I understand metaphors. I just don't understand why there would be a need for scale for science fiction writing. It's much more important to be able to look up material properties.
What about a scale that tells us how much a work of fiction deals with paperclip manufacturing and resource harvesting? Surely you need some way of communicating the traditions and norms of paperclip creating to your youth.
Edit: and come to think of it wouldn't you be interested in in fictional explorations of possible future ways of manufacturing paperclips? And wouldn't you want to know which of those explorations was the least fantasy and most based on reasonable extrapolations from current knowledge?
This is our monthly thread for collecting these little gems and pearls of wisdom, rationality-related quotes you've seen recently, or had stored in your quotesfile for ages, and which might be handy to link to in one of our discussions.