Problematic element in chronology

Jeff Wilson · 01 Jun 2011, 19:54 · from 2011-June.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:54:58 -0500
Subject: (urth) Problematic element in chronology
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Message-ID: <4DE69912.3000801 at io.com>

On 6/1/2011 11:59 AM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
>> Of course Vernor Vinge made radical speculations abuout the speed of light
>> as a  function of distance from the centre of the galaxy in _A Fire Upon The
>> Deep_, and nobody called him on the astrophysics.  But that's because it's
>> science fiction, not science.  We don't need to nitpick such issues, IMO.
>
> You haven't hung around with SF fans very much, I take it.
>
> Let me assure you that if there is any scientific wonkiness in an SF
> story, there will be someone (quite possibly someone with Asperger's
> Syndrome*) who will jump up at the author's next convention apperance
> and whine, "But it doesn't _work_ that way!"

It really doesn't work that way; that is, the _speed_ of light doesn't 
particularly change in Vinge's book, but the radical speculative means 
of transcending it do. Literal observational astrophysics remains 
largely in tact , which is why the On-Off Star is such a big deal in the 
second book.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

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