While this isn’t a post about Innocence Seekers, as a speculative fiction writer I feel the need to address this topic. One of the challenges of writing plausible science fiction is the need to ensure that every parameter of the setting conforms to well-accepted scientific theories. Indeed, this was easier around the turn of the 20th century, when scientists were discovering element after element, particle after particle, and conceiving many now-proven theories. However, the pace of new discoveries has slowed, and what we do have is, to be frank, quite restrictive. This blog post will detail my thoughts about the future of realistic science fiction with respect to real science.
Science fiction has had a long history, far longer than what many of the younger generations raised on Star Trek and Star Wars think. A part of the supergenre of speculative fiction (alongside fantasy, horror, punk fiction, alternate history and many other genres), science fiction places emphasis on the implications of new science and/or technology with regards to society, and tells a story based around this implication (this is the important part; many poor-quality science fiction focuses too much on the implication, leaving a poor story). Without going into the many subgenres of science fiction, the genre can be split into two schools: hard science fiction, and soft science fiction. Soft science fiction places telling a good story ahead of realism; the technology used is not explained, or if it is, meaningless technobabble is often used; as such, soft science fiction may have impossible technology, making it resemble fantasy more than hard science fiction. Hard science fiction, on the other hand, considers accuracy to established scientific theories an important part of the setting; as such, hard science fiction feels more like a realistic future than soft science fiction.
One think I should note, though, is that science fiction fans (and many authors) do not like having the genre lumped in with fantasy (and vice versa; you probably know the fiasco surrounding one of the expansions of Heroes of Might and Magic 3, this originated because ignorant fantasy fans had gone as far as send death threats over the insertion of science fiction elements). While hardcore soft science fiction fans can contend with meaningless technobabble and “Minovsky physics”, I believe that hard science fiction fans will one day need to embrace fantasy, largely because I believe that hard science fiction will die out as a genre. The main draw of hard science ficiton is its plausibility; however, as time passes, new scientific theories will, more likely than not, make what was previously considered “realistic” impossible or impractical, and who knows what will happen when we reach the singularity. Already it has been proven that pretty much the entire solar system outside of Earth (except maybe Europa) is barren of life (so no Martians), forcing science fiction writers to look to the stars for new ideas. And because of that, faster-than-light is all but necessary… but that is forbidden by Albert Einstein’s special and general theories of relativity. Not only that, physicists hate time travel (which faster-than-light would imply) because it throws causality, the very basis of all physics, out the window. Not to mention the second law of thermodynamics preventing stealth in space (unless you’re willing to cook the crew and/or equipment; even then, merely being in the wrong spot at the wrong time could give you away, as you’re right between the enemy and a distant star) and giving all spaceships a weak point (heat radiators) which one could hit for massive damage.
My impression is that hard science fiction is still a niche (whereas “soft” space opera is mainstream). While it is true that many people (especially astronomers and physicists) prefer realism in their science fiction, I dare say that the majority of readers/viewers only care for a good story, believable characters, “action” and/or fanservice (all of which can apply to any work of fiction; I’ve put “action” in quotes to show that I don’t just mean fighting and battles, but anything which can result in conflict), and it seems that the people in Hollywood agree (actually, they really care more about earning a profit, but…). Not to mention the rampant “just here for Godzilla” mentality in the science fiction fandom. And what is realistic may ruin the suspension of disbelief of many science fiction fans (an example is heat radiators; as far as I know, very few big-budget movies feature them as apparently they “look silly”; another example is powerful weapons combined with flimsy spaceships, as no amount of armour can defend against lasers or a sufficiently close nuclear explosion, but people still expect long battles; and yet another example is “down” not being perpendicular to the direction of thrust). Already we see the phenomenon of prospective science fiction writers (paradoxically) rejecting science because it disallows what they saw in things such as Star Trek (Simon Jester suggested that it is because science is presented as a “you can’t do this” list).
My prediction is that, over time, as new discoveries in science and technology arise, hard science fiction will more closely resemble reality. At some point, hard science fiction will disappear as a genre entirely, as there is nothing more to speculate; the only science fiction will be soft science fiction and science fantasy. Probably not in the next few decades, but I’m sure that the time will come. But even before we reach that point, it is possible that the genre will disappear simply because the remaining authors (assuming that other prospective authors are deterred from writing hard science fiction by science) fall back into the trap of the “thesis disguised as a story” (i.e. focusing too much on the “big idea” and not enough on the story), or find it impractical to remain realistic while retaining a science fiction feeling (resulting in them switching to “softer” science fiction). Even now, it is very hard to create a realistic hard science fiction story if one wants to utilise the setting to its fullest extent (rather than, say, writing about an opera company in space); Winchell Chung’s website, Atomic Rockets, consists of over 100 pages of information needed to build a hard science fiction story, including examples. Even though I’ve discovered that website well over a month ago, I still haven’t read through everything on it.
However, the elimination of hard science fiction as a genre is not my goal. Rather, I want to ensure that prospective science fiction writers actually understand science, and I encourage them to try and write a piece which not only has a good story and believable characters, but also adheres strictly to real life science. If you want to roll out your own science fiction story, there is the Atomic Rockets website I mentioned earlier, but you should also chack out Matterbeam‘s Tough SF blog. It, like Atomic Rockets, is a resource for prospective science fiction writers, but it does not fall into the “you can’t do this” trap; instead, it gives you options to ensure that you can adhere to your vision. In the end, even if hard science fiction disappears as a genre, soft science fiction and even fantasy can benefit from its techniques.
I was inspired to write this by this page by Mark Rosenfelder. He is a conworlder, conlanger and speculative fiction writer, who has not only released his Language Construction Kit (and additional resources related to language construction and worldbuilding), but has also released a hard science fiction novel, Against Peace and Freedom. His website is here, and his BBS is here.
P.S. If you’re looking for hard science fiction anime and/or manga, the following have the seal of approval from the Atomic Rockets website:
- GunBuster (anime, six episodes)
- Knights of Sidonia (manga, adapted into anime)
- Planetes (manga, adapted into anime)
- 2001 Nights (manga)
I’ll also mention Rocket Girls; while it does not have the seal of approval the above anime/manga have, it is used as an example in a few places on the Atomic Rockets website, and it is listed on TV Tropes in the Futurology section of the Speculative Science subarticle. The premise is “every gram counts” taken to the logical extreme: 16-year-old girls become astronauts, complete with skintight space suits (the in-universe justification being that the rocket used can barely lift itself off the launch pad).