Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement?

[Christopher]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Science fiction has inspired me to learn about science, but I've seldom actually _learned_ any science from reading it.

As I've said, it depends on what kind of SF you read. It's a very, very diverse genre. You can learn about real science from reading hard SF authors like Clarke and Clement and Benford and Egan and Sheffield and Slonczewski, say, but not so much from reading Sturgeon or Ellison or Bradbury or Butler or McCaffrey, because their focus is less on hard science and more on allegory or social commentary or wild imagination.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

No if you rely on movies and TV, because I feel that the science in sci-fi movies or even in movies in general tends to be very exaggerated or completely off the mark. Most movies throw out what we know in order to fit their movies, which can be particularly jarring if something like space travel is important to the plot. It does happen with other subjects too, but it feels like science is abused most of the time in order to make the movies more entertaining, which if someone has a good eye, can be particularly distracting.

With that said, I agree that literature is often more accurate and more satisfying. I guess that has something to do with not being restrained to an hour or so of content. I feel that literature in general can be more engaging. So, I'd trust Sci-Fi literature far more to be educational than I would TV & Movie Sci-Fi, and one would likely get more out of reading a good sci-fi novel and actually learn something, but learning from sci-fi movies and TV shows? That'd be like learning history through depictions of history in movies, which are always heavily skewed and distorted.

One of my favourite authors, Neal Stephenson, tends to have such a grasp on his subject and likes to be descriptive so much that some people have suggested he write a textbook due to the fact that he's so eloquent when talking about specific topics. An author who primarily writes Sci-Fi. It can be both entertaining and informative

 

[Bisz]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Stick with the first one, it's more entertaining and fully ignores the difference in meaning between the two words.

When one's interest is piqued it is sharpened or stimulated, so if you were to graph interest over time a piquing of interest would be represented by a peak on the graph... The turn of phrase is piquing, but the reason so many people mistakenly use peak is because it does make sense.

 

[stj]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Cautions about the "science" in SF movies and television are really too specific. Supposedly non-SF movies actually portray a scifi world. Especially the kind where the sci is all fi. Newton's Third Law of Motion gets violated in many a supposedly realistic action flick. (Bullets have more kick on impact than on firing?) As does the Law of Conservation of Momentum. But now that I think of it, I've seen arguments the two are fundamentally the same. So I'll add the violation of the Law of Conservation of Energy. (Gas tanks explode with more energy than possible?) In Hollywood, the speed of sound=the speed of light with astonishing frequency. I suspect part of the reason TV and movie SF is so dumb so often is that many, maybe most, of the filmmakers are making movies out of other movies and TV and maybe books, and genuinely do not know much about reality. Or have any interest in it.

 

[Set Harth]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Stick with the first one, it's more entertaining and fully ignores the difference in meaning between the two words.

When one's interest is piqued it is sharpened or stimulated, so if you were to graph interest over time a piquing of interest would be represented by a peak on the graph... The turn of phrase is piquing, but the reason so many people mistakenly use peak is because it does make sense.

When your interest is piqued it is represented by an increase in the y-coordinate of the graph and could even be the first nonzero value of that interest, but it is by no means automatically a local or global maximum.

 

[Pavonis]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Science fiction has inspired me to learn about science, but I've seldom actually _learned_ any science from reading it.

As I've said, it depends on what kind of SF you read. It's a very, very diverse genre. You can learn about real science from reading hard SF authors ....

Quite so. I learned a lot about the geology of Mars by reading Ben Bova's Mars as a teen, as well as Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy. I even learned something about Earth's internal structure by reading David Brin's Earth.

Those novels inspired me to go into geophysics. So I'd say they're educational.

 

[Nerd unRage]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Entertainment. I appreciate the characters and plots in the genre. I don't care so much if the science is plausible or necessarily accurate since it's fiction after all. I think it's interesting to see how much real-life technology we have based on concepts in science fiction that have inspired people to create them.

 

[Bisz]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

When your interest is piqued it is represented by an increase in the y-coordinate of the graph and could even be the first nonzero value of that interest, but it is by no means automatically a local or global maximum.

Of course it is at least a local maximum.

That is the express reason for using the phrase about piquing interest.

And even if we allow your statement that it is not a local maximum, you admit that it is an increase in the dependent variable, which is by definition a peak, in the sense that the general public would use the term.

 

[Set Harth]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

And even if we allow your statement that it is not a local maximum, you admit that it is an increase in the dependent variable, which is by definition a peak, in the sense that the general public would use the term.

Then that means the general public is using the term wrong.

 

[Bisz]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Then that means the general public is using the term wrong.

It just means the general public is using the much more prevalent geographical term and not the cerebral mathematical term.

 

[intrinsical]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

I just want to point out that just because its called Science Fiction doesn't mean one can only learn science from watching it. First of all, I like my science fiction to be entertaining. However, the science fiction that truly engages me heart, mind and soul are typically ones that entertain while at the same time subtly/unsubtly impart/postulate/question/preach all sorts of knowledge, not just scientific.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

I think sci fi is a great format to learn about the human condition, our desires, fears, and how we react to things.

 

[Set Harth]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Then that means the general public is using the term wrong.

It just means the general public is using the much more prevalent geographical term and not the cerebral mathematical term.

No, geographically the side of a slope is still not a peak. So the infallible general public actually got something wrong, imagine that. Inconceivable!

Keep on trying to push the theory that homonyms must share the same meaning. As a member of the general public, you're surely destined to be successful. Throw in an appeal to majority if necessary.

My vote goes to entertain(e)ment.

 

[Deckerd]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

This is why I always encourage people to stick to a meaningful definition of Science Fiction.

You're asking the impossible, on this board at least.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Then that means the general public is using the term wrong.

It just means the general public is using the much more prevalent geographical term and not the cerebral mathematical term.

No, geographically the side of a slope is still not a peak. So the infallible general public actually got something wrong, imagine that. Inconceivable!

Heh, I've certainly never heard of it being a geographical acceptance. I think it's simply erroneous to be using the word in that context in the first place. It's only encouraging the wrong use. Although the conversation is certainly piquing my interest

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

This is why I always encourage people to stick to a meaningful definition of Science Fiction.

You're asking the impossible, on this board at least.

Well, one of the things that SF taught me was Clarke's Second Law.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Honor Harrington taught me what a "real" spaceship battle is like. So there's that.

Doesn't mean I expect to see "real" spaceship battles on TV or in movies, ever. Audience would be corn-fused. "Why are they fighting blips?"

 

[Owain Taggart]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Honor Harrington taught me what a "real" spaceship battle is like. So there's that.

Doesn't mean I expect to see "real" spaceship battles on TV or in movies, ever. Audience would be corn-fused. "Why are they fighting blips?"

So, in a way, the early arcade games were right!

 

[Bisz]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

No, geographically the side of a slope is still not a peak. So the infallible general public actually got something wrong, imagine that. Inconceivable!

If something piqued your interest you aren't on a slope, otherwise your interest would still be piquing, i.e. increasing, or else if you are on the downward slope then your interest isn't piquing at all but waining. If something piqued your interest you are at the peak (local maximum) of an interest vs. time graph, not on an upward or downward slope.

Its fairly simple, try to keep up.

 

[Bisz]

Re: Science Fiction: Do you find it educational or just entertainement

Honor Harrington taught me what a "real" spaceship battle is like. So there's that.

Doesn't mean I expect to see "real" spaceship battles on TV or in movies, ever. Audience would be corn-fused. "Why are they fighting blips?"

Happens in submarine movies all the time, and say what you will about the movie itself (I like it) but it also happened in Wing Commander.

I certainly like the Honorverse a lot, but I think the extremely long ranges Weber is stretching combat to are as unlikely as the extremely short ranges shown in most sci-fi. shows/movies.