> 00:00:55.810 pure fantasy, hard SF cares deeply about scientific 00:00:55.810 --> 00:00:58.500 accuracy and logic. It treats the universe as 00:00:58.500 --> 00:01:00.439 something that has straight rules. It's almost 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:02.500 like they're playing the game on hard mode, right? 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:05.299 Like you can't just wave a magic wand or press 00:01:05.299 --> 00:01:07.719 a shiny button to fix the problem. You have to 00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:10.099 literally engineer your way out of it. Precisely. 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.859 And we have a really great stack of sources today 00:01:12.859 --> 00:01:15.540 to help us navigate this. We've got the historical 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:18.219 context, some definitions of what actually makes 00:01:18.219 --> 00:01:21.079 us very hard. And we've got some famous disputes 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:23.620 between authors and their readers. Oh, I love 00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:25.540 those. Yeah, they're great. And we also have 00:01:25.540 --> 00:01:28.359 a massive list of representative works across 00:01:28.359 --> 00:01:31.659 books, film, and even video games to go through. 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:34.180 Awesome. So let's start at the beginning here. 00:01:34.260 --> 00:01:36.219 Where did this term actually come from? Did someone 00:01:36.219 --> 00:01:39.159 just decide one day, hey, my sci -fi is harder 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:41.959 than yours? It's funny you say that because the 00:01:41.959 --> 00:01:44.159 term actually did arise to create a distinction. 00:01:44.340 --> 00:01:47.019 It was first used in print way back in November 00:01:47.019 --> 00:01:51.549 1957. Wow. Yeah. A reviewer named P. Schuyler 00:01:51.549 --> 00:01:54.189 Miller used it in a review for astounding science 00:01:54.189 --> 00:01:56.849 fiction. He was talking about a book called Islands 00:01:56.849 --> 00:02:00.069 of Space by John W. Campbell. 1957. So that's 00:02:00.069 --> 00:02:02.569 right at the dawn of the space age, Sputnik era. 00:02:03.230 --> 00:02:05.290 Exactly. The timing makes perfect sense. And 00:02:05.290 --> 00:02:06.810 the distinction they were trying to make is really 00:02:06.810 --> 00:02:10.199 interesting. Hard science fiction draws directly 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:13.319 from the hard or natural sciences. So we're talking 00:02:13.319 --> 00:02:16.379 physics, astronomy, chemistry. Right, and I assume 00:02:16.379 --> 00:02:18.979 that's in direct contrast to soft science fiction. 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:21.719 It is, but here's a fun fact. That term soft 00:02:21.719 --> 00:02:23.919 science fiction didn't actually appear in print 00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:26.460 until the late 1970s. Oh really? It took that 00:02:26.460 --> 00:02:28.939 long? Yeah, it was formed by analogy much later. 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:32.759 If hard SF is about the natural sciences, soft 00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:36.020 SF leans toward the soft or social sciences. 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:39.479 So sociology, anthropology, psychology. Okay, 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:41.500 let's unpack this a bit because I feel like people 00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:43.759 get really defensive about these labels online. 00:02:44.270 --> 00:02:47.370 Is this a strict scientific taxonomy? Like, is 00:02:47.370 --> 00:02:49.849 there a formal checklist an author has to pass? 00:02:50.129 --> 00:02:52.729 Not really, no. And that's a crucial point the 00:02:52.729 --> 00:02:55.150 sources make. Critics like Gary Westfall argue 00:02:55.150 --> 00:02:57.449 that these aren't rigorous taxonomies at all. 00:02:57.650 --> 00:02:59.949 They are just useful labels that reviewers and 00:02:59.949 --> 00:03:02.449 readers use to characterize the vibe of a story. 00:03:02.750 --> 00:03:04.349 Just a way to know what you're buying. Right. 00:03:04.349 --> 00:03:06.590 But there is a key requirement for hard SF. It 00:03:06.590 --> 00:03:09.370 has to be procedural or intentional. Meaning 00:03:09.370 --> 00:03:11.949 the author is doing it on purpose. Like they 00:03:11.949 --> 00:03:15.069 set out to do the math. Yes. The story actively 00:03:15.069 --> 00:03:18.030 tries to be accurate and logical regarding the 00:03:18.030 --> 00:03:20.870 technology and phenomena it presents. It deals 00:03:20.870 --> 00:03:23.069 with situations that are theoretically possible 00:03:23.069 --> 00:03:24.870 given our current knowledge of the universe. 00:03:25.409 --> 00:03:28.050 I found this one concept in the notes fascinating. 00:03:28.860 --> 00:03:32.099 the idea of the enabling device. Can you explain 00:03:32.099 --> 00:03:34.319 that for everyone? Yeah, this is a really great 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:36.560 way to tell the difference between the two. In 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:39.039 softer sci -fi, authors often use what's called 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.819 an enabling device without any real scientific 00:03:41.819 --> 00:03:44.340 basis. They just need it to make the plot happen. 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:47.979 Think of like a warp drive that gets your crew 00:03:47.979 --> 00:03:51.080 to the alien planet instantly. Right, it's basically 00:03:51.080 --> 00:03:53.180 a magic box so the characters can actually meet 00:03:53.180 --> 00:03:56.520 and talk. Exactly. But hard SF authors try to 00:03:56.520 --> 00:03:58.639 minimize those devices, or at the very least, 00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:01.000 they root them in known scientific principles. 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:04.000 They only include speculative ideas if they draw 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.240 from well -known mathematical concepts. Because 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:08.800 if you have too many of those magic boxes, you 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:11.719 just drift away from hard SF entirely. So if 00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:14.020 I'm writing a story, and I need my characters 00:04:14.020 --> 00:04:17.750 to get to Mars, A hard SF approach would be me 00:04:17.750 --> 00:04:20.610 actually calculating the fuel load, the weight, 00:04:20.829 --> 00:04:23.610 the orbital trajectory. Whereas a soft SF approach 00:04:23.610 --> 00:04:25.589 is just Captain push the button and we're there. 00:04:25.870 --> 00:04:28.750 That's a very fair simplification, yeah. And 00:04:28.750 --> 00:04:31.370 this desire for accuracy actually goes back way 00:04:31.370 --> 00:04:33.329 further than the term itself. If we want to look 00:04:33.329 --> 00:04:35.029 at the history, we really have to talk about 00:04:35.029 --> 00:04:38.110 Jules Verne. The legend himself. Yeah. 20 ,000 00:04:38.110 --> 00:04:40.069 Leaves into the Seas? Right. Published all the 00:04:40.069 --> 00:04:43.569 way back in 1870, stories revolving around technical 00:04:43.569 --> 00:04:46.500 consistency were being written that early. Verne's 00:04:46.500 --> 00:04:48.680 attention to the technical details of the submarine 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:51.939 actually inspired future scientists and explorers. 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:54.079 But here's the funny thing about Verne. What's 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:56.879 that? He himself denied he was writing as a scientist. 00:04:57.180 --> 00:04:59.500 Really? He pushed back on that? He did. He didn't 00:04:59.500 --> 00:05:01.699 claim to be seriously predicting the future or 00:05:01.699 --> 00:05:03.939 doing rigorous science, but the detail was there 00:05:03.939 --> 00:05:06.620 regardless. However, if we jump forward a bit 00:05:06.620 --> 00:05:09.899 to the 1920s, we see a man named Hugo Gernsback 00:05:09.899 --> 00:05:12.480 who had a very different vision. He is a massive 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:14.980 figure in the history of the genre. Wait, Gernsback, 00:05:15.019 --> 00:05:17.000 is that the... guy that Hugo Awards are named 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:20.290 after? The very same. In the 1920s, Gernsback 00:05:20.290 --> 00:05:22.870 strongly believed that science fiction stories 00:05:22.870 --> 00:05:25.490 should be instructive. He literally wanted them 00:05:25.490 --> 00:05:27.790 to teach the reader something useful. I kind 00:05:27.790 --> 00:05:30.290 of love that. It's like eat your vegetables fiction. 00:05:30.509 --> 00:05:33.069 It was. But he eventually had to compromise. 00:05:33.290 --> 00:05:35.149 He found out pretty quickly that he had to print 00:05:35.149 --> 00:05:38.649 what he called fantastical fiction just to attract 00:05:38.649 --> 00:05:41.910 readers to his magazine. Amazing stories. And 00:05:41.910 --> 00:05:44.089 he hated doing it. He just wanted to teach people 00:05:44.089 --> 00:05:46.420 about radio waves and magnets. Basically. He 00:05:46.420 --> 00:05:48.680 later returned to the field and put out a call 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:52.740 for truly scientific prophetic science fiction 00:05:52.740 --> 00:05:56.459 with the full accent on science. In all caps. 00:05:56.720 --> 00:05:58.980 There's a detail here in the sources about Gernsback 00:05:58.980 --> 00:06:00.660 that I absolutely love, and I want to make sure 00:06:00.660 --> 00:06:02.660 we touch on it. He wasn't just talking about 00:06:02.660 --> 00:06:04.860 stories. He was talking about the actual patent 00:06:04.860 --> 00:06:07.420 system. Oh, this is where it gets wild. Yes. 00:06:07.860 --> 00:06:10.060 Gernsback actually argued for patent reform in 00:06:10.060 --> 00:06:12.379 the United States. He wanted science fiction 00:06:12.379 --> 00:06:15.160 authors to have the right to patent their ideas 00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:17.899 without having to build a working physical model. 00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:21.079 That is just... I mean, think about that for 00:06:21.079 --> 00:06:23.319 a second. His reasoning was that these authors 00:06:23.319 --> 00:06:25.759 were coming up with brilliant ideas. that predated 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:27.899 the technical progress needed to actually build 00:06:27.899 --> 00:06:30.920 them. He saw the authors as literal inventors 00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:32.920 who were just tragically ahead of their time. 00:06:33.240 --> 00:06:35.740 Imagine if that law had passed. We'd have sci 00:06:35.740 --> 00:06:37.980 -fi writers' estates owning the patents to half 00:06:37.980 --> 00:06:41.350 the tech we use today. like smartphones and satellites. 00:06:41.629 --> 00:06:44.310 It really shows how seriously he took the science 00:06:44.310 --> 00:06:47.430 part of the equation. And this focus on facts 00:06:47.430 --> 00:06:50.269 and education eventually evolved into what historians 00:06:50.269 --> 00:06:53.069 call the golden age of science fiction. Which 00:06:53.069 --> 00:06:55.730 is when? Roughly from the late 1930s to the mid 00:06:55.730 --> 00:06:58.930 1940s. It's often described as a quantum jump 00:06:58.930 --> 00:07:01.870 in quality for the genre. So we move from just 00:07:01.870 --> 00:07:04.209 teaching the reader a lesson to actually telling 00:07:04.209 --> 00:07:06.509 great, gripping stories that just happen to be 00:07:06.509 --> 00:07:09.509 scientifically accurate. Exactly. Session with 00:07:09.509 --> 00:07:12.370 accuracy creates a very unique dynamic, doesn't 00:07:12.370 --> 00:07:13.990 it? I'm talking about the relationship between 00:07:13.990 --> 00:07:16.649 the writer and the reader in this specific community. 00:07:16.709 --> 00:07:19.910 Oh, you mean the game of gotcha? Yes. The game, 00:07:20.329 --> 00:07:24.009 this is so unique to hard SF. In most genres, 00:07:24.389 --> 00:07:26.329 if there's a plot hole, readers might grumble 00:07:26.329 --> 00:07:29.670 on a message board. But in hard SF, readers actively 00:07:29.670 --> 00:07:32.350 try to find the math errors. It's treated like 00:07:32.350 --> 00:07:34.920 a sport. It really is. And the sources give us 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:37.399 some legendary examples of this. Take the Mescaline 00:07:37.399 --> 00:07:39.379 incident. This involves the author Hal Clement, 00:07:39.500 --> 00:07:42.220 right? Yes. Regarding his 1953 novel, Mission 00:07:42.220 --> 00:07:45.180 of Gravity, it's set on a fictional planet called 00:07:45.180 --> 00:07:48.439 Mescaline, which spins incredibly fast. And because 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:51.379 it spins so fast, it creates massive varying 00:07:51.379 --> 00:07:55.240 gravity. A group of readers at MIT, actual scientists 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:57.879 and engineering students, sat down and mathematically 00:07:57.879 --> 00:08:00.300 calculated the physics of the planet exactly 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:02.639 as Clement described it. And what did they find? 00:08:02.759 --> 00:08:05.019 Did the math hold up? Not quite. They concluded 00:08:05.019 --> 00:08:07.399 that mesclun, based on the specific rotational 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:09.420 speed and gravity described in the book, would 00:08:09.420 --> 00:08:11.420 actually have a sharp edge at the equator due 00:08:11.420 --> 00:08:13.779 to the centrifugal force. That is amazing. They 00:08:13.779 --> 00:08:15.660 out -mathed the author. They absolutely did. 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:18.100 But an even more famous example involves Larry 00:08:18.100 --> 00:08:20.740 Niven and his hugely influential book Ringworld 00:08:20.740 --> 00:08:25.139 from 1970. Oh man, Ringworld is a classic. For 00:08:25.139 --> 00:08:28.019 anyone who hasn't read it, it's about a giant 00:08:28.019 --> 00:08:31.379 artificial ring built around a star. What could 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:33.519 possibly go wrong with a structure like that? 00:08:33.659 --> 00:08:36.159 Well, according to a high school class in Florida, 00:08:36.419 --> 00:08:39.299 quite a lot. A high school class? Yes. They did 00:08:39.299 --> 00:08:42.600 the math. They calculated that the topsoil on 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:45.480 the ring, the actual dote they used to grow food 00:08:45.480 --> 00:08:48.340 and live on, would slide into the seas within 00:08:48.340 --> 00:08:50.820 a few thousand years based on the spin and the 00:08:50.820 --> 00:08:53.120 gravity Niven described in the text. Imagine 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:55.240 being a famous, established author and getting 00:08:55.240 --> 00:08:57.720 that letter in the mail. Dear Mr. Niven, your 00:08:57.720 --> 00:09:00.240 entire world has fallen apart. Sincerely, a bunch 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:02.879 of teenagers. Right. But this is what defines 00:09:02.879 --> 00:09:05.840 the genre. Niven didn't ignore it or get defensive. 00:09:06.279 --> 00:09:08.740 In the sequel, The Ringworld Engineers, he actually 00:09:08.740 --> 00:09:11.620 fixed those structural errors and he explicitly 00:09:11.620 --> 00:09:13.820 noted the corrections in the foreword. That's 00:09:13.820 --> 00:09:15.960 so cool. It's literally like a software patch, 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:19.120 but for a novel. Exactly. In Hard SF, an error 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:21.019 isn't just a plot hole you gloss over. It's a 00:09:21.019 --> 00:09:23.200 violation of the contract with your reader. The 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:25.799 rigor is part of the fun for both sides. So what 00:09:25.799 --> 00:09:28.139 does this all mean for the actual stories being 00:09:28.139 --> 00:09:30.779 told? Let's talk about some of these representative 00:09:30.779 --> 00:09:33.740 works because The list we have from the sources 00:09:33.740 --> 00:09:36.620 is pretty incredible. It ranges from subatomic 00:09:36.620 --> 00:09:39.320 particles all the way to growing potatoes. It 00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:41.980 really covers a massive spectrum. On the literature 00:09:41.980 --> 00:09:44.360 side, you have groundbreaking works like Dragon's 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:46.700 Egg by Robert L. Forward. This was published 00:09:46.700 --> 00:09:49.720 in 1980. It's a story about the evolution of 00:09:49.720 --> 00:09:52.509 life on the surface of a neutron star. Which, 00:09:52.669 --> 00:09:54.950 just saying that out loud sounds completely impossible. 00:09:55.149 --> 00:09:58.190 It does sound impossible. But Forward was an 00:09:58.190 --> 00:10:00.690 actual physicist. The physics involved in life 00:10:00.690 --> 00:10:03.029 existing at that level of gravity were so real 00:10:03.029 --> 00:10:06.409 and so incredibly dense that he admitted in a 00:10:06.409 --> 00:10:08.250 preface he couldn't have written it without professional 00:10:08.250 --> 00:10:11.070 help. It required too much real -world physics 00:10:11.070 --> 00:10:13.389 to figure out. That is true dedication to the 00:10:13.389 --> 00:10:16.039 craft. And then if we jump to more modern times, 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:18.399 we have Andy Weir. I think The Martian is probably 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:20.799 the most famous mainstream example of hard SF 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:23.559 we have right now. Oh, undoubtedly. The Martian 00:10:23.559 --> 00:10:26.139 and his later book, Project Hail Mary, are superb 00:10:26.139 --> 00:10:29.259 examples of modern hard sci -fi. They focus intensely 00:10:29.259 --> 00:10:32.159 on survival and logical problem solving. Yeah, 00:10:32.220 --> 00:10:34.460 it's not about fighting aliens with laser guns. 00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:37.600 It's about, you know, figuring out how to grow 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:40.409 potatoes in dead soil. using basic chemistry, 00:10:40.850 --> 00:10:43.169 or calculating orbital dynamics just to intercept 00:10:43.169 --> 00:10:45.750 a supply ship. It's competence and problem solving. 00:10:46.009 --> 00:10:48.710 People just love watching smart people use real 00:10:48.710 --> 00:10:51.330 science to solve terrifying problems. And we 00:10:51.330 --> 00:10:53.710 definitely have to mention the sheer scale of 00:10:53.710 --> 00:10:56.610 Kim Stanley Robinson's work, the Mars trilogy. 00:10:56.850 --> 00:10:59.450 So that's red Mars, green Mars and blue Mars. 00:10:59.750 --> 00:11:02.450 Yes, that is the definitive work on caraforming. 00:11:02.769 --> 00:11:05.370 It goes so deep into the engineering, the biology, 00:11:05.529 --> 00:11:08.009 the atmospheric science and even the ecology 00:11:08.009 --> 00:11:10.830 of turning a dead planet into a living, breathing 00:11:10.830 --> 00:11:13.470 one. And we can't forget the three body problem 00:11:13.470 --> 00:11:16.669 by Six and Lou. A massive global hit. The source 00:11:16.669 --> 00:11:18.809 material highlights it specifically for how it 00:11:18.809 --> 00:11:21.409 simulates complex physics inside a virtual reality 00:11:21.409 --> 00:11:23.389 setting within the story. It literally takes 00:11:23.389 --> 00:11:25.730 theoretical physics and makes it the central 00:11:25.730 --> 00:11:28.070 mystery and plot device. Now, moving from the 00:11:28.070 --> 00:11:30.450 page to the screen for a minute, it feels like 00:11:30.450 --> 00:11:32.690 hard SF is much harder to pull off in movies 00:11:32.690 --> 00:11:34.710 because, you know, you can't just stop the film 00:11:34.710 --> 00:11:37.029 and explain the math for 10 minutes. It is a 00:11:37.029 --> 00:11:39.450 huge challenge for filmmakers. But when it's 00:11:39.450 --> 00:11:43.889 done right, it creates iconic cinema. 2001. A 00:11:43.889 --> 00:11:45.950 space odyssey is usually held up as the gold 00:11:45.950 --> 00:11:48.529 standard for realism, but there are great modern 00:11:48.529 --> 00:11:52.610 ones too. Getaka explores genetics with terrifying 00:11:52.610 --> 00:11:55.669 plausibility, and Ex Machina deals with artificial 00:11:55.669 --> 00:11:58.029 intelligence in a very grounded way. There's 00:11:58.029 --> 00:12:00.129 also Her and Moon mentioned here as logically 00:12:00.129 --> 00:12:02.950 rigorous films, and there's an animated series 00:12:02.950 --> 00:12:04.850 mentioned in our sources called Pantheon. I actually 00:12:04.850 --> 00:12:06.730 haven't seen it, but the description sounds fascinating. 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:09.539 Pantheon is fantastic. It's a rare example of 00:12:09.539 --> 00:12:11.940 animated hard SF, and it aired quite recently. 00:12:12.460 --> 00:12:15.120 It explores deeply human concepts, things like 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:18.179 grief and family dynamics, but it does it entirely 00:12:18.179 --> 00:12:20.720 through the lens of user interfaces and uploaded 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:23.360 intelligence. Wow. Yeah. One of the creators 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:26.200 described the show as a way to write about esoteric 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:28.759 hard sci -fi concepts, but grounding them in 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:32.059 a very simple human emotional core. That's the 00:12:32.059 --> 00:12:33.879 key though, isn't it? If it's just pure math 00:12:33.879 --> 00:12:35.980 and physics, it's a textbook. For it to be a 00:12:35.980 --> 00:12:38.340 story, it has to be human. Exactly. The science 00:12:38.340 --> 00:12:40.519 is the setting, but the human condition is the 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:42.740 story. We also have to give a nod to the gamers 00:12:42.740 --> 00:12:45.360 out there. Because if you want to actually experience 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:47.759 physics, video games are the ultimate playground. 00:12:47.929 --> 00:12:51.149 Absolutely. The sources list Sid Meier's Alpha 00:12:51.149 --> 00:12:54.330 Centauri from 1999. It's a strategy game, but 00:12:54.330 --> 00:12:57.110 it has this cool atmospheric melancholy that 00:12:57.110 --> 00:13:00.090 is very typical of hard sci -fi. The horror doesn't 00:13:00.090 --> 00:13:02.370 come from monsters. It comes from the implications 00:13:02.370 --> 00:13:04.789 of the technology you are developing. And then 00:13:04.789 --> 00:13:07.889 for the true masochists of physics, there's Kerbal 00:13:07.889 --> 00:13:11.789 Space Program. Oh, yes. The ultimate do -it -yourself 00:13:11.789 --> 00:13:14.629 hard physics simulator. If you want to truly 00:13:14.629 --> 00:13:16.929 understand why rocket science is considered so 00:13:16.929 --> 00:13:19.299 difficult, Well, play Kerbal. You have to actually 00:13:19.299 --> 00:13:21.980 manage the thrust, the staging, the fuel weight, 00:13:22.379 --> 00:13:25.139 and the incredibly unforgiving orbital mechanics. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:27.559 I have crashed so many rockets in that game. 00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:30.559 just catastrophic failures. It definitely gives 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:32.460 you a profound respect for what the folks at 00:13:32.460 --> 00:13:34.460 NASA actually do. Another really interesting 00:13:34.460 --> 00:13:37.860 game mentioned is Soma. It uses hard SF themes 00:13:37.860 --> 00:13:41.240 to deeply explore human consciousness. It's categorized 00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:43.919 as a horror game. But again, the dread comes 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:46.240 from the philosophical and physical implications 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:48.720 of the technology. Before we wrap up, I want 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:50.860 to touch on a couple of sub genres that are mentioned 00:13:50.860 --> 00:13:53.700 in the source material, because apparently hard 00:13:53.700 --> 00:13:56.440 SF isn't specific enough for some people. They 00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:59.090 need to drill down. further. Right. There is 00:13:59.090 --> 00:14:01.350 a sub -genre called mundane science fiction. 00:14:01.570 --> 00:14:04.029 I have to say, that sounds incredibly unappealing. 00:14:04.470 --> 00:14:07.730 Mundane. Who wants to read mundane fiction? I 00:14:07.730 --> 00:14:09.830 know. The name is a bit of a tough sell. But 00:14:09.830 --> 00:14:12.370 the mundane part just refers to the scope of 00:14:12.370 --> 00:14:16.289 the setting. It focuses only on believable technology 00:14:16.289 --> 00:14:19.470 set either on Earth or within our own solar system. 00:14:19.570 --> 00:14:21.789 So definitely no warp drives. No warp drives, 00:14:21.970 --> 00:14:24.750 no interstellar aliens, no magic energy sources. 00:14:25.029 --> 00:14:27.730 It's about limiting the narrative scope to what 00:14:27.730 --> 00:14:30.710 is strictly scientifically plausible right now 00:14:30.710 --> 00:14:33.070 with the physics we currently understand. So 00:14:33.070 --> 00:14:34.730 it's basically the hardest of the hard sci -fi. 00:14:34.850 --> 00:14:37.230 In a practical way, yes. And then on the other 00:14:37.230 --> 00:14:39.009 side, you have the techno thriller, which is 00:14:39.009 --> 00:14:41.110 more of a hybrid genre. Like Michael Crichton 00:14:41.110 --> 00:14:43.750 stuff. Exactly. The Andromeda strain is a perfect 00:14:43.750 --> 00:14:47.129 example. It heavily emphasizes technical details, 00:14:47.309 --> 00:14:49.970 usually military, political or biological science. 00:14:50.289 --> 00:14:52.870 But it packages all of that data into a fast 00:14:52.870 --> 00:14:56.220 paced thriller format. OK, so. We've covered 00:14:56.220 --> 00:14:58.679 the origins, the history, the whole gotcha game 00:14:58.679 --> 00:15:01.519 with the readers, and some absolute masterpieces 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:04.440 across different media. When we take a step back 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:07.059 and look at all of this... What is the core value 00:15:07.059 --> 00:15:09.759 here? Why do you think we love struggling through 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:12.740 the complex math and physics in our free time? 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:14.899 I think if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:18.820 Hard SF isn't just about being right or showing 00:15:18.820 --> 00:15:21.360 off how smart the author is. It's about the thrill 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:24.000 of exploring what is theoretically possible. 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:26.960 It treats the entire universe as a giant puzzle 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:28.500 waiting to be solved. Yeah, that makes sense. 00:15:28.620 --> 00:15:30.460 Whether it's stories about terraforming Mars 00:15:30.460 --> 00:15:32.399 over centuries or just trying to survive a single 00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:35.139 day on a neutron star, it validates the idea. 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:37.639 that human intellect and perseverance can overcome 00:15:37.639 --> 00:15:39.659 massive physical challenges. It's surprisingly 00:15:39.659 --> 00:15:41.759 optimistic, isn't it? Just in a very specific 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:44.139 nerdy way. It really is. It fundamentally says 00:15:44.139 --> 00:15:46.860 the universe has rules. And if we take the time 00:15:46.860 --> 00:15:49.240 to learn those rules, we can survive anything. 00:15:49.639 --> 00:15:51.940 I love that. And I want to leave everyone listening 00:15:51.940 --> 00:15:54.259 with a provocative thought to mull over today. 00:15:54.620 --> 00:15:56.500 We talked earlier about how those high school 00:15:56.500 --> 00:15:59.759 students found math errors in Ringworld, which 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:02.320 is a book written over 50 years ago. Right. So. 00:16:02.570 --> 00:16:05.070 Here is the question for you to think about. 00:16:05.649 --> 00:16:08.769 What hard science fiction ideas that we are reading 00:16:08.769 --> 00:16:11.769 and watching today, things we currently think 00:16:11.769 --> 00:16:15.149 are rock solid science, will be completely disproven 00:16:15.149 --> 00:16:17.809 by the next generation of scientists. And if 00:16:17.809 --> 00:16:20.950 they are disproven, does that make those stories 00:16:20.950 --> 00:16:23.809 any less valuable? That is the ultimate risk 00:16:23.809 --> 00:16:26.309 the genre takes. Today's cutting edge science 00:16:26.309 --> 00:16:28.879 is always tomorrow's history. Definitely something 00:16:28.879 --> 00:16:31.220 to think about next time you're calculating the 00:16:31.220 --> 00:16:33.320 orbital trajectory of your spaceship. Thanks 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:35.399 for diving in with us today. A pleasure as always. 00:16:35.620 --> 00:16:36.120 See you next time.