Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

[james_davis_nicoll]

A writer documents a brilliant scientist's final gift to the world.

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Comments

[carbonel]

No, I actually mean, "make the reader believe it" plausibility. FTL that involves wormholes is believable. FTL that involves magical algae makes me roll my eyes, but the author does a decent job of sidestepping how it actually works. FTL that involves tapping your heels three times and saying "There's no place Trafalmadore"? Satire with SF trappings.

All IMO, of course.

[dwight_benjamin_thieme]

I must be atypical in my beliefs; ftl is not only not believable, it is ludicrously unbelievable. Why you would think otherwise (you're free to give your reasons for what I think of as a rather astonishing statement) I have no idea. Do you mean to say that ftl is grandfathered in as hard sf? Like legacy admissions at Harvard?

[roseembolism]

That just means the particular magical incantations that invoke FTL are to your liking, because they use the correct magical term of "wormhole". It's like the magician using Tesla coils and a turbine hum vs a wand and "abracadabra!" when making her assistant disappear; it's the same flim-flam either way.

[philrm]

"Wormhole" is not a magical term: they have been the subject of serious scientific research for decades. Although the consensus now is that traversable wormholes cannot exist, that conclusion is itself the result of years of research. You don't have to believe in FTL (I do not) to recognize there's a difference between using concepts that are at least based in physics (however speculative) and egregious nonsense like interstellar drives powered by algae or the energy of the passengers walking around, or believing that astronomers look through telescopes, or that that the separation of Earth and Mars is a significant fraction of the distance to the stars, or not understanding what "vacuum" means, or that starships will simply come to a stop if the engines shut down - all examples from supposed SF novels. (Also every JJ Abrams SF film ever.)