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kc11415
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science fiction with a bit more science in it; and some modern relevance

December 7th, 2021, 2:37 am

There was a time when "science fiction" (NOT science fiction & fantasy) was a fiction genre in where scientific conjecture had some connection, however tenuous.  More importantly, it often served as a venue for discussing the societal impacts (speculations?) of recently evolving scientific explorations.
In the past year VR & AR experienced renewed interest.  At least as early 1963, there was literary speculation about adverse impacts from VR & AR simulations having impacts out in the physical world.  Perhaps this might have relevance for FaceBook's "MetaVerse" (whatever that's supposed to mean)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30796/30796-h/30796-h.htm
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Re: science fiction with a bit more science in it; and some modern relevance

December 7th, 2021, 8:08 am

 
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katastrofa
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Re: science fiction with a bit more science in it; and some modern relevance

December 7th, 2021, 9:52 pm

This one is also fun (and short): https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 21-09443-3
Read as an allegory on the online education during the lockdown, it pretty much resonates with what my interns complain to me about.

I'm a bit meh about the dystopian sci-fi. It's like with the 80s sci-fi movies - frearmongering with absurd ideas about newly emerging science, instead of inciting the true scientific interest (The Fly, Lawnmower Man, etc.). Stanislaw Lew once said in the interview: "without exception, every new technology has an obverse of advantages and a reverse of new and previously unknown misery". And so in his stories the advantages and misery go together. Lem you must know. He's very hard sci-fi. You may take his stories as a playground for scientific and social experiments, some may see in them the ridicule of the communist system which also affected science.
 
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kc11415
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Re: science fiction with a bit more science in it; and some modern relevance

December 9th, 2021, 3:06 am

That "Allegorical Ode to Aldous Huxley " writes prose the way I might write it (which seems to lack a "hook").  If I missed it, then please pardon me.
The absence of a hook brings to mind Monty Python's "Anne Elk on Brontosauruses" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnpY46lOTX4
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katastrofa
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Re: science fiction with a bit more science in it; and some modern relevance

December 9th, 2021, 10:54 am

No hook, not to mention a line and a sinker...
I liked the idea of the story - broght up in the virtual world learning only about abstract concepts, pupils lose sense of a basic geometry. It somehow alines with what I believe in - mathematics is not science, it's an instrinct.

Anyway, can you add a timestamp to that video? It's over an hour long and I had to mute it not to drown out the narvals on the telly (my cats are watching David Attenborough).
 
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kc11415
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Re: science fiction with a bit more science in it; and some modern relevance

December 9th, 2021, 11:24 am

Part of the joke in that Brontosaurus video is that Anne Elk keeps you guessing where is this going. 
My personal opinion is fictional prose that starts off with describing a scene and setting the scene and using a lot of descriptive language reminiscent of a wikipedia article, tends to be less 'hook-ish' than fiction that starts with a scene already in progress and intrigues the reader into figuring out what is the context of what's happening.
Perhaps this is a matter of personal preference as I like puzzles and tend to do a lot of diagnostics & troubleshooting in my profession.
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katastrofa
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Re: science fiction with a bit more science in it; and some modern relevance

December 9th, 2021, 3:10 pm

Must be boring.
My cat brought me an ear bud for a present! Two days ago she gave me that string with which they attach price tags to clothes ad we played with it half an hour :-D
 
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Alan
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Re: science fiction with a bit more science in it; and some modern relevance

December 9th, 2021, 4:08 pm