YAHOO users are idiots

[Asher]

I'd already won this battle, rah. You'll notice he's posting in other threads now.

[rah]

Then I guess you don't need to get the final word in.

Back on topic please.

[Asher]

YAHOO users are idiots.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by GePap
I have no problem with being an elitist - better than being a dumbass, and the meaning of words do matter, quite a lot actually. People who aren't able to see that, well, I can only pity them.

Oh, the meanings of words matter. But they can't be proscribed. Words mean what people use them to mean. And being elitist and a dumbass aren't mutually exclusive, as you've demonstrated many times here.

[Ben Kenobi]

Star Wars is a coming of age adventure story. Lucas himself stated that his inspiration were old serial stories. What is the very first line of the movie? Long long ago, in a Galaxy far far away. Right there, Star War divorces itself from anything having to do with how man deals with technologically and scientifically driven change.

So let me get this straight. If he uses people in animal suits that means it's no longer science fiction?



I don't see how this is any different from the Foundation series. Most science fiction doesn't care about making a connection to the period of earth in our times, because it is irrelevant to the plot.

I'm going to be serious here. If Dune is science fiction then so is Star Wars.

Are you even aware that most science fiction was written as serials, at least the original stuff?

[Ben Kenobi]

That's the key element. SF starts with the possible, and speculates what might happen; Fantasy ignores the possible, and just describes an entirely unhindered universe.

I don't see anything outrageous in Star Wars. You have the galactic empire. You have droids, and moisture farms. You have all forms of spaceships from star destroyers to small skimmers.

You have a death star which uses directed energy to blast apart planets. You have handheld laser rifles. You have beam swords. You have hyperspace drives, that require navigational calculations. You have energy shields.

I don`t see how any of this is unhindered. It all follows scientific principles that we know of today, expanding their application and scope.

[Jon Miller]

I have changed my mind, Ben is awesome.

JM

[GePap]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Words mean what people use them to mean.

If that were true, no one could ever be wrong about the meaning of a word: that is patently false of course.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I have to agree with Kuci and Ben here that the silly definition of sci-fi used by Snoopy and Ben makes the Foundation series and the Dune series fantasy instead of sci-fi. You have just relegated two of the widely acknolwedged classics of science fiction out of the genre. Congratulations.

[GePap]

HOw exactly is the Foundation series out?

The entire premise of the series when it began centered on the idea of someone creating a theory of social sciences so precise that it could basically tell the future, and then how the creators of this theory attempted to use it or control it. You can't get more sci-fi that that.

As for Dune, never read it, couldn't really say whether there is anything speculative in it.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by GePap
If that were true, no one could ever be wrong about the meaning of a word: that is patently false of course.

Of course individuals can be wrong (e.g. you and snoopy), but "everyone" (meaning "most people") can't.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Of course individuals can be wrong (e.g. you and snoopy), but "everyone" (meaning "most people") can't.

The point of this thread contradicts that statement.

[Kuciwalker]

[q] Originally posted by GePap
HOw exactly is the Foundation series out?

The entire premise of the series when it began centered on the idea of someone creating a theory of social sciences so precise that it could basically tell the future, and then how the creators of this theory attempted to use it or control it. You can't get more sci-fi that that.[q]

Snoopy had a caveat in one of his posts that the things had to be "possible" - and Foundation includes plenty of science that is impossible (FTL is the easy one). Moreover, the central innovation itself, psychohistory, is so incredibly implausible that Asimov's speculation about it is completely worthless.

As for Dune, never read it, couldn't really say whether there is anything speculative in it.

It doesn't really matter. When something is that widely hailed as a classic X, you can't go around saying "but it really isn't X!" The word X has been, effectively, redefined.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by GePap
The point of this thread contradicts that statement.

Nah, Yahoo users don't count as "most people". They're wrong and stupid, just opposite the way you are.

And really, the stupidity isn't in that they have "not really scifi" movies in the list, it's that they have really ****ty movies really high up.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Snoopy had a caveat in one of his posts that the things had to be "possible" - and Foundation includes plenty of science that is impossible (FTL is the easy one). Moreover, the central innovation itself, psychohistory, is so incredibly implausible that Asimov's speculation about it is completely worthless.

I never said anything about having to be technically proficient, that is Snoopy. I do agree with him that there must be some specualtion on how scientific or technical progress could affect human beings. That you find Asimov's own formulations on psychohistory implausibl does not remove that it remain a story about how a man would handle discovering a way to basically tell the future that they arrived to scientifically.

It doesn't really matter. When something is that widely hailed as a classic X, you can't go around saying "but it really isn't X!" The word X has been, effectively, redefined.

Not universally. Again this is why I posted this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_science_fiction

You and Imran are on one side, Snoopy and I on another. Is your definition of sci fi as simple as "any story with space travel and robots?"