The term "Hard Sci-fi" is formed by analogy to the popular distinction between the "hard" (natural) and "soft" (social) sciences. Neither term is part of a rigorous taxonomy—instead they are approximate ways of characterizing stories that reviewers and commentators have found useful. The ...
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Artificial lifeform trying to establish contact through compiler bugs
I am looking for a short story I read online a few years ago, about artificial lifeform, with a hard sci-fi taste.
A couple of software engineers were trying to identify a strange program behaviour ...
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0answers
74 views
Iain M Banks - in Memoriam question on culture equivalents [closed]
What other SF milieus by other authors do you know of that most closely have the 'feel' of the culture?
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2answers
245 views
Science fiction novel about benevolent aliens landing on Earth
I read this when I was a child (late 90's to early 00's - your cue to feel old) so my memory of the details is a bit hazy, but the story concerned an alien race making contact with humans.
The main ...
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1answer
144 views
Can someone help me find an early 1980 SciFi Cat space adventure story I read in the mid '80's?
I'm having a heck of a time researching a science fiction, humanoid cats book(s). I'd like to find again that I beleive was published in the mid to early 1980's. I read this book when I was in junior ...
8
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1answer
145 views
Trying to find a book about rediscovered space travel after interstellar war isolates planets
The book is written in the 1980s. The storyline is about an early 20th century level technology planet getting visited by a spaceship which causes quite a stir. The visitors start helping to ...
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1answer
201 views
A series of books involving reptilian-alien protagonists
I'm trying to track down these books I read when I was younger. I've done some fruitless searching online and am stumped. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
The series of books involves ...
4
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3answers
431 views
How does a Dyson Sphere's inhabitants deal without gravity?
It's well known that because the gravitational attaction at one point on the inside of a hollow shell is zero, because it is cancelled by the attraction from all the other points on the interior.
...
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1answer
179 views
How would a stationary object be perceived if travelled towards at the speed of light? [closed]
I'm writing a sci-fi novel but wondering visible objects in space would appear during voyage at the speed of light?
For instance when we see a star 10 light years away we are seeing it as it was ten ...
5
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2answers
239 views
Looking for the name and author of a vaguely remembered sci-fi/cyberpunk-ish book from the 80's
I'm trying to find an old sci-fi book. The trouble is, I read it a long time ago, and read many books in the mean time, so my recollection is a little hazy, but here goes…
It's sci-fi, set in the ...
7
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4answers
397 views
Does Douglas Adams use of 'Infinite Improbability' allude to P=NP?
Having just re-awakened the old P=NP post, I started to think: Is Douglas Adams's description of the discovery of the Infinite Improbability drive via use of the Finite Improbability device a ...
15
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2answers
602 views
What would the sky look like standing inside a Dyson Sphere?
I am working on a roleplaying campaign guide set inside a Dyson Sphere. It's a solid shell around a star like our own and is 300 million kilometers across centered on the star. The atmosphere hugs ...
18
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6answers
796 views
Asimov's laws in pseudocode or applying the 3 laws today
I first asked this at Writers.SE but was advised I might do better here...
I am working on a science fiction novel that will involve a large quantity and variety of synthetic life forms. I have been ...
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1answer
111 views
What are the practical boundaries in the regeneration of the “Visitors” on Solaris?
Would Harey (or an other Visitor)
1. regenerate her hair if cut?
2. Grow her hair or fingernails?
I assume the answer to question 2 is no, because it is stated in the novel, that she will not age, but ...
8
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1answer
387 views
Can someone help me figure out the name of a sci-fi book about space travel at the speed of light?
I read this book when I was much younger and can't remember the name of it but I remember it's one of the best books I've ever read. It starts with this young girl that bumps into an older lady, the ...
6
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1answer
299 views
1980s/1990s SF novel about space marines from a heavy gravity planet?
I'm trying to remember the title of a hard SF novel I read in the early 1990s.
The story featured space marines from a heavy gravity planet. Because of the environment they grew up and trained in, ...
7
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2answers
257 views
Story with a miniature solar system
This was in a sample/preview chapter from another book that the publisher included at the end of something else, so I don't have much to go on, but here are the elements I recall -
the characters ...
11
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2answers
295 views
In Singularity Sky, why did Eschaton kidnap majority of the Earth's population?
Was a simple warning not enough? Or was it a demonstration of power?
7
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1answer
225 views
Identify story wherein special glass slows time
Sorry I don't recall much about this at all. A friend, who had recommended many other books/authors I ended up liking, told me about a story in which a scientist develops some kind of special glass, ...
7
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2answers
1k views
Is the computer security scenario in the movie “Die Hard 4” realistic?
I watched the movie die hard 4 in which they show how someone hacked the complete System of US
They were able to get inside every traffic camera and even camera in lifts.
I want to know that do this ...
9
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3answers
340 views
Is exponential population growth in The Amalgam addressed in Greg Egan's books?
The Amalgam is a galaxy-wide conglomerate of intelligent species that have the technology to scan their brains; it turns up in several of Greg Egan's short stories ("Glory" and "Riding the ...
17
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1answer
556 views
Name of a sci-fi story about time travel
There was a short novel I found in my library few years ago, whose title nor author I don't remember. It was in a hard sci-fi setting: there was a pair of characters (man and women) which traveled ...
4
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1answer
356 views
Plans / timescales for the final novel in Roger MacBride Allen's Hunted Earth trilogy?
I've read The Ring of Charon and The Shattered Sphere by Roger MacBride Allen, as part of the Hunted Earth trilogy. I've really enjoyed them and am saddened to see that the concluding book has not ...
11
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2answers
456 views
What SF novel or short story features characters that can only communicate with musical instruments?
I would like to find out the title of the book or short story that meets this criteria.
Science Fiction novel that the characters use only musical instruments (eg. saxophone, guitar, violin, piano, ...
12
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1answer
190 views
I am trying to find a story that I read online some time ago. (uploading, similar to “Accelerando”, “natural reserve” for humans)
This is what I remember:
I think the author was not a professional writer but the story was cited in other webs.
A main theme was "uploading".
The pace remembered me to "Accelerando" by Charles ...
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5answers
1k views
Invisibility should cause blindness: how does hard sf cope?
One problem I've always thought of with science fiction characters becoming invisible is that they should go blind, because their retina does not catch any light.
Obviously a lot of soft SF or ...
13
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4answers
250 views
What is a good example of a progression from the current state of Cryogenic freezing, to a working system used for interstellar travel?
In all of the books that I read, the intermediate steps in turning cryonics into a useful technology seem to be glossed over, and the actual implementation is not described in great detail.
Is there ...
12
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3answers
520 views
How “hard” is the science behind the genetics mentioned in Blade Runner?
How accurately does the science in Blade Runner reflect the current understanding of genetics?
12
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1answer
182 views
In “Spin” by Robert Charles Wilson, why was it called “the spin?”
I just finished this book, and I never understood why the phenomena/event was called "the spin."
34
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6answers
1k views
What are the criteria for defining “hard” science fiction?
The term "hard" science fiction is used for sf that corresponds to our currently understood science models of the universe. The exact definition of what counts as hard science fiction is too ...
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8answers
3k views
Which was the first novel set in universes where P=NP? [closed]
I wonder whether anyone has written a novel set in a universe where P=NP, in the event that there is more than one, which was the first?
In this universe all problems that could be verified in ...
