[Torg] A possible outlook on the Tech Axiom: No way physics.

[Kansas Jim]

Jasyn writes:

[Smooge wrote:]

>> Such principles imply that certain effects are
>> practically impossible. A small number of principles, however, belong
>> to a different category. These say, in effect, "That cannot happen."
>> Such principles imply that certain effects are physically impossible.
> 
> Such as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (AFAIK.) This isn't a  
> limitation of technology, but a fundamental limitation in the laws of  
> physics. Hence, no tool of physical laws can overcome it, no matter  
> how advanced.

But if we go with that for Torg, we eliminate 90% of the science fiction
that the high end of the Tech axiom is supposed to emulate. The axiom
chart would pretty much end in the 24-26 range because the laws of
physics as we currently understand them say we will never have fast
interstellar travel, teleportation, high-energy laser weapons, none of
that cool stuff. In order to have any of that cool stuff, we have to say
that there will be discoveries made in the future that our current level
of understanding doesn't allow, that there will be technology in the
future that violates the physics of today.

Really, it's not that different from the people of the 19th century
saying that heavier-than-air flight was a physical impossibility, that
there must be a medium through which light waves propagate, that
traveling above 60 mph would be lethal to human beings and a whole
bunch of other things they had wrong. Things were discovered which
proved they had an incomplete understanding of the world, the future
could hold the same for us. From a science fictional standpoint, it
must hold the same for us.

-- 
Kansas Jim, Torg guru (ksjim (at) sdc (dot) org)
Torg website: http://www.sdc.org/~ksjim/index.html