Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
I suppose the optimism axis is defined as "It might be unlikely, but we will/will not figure it out"?
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Well, I read the optimism axis as more of a the future will be a utopia -- the future will be a dystopia axis.
X-axis is "does the author get the science correct?" Left is "D'oh! it's all wrong" while right is "Aha! it's all correct!"
Y-axis is "optimism". Bottom is "blah, the future is going to be miserable", top is "Whoo! the future is going to be lots of fun"
In James Nicoll's opinion:
Steven Baxter is in the D'oh-blah quadrant
Larry Niven is in the D'oh-Whoo! quadrant
Hal Clement is in the Aha!-Whoo! quadrant
and he could not think of an author for the Aha!-blah quadrant.