(ReacTor) Five Works of SF Inspired by Pseudoscience

[James Nicoll]

Five Works of SF Inspired by Pseudoscience

Some good (or at least interesting) SF has been based on truly
bonkers pseudoscience.

https://reactormag.com/five-works-of-sf-inspired-by-pseudoscience/

[David Duffy]

Post by James Nicoll
Five Works of SF Inspired by Pseudoscience
Some good (or at least interesting) SF has been based on truly
bonkers pseudoscience.
https://reactormag.com/five-works-of-sf-inspired-by-pseudoscience/

Lots of great art based on bonkers systems down the millenia - as
long as they make a nice pattern.

But this is tangled up by the demarcation problem (beloved of
philosophers of science). Recall that the recent flap about
a replication problem in science started around:

Bem DJ: Feeling the future: experimental evidence for anomalous
retroactive influences on cognition and affect. J Pers Soc
Psychol. 2011;100(3):407???425.

and even

Bem D, Tressoldi P, Rabeyron T, and Duggan M.
Feeling the future: A meta-analysis of 90 experiments on the anomalous
anticipation of random future events F1000Res. 2015; 4: 1188

I don't kmow why people weren't more suspicious of a man called Bem.

Cheers, David Duffy.

[Mad Hamish]

Post by James Nicoll
Five Works of SF Inspired by Pseudoscience
Some good (or at least interesting) SF has been based on truly
bonkers pseudoscience.
https://reactormag.com/five-works-of-sf-inspired-by-pseudoscience/

Needed footnotes about the Illuminatus trilogy

[Cryptoengineer]

Post by Mad Hamish

Post by James Nicoll
Five Works of SF Inspired by Pseudoscience
Some good (or at least interesting) SF has been based on truly
bonkers pseudoscience.
https://reactormag.com/five-works-of-sf-inspired-by-pseudoscience/

Needed footnotes about the Illuminatus trilogy

One of my favorite series.

pt

[Joy Beeson]

Post by James Nicoll
Five Works of SF Inspired by Pseudoscience
Some good (or at least interesting) SF has been based on truly
bonkers pseudoscience.
https://reactormag.com/five-works-of-sf-inspired-by-pseudoscience/

One of the comments made me realize that the Lensmen must have been
inspired, in part, by hybrid corn. Only in part, because the seeds
produced by the hybrid are not good for planting.

Breeders create two inbred strains, then plant them in alternating
rows and detassel the female parent and, after the seed has set, mow
down the male parent.

(I wonder whether anyone on this forum remembers the "Texas
Male-Sterile Cytoplasm" disaster.)