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From: Don <g@crcomp.net>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: It is not just Physics that Should be Hard in Hard SF
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2024 17:38:43 -0000 (UTC)
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Kevrob wrote:
> Don wrote:
>> Ahasuerus wrote:
>>> Robert Woodward wrote:
>>>> I think authors mess up biology quite often in Science Fiction/Fantasy.
>>>> For example, IMHO, genetic engineering will be much more difficult than
>>>> some authors assume because an individual's DNA isn't the blueprint but
>>>> the assembly instructions.
>>>>
>>>> Also, I have seen stories where advanced bio-technic civilizations use
>>>> bacteria (or multicellular organisms) to wreck havoc on our type of
>>>> technology. Essentially, they are speeding up rust and other forms of
>>>> degradation by one or more orders of magnitude. This, unfortunately,
>>>> requires one of more orders of magnitude more power at the cellular
>>>> level (probably greater amounts of stored energy as well).
>>>>
>>> The other day a PharmD wrote
>>> (https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/1fj0aon/books_that_feature_speculative_but_accurate/):
>>>
>>> science fiction ... is very sophisticated when it comes to
>>> engineering, astronomy and physics, but when it comes to
>>> biochemistry, medicine and pharmacology, I've yet to encounter
>>> any fiction that gets it right.
>>>
>>> My response was:
>>>
>>> Are you, by chance, familiar with Knoll's Law of Media Accuracy
>>> (https://effectiviology.com/knolls-law/):
>>>
>>> everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true, except for
>>> the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge
>>>
>>> or the similar Gell-Mann amnesia effect
>>> (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_Amnesia_effect)?
>>
>> Robin Cook's mentioned at the reddit link. My followup pertains to Cook.
>>
>> Edgar Allan Poe (EAP) invented the detective genre. EAP's sleuth took
>> the form of Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, who triumphed through
>> thoughtfulness. Dupin believed the game of chess suitable for
>> developing mental prowess.
>>
>> EAP nemesis Arthur Conan Doyle followed in Poe's footsteps. Doyle
>> projected his own drug use into Holmes to twist Poe's clear thinking
>> detective into mysticism. The Poe-Doyle nexus will be covered by me in
>> the future.
>>
>> Agatha Christie restored Poe's idealized detective. Her character,
>> Hercule Poirot, also brings back the Francophilia found in Poe's Dupin.
>>
>> Levinson and Link's Lieutenant Columbo closely follows formula. Is the
>> show's Peugeot 403 another nod to Poe's Dupin?
>>
>> Robin Cook's  Critical  (Cook, 2007) contains a Lieutenant strikingly
>> similar to Columbo. Cook's hard-science biology is about as good as it
>> gets these days.
>
> Cook is a trained M. Have you tried F.Paul Wilson's medical-related
> thrillers? He's a DO.

Thank you for the lead. It'll be interesting to see how much Wilson's
detective ?Quinn Cleary? follows the formula found above -
ratiocination in the manner of EAP's Dupin. (Ellery Queen also needs to
be read by me.)
    My readers may wonder what's so special about Poe's French
detective? French theoretical physicist Pierre Duhem explains the innate
superiority of the Gallic mind:

    We need logic, the ability to systematize, but we also
    need intuition, the recognition of truth. When one of
    these is allowed to dominate, we get a science which
    is all intuition, all "esprit de finesse," but no
    logical coherence, namely, English science; or we get
    a science which is all logic, lacking bon sens, namely,
    German science. German science then is a degenerate
    kind of French science, the latter being predominantly
    "esprit de geometrie," corrected by bon sens.

    <https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/duhem/>

There's also a French connection as intelligence officer EAP's
grandfather served as Quartermaster General for the Marquis de
Lafayette in the Continental Army. Perhaps EAP's Francophilia
insulted Arthur Conan Doyle.

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's  )\._.,--....,'``.     https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /,   _.. \   _\  (`._ ,.    Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'    Make 1984 fiction again.