My criticism of "American science fiction"

[Ryzorian]

All countries do that with all story arcs..have people that represent "themselves" I mean honestly, they are selling to a primary audiance. Anime does it too, everyone speaks Japanese, I have a Russian movie, guess what..they all speak Russian.

As to space battles being close, Distance MATTERS in space battles, if your off just a tiny fraction, you would miss by miles if your opponant was 200,000 miles away. Just get up close and blast away with massive weapons.

[MMM]

Thank you for the Moon reference. It is a great movie by a new, first-time director and it is excellent.

Another great movie from last year is District 9.

[Ryzorian]

I liked Distrct 9 as well.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by Ryzorian

All countries do that with all story arcs..have people that represent "themselves" I mean honestly, they are selling to a primary audiance. Anime does it too, everyone speaks Japanese, I have a Russian movie, guess what..they all speak Russian.

As to space battles being close, Distance MATTERS in space battles, if your off just a tiny fraction, you would miss by miles if your opponant was 200,000 miles away. Just get up close and blast away with massive weapons.

One of the my biggest pet peeves about space battles is the complete disregard for accuracy, even up close. I mean, those slugs or lazers you are firing off get to keep on travelling until it hits something. How many poor trader vessels millions of miles away have suddenly been riddled with shots because some 'hero' opened mass fire on an enemy ship and missed for the first 10 seconds?

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Nathan

One of the my biggest pet peeves about space battles is the complete disregard for accuracy, even up close. I mean, those slugs or lazers you are firing off get to keep on travelling until it hits something. How many poor trader vessels millions of miles away have suddenly been riddled with shots because some 'hero' opened mass fire on an enemy ship and missed for the first 10 seconds?

Do lasers go in for infinity, or do they not eventually burn out?

[Tsuwabuki]

Theoretically, a laser could go on forever. Lasers are light, and the light from a laser will continue to travel in a straight line until:

A) It is reflected.
B) It is absorbed.

It is far more likely that there is some sort of limit given background radiation and interstellar dust even in the fairly barren areas between solar systems. Such background "big bang leftovers" will eventually reflect and absorb all of the light until it is just scattered and no longer worthy of the name "laser." The closest we could probably ever get to knowing is by firing a laser out the galactic edge, and somehow trying to track it until it hits another galaxy. Assuming almost no interference in space from particles between galaxies (which is even more barren than space between solar systems), it is conceivable that such a laser could last, intact, for millions or even billions of years.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki

Theoretically, a laser could go on forever. Lasers are light, and the light from a laser will continue to travel in a straight line until:

A) It is reflected.
B) It is absorbed.

It is far more likely that there is some sort of limit given background radiation and interstellar dust even in the fairly barren areas between solar systems. Such background "big bang leftovers" will eventually reflect and absorb all of the light until it is just scattered and no longer worthy of the name "laser." The closest we could probably ever get to knowing is by firing a laser out the galactic edge, and somehow trying to track it until it hits another galaxy. Assuming almost no interference in space from particles between galaxies (which is even more barren than space between solar systems), it is conceivable that such a laser could last, intact, for millions or even billions of years.

I understand what you are saying, but would a "laser blast" as implied in the post carry that same power?

Would something with the power to, say, burn through a spaceship's hull be able to travel at the speed of light for many light years and strike a ship, (or planet, or asteroid, or whatever) and cause damage? Would it not "burn out" like a star does?

[nanicoar]

To me the faults of Sci-Fi lies in the faults of its writers, the most glaring of their shortcomings being lack of boldness. Star Trek had the first interracial kiss on TV, but they can't ride that one forever.

To motivate a reader one must give of oneself freely without reservation, not stopping when someone somewhere could take offence based on their conditioned taboos and social norms. Some willingly seek to offend and some write about their fetishes, but how different this is from Sci-Fi's potential to let us explore what it means to be human.
Many writers settle for imagining themselves as monsters terrorizing the weak, or flying space ships to escape from whatever bothers them. The psychology behind such work is laughable in its inanity and the plot is always so aimless that it is easy to forget what good fiction is.

Time and time again reality proves itself more fantastic and fanciful than fiction, like WWII and quantum mechanics, so whenever a writer settles for the simplistic instead of reaching for the inspired I feel like a part of me dies.

Examples from movies. Independence Day and Avatar. Both are Hollywood blockbusters and both have a weak plot, but Avatar is like 2001ASO because it is visually stunning and it takes the audience on a sensual adventure. ID had explosions and Will Smith's dependable acting.
Star Wars is some of the most prudish footage ever to find itself to the silver screen, while District 9 is downright gritty and provocative. Twelve Monkeys has you frying synapses to get ahead, while Aliens opts to just rot them away.

[Tsuwabuki]

Originally Posted by MMM

I understand what you are saying, but would a "laser blast" as implied in the post carry that same power?

Would something with the power to, say, burn through a spaceship's hull be able to travel at the speed of light for many light years and strike a ship, (or planet, or asteroid, or whatever) and cause damage? Would it not "burn out" like a star does?

Assuming that the post meant high radiation lasers doesn't matter. The principles are the same. Gamma radiation travels millions or even billions of light years from distant stars until met by something that has particular properties to fully reflect it, or until it is absorbed by (and damages) other matter. Planets, for instance. Or even people on said planets.

It is entirely feasible for a misdirected military laser with sufficient power to end up hitting an unintended target light years away assuming limited or no degradation due to absorption. In fact, the consequences could, theoretically, end up affecting sentient beings with no knowledge of the original conflict or its participants.

The likelihood of this? If you will excuse the pun, pretty much astronomical.

[Ryzorian]

They difuse in space. Sure they keep going but distance will difuse the effects. Otherwise the gamma ray burst from every explodeing star would vaporize us. ( Wich obviously they don't)

Plus the chances of hitting a freighter is slight, compareably speaking to say hitting a random planet or asteroid.

Mass drivers and anti matter weapons would more than likely be the big nasties...being able to convert a mass driver into an antimatter mass driver would be double points.