You would think that because science might as well be magic to you. But I’m an Engineer so I have a pretty good handle on what is and isn’t possible just from a physics standpoint.
Again its not that I don’t enjoy something like Star Trek. But the so called “science” is techno-babble.
I do prefer science fiction based on actual science though. There’s very little of it but it can be done by a creative writer. For instance FTL travel is not possible however you can get darn close. And there’s been some good sci-fi written that acknowledges the speed limit. Building efficient propulsion systems is an Engineering challenge. And there are designs on the drawing board that could be made to work. Good hard sci-fi addresses the solutions.
We are no where close to cracking AI. Expert systems and mimics yes but sentient AI might as well be magic for as far along as we are in development.
Androids, or something that mimics human movement is also far off. Ex Machina is a 100 years away not a decade.
Anti-gravity isn’t even a thing. There’s no hypothesis on the drawing board that says when we solve this problem we will figure out anti-gravity. Hell gravity is a mystery to us.
Alien contact will never happen either as even if an advanced civilization exists they are subject to the same physics as us.
I like when writers address solutions within the laws of physics.
Tau Zero and The Expanse were good books along those lines. 2001 and The Andromeda Strain also.
No science is not magic to me, I have a close friend with a Physics degree from UF, is a Black belt in QA. That said I can enjoy some variance with the laws of physics, just not too much. We can be different but still good Gators.
Now how about the idea of generational ships, sure the resources would have to be provided but they might be possible some time in the future.
I totally agree about what some call AI, it is really just an expert system. I had in the far past a person who could estimate how much things could cost but could not tell how he did it. I also remember an engineer who was retiring, they wanted to get his experience duplicated. It worked somewhat, but he told them the solution but had no idea how he knew what it was. AI might never happen, surely not in my lifetime.
Gravity is something that we understand the effects of but as you indicate have no idea how it works. Some think a particle (Graviton) might exist, but I know of no research along these lines that would explain gravity.
The idea that science can be seen as magic is one for less developed civilizations, something that SF sometimes uses for their plot.
Star Trek annoyed my when they limited the warp factor due to some assumed effect it was having on the universe, also Q was annoying and really outside of anything that science might cover today.
Thanks for the conversation.
