Note to aspiring writers

[mrissa]

The fundamental constants of the universe apply to human beings. AAAAAARGH. If the premise of your book involves a change in the electroweak force, human beings will be affected. If they are not, you are dealing with something supernatural or at least extranatural on an extremely large and invasive level, and some sign that you, the author, recognize that might be a good freakin' idea.

We have understood bits of science in chunks that are much more separate than the science itself is. The things that make our brains work and the things that make our motors and generators and gunpowder work are not separable things.

I don't care how Karelian your main character is if you don't understand that "science" cannot be turned off in convenient chunks. My Finnophile self is so very trumped by Marissa Lingen, Girl Physicist, who does not live very far under the surface and has been around much, much longer. ML,GP: coming up on 18 years now. Finnophile: 4 years. You cannot bribe me to look away from your total idiocy with a nice, shiny puukko.

You have been in this field too long not to know the phrases "strong anthropic principle" and "weak anthropic principle" and how they might work in reverse.

I'M TALKING TO YOU, S.M. STIRLING.

Comments

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

Hee. Yes. I'm all for willing suspension of disbelief but things have to have an overall ring of truth or they really piss me off. And nothing ticks me off more than an author breaking the rules of their universe when they set them up in the first place.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And I do recognize that one person's suspension of disbelief is another's hanging by the neck until dead. Still. Oh, still.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Yep. This is that thing where I'm willing to suspend my disbelief, but not hang it by the neck until dead.

I can understand people starting to make this mistake for, oh, several seconds at a time, before they catch themselves and say "Oh, wait, these human bodies will be affected by this, won't they?"

Even a full-blown dualist, who thinks there's some kind of ghost out there that's the "me", even if it's somehow implemented "beyond physics" -- it still ties into the body, and if the body is different it will change the story.