2007.07.27
Sense of Scale
Science fiction and fantasy creators are notoriously bad at judging a sense of scale, whether it’s distance, time, or physical attributes. I can’t tell you how mildly irritating I found the general surprise and abhorrence in Star Trek when they would encounter “10,000 dead” on some random planet. I think of how many died in the American Civil War (or any civil war) or how many Jews were killed in WWII and I think, “Wow, those guys are so naive!” That’s why I got a chuckle with this article called Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale and its many examples. The rest of the site is a treasure trove, too.
I’m not saying that small numbers aren’t important. 50 people killed in a suicide bombing is 49 people too many (the suicide bomber can go hang himself for all I care) and the distance to even Jupiter is so vast that most people can’t wrap their heads around it, let alone to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star in our neighborhood. It reminds me of a friend who wanted to put a one kilometer wide crater on a planet that was… one kilometer deep. I think I drove him crazy trying to explain why that just wasn’t possible.
Categorized: friends geek science thoughts tv
You can follow any responses to this entry with a RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
