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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

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Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 25 Dec 2019
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    Thought: extreme realism and scientific/technical accuracy weakens science fiction. The implausible stuff is a stand-in for actual strangeness in the future we can’t predict but we know will be there. It’s like lorem ipsum future magic.

    10:12 PM - 25 Dec 2019
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    • cez 🌊 Nuel Flyingdown Amy Magnus 🍜 apoorva srinivasan Mike Weatherford🎃 Charles Wang Hang in There Kitty
    11 replies 12 retweets 133 likes
      1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 25 Dec 2019
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        In 1945 you couldn’t see Moore’s law coming but extrapolating space travel wildly via “hyperspace” gave you something at least as strange as the internet world Moore’s law actually dumped us in Today, extrapolate internet wildly to get strangeness of say biohacked future

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      1. Eugene Ipavec‏ @EugeneIpavec 26 Dec 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        What weakens SF (we are taking hard SF, mind) is not the lack of realism or predictive accuracy but the lack of *internal consistency,* i.e. sloppy worldbuilding.

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      1.  🏴‍☠️Patrick‏ @gunderson 26 Dec 2019
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        I don’t need realism, I need plausibility. FFS it’s sci-fi, I want some thoughtful fiction in there, but I don’t want unexplainable magic. The Expanse was phenomenal until the Protomolecule’s effect was shown. Would have been better to tease it forever & keep focus on the people

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      1. miguel‏ @Migui_BR 26 Dec 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        Liu Cixin would disagree with you, a lot. Even though his sci-fi is fantastic, its science is top-notch and its internal consistency is water-tight.

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      1. Tristan Homsi‏ @homsiT 25 Dec 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        Agreed. I wouldn't even call it "realism"... there's no way the future will be some kind of projection of the present (with more 19th century Malthusian) but with spaceships. But hey, given all that The Expanse is still entertaining.

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      1. Michael Grant‏ @MiGrant 26 Dec 2019
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        That’s fine, but it’s still grating when SF writers don’t even try to get fairly basic science that we *do* know right. (Hollywood screenwriters are far worse about this than print authors.)

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      1. Richard Lewis‏ @Z3R0Gravitas 26 Dec 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        Right. But I think there's probably a sweet spot between realism and imagination. Kinda like max (electrical) power transfer (when load resistance = source internal resistance).

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      1. Douglas Gorney‏ @Gorneaux 26 Dec 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        Ray Bradbury's science is beautiful, blurry poetry, which is why it's held up.

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      1. Stefan‏ @StefanBielski Jan 3
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        Replying to @vgr

        Myth=what never was, but always is. (Stephen of Byzantium) + Science Fiction=modern myth. .:. Good SF tells us what will never be, yet's eternal, especially our anxiety about the future. vs. bad SF substitutes precision for accuracy, e.g. "47.13948858 seconds is average.."

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      1. Gunther Boogle‏ @GuntherBoogle 25 Dec 2019
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        Similarly, Ive noticed that the art in video games that strives to look too realistic ends up making it feel less high fantasy and more 'meh'. Said simply, a giant flaming gun sword of lightning is more convincing and impressive with the less realistic art style.

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