zero_call comments on Open Thread: January 2010 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 01 January 2010 05:02PM

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Comment author: zero_call 08 January 2010 06:00:56AM 1 point [-]

I thought the Usenet references were really cool and really clever, both from a reader's standpoint, and also from an author's standpoint. For example, it doesn't take a lot of digression to explain it or anything since most readers are already familiar with similar stuff (e.g., Usenet.) It also just seems really plausible as a form of universe-scale "telegram" communication, so I think it works great for the story. Implausibility just ruins science fiction for me, it destroys that crucial suspension of disbelief.

Comment author: ChristianKl 08 January 2010 02:21:19PM 0 points [-]

If you would have tried to explain to people a hundred years ago that we will have interlinked computers and a lot of people will use them to view images of naked females I think most people would have found that hypothesis very implausible.

Any accurate description of the world that will exist 100 years in the future is bound to contain lots of implausible claims.

Comment author: zero_call 09 January 2010 03:23:39AM 2 points [-]

If you're suggesting that all science fiction is implausible though, then that's not true. There's a difference between coming up with random, futuristic ideas, and coming up with random, futuristic ideas that have justification for working.