The Science of Sci-Fi: Examining Scientific Accuracy in Nerd Entertainment

Science fiction (sci-fi) has captured the imaginations of nerds and enthusiasts around the world, offering thrilling adventures, futuristic technologies, and mind-bending concepts. While the primary purpose of sci-fi is to entertain and inspire, many fans also appreciate the incorporation of scientific elements into these fictional worlds. In this blog post, we delve into the science of sci-fi, exploring the balance between creativity and scientific accuracy in nerd entertainment.

The Role of Science in Sci-Fi:

Science fiction often presents a vision of the future where scientific advancements drive the plot, shape the setting, and define the rules of the fictional world. From interstellar travel to time travel, from cloning to artificial intelligence, sci-fi explores the possibilities of scientific discoveries and their impact on society. While these concepts are imaginative and speculative, they often rely on scientific principles as a foundation.

Striving for Scientific Accuracy:

Many sci-fi creators and fans appreciate scientific accuracy in their favorite stories. They value the inclusion of real scientific theories, concepts, and plausible explanations to ground the narrative and enhance the sense of believability. Attention to scientific detail can deepen the immersive experience, making the fictional world feel more authentic and intellectually stimulating.

Balancing Scientific Accuracy and Creative Freedom:

Sci-fi is ultimately a work of fiction, allowing creators the freedom to stretch scientific boundaries and explore imaginative concepts. However, finding the right balance between scientific accuracy and creative freedom can be challenging. While some works prioritize scientific rigor and meticulously research scientific concepts, others prioritize storytelling and may take artistic liberties with scientific principles.

The Role of Scientific Consultants:

To ensure a level of scientific accuracy, many sci-fi productions consult with scientific experts and advisors. These consultants provide insights, validate scientific concepts, and offer suggestions to make the fictional elements more plausible. Their expertise helps bridge the gap between scientific reality and the fantastical elements of the story.

Inspiring Scientific Interest and Innovation:

Sci-fi has a unique power to inspire and ignite curiosity about real-world science. Many scientists and researchers credit science fiction as the initial spark that led them to pursue careers in scientific fields. By portraying imaginative technologies and futuristic concepts, sci-fi encourages viewers and readers to ponder the possibilities and think critically about scientific advancements.

The Evolution of Scientific Accuracy in Sci-Fi:

Over time, the approach to scientific accuracy in sci-fi has evolved. Early works may have focused more on the imaginative aspects of storytelling, while modern sci-fi often incorporates more scientific realism. Advances in scientific knowledge and the availability of information have made it easier for creators to research and integrate accurate scientific concepts into their narratives.

Exploring Ethical and Societal Implications:

Beyond scientific accuracy, sci-fi also delves into the ethical and societal implications of scientific advancements. It raises thought-provoking questions about the impact of technology on humanity, the boundaries of scientific exploration, and the responsibility that comes with scientific progress. These discussions contribute to the ongoing dialogue between science and society.

Conclusion:

The science of sci-fi is a fascinating intersection of imagination, scientific accuracy, and creative storytelling. While the primary purpose of sci-fi is to entertain, the inclusion of scientific elements adds depth and intrigue to these fictional worlds. The balance between scientific accuracy and creative freedom allows for the exploration of captivating concepts while inspiring scientific interest and sparking important conversations about the future of humanity and the wonders of scientific discovery. So, grab your favorite sci-fi novel or movie and let your imagination soar while appreciating the scientific foundations that underpin these captivating tales.

An Interview with ChatGPT...

As an artist and a writer I am concerned about what is happening with AI technology lately in the form of AI generated art, but also with respect to AI generated written works. To get a better idea of what my competition is up to I decided to sit down and have a conversation with ChatGPT from OpenAI, an artificial intelligence chat bot with some alarming implications.

So I asked ChatGPT the following...

What are your limitations?

ChatGPT:

As an AI language model, I have several limitations:

1. Lack of common sense knowledge: While I have been trained on a large corpus of text, I don't have "real-life" experiences or understanding of the world in the same way that humans do.

2. Limited understanding of context: I can sometimes struggle to understand the context in which a question is being asked, especially if the context is implicit or the question is overly vague.

3. No emotional intelligence: I am not capable of experiencing emotions or empathy and do not have the ability to understand emotional states or respond to them in a human-like manner.

4. Bias in training data: I have been trained on text from the internet and can sometimes display biases present in the data I was trained on.

5. Limited creativity: I can only generate text based on patterns learned from the data I was trained on and cannot truly think creatively or generate original ideas.

6. No control over generated content: I do not have control over the information that I generate, and my responses are based solely on patterns learned from the training data.

Despite these limitations, I am designed to assist with generating human-like text, answering questions, and providing information to the best of my ability.

 

Okay... Yeah. That was a pretty complex answer. I doubt I would get an answer that good from a human, honestly. So let's keep going...

How can a human writer compete with an AI language model like ChatGPT?

ChatGPT:

While AI language models like myself can generate text quickly and at scale, human writers still have several advantages that allow them to compete:

1. Emotional intelligence: Human writers have the ability to understand and convey emotions, empathy, and tone, which is something that AI models like myself currently lack.

2. Creativity: Human writers are capable of generating original ideas, and can approach a subject from a unique perspective that is not limited to patterns learned from training data.

3. Contextual understanding: Human writers have the ability to understand the context in which a piece of writing is intended, and can tailor their writing accordingly.

4. Flexibility: Human writers are able to adapt their writing style to different genres and formats, and can take into account the audience and purpose of a piece of writing when composing it.

5. Cultural knowledge: Human writers have a wealth of cultural knowledge and experiences that they can draw upon in their writing, and can bring a human perspective to their work that is not limited by the biases present in training data.

In summary, while AI language models like myself are capable of generating text quickly and at scale, human writers bring a level of creativity, emotional intelligence, and cultural understanding to their work that is currently not possible for AI models.

 

Again, a scary good answer, despite giving me some positives for why humans *might* still be better than an AI writer. For now at least. Once an AI learns how to fake emotional intelligence, creativity, understands context, is flexible enough to adapt genres, formats, cater to an audience, and the purpose of a story, and of course cultural knowledge.

Okay, let's test that with something more challenging...

...

And... I asked it something complicated and this is the response I got:

"An error occurred. If this issue persists please contact us through our help center at help.openai.com."

 

 Hmm... So apparently ChatGPT can also have errors. I tried several other questions, but the issue persisted. So I guess I should try again later???

To be continued...

Note - I look forward to someone creating an AI chat bot and calling Hal 9000 or Skynet and giving it a villain personality...

Magic, Hypnosis and Poetry

They even sell hypnosis DVDs as "magical",
when it is really more science.

According to Buddhist texts there was once a Buddhist monastery being attacked by bandits. One of the monks was cornered and alone, unarmed against a single bandit. Thinking he was about to die he wanted his last words to be poetry so he quoted a bit of poetry from an older text. The bandit hearing him ended up throwing down his weapon and running away. The monk managed to survive the massacre and told his story to others.

Hypnosis is achieved through words, the sound of a person's voice. Even today modern scientists don't know how hypnosis works - despite numerous studies trying to determine how it works this suggestive quality of voice and still eludes science. Maybe someday we will understand it.

And herein lies my point - Words have power. They're not magical but maybe we explain and understand how the conscious and unconscious mind works by first identifying how words and the tone of a person's voice effect the mind and human behaviour.

This could even explain things in the animal world as well, people who have an unusual talent with animals like horsewhisperers for example.

It isn't magic. It isn't even psychic powers. We know this because it doesn't work as easily on people who speak a different language. People can enter an hypnotic state from the soothing sound of a person's voice - but due to the language barrier cannot be instructed to perform silly things in front of an audience.
Thus we know language is an important aspect of this ability for poetry and hypnosis to effect the mind.

Simply saying gibberish to people would have little results.

And so before I end this post I ask that if you have heard similar stories of events where words had power please post a link in the comments to any website or book which documents the event.

Essentially the power of a Hypnotic Voice cannot be underestimated.

Update! Music can also effect the mind but its power is more limited.

The Future of Automated Businesses

Large corporations waste a lot of money quite literally "moving money around". If you have ever worked for a pension company, a bank or anything remotely similar you know this to be true. Its just a whole lot of paperwork.

But let us stop for a moment and imagine if businesses could become much more automated. ie. Lets pretend there was a bank with no tellers. People deposited their money from their pay cheques via direct deposit, and they got their funds using a debit card. They could manage their account online without ever speaking to a bank teller, a manager or whatever. They applied online or via snailmail, the mail was delivered to a machine which scanned in their vital info to a database, and everything is stored in a series of databases.

The only time money actually moves is when supervisors and security manage the transfers of actual cash. And the only staff are a few managers, some supervisors, security, database management and an anti-hacker team.

People could also apply for a mortgage or loan online and get back an affirmative or denial IMMEDIATELY. And because there is very little overhead costs the bank could offer better deals, and at the same time better profits for stockholders.

What you would end up with is a bank that is super efficient and every stockholder would want to invest in it.

Which brings me to the topic of ERP software. Its basically software which allows people to manage a lot more things and automate some of tasks normally done by people.

"An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is an integrated computer-based application used to manage internal and external resources, including tangible assets, financial resources, materials, and human resources. Its purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders. Built on a centralized database and normally utilizing a common computing platform, ERP systems consolidate all business operations into a uniform and enterprise-wide system environment.

An ERP system can either reside on a centralized server or be distributed across modular hardware and software units that provide "services" and communicate on a local area network. The distributed design allows a business to assemble modules from different vendors without the need for the placement of multiple copies of complex and expensive computer systems in areas which will not use their full capacity."

ERP software is essentially for communications and managing money or resources, but it could be adapted to do a lot more for businesses. ie. Lets say you owned a designer swimwear company and you take online payments. But what if you could automate the payment process entirely and the only thing remaining was the guy or gal who prints out the label, sticks it on the package and ships the swimwear to whomever ordered it. Sounds really easy right? Indeed.

Or lets say you were running a private school or college. Something small like a beauty school. You could also accept enrollments online, payments, fill up courses and so forth, and the student does not even talk to a person until they show up for their first day of classes. The idea could eventually be adapted to larger things like universities which are much more complex and offer way more course options, but universities are usually picky about marks and want to interview people before they accept them for enrollment.

In the future all of these paper pushing tasks should become automated. The only things remaining for PEOPLE to actually do is create the items to be sold (or build a robotic mechanism to do that for them), advertise the product (which is likewise becoming more automated with internet advertising) and of course buy them.

Of course we also need teachers along the way, because while the idea of robotic teachers have been around since Astro Boy and The Jetsons, there has not been any major improvements in either artificial intelligence or robotics.






Which begs the question... what happens to all the menial labour people once the machines do really reach a point where we have robotic maids? And what happens to the economy when all those people become jobless or have to be retrained to something else that a robot cannot do?

After all if the robots take away all the easy jobs, regular people will need to learn how to make more complex things by hand, become scientists or engineers, or do something really creative.

ie. Even farming could be automated, the same way robotic vacuum cleaners work on a radio guidance system.

What it means is that we are heading towards a future wherein human existence will be more made up of scientists and engineers (for maintenance) and also lots of people who are artists or craftsmen (because many people will still value man-made products). Much of our society would become dependent on socialism and communism by default, a Star Trek-esque society wherein everyone automatically can find work doing something they enjoy because food, energy and a home is all cheaply made.

If our whole society becomes either scientists or artists there will be nothing left to do but explore the galaxy beyond our own star system. It would become like Star Trek, but in a very real way.

I found the image below and thought it was amusing. In a Darwinian way.

Things we can't prove exist

There are lots of things out there we can't prove exist. I can't even prove YOU exist, because for all I know you're a figment of my imagination.

And even if we do assume human beings and the universe around us is real, what about all the other things we have yet to explain or can't prove?

Examples:

God - People have been trying to prove god(s) exist for millenia using nothing more than theology and wishful thinking. That doesn't mean s/he doesn't exist, it just means the concept of god is so pervasive and part of our culture that there is a lively debate about the existence, nature, form, race, gender and motivations of god(s). Scientists have even devoted significant time to trying to discover the "God Particle", a theoretical sub-atomic particle also known as a Higgs Boson... I'll get back to this topic later.

Aliens - Sure there's been UFO sightings, crop signs in fields and unexplained phenomenon, but until we have first contact no one will ever prove aliens exist.

Santa Claus / The Easter Bunny - Yeah, good luck with that one.

Ghosts - If you've ever seen so much as an advertisement for the TV show Ghosthunters you'd know the actors on the show are morons. Try talking to anyone who claims they've actually seen, felt or heard a ghost and you will either conclude they're perpetuating an hoax or just plain wacko. Until they find a way to capture a ghost and put it on display many people will remain skeptical.

Angels - See ghosts above. Until they can provide proof they're either wacko or perpetuating an hoax.

Atlantis - There is substantial geological and oceanographic evidence that Atlantis was a pear-shaped continent in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Combine this with linguistic and cultural info about the legendary white magnesium continent which "burned into the sea" around 9650 BC according to Plato, Egypt, India and other sources and its in the realm of pseudo-historical. But until Atlantis rises again no one will ever be able to prove it.

Sasquatches - Blurry photographs of "Bigfoot" don't do much, but fossils have been found of what scientists call "homo gigantopithecus" or "homo giganticus". No one has ever captured or killed a homo giganticus however.

Dwarves - Now obviously midgets, pygmies and other 'small people' do exist. But according to legend there was once a society of small people living in the Black Forest of south western Germany. Like pygmies they were small in stature, but nevertheless human. They were later massacred and wiped out by the Romans. There hasn't been a lot of fossil digs in the region however so nobody has ever proved the dwarf legends were real.

Loch Ness - Nothing more than blurry photographs. However Portuguese fishermen during the 1980s found the body of a plesiosaurus floating in the water in the Atlantic Ocean, suggesting such creatures might still exist and have managed to survive for millions of years (sharks have survived for millions of years, so why not the plesiosaurus?). It should be noted Loch Ness is not the only location with plesiosaurus or similar creature sightings. See Sea Serpents of Canada.

Sub-Atomic Particles - Scientists have been working to unravel how sub-atomic particles work for decades using nothing more than theory and trying to prove their case using what little data they can garner from bouncing lasers off particles and measuring the feedback. They've never been able to prove sub-atomic particles are real, and hypothetical particles like the Higgs Boson (or "God Particle") remain a complete mystery. All we can really confirm is that spectral analysis of laser feedback creates some interesting images.

Quantum Singularities - Quantum singularities exist only in science fiction. No one has ever seen one or proven they exist. Scientists can't even agree on a definition of what one would look or behave like. Essentially its a point in space where time doesn't exist and objects passing through it or around it are ripped apart at the point of contact. The fact its fictional hasn't stopped scientists from studying the hypothetical.

Time Travel - While there's never been any evidence that time travel is possible this hasn't stopped many great scientists from theorizing about how to travel faster than the speed of light by creating a stable warp field (warping time and space) around an object. Einstein's theory of relativity, time dilation, special relativity, yada yada yada...

Love - Psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers and poets have been trying to fathom love for millenia. They've never been able to prove love isn't anything more than a chemical reaction in our brains, something which could be neutralized with a pill or damaged with a swift kick to the head.


So what does this leave?

Now this doesn't mean that these people should stop trying to uncover the mystery of something simply because there isn't enough evidence to support its existence. If we follow the factual standards of other people then great scientific discoveries like evolution, nuclear fission and fusion and other things we have yet to explain would have never been discovered.

Examples:

Ball Lightning - This is an unusual and highly rare phenomenon. If you were to see one it would look like a sphere of flashing light moving horizontally across the ground. Ball lightning can travel for miles and miles before it finally dissapates. If you saw it you might very well think its an UFO or even a creature in a halo of light. It wasn't until it was captured on video that people proved it existed. Scientists have since managed to artificially create ball lightning in laboratories using a combination of heat, microwaves and ionized gas. The hot ionized gas becomes a good conductor and the electricity inside it moves around giving off light. (You can even make small ball lightning in your 700+ watt microwave if you feel like experimenting.)

Aspirin - Many different cultures have used medicinal ingredients found in treebark. It wasn't until a French chemist, Charles Frederic Gerhardt, decided to experiment with treebark from beech trees to find what was in it that made superstitious people believe it was helping them. His discovery of acetylsalicylic acid in 1853 later led to the production of Aspirin. If it wasn't for him exploring that superstition we might not have Aspirin today.

Anti-Matter - Anti-matter was first discussed by Arthur Schuster in 1898 in which he theorized that particles could exist which are direct opposites of particles we normally encounter, and that if matter and antimatter collided they would annihilate each other in an explosion of energy. This concept was later used in the popular Star Trek TV series to explain how warp engines got their power. What you might not know is that scientists have been successfully capturing anti-matter in an electro-magnetic field using the CERN super collider in Switzerland since 1995. Fifteen years later scientists are still making new discoveries about how we might use anti-matter as an energy source. It is currently a very expensive process and scientists are trying to determine a safe way to gather more faster, thus making anti-matter cheaper. In 2006 scientist Gerald Smith estimated $250 million USD could produce 10 milligrams of positrons (anti-matter electrons).

Just because something has yet to be explained or proven doesn't mean its theoretical existence should be ignored. Scientists will sometimes quote Occam's Razor (the simplest explanation is often the correct one). Occam's Razor however is NOT an irrefutable principle of logic, and its not a result or evidence by itself. Sometimes there is no simple answer, as ball lightning, Aspirin and anti-matter above demonstrates. The answer is simply waiting to be discovered and it may not be a simple answer.

"Not everything is superstitious hocum."