Re: It is not just Physics that Should be Hard in Hard SF

On Sat, 12 Oct 2024 11:44:28 +0100, Robert Carnegie
<rja.carnegie@gmail.com> wrote:

On 21/09/2024 18:02, Robert Woodward wrote:

I think authors mess up biology quite often in Science Fiction/Fantasy.
For example, IMHO, genetic engineering will be much more difficult than
some authors assume because an individual's DNA isn't the blueprint but
the assembly instructions.
 
Also, I have seen stories where advanced bio-technic civilizations use
bacteria (or multicellular organisms) to wreck havoc on our type of
technology. Essentially, they are speeding up rust and other forms of
degradation by one or more orders of magnitude. This, unfortunately,
requires one of more orders of magnitude more power at the cellular
level (probably greater amounts of stored energy as well).

>
One, there are catalysts.  Two, it may be
happening for a while before humans realise
there's a problem and then understand it.
>
It it knocks out 21st century computers,
we're pretty much dead as a civilisation.

Yep.

We could, I suppose, go back to recording things on mud bricks and
then firing them. Or on rock. And then keeping the records out of the
weather.

Hey, it worked for Assyria, Chaldea, Persia, and Egypt! Among others,
no doubt.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"