05-31-2010, 04:44 PM
Hi,
Usually science fiction is self consistent. Something like the Riverworld series is an aberration. Clearly, Farmer had no idea where he was going and then wasn't able to come up with anything good. "We did it because we could."????
All too often, fantasy isn't. A fantasy author doesn't have to be as meticulous as JRRT, but some background and some framework of rules is necessary. Niven has the right idea, and even discusses it in one of his books. Even magic must have rules, and they have to be self consistent. Most fantasy authors usually just make it up as they go along.
The point is not that the stories be real, but that they be realistic. The universe of the story doesn't have to be consistent with our rules, but it must be consistent with its own.
I enjoyed the first Matrix movie, not so much the other two. My main problem with those films is best illustrated by how one gets into and out of the matrix. There are two worlds. There's the 'real' world of the Nostradamus and Zion and human battery packs. Then there's the virtual world inside the matrix. According to the film, you can enter the matrix simply by plugging in, but you've got to find a 'real' phone line to get out. OK, the second is totally wrong. Inside the matrix, everything is virtual. There may be regions inside the matrix that correspond to places outside, but they are only models of those places. They are virtual, just like everything else, and their 'land lines' are just as virtual. To get in? Well, maybe there's some super WiFi that allows you to plug in remotely. But if you need a physical connection to get in, then that's when you'd need a real phone line (or cable, or whatever) that connects to the matrix network.
So, the problem isn't that the universe of the matrix doesn't agree with ours. It's that it doesn't agree with itself.
--Pete
(05-31-2010, 06:34 AM)eppie Wrote: This is also one of the main reasons I don't watch science fiction or fantasy movies that often. Probably I am just a kind of person that cannot stand that things are not logical. Movies like 'the matrix' just annoy me.
Usually science fiction is self consistent. Something like the Riverworld series is an aberration. Clearly, Farmer had no idea where he was going and then wasn't able to come up with anything good. "We did it because we could."????
All too often, fantasy isn't. A fantasy author doesn't have to be as meticulous as JRRT, but some background and some framework of rules is necessary. Niven has the right idea, and even discusses it in one of his books. Even magic must have rules, and they have to be self consistent. Most fantasy authors usually just make it up as they go along.
The point is not that the stories be real, but that they be realistic. The universe of the story doesn't have to be consistent with our rules, but it must be consistent with its own.
I enjoyed the first Matrix movie, not so much the other two. My main problem with those films is best illustrated by how one gets into and out of the matrix. There are two worlds. There's the 'real' world of the Nostradamus and Zion and human battery packs. Then there's the virtual world inside the matrix. According to the film, you can enter the matrix simply by plugging in, but you've got to find a 'real' phone line to get out. OK, the second is totally wrong. Inside the matrix, everything is virtual. There may be regions inside the matrix that correspond to places outside, but they are only models of those places. They are virtual, just like everything else, and their 'land lines' are just as virtual. To get in? Well, maybe there's some super WiFi that allows you to plug in remotely. But if you need a physical connection to get in, then that's when you'd need a real phone line (or cable, or whatever) that connects to the matrix network.
So, the problem isn't that the universe of the matrix doesn't agree with ours. It's that it doesn't agree with itself.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?