Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
With respect, I have to disagree. I put the dividing line a little further down the road. Time travel, if done right, examining it in the light of what is considered plausible within the scope of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity should be considered a reasonable playground for a Hard Science Fiction Story.
In my opinion, the dividing line occurs if there is no scientific basis, or if the scientific basis for something is so thin as to be beyond plausible. If we limit ourselves to what is known to be true, then an awful lot of science fiction stories that are currently considered Hard will have to be labeled as soft scifi.
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Well, to me, "if the scientific basis for something is so thin as to be beyond plausible" is the exact definition of time travel stories. Quantum mechanics and general relativity allow for the translation of
some individual particles in time, but that's a long way from intact objects. Same goes for FTL travel.
Anyway, that's just my opinion on those particular vehicles, and when it comes to "plausibility," there's a lot of subjectivity involved (or we wouldn't be debating these things at all).