Hard SF

Daniel Petersen · 28 Nov 2012, 22:48 · from 2012-November.txt.gz

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From: danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com (Daniel Petersen)
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:48:14 +0000
Subject: (urth) Hard SF
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Yep, that's what I was worried about, but I have no scientific training so
I didn't know if there were some exquisitely rare scenarios where this
might be just barely plausible.  (It's such a breathtakingly awe-inspiring
thought:  worthy of a fantasy at least - if no one has written such a
thing, someone needs to!)  But come to think of it:  doesn't the passage
say rather explicitly that they fly through *space*?  (Does anyone have a
page number reference for this?)

-DOJP

On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 4:21 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>wrote:

> Not really -- they both seem to have about one G of surface gravity, so
> getting close enough that their atmospheres meaningfully touched would
> involve massive tidal effects up to and including immense tsunami and
> disastrous earthquakes.
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 8:04 AM, Daniel Petersen <
> danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> That's a wonderful thought, Antonin!  Is this feasible?  (Both generally
>> and in the text?)
>>
>> -DOJP
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 3:57 PM, Antonin Scriabin <
>> kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Do we have any idea just how close Blue and Green get during
>>> conjunction?  I seem to remember that from Blue, Green is more of a spec
>>> than a moon, but perhaps they are close enough, or have unusually expansive
>>> atmospheres, such that during conjunction their atmospheres merge and allow
>>> the Inhumi to fly from one to another.  If they are this close though, they
>>> would most definitely fall under the sway of one another's gravitational
>>> field, which doesn't seem to be the case.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 10:51 AM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> >David Stockhoff: We're not talking about hard SF here.
>>>>
>>>> Just for the sake of discussion, I'll disagree. Perhaps Wolfe isn't
>>>> diamond-hard
>>>> but I'd give him ruby- or sapphire- on the MOhs scale. I think he makes
>>>> a
>>>> sincere attempt in most of his work, as the quote below illustrates.
>>>>
>>>> Where fantasy writers are content to give us shape changers without
>>>> explanation,
>>>> Wolfe provides us with a sponge cellular analogy for Tzadkiel and
>>>> flexible bones
>>>> and muscles, make-up and hypnotic abilities for Inhumi.
>>>>
>>>> If the Inhumi really fly through space I'd want more than the skimpy
>>>> evidence we
>>>> are provided (and less evidence for their lying nature).
>>>>
>>>> >Nick Gevers: Speaking as an engineer, how might the godling be
>>>> constructed so as to
>>>> >walk as a giant on land, where the undines [submarine giantesses]
>>>> cannot?
>>>>
>>>> >Gene Wolfe: There are a number of ways you could go. First, get rid of
>>>> the notion that
>>>> >the godling is going to be proportioned like a human being. Changes in
>>>> size always mean
>>>> >changes in build. (Dr. Crane touches on that.) A man fifty feet tall,
>>>> proportioned like
>>>> >you or me, would sink into the ground a lot -- had you thought of
>>>> that? Take a look at
>>>> >the really big dinosaurs. Bone density could be increased, and the
>>>> legs and pelvis made
>>>> >more massive, and so on
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>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
>
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-- 
Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
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