Comment by colordrops
1 day ago
Different topic, but the sophon idea in TBP revealed the author's complete ignorance of basic particle physics.
1 day ago
Different topic, but the sophon idea in TBP revealed the author's complete ignorance of basic particle physics.
…it’s Science Fiction
It's touted as "hard science fiction" but it's riddled with this kind of stuff.
More like space opera is my point. Science fiction projects out into the future to extrapolate from current science, it doesn't invent a parallel reality that is contradictory with already understood science.
There's no hard scifi story that doesn't have a big (often understated) magical physics moment. The harder it gets, the more understated the miracle. I would argue it's the very existence of this crucial violation of the Standard Model (and even current day alternates) that makes any of those stories compelling. They're what drive all the other actually realistic events forward.
I'm not claiming TBP is hard scifi btw. But the reveal which OP has spoiled already makes for a sick scene and pivotal point in the book.
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