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In lugnet.build.mecha, Brian Cooper wrote:
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This is like the difference between Fantasy and Science Fiction, which I
often like to explain. :-) Science Fiction requires some intellectual rigor
and logic. You can certainly make up weird new science, but it has to be self
consistent.
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Philip K Dick, among countless others, has also addressed this. His distinction
between sci-fi and fantasy was similar but more fundamental: if an element of
the story is considered impossible, then it’s fantasy. Not “improbable” or
“currently unavailable,” but impossible. He asserts that no hard, fixed
distinction between the two is possible, because our notions of the “impossible”
tend to fluctuate.
The self-consistency aspect is less of a distinction, since a good story in
either genre must entail sufficient self-consistency to maintain a
comprehensible plot, IMO.
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ps - If a rocket motor isn’t positioned to give thrust behind a ship’s center
of mass, it isn’t going to fly very well, and a top heavy mecha with tiny
legs also isn’t going to walk very well. Realistic considerations. ;-)
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I’m not a physics guy, so forgive me this question: we’re talking about the
“net” center of thrust being directly behind the center of mass, right? As
opposed to an engine placed exactly there?
Dave!
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: IRON MECHA Results!
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| (...) Another interesting study of Sci-Fi vs. Fantasy can be found in Henry Gee's (URL) Science of Middle Earth>. His point is that science fiction has at least some focus on the technology that makes the 'impossible' possible. Fantasy, he suggests (...) (18 years ago, 9-Feb-06, to lugnet.off-topic.geek, FTX)
| | | Re: IRON MECHA Results!
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| (...) The extreme definition: Science fiction is an extrapolation, linear perhaps. Fantasy is a random point, connected to nothing. (...) Self-consistency of pseudo science is a drag on the plot. It spoils the fun in Fantasy realms. :-) (...) Yes (...) (18 years ago, 9-Feb-06, to lugnet.off-topic.geek, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: IRON MECHA Results!
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| (...) This is like the difference between Fantasy and Science Fiction, which I often like to explain. :-) Science Fiction requires some intellectual rigor and logic. You can certainly make up weird new science, but it has to be self consistent. (...) (18 years ago, 9-Feb-06, to lugnet.build.mecha, FTX)
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