Pseudo-Science In Some Sci-Fi Shows

[Truth_Seeker]

I thought that this may be an interesting thread.There are plenty of Sci Fi shows nowadays.Some of them are more realistic and some are more like fantasy shows because they have totally impossible ideas from a scientific point of view.Some of them are:

-"Star Trek Voyager"-The doctor of the ship is a hologram but he can lift objects, operate and do everything that a real person can do.We know that holograms are nothing more than projected light and they don't have the characteristics of matter.

In one of the episodes we see some hostile aliens stealing Neelix's lungs.The good doctor created "holographic lungs" for him and he was able to breathe inside sickbay using them.

One of the characters is half-human half-klingon.Considering that humans are so genetically different from the klingons it's very unlikely for representatives of the two species to have a child.Humans and chimps share 99% DNA and it's absolutely impossible.

-"Andromeda"-The maggog have a World Ship made out of connected planets and an artificial sun(no comment on that-nonsense)

Any other ideas of pseudo-science in Sci Fi?

 

[Garovorkin]

Yes this is one of the biggest of all,trek and Sg1 and a lot of other commit this one. They find an earth planet they land or gate though or whatever, they go on to the surface of the planet breath the Earth like air and Don't die from the native bacteria and viruses? If ever find an Earth like or close to Earth planet perfect atmosphere we can't go there because of the bacteria and virus issue. There is no way our bodies could even begin to handle these native Microbes, we would die from breathing the air or eating the food assuming our digestive tracts could even handle proteins and amino of the plants and animals of this planet Also the microbes from our bodies could severely compromise the ecosystem of said Earth like planet. If we go to the Stars the only way we could colonize would be either to live in self contained cities sealed off from the biospheres of these plants or terreform worlds to suit our biology.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

They find an earth planet they land or gate though or whatever, they go on to the surface of the planet breath the Earth like air and Don't die from the native bacteria and viruses?

Yes Garovorkin Stargate also has a lot of those moments.The atmosheres of almost all of the planets they visit are the same as Earth's atmoshere.It seems that all of those planets have the same gravity as Earth and the characters don't feel heavier or lighter than usual which is very unlikely.

 

[GKarsEye]

One of the characters is half-human half-klingon.Considering that humans are so genetically different from the klingons it's very unlikely for representatives of the two species to have a child.Humans and chimps share 99% DNA and it's absolutely impossible.

Odd that you had to go to Voyager for an instance of inter-planetary breeding. Spock happened first.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

Odd that you had to go to Voyager for an instance of inter-planetary breeding. Spock happened first.

Yes GKE we also have:

-David Sheridan

-The son of Trip and T'Pol in "Enterprise" Season 3 and later on their daughter in Season 4

-Hera and Nick in BSG

 

[Garovorkin]

Think about it , you coming from earth you could not breath the air and hope to survive Even in Hg Well's Novel War of the Worlds the Martain's killed by Earth Microbes and the book was written around the turn of the last century, this idea occurred even to H GWell 's who I believe was not a scientist. Spock should not have happened at all, you cannot take genetic codes from two such diverse evolutionary trees and hope to be able to get anything even remotely viable, the genetics on both sides would be so radically different, the Physiology and Blood chemistry and even the number of Chromosomes might not even match. And Speaking of Wart of the Worlds Spielberg's remake is a really bad movie. for a lot of reasons.

 

[vacantlook]

-"Star Trek Voyager"-The doctor of the ship is a hologram but he can lift objects, operate and do everything that a real person can do.We know that holograms are nothing more than projected light and they don't have the characteristics of matter.

In one of the episodes we see some hostile aliens stealing Neelix's lungs.The good doctor created "holographic lungs" for him and he was able to breathe inside sickbay using them.

Well, Star Trek has explained their holo technology as being not just projections of light, but also projections of complex force fields.

 

[vacantlook]

-David Sheridan

Delenn underwent the Chrysalis process that made her human. She still has part of her head bone, but other than that, she's human complete with human reproductive systems -- I love the funny moment between Delenn and Ivanova in the lift about Delenn having "odd cramps" during Delenn's early days of being human. And even still, when they find out Delenn is pregnant, Franklin says that he wants to monitor the situation carefully because they don't know for sure what will happen given Delenn's having originally been biologically Minbari but now human. Had Delenn remained biologically Minbari, there's no way she could have reproduced with a human. Her situation is very specifically different than the haphazard hybrid reproduction that occurs on Star Trek.

 

[Garovorkin]

Another convention thats a no no but even Babylon 5 breaks this rule, There is no air in space therefore there can be no sound in space, all those cool space battles would be silent ones. The reason that we get sound is that a lot of these special effects shots woulds not really work on the screen or be that exciting without them. In the case of Star Wars without air currents the ship could not swoop and fly like that in a empty airless space. Also The Light saber, How do you limit a beam of light? And how could you even duel with two light sabers, the beams would pass right through each other, there could be no duel with such weapons. Please it could not be energy contained in a limiting force field because then it vaporized human flesh not cut and cauterize it. The imperial Walkers again Cool but impractical, you want to defeat them? Shoot the legs out from underneath them. :guffaw:. Ir he's an even Better Idea plant mine fields to take them out.Many of Lucas's concepts look cool but are not practical.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

Delenn underwent the Chrysalis process that made her human. She still has part of her head bone, but other than that, she's human complete with human reproductive systems -- I love the funny moment between Delenn and Ivanova in the lift about Delenn having "odd cramps" during Delenn's early days of being human. And even still, when they find out Delenn is pregnant, Franklin says that he wants to monitor the situation carefully because they don't know for sure what will happen given Delenn's having originally been biologically Minbari but now human. Had Delenn remained biologically Minbari, there's no way she could have reproduced with a human. Her situation is very specifically different than the haphazard hybrid reproduction that occurs on Star Trek.

I thought that Delenn is half-Minbari half-Human and she kept 50% of her Minbari DNA.

In this case David Sheridan should be 75% human and 25% Minbari.

If she's a human then David is a human too.I've always imagined David as a teenager with a bone on his head.

 

[vacantlook]

Well, it could be argued that "sound" could be detected in space given a sensitive enough microphone. Space isn't 100% vacuum; there is, relatively, a lot of dust out there. With sound being waves of evergy moving through a medium, such waves would still occur within the dust and gas, as minute as it may be. The human ear isn't sensitive enough to hear it, but a super amazing microphone (one we're not capable of producing, but maybe the Vorlons could ) could. Like with how we have x-ray telescopes record x-rays of the universe that we then have to assign that data to certain colors we can perceive in order to see what the x-ray picture looks like, one could record space sound and pitch it up (or whatever) to fit our ears.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

Garovorkin you're right about the lack of sound in space.Maybe everyone in the Sci Fi industry agreed that it would be more interesting and dramatic if the space battles have sound.

Lightsabers are cool but they are technically impossible.The beam can't be limited to a particular size and if the device is laser based it would probably emit a lot of radiation which would be hazardous to its owner.

The Cloud City from "The Empire Strikes Back" also looks great but a whole city can't stand on just one column.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

If ever find an Earth like or close to Earth planet perfect atmosphere we can't go there because of the bacteria and virus issue. There is no way our bodies could even begin to handle these native Microbes, we would die from breathing the air or eating the food assuming our digestive tracts could even handle proteins and amino of the plants and animals of this planet Also the microbes from our bodies could severely compromise the ecosystem of said Earth like planet.

Possibly, but you may well be wrong. Think about it. On Earth, bacteria and viruses are usually species specific, and only rarely jump species. We would be as alien to the alien microbes as they are to us. They might not like to colonize our bodies at all. But, even if they don't multiply, we well might have strong allergic reactions to them.

I agree that eating alien life could be very dangerous. Also, that we should not contaminate alien worlds with our own microbes. That is why space probes are assembled under germ-free conditions.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

This one is about all Star Trek shows.

The starship "Enterprise" travels at speeds that are much faster than the speed of light.As we know from physics when a body travels in space it can't even get closer to the speed of light.That's because when the body gains speed it also gains mass.The faster it travels the heavier it gets.If a spaceship accelerates to a certain speed it would fall apart due to its own weight.

One more thing about travelling at the speed of light is that time passes differently for you and people on Earth.A simple two weeks journey could take you years ahead in the future when Earth would be a totally different world.

Sorry for disappointing the Trek fans.Just some science.

 

[hypatia]

I could be mistaken here, but isn't space warping a way of getting around all of the faster-than-light "problems"? Since you aren't really travelling this far in that amount of time, you are warping space to bring point B closer to point A? I believe I read that somewhere some months ago.

Warping is hardly a science we can think of casually, though. If I remember correctly, the amount of power required to even attempt space warping would be... incredible. Like burning up a whole solar system or galaxy or something just to warp space once, for an instant, and pass a tiny particle through.

As far as pseudo-science goes: pick virtually anything from my beloved Dr. Who. In particular, how can reversing the polarity of the neutron flow solve all of life's problems? :wtf:

 

[Garovorkin]

In Babylon 5 there are beacons in Hyperspace, given the nature of Hyperspace how could you possibly maintain any kind of Stationary object or network of beacons ? Hyperspace is vast and un mapable,what do you use for points of reference, given that it is so easy to get lost in Hyperspace how do you even find a beacon in Hyperspace?

 

[KoshFan]

Firefly is the only SF show I know that got "no sound in space" right, but beyond that they largely ignored science, so it's still not a great example.

I'm told (never saw it) that in the original Battlestar Galactica there was a moment when they say, "The fleet is completely, utterly out of fuel" and the next instruction is, "All right, bring the fleet to a complete halt." How? Space brakes?

 

[Garovorkin]

How is it on trek ad other series that character when confronted with an alien piece of technology, with a an interface quickly are able to not only access it but interface with earth tech very quickly? Trek and other series just about , do this. Its like on the Enterprise Incident the Cloaking device how is that Mr Scott was able to get a piece of Romulan technology to inter phase successfully with the Enterprise systems, it not like the Romulan designers would have Federation tech specks in mind when they design their technology, and its not likely that Mr scott would have similar understanding of Romulan tech specs either, If he studied it for weeks at the very least he might figure out how it works but Interfacing so quickly if at all, unlikely somehow. The tech would not be particularly compatible.

 

[Garovorkin]

Here is another question, we know that science fiction is based or projected on the science known at the time that it was created. inevitably time passes and our understanding of science grows, thus science fiction tends to have a shelf life, this includes science fiction in all the mediums from print , to tv to Movies. So the question is should we still even consider the stuff science fiction, given this reality Is it still still science fiction even though the science no longer supports it? I know that we tend to shoehorn old science fiction into the the category of Classic, its kind of like the old retirement home for this stuff. It also relates to the whole pseudo science thread of this topic.:thumbsup::vulcan:

 

[Jade Jaguar]

How is it on trek ad other series that character when confronted with an alien piece of technology, with a an interface quickly are able to not only access it but interface with earth tech very quickly? .

Probably the worst case of this is in Independence Day, where they use 20th century tech to link up to an alien super space craft. Totally absurd. At least in Trek, they were at about the same level of tech, well, usually.