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<blockquote data-quote="Random Bystander" data-source="post: 7293182" data-attributes="member: 6702095"><a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Zeerust" target="_blank">Zeerust</a> - Warning: TVTropes linkRocket ships and rayguns that looked &quot;futuristic&quot; in the 1930s now look &quot;unrealistic&quot;, as does the general aesthetic. A &quot;futuristic&quot; book written today must contend with:1) Although we don't know if any of them are possible, we now likely know which methods of FTL travel are currently plausible.2) We have a general idea of the energy requirements. For example, certain theoretically-possible forms of exotic energy would make forming a wormhole orders of magnitude easier. We do not know if we can, from our current viewpoint, actually generate or find that exotic energy.3) We know that, at the least, technological, *&quot;broad-casting&quot; civilizations are rare.4) Technology that was once viewed as beyond cutting edge has now, generally speaking, either been researched, been discovered to be pointless, been rendered obsolete, or is still under R&amp;D.5) Technology that, just seventy or eighty years ago, had never before been conceived on Earth, is now commonplace.So, having gone through this, if we try to imagine a &quot;rocketships and rayguns&quot; aesthetic and combine it with a modern understanding of science, technology, and the scale of space... Either we must admit that the puzzle pieces do not fit together, or we must reduce the scope and scale somehow. For example, the Mass Effect series of video games introduced a number of concepts, most of them predicated around the &quot;mass effect&quot; of the fictional &quot;element zero&quot;, to reduce the scope and scale.Jump gates, whatever their in-fiction name, allow a setting to traverse even a galaxy, while still remaining limited to a human-understandable number of worlds. Applying the &quot;mass effect&quot; to spaceships, and some applied hand-waving, allowed real-space FTL while remaining largely scientific. Limiting future technological advancements kept the scientific scope understandable, while at the same time not limiting what we have now. And, of course, the blue glow of the &quot;mass effect&quot; itself allowed a raygun aesthetic, even while the guns were regular rail-guns and coil-guns.Hopefully my rambling post has been useful and not too rambling. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />* That is, not necessarily emitting radio waves, but in some way making their existence known, perhaps by slowly occluding the light from their star.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Random Bystander, post: 7293182, member: 6702095"] [URL="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Zeerust"]Zeerust[/URL] - Warning: TVTropes link Rocket ships and rayguns that looked "futuristic" in the 1930s now look "unrealistic", as does the general aesthetic. A "futuristic" book written today must contend with: 1) Although we don't know if any of them are possible, we now likely know which methods of FTL travel are currently plausible. 2) We have a general idea of the energy requirements. For example, certain theoretically-possible forms of exotic energy would make forming a wormhole orders of magnitude easier. We do not know if we can, from our current viewpoint, actually generate or find that exotic energy. 3) We know that, at the least, technological, *"broad-casting" civilizations are rare. 4) Technology that was once viewed as beyond cutting edge has now, generally speaking, either been researched, been discovered to be pointless, been rendered obsolete, or is still under R&D. 5) Technology that, just seventy or eighty years ago, had never before been conceived on Earth, is now commonplace. So, having gone through this, if we try to imagine a "rocketships and rayguns" aesthetic and combine it with a modern understanding of science, technology, and the scale of space... Either we must admit that the puzzle pieces do not fit together, or we must reduce the scope and scale somehow. For example, the Mass Effect series of video games introduced a number of concepts, most of them predicated around the "mass effect" of the fictional "element zero", to reduce the scope and scale. Jump gates, whatever their in-fiction name, allow a setting to traverse even a galaxy, while still remaining limited to a human-understandable number of worlds. Applying the "mass effect" to spaceships, and some applied hand-waving, allowed real-space FTL while remaining largely scientific. Limiting future technological advancements kept the scientific scope understandable, while at the same time not limiting what we have now. And, of course, the blue glow of the "mass effect" itself allowed a raygun aesthetic, even while the guns were regular rail-guns and coil-guns. Hopefully my rambling post has been useful and not too rambling. :) * That is, not necessarily emitting radio waves, but in some way making their existence known, perhaps by slowly occluding the light from their star. [/QUOTE]

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