Star Wars Scientist character?

[Maximum7]

In my Star Wars fan fiction, I am a scientist working in a lab on an Outer Rim planet. What am I researching or trying to create?

Rules are

1. No teleportation
2. No time travel
3. No matter replication

I'm not trying to make Star Wars like Star Trek. In the canon Disney universe, the first and second are thought to be "impossible" and the third one is a plot hole that may or may not exist in some form. What's something I could be working on in a galaxy where faster than light travel is commonplace and advanced artificial intelligence is nothing special?

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Medical: new form of bacta, perhaps? Something related to it that would disrupt the current monopoly the bacta corporations have on the galaxy?

Agricultural: the outer rim is supposed to be less hospitable so something that would make life easier for the farmers hoping to eke out a menial existence far from the civilized canyons of Coruscant?

Military: It's Star Wars. They do that in practically EVERY novel.

One of the things about Star Wars is that science really has little to do with the science-fiction aspect of it. After being a general backdrop for the story of the hour, scientific mumbo jumbo not really meant to be the focus of the plot. It's more about slaying dragons, toppling evil kings, and storming castles, all with fancy non-fantasy names.

Mark

 

[Reverend]

Yeah, Star Wars isn't really a good setting for a scientist character, at least not one trying to advance technology.
The galaxy has been inhabited and colonised over and over for tens of thousands of years and most of the spacey "advanced" tech is at least as old. There's a reason it's classed as more of a science fantasy than science fiction. In a very real sense it has more in common with a medieval derived fantasy tale than a futuristic sci-fi story.

So if you're trying to think up a discipline for a scientist in Star Wars, it should be more of an academic subject like anthropology, archeology, palaeontology, that sort of thing.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Agreed. The "science" aspect of the Star Wars universe is already so old, it's relatively safe to assume that the physical limitations of the universe have long since been tested and accepted. You could argue that the Star Wars universe is technologically stagnant, with no new major technological breakthroughs ever to be expected.

Perhaps you can fine-tune certain aspects of it: for example, the "Tales of the Jedi" starships operated at a significantly slower speed than ships in the "modern" era, but that never actually impacted the story as it was STILL the only way to get from one planet to the next. Or, you can look at applying one known technology in a new way. Regardless, technology rarely has an impact on the universe of Star Wars, and should serve as little more than a plot point to your story. Making it about the science may make a fine story but lessens the "Star Wars" of it all IMO...

Mark

 

[Reverend]

I think the general hand-wavy explanation for travel times in the galaxy isn't so much that certain hyperdrives are faster or slower, but how long and complicated the safe routes are and how fast and efficiently a navicomputer can calculate the relative coordinates.

So if you went back a few thousand years, one could make the argument that the travel distances may have been longer simply because the routes were still being charted and thus more meandering and perilous.
The fantasy analogy is pretty apt when you consider in that context, a hyperdrive would be analogous to horse riding or 'the wheel'. Not something anyone has spent an awful lot of time over the centuries refining. It all works about the same now as it always did.

Star Wars does have a few ways around this sort of thing if one *really* wants to do something with super advanced technology. 1) Some ancient, mysterious artefact, possibly force related. 2) A small isolated or insular culture with very exotic technology who's secrets they guard closely, or is dependent on some rare substance or environmental quirk specific to their world.

There's a few examples of both is the old EU and canon but the one's that jump to mind are obviously anything ancient Jedi or Sith related for the former and the likes of the Kaminoans and the Umbarans for the latter. I've occasionally wondered if those two were at least somewhat inspired by the Bene Tleilax and the Ixians respectively. They seam to fit the mould.

 

[Ithekro]

A galaxy is a large place, and the time that this galaxy has been populated by hyperspace faring races in in the several tens of thousands of years. No one has the time to go over all the possible stuff that has been invented and reinvented over all that time on any given planet. The Jedi Temple might have had the most intact record of all this sort of stuff in the galaxy, but it take decades or even longer to sort through all that if you don't know what the particular things was called back in the day. Add to this all the ancient technologies that surpass anything known in the "present day" in the Galaxy that are known to exist, but no one knows how they worked, or in some cases what they did, since all they have is the ruins of the technology in the form of dilapidated space stations, or evidence of something due to say a sixth of a planet is missing, or there are petrified Jedi and Sith around a crystal on a temple.

There are sometimes things that would seem super advanced, but aren't really. They are just more powerful because they are larger scale, but less efficient than current era technology. Just not one builds things that huge until the Empire arrives. Than all bets are off because its Palpatine.

 

[bigglesworth]

Here's my submissions for scientific ideas in the SW universe:

• If you lose an arm to a random Jedi or Sith lord, your only option seems to be a robotic replacement presumably due to cost, availability and/or time to create. Perhaps by applying cloning technology available from Kamino or other race of "cloners", one could create a new appendage (or any body part) that is created from ones own DNA that is able to be grown in the span of a few hours or day.
• Personal shield technology. We see that shields and deflectors are available tech, however it seems to only be used for spaceships or planets. I'm sure Stormtroopers, Rebel/Resistance fighters, smugglers and who knows who else would pay top credit for a personal shield.
• Not so much an invention, but a service... Gun range/CQB range... I list this last one in jest, but let's be honest, Stormtroopers couldn't hit their butts with both hands. A little time at the gun range would probably do a lot to thin out some of that Rebel scum and pad your pockets at the same time...

 

[Turtletrekker]

Maybe you've discovered some mechanical or technological means of accessing the Force. With this technology, anyone in the galaxy can be as powerful as a Jedi or Sith Lord, without training, discipline or any previously recognized Force potential. It could make for an exciting tale of the ethics and morality of such power as your protagonist struggles to keep the power of his discovery out of the wrong hands.