S&S vs. SF in BotNS

David Stockhoff · 22 Dec 2011, 13:18 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:18:39 -0500
Subject: (urth) S&S vs. SF in BotNS
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On 12/22/2011 7:19 AM, Ant?nio Pedro Marques wrote:
> Jeff Wilson wrote (22-12-2011 04:22):
>> On 12/21/2011 10:58 AM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
>>> "psi" is a fancy word for magic.
>>
>> Outside the context of speculative fiction, perhaps. It was intended 
>> to mean
>> a physical process that could occasionally be mistaken for the magic 
>> of myth
>> and legend but could be studied objectively They have very different
>> connotations and spiritual implications.
>
> But one can't just decree something to be 'psi'. There has to be a 
> shred of plausibility.

Normally this is accomplished by setting a story far enough in the 
future that it can't be contradicted, then giving an explanation of how 
psi powers were discovered or brought forth in the population. But this 
is just sf convention. "Thirty years after the Heiserman Effect was 
discovered, Terran ships with Heiserman engines had colonized the three 
habitable planets of the Tau Ceti system ...."

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