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Hard Sci Fi (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/whitepeopletwitter@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 1 point 6 months ago (6 children)

It's tricky because there are several potential meanings of, "hard sci fi".

Some people specifically mean that it lacks any "woke" elements.
Sometimes it means that it doesn't address any social issues and is limited to an action movie with fantasy physics.
Sometimes it's about a standard of how realistic the physics fantasy physics are.

I probably wouldn't count Star Trek as "hard sci fi" on any of these criteria and that's not a bad thing. In general, good science fiction isn't really about the science. It's about the people and the science is just a vehicle to explore questions and ideas about people.

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  • [–] 7 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    I've never, ever heard anyone use either of the first two "definitions." I read a stupid amount of SF and reviews of SF. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you've just heard some people using a term incorrectly, which doesn't constitute an alternate definition.

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    It's a pretty standard response from when people are trying to disguise their hatred for any hint of progressive politics. They won't say, "I don't like this show because they have a black lesbian." They'll try to dismiss it as fake sci-fi by responding with, "I only like hard sci-fi."

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    Your second description is literally the definition of soft scifi. No one on planet earth calls comics hard science fiction.

    Anyway, Trek is a little hard in that it DOES deal with social issues, and scientific implications, and does what scifi is meant for. But it also has teleporting and magic gods.

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