Most Misused Word in Science Fiction

[WayneLigon]

You find some interesting terminology when you read really old science fiction. I read a lot of it from the Golden Age and it can get pretty bizarre. I was very, very confused at times until I realized they were using different words to refer to the same thing. The two most bizzare are using 'Star' and 'Planet' interchangably and using 'Galaxy' and 'Star System' interchangably (as in, 'We're going to the Alpha Centauri galaxy').

 

[mojo1701]

On Catastrophic Failures and Their Effect on Unrelated Systems:

You. Would. Be. Surprised.

Despite the oodles of circuit breakers and fuses we have here, it is not uncommon for us to experience catastrophic distasters involving electrical sparking, smoke, fire, gushing water, cryogenic liquids, spatters of molten metal, airborne mechanical components or any of the possible combinations thereof.

More often than not, the original cause of the failure has nothing to do with the actual device that blew up.

Granted, we've never had anything explode in the control room. The closest we've come is having one of our display monitors burn out resistor or capacitor.

Anybody who works with computers regularly would know this happens.

 

[Trainz]

Thanks Pbartender. Your diatribe was quite interesting and fun to read.

Actually, it sums up pretty much how I feel about Sci-Fi shows. Most of it is possible, *IF* we don't look at it with our 21st century knowledge.

For example, let's say a dude in the 30's did a sci-fi movie in which one of the characters uses a round cristalline disc to store data, which is afterwards read by a laser beam. Some random dude watching that movie in the 30's could say "that's preposterous... how can a beam of light *read* something ? It can only illuminate or burn..." because in the 30's, the proprieties of light were not well known by the general populace. In fact, we barely know light's proprieties TODAY.

On misused words; language evolves, changes. A parsec is a unit measuring distance *for us*, but who's to say that in 500 years the word will not loose it's original meaning to signify a unit of time ?

Frankly, about anything is plausible in sci-fi simply because it happens in the future. Things will be different in the future: physics, language, everything.

What *does* get on my nerves in sci-fi shows is when I see a common item from my time (now, in real life, on earth) used:

Clothing: we know for a fact that fashion varies greatly. Some would smirk at someone wearing the clothes from *15* years ago. I just can't strike it up to coincidence when I see someone in a futuristic sci-fi show that wears clothing too similar to what is in fashion today. It destroys my disbelief (Battlestar Galactica).

Items: On Battlestar Galactica, their inner communication system uses phones that look exactly like those used by our military a few years back. Ditto their control panels. Hell, some dude was drawing a line on a map with a ruler and pen to calculate some navigational procedure on the bridge. When I see those, I instantly stop being immersed in the futuristic universe the show pretends to portray.

Vocabulary: I can understand that the characters speak english because most wouldn't enjoy some alien language subtitled (I would though, it would increase my immersion in the alienness of the show), but I hate it when the use an earth-specific noun in a universe that has no ties to earth. Example, Millenium Falcon. I don't believe they have falcons in the Star Wars universe, in fact, AFAIK, not a single earth animal has been used in the movies OR the books, but, hey, Millenium Falcon.

Explosions in space ?

Sure, I have NO idea what properties the engines of futuristic spaceships will have.

 

[Staffan]

Items: On Battlestar Galactica, their inner communication system uses phones that look exactly like those used by our military a few years back. Ditto their control panels. Hell, some dude was drawing a line on a map with a ruler and pen to calculate some navigational procedure on the bridge. When I see those, I instantly stop being immersed in the futuristic universe the show pretends to portray.

They have a reason for the use of some of those items, however. The main one being that the colonies are quite distrustful of computers (especially networked ones) and wireless stuff, because of their vulnerability to Cylon infiltration.

 

[mojo1701]

Vocabulary: I can understand that the characters speak english because most wouldn't enjoy some alien language subtitled (I would though, it would increase my immersion in the alienness of the show), but I hate it when the use an earth-specific noun in a universe that has no ties to earth. Example, Millenium Falcon. I don't believe they have falcons in the Star Wars universe, in fact, AFAIK, not a single earth animal has been used in the movies OR the books, but, hey, Millenium Falcon.

I always like to think of it "as closely translated as possible."

 

[Hypersmurf]

Clothing: we know for a fact that fashion varies greatly. Some would smirk at someone wearing the clothes from *15* years ago. I just can't strike it up to coincidence when I see someone in a futuristic sci-fi show that wears clothing too similar to what is in fashion today. It destroys my disbelief (Battlestar Galactica).

I have a vague memory of some miniseries, set ten or fifteen years in the future. I was quite impressed by the outfits - pretty much identical to the clothing of the time it was aired, except that men wore their ties over their collars (with the collars altered slightly so it didn't look stupid).

It was a nice "It's only a short distance into the future" touch.

-Hyp.

 

[Pbartender]

Vocabulary: I can understand that the characters speak english because most wouldn't enjoy some alien language subtitled (I would though, it would increase my immersion in the alienness of the show), but I hate it when the use an earth-specific noun in a universe that has no ties to earth. Example, Millenium Falcon. I don't believe they have falcons in the Star Wars universe, in fact, AFAIK, not a single earth animal has been used in the movies OR the books, but, hey, Millenium Falcon.

There is a good reason for this, though most authors never bother to give an explanation. A a preface to the novel, Nightfall, Issac Asimov and Robert Silverberg excused it like so...

TO THE READER

Kalgash is an alien world and it is not our intention to have you think that it is identical to Earth, even though we depict its people as speaking a language that you can understand, and using terms that are familiar to you. Those words should be understood as mere equivalents of alien terms-that is, a conventional set of equivalents of the same sort that a writer of novels uses when he has foreign characters speaking with each other in their own language but nevertheless transcribes their words in the language of the reader. So when the people of Kalgash speak of "miles," or "hands," or "cars," or "computers," they mean their own units of distance, their own grasping-organs, their own ground-transportation devices, their own information-processing machines, etc. The computers used on Kalgash are not necessarily compatible with the ones used in New York or London or Stockholm, and the "mile" that we use in this book is not necessarily the American unit of 5,280 feet. But it seemed simpler and more desirable to use these familiar terms in describing events on this wholly alien world than it would have been to invent a long series of wholly Kalgashian terms.

In other words, we could have told you that one of our characters paused to strap on his quonglishes before setting out on a walk of seven vorks along the main gleebish of his native znoob, and everything might have seemed ever so much more thoroughly alien. But it would also have been ever so much more difficult to make sense out of what we were saying, and that did not seem useful. The essence of this story doesn't lie in the quantity of bizarre terms we might have invented; it lies, rather, in the reaction of a group of people somewhat like ourselves, living on a world that is somewhat like ours in all but one highly significant detail, as they react to a challenging situation that is completely different from anything the people of Earth have ever had to deal with. Under the circumstances, it seemed to us better to tell you that someone put on his hiking boots before setting out on a seven-mile walk than to clutter the book with quonglishes, vorks, and gleebishes.

If you prefer, you can imagine that the text reads "vorks" wherever it says "miles," "gliizbiiz" wherever it says "hours," and "sleshtraps" where it says "eyes." Or you can make up your own terms. Vorks or miles, it will make no difference when the Stars come out.

-I.A.
-R.S.

 

[s/LaSH]

So I've been thinking about this thread...

I work as an Accelerator Operator* at a rather large particle accelerator. The job is roughly analogous (but considerably less... exciting?) to the bridge crew of the starship Enterprise. <Snip fascination>

I like this post a lot. Thus I shall forward it to my acquaintances, if you don't mind.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Heh, I remember an episode of Trek:TNG where Reg Barkley cited that as the reason he's deathly afraid of transporters. Of course, he was afraid of everything in space...

Ever seen Galaxy Quest?

"And it exploded."

ROFLAMO

 

[Darth K'Trava]

And don't forget those universal RS232 ports that every space-faring civilization installs in their spacecraft. I mean, how else could you hack an entire war amada with a Mac. (thank you, Independence Day). I look forward to the day when I can swat down an entire invading Alien force with nothing but a digital watch, a video cell phone, and a pair of iPod headphone jacks.

McGyver in the 21st century!