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+--- Thread: I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" (/showthread.php?tid=5733)
I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" - Dark Jaguar - 13th May 2010
Energy is not a "raw thing" like that.
What's wrong with this interaction?
Holographic lifeform A: It's like his body has been transformed into pure matter!
Holographic lifeform B: So like, lead, water, baryonic, dark, what?
A: Just, pure matter!
If you see why that sort of statement makes no sense, maybe you'll get my big issue with this common cliche in sci-fi. It's just lazy writing, and it makes no sense by the very definition of what energy is. I'd have accepted "unobtanium force" or "spirit energy" or even "magic energy" but "pure energy"? That's just gibberish!
I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" - alien space marine - 13th May 2010
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Branon Braga probably wrote the episode your griping about Missy.
I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" - Weltall - 13th May 2010
I'm capable of understanding the intended meaning behind 'pure energy', so its technical inaccuracy doesn't bother me.
If that kind of thing makes you picky, science fiction in general must drive you bugshit.
I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" - Dark Jaguar - 13th May 2010
Intended meaning? What sort of intended meaning would that be, when "pure energy" is meaningless?
ASM, once again I'm left unable to understand a thing you're talking about. I'm not talking about any particular scene, it's across all of sci-fi.
I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" - Great Rumbler - 13th May 2010
If you want to blame anyone, blame Lord Kelvin:
Quote:Vortices of pure energy can exist and, if my theories are right, can compose the bodily form of an intelligent species.
I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" - Weltall - 13th May 2010
Dark Jaguar Wrote:Intended meaning? What sort of intended meaning would that be, when "pure energy" is meaningless?
A convenient term to describe a state which does not resemble anything a layperson would recognize as the kind of solid matter which we all assume is necessary to support life.
It's not technically accurate as far as a term goes, but why complain about this? sci-fi is rife with all kinds of misinterpreted technobabble and naked bullshit.
I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" - lazyfatbum - 13th May 2010
A star is a collection of things in unison creating pure energy, ASM's nukes have the end result of pure energy. To get more technical on the term 'pure' meaning it contains only energy and no other products, the energy that holds and binds atoms together to create molecules would then be pure energy. This can be applied to the sending and receiving of pulses from neurons in the brain which is a bizarre passive (but pure) energy.
Matter is a totally different... matter because it's not a force, it's physical form. By that simple idea, anti-matter would then be energy as it has no physical form, just force. That's the basis for a lot of sci-fi with a ship's engines using anti-matter.
Like radiation permeates an object, it's believed that anti-matter can 'pass through' in working theories. So just like you can radiate material, you can (in theory) add the effects of anti-matter to material. Giving you the ability to have a physical core, or move anti or dark matter as a physical thing, such as fuel cells that use anti-matter as a method to generate energy when used in tandem with other methods, such as nuclear (that is a reality our military is trying to concieve) This is part of how the Galactic Federation's ships work in Star Trek lore (never explained in the series, but explained in detailed renders and novels and all based on theorhetical designs real engineers are experimenting with).
In the new show V, at one point the main anty decides to lure the trust of humanity further by offering 'Blue Energy', a limitless and pollution-free alternative to any power source. Since it's a TV show and wants to appeal to its audiences, it uses subjects that are important today, such as talk of "Green Energy", hence the word play. The actual power source of blue energy is total fantasy but interesting, based on what I saw, I think the writers are experimenting with the idea that a strong enough negative and positive interaction (probably frequencies) can alter the nature of molecules so all they leave behnd is their energy signature, so by pulling these two marbles apart, it releases energy in the form of a pretty blue gas cloud which moves with semi-sentience and is attracted to other energy sources (including living things).
In reality, there was that little discussion about cold fusion and someguy said he made it, then he died (I'm sure you know the story). No one talks about it anymore. But the principal was the same thing found in sci-fi: Limitless, pure, free energy created by the ability to manhandle the molecules responsible for everything from butterfly farts to nuclear fission. It sounds fantastical and childish but it's still a dream we all share, especially the military.
Ever drive a car that runs on hydrogen? The dream of it is what appeals to us, so of course it's in our sci-fi. But I understand what you mean, it has to be told well enough so that it makes sense. But if it doesn't, IMAGINE IT and fill in the gaps the writers made! XD
I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" - Dark Jaguar - 13th May 2010
lazy, simply put, I'm sorry to say but that's wrong. Stars and nuclear weapons don't make "pure energy". It's electromagnetic radiation, light, in very dangeriously highly energetic forms. There's also the obvious kinetic energy of the blast wave, and heat energy, but not "pure energy".
And anti-matter is not pure energy, it's just matter with a reversed charge. It could more accurately be called "negative matter" with our matter being "positive". Basically in antimatter, the protons are negatively charged and the electrons are positively charged.
You may be thinking of dark matter, but that's not supposed to be pure energy either. It's supposed to be an exotic form of matter with a lot of unknown properties, but what properties it DOES have are that it's only interaction with other matter is gravitational. Neutrinos also pass through matter, but in that case it's a matter of size. They're so small the odds of ever contacting the actual "bits" in normal matter are almost but not literally nonexistant. You'd need a lightyear of lead to have a good chance of impact with something in there.
Fusion would be amazing, but cold fusion just isn't going to happen. It'll need to be hot. There's no chemical reaction that's just going to make that occur. It needs insane heat and pressure, like the inside of a star, or really massive devices like the Tokavak (I think I spelled that wrong). There isn't just "a guy" who "discovered" cold fusion. Every few years another new upstart claims to have invented it, gets tons of investors really hyped up, takes their money, delays and delays and delays, and then just vanishes with nothing accomplished. It's a scam.
I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" - lazyfatbum - 14th May 2010
I think we're both confused, energy is just energy. It's invisible usually but it can be anything, right?
Me sneezing is pure energy. It's a culmination of a bazillion of things but the outcome is pure energy.
A nuclear bomb, stars, etc are pure energy. In so many words, their make-up is purely energy. Just like the energy created by my sneeze (cats are shedding). I see you said "make" which I didn't say, I said that they "are" pure energy.
Anti-matter and dark matter are interchangeable at times but I specifically meant invisible dark matter, not just reversed particles like how they make the incredible Hulk. Though anti-matter has been on the radar for quite some time as a method in to all kinds of experimental energies. There's something called Baryon's table which is really boring and entirely theorhetical but it suggests that the universe was once anti and none anti but the anti was absorbed or destroyed. I think it's all there just out of our scope, like the still unknown elements, radiations and so on.
I dont think I understand what you're describing. Lightning, in any form, is pure energy... aye?
I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" - lazyfatbum - 14th May 2010
baryon asymmetry! not table, wow, I just got highschool flashbacks and tried to check my neck beard.
more cool stuff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter
I'm sick of lazy sci-fi writers saying "Pure Energy" - lazyfatbum - 14th May 2010
In your example, a person becoming pure energy would mean that they're only the energies and none of the matter. That makes perfect sense to me, it's not fundamentally an untruth and can be completely plausible. They are simply the energies that held together the molecules, without the molecules. This is a real thing, I mean it's done in labs though highly unstable.
Are you saying you wish they went in to details about the specific types of energy in the make-up of the "matter-less being"? If a person became nothing but energy, they'd disperse bouncing and absorbing in to everything, but most good sci-fi has a reason why it's staying together. Sometimes explained by the technology, a byproduct of the method to how they became matter-less or that they have become ethereal, like a real ghost, or even playing on religious aspects. "His will to live was so strong" etc.
I wish I could find the vid cuz it's amazing. But basically a person cuts a leaf off a plant then photographs it while firing different radiation at it, the resulting picture would reveal that energy is still coupled where the leaf was, slowly dispersing over time. A less scientific example is when people with recently amputated limbs will feel their missing limbs, even specific things such as itching, pain, tickling, etc. and it cant be explained. So even a story where a person becomes pure energy but only exists for an hour or so before discombobulating would be completely believable as far as I understand it.
Did you see (or read) Watchmen? The good doctor spent months dispersing all over the base and training himself to keep his energy together and form whatever he wanted. He can totally kick your ass too so you'd better agree.