Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lake
Well, there's two basic "types" of sci-fi if you want to go into what's allowed and what's not. "Hard" scifi is any sci-fi story that sticks as absolutely close to accepted rules and theories of science as possible. "Soft" or "mass media" scifi is any type of sci-fi that goes into the impossible or the extraordinary. IE, FTL, Time Travel, etc.
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That's not the definition I've heard and used over decades of being involved in the field.
The distinction lies in sources. "Hard SF", as I and those I know think of it, is SF based on the "hard" sciences, with Physics far out in front as a starting point. It assumes underlying discoveries we haven't made yet, that permit us to do things we cannot currently do, like travel FTL. Soft SF has less quantifiable grounds, and may include things based on linguistics, psychology, or sociology. The basic distinction probably comes down to "Can the underlying science be treated mathematically?" If it can, it's arguably hard SF. If it can't, it's soft SF. (You will find folks who make a justifiable claim that if it
can't be treated mathematically, whatever it is, it's
not science.)
If we use your definition, an awful lot of what is commonly considered hard SF suddenly isn't, and I don't think that's what you intend.
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Dennis