Ultimate Challenge: Make hard sci-fi popular

That's right, you have to get a movie, TV Show, or book, become as popular as something like Star Trek that is,

"Ultra Hard / Diamond Hard Science Fiction
ULTRA HARD can also be called Diamond Hard; this is so-called because it represents the most extreme (realistic) side of the Hard SF spectrum. The term DIAMOND HARD is here used as something of a pun - diamond refers to nanotech building material (diamondoid) but also in the hardness scale to very realistic sci fi. Does not incorporate radical or controversial concepts like wormholes or femtotech. Generally Ultra Hard SF would generally take place in the near future, as the further ahead the harder it becomes to make decent predictions and the more likely you are to be wrong.

In Ultra Hard Sci Fi, handwavium and anything that might be dubious is completely absent." Quoted from http://www.kheper.net/topics/scifi/grading.html#ultrahard

Okay, so, is this possible? Or have I found the equivalent of a cultural ASB?

2001: A Space Odyssey. I win this thread.

Color-Copycat said:

2001: A Space Odyssey. I win this thread.

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<ahem> Oh yeah?

Killer300 said:

That's right, you have to get a movie, TV Show, or book, become as popular as something like Star Trek that is,

"Ultra Hard / Diamond Hard Science Fiction
ULTRA HARD can also be called Diamond Hard; this is so-called because it represents the most extreme (realistic) side of the Hard SF spectrum. The term DIAMOND HARD is here used as something of a pun - diamond refers to nanotech building material (diamondoid) but also in the hardness scale to very realistic sci fi. Does not incorporate radical or controversial concepts like wormholes or femtotech. Generally Ultra Hard SF would generally take place in the near future, as the further ahead the harder it becomes to make decent predictions and the more likely you are to be wrong.

In Ultra Hard Sci Fi, handwavium and anything that might be dubious is completely absent." Quoted from http://www.kheper.net/topics/scifi/grading.html#ultrahard

Okay, so, is this possible? Or have I found the equivalent of a cultural ASB?

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There were some attempts to market medium-hard (if 2001 is considered Hard despite its aliens, then so can these be) Science Fiction films to the general market in the 1990s and 2000, most notably the Mars-centric films Red Planet and Mission to Mars. Those films were critical flops because, well, they sucked. Their only possible contribution to society is the big, fat check I hope Bob Zubrin got for being the technical advisor to MtM. I suppose Deep Impact counts as Medium-Hard Science Fiction as well--but it too was not as successful as it could have been.

There are two necessary steps to making a successful Hard SF film--to have a real-world event drive interest in the subject outside the science fiction community, and to put someone competent in charge of the film-making. 2001 managed to play off of the widespread knowledge of the Apollo Program as its real-world source, and Stanley Kubrick is, well, Kubrick.

The asteroid impact films got their real-world source from the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact, while those Mars films got their source from a spike in public interest resulting from the Mars Pathfinder mission. All of these were handled rather incompetently. There are certainly lots of ways to generate more Real-World Source Material--provided that NASA's public affairs people can ever develop the ability to advertise them. A film about an expedition to the Jovian Moons can play off of Galileo, while Cassini might have somehow inspired an expedition to Titan.

The questions of competent directors and, increasingly as time goes on, public interest must still be answered. I read in Popular Mechanics some time back that the recent dearth of quality Science Fiction films might be due to the spike on Comic Book movies this past decade--the SF and Comic Book genres share a market and a lot of the specialist pool, especially in SFX and VFX. Preventing the rise of the Comic Book film might aid in getting more actual SF into production.

Well, the challenge though is for diamond hard, so actually, 2001 a Space Odyssey... doesn't count.

Although, they count the Mars series(books, involved terraforming that was actually intricately explained) as that even though there may have been aliens with that(to be fair, those may have been... something else) so that may not be as limiting as one thinks.

What is the thing with dirigibles?

Color-Copycat said:

2001: A Space Odyssey. I win this thread.

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Why on earth would you want one once a reliable aircraft engine makes safe trans atlantic flight possible? The Lawrance-Wright R-790 of 1925, IIRC.

Hard SF means willing to sweat the details

No hate on the SF from the 1960's on, but it dramatically swung away from Tom Swift/Gernsbackian technophilic SF to social criticism. I enjoyed the New Wave and cyberpunk authors, but they weren't interested in the details.

The three authors of recent 1980's-on hard SF I think of are David Brin, Gregory Benford, and Kim Stanley Robinson.

As mentioned before, Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov could write cracking good yarns incorporating the best of current science with enough panache to be interesting and readable.

• IMO, the weathervane of popular acceptance swung away from science in the 1970's with the hippie movement's tarring scientists and engineers as handmaidens of the Pentagon rather than sources of really cool things and social progress. Butterflying that trend would have huge sociopolitical consequences.
• Heinlein certainly tried to make folks tackle the sciences and advanced math because it's hard and teaches you so much, even if you don't intend to be a scientist or engineer. However, he was preaching to the choir of folks already receptive to doing so.
• Maybe it's just my prejudice or experience, but in the US, unless you're some outrageously talented individual, there's a lot of discouragement of trying for a scientific or engineering degree and doing technical work. Making it more acceptable/desirable to have that background would be nice. All these three PODs would grow the audience tremendously for hard SF.

Good stories appeal no matter what genre. Hard SF has always had issues with either trying so hard to get the nuts and bolts right it bores the non-boffins in the audience OR shoots for such overarching themes that the individuals get lost in the shuffle. That my 2 cents worth on the subject.

Have Jim Cameron decide to adapt Kim Stanely Robinson's Mars Trilogy, which he optioned as miniseries at one point. Cameron is a stickler for technical accuracy and if he decided to make a hard SF film, I have little doubt that it would be VERY accurate.

Hmm, I wonder if such could be done with effects at the time, and whether three quite large books could be condensed into a mini-series very well. Interesting to ponder however.

I really love that idea Mike!



I feel sorry for the actors and crew on that, but hey, the results would be astonishing!

I have a soft spot for the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson- they sparked my interest in geology and I'm finishing up the BSc in environmental geology this year. So SF can help you find something interesting and useful to do as well as entertain!

Killer300 said:

Hmm, I wonder if such could be done with effects at the time, and whether three quite large books could be condensed into a mini-series very well. Interesting to ponder however.

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There'd be alot that would have to be cut, like the nudity, some of which was freaking weird, but if you devoted 4 to 6 episodes per book, yes, I think it could be done.

Shooter said:

Why on earth would you want one once a reliable aircraft engine makes safe trans atlantic flight possible? The Lawrance-Wright R-790 of 1925, IIRC.

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My TL isn't meant to be particularly plausible or feasible in a rigorously alternate history manner. It's more of a fun bit of pulpy fiction that tries to recapture the feel you get from those action/adventure short stories from the Roaring Twenties.