Exploring Science Through Science Fiction PDF
Preview Exploring Science Through Science Fiction
Barry B. Luokkala EEExxxppplllooorrriiinnnggg SSSccciiieeennnccceee TTTThhhhrrrroooouuuugggghhhh SScciieennccee FFiiccttiioonn ScienceandFiction EditorialBoard MarkAlpert PhilipBall GregoryBenford MichaelBrotherton VictorCallaghan AmnonHEden NickKanas GeoffreyLandis RudiRucker DirkSchulze-Makuch RudyVaas UlrichWalter StephenWebb For furthervolumes: http://www.springer.com/series/11657 Science and Fiction – A Springer Series This collection of entertaining and thought-provoking books will appeal equally to sciencebuffs,scientistsandscience-fictionfans.Itwasbornoutoftherecognitionthat scientific discovery and the creation of plausible fictional scenarios are often two sides ofthesamecoin.Eachreliesonanunderstandingofthewaytheworldworks,coupled withtheimaginativeabilitytoinventneworalternativeexplanations—andevenother worlds.Authoredbypracticingscientistsaswellaswritersofhardsciencefiction,these books explore and exploit the borderlands between accepted science and its fictional counterpart. Uncovering mutual influences, promoting fruitful interaction, narrating and analyzing fictional scenarios, together they serve as a reaction vessel for inspired new ideas in science, technology, and beyond. Whether fiction, fact, or forever undecidable: the Springer Series “Science and Fiction” intends to go where no one has gone before! Itslargelynon-technicalbookstakeseveraldifferentapproaches.Journeywiththeir authors as they (cid:129) Indulgeinsciencespeculation—describingintriguing,plausibleyetunprovenideas; (cid:129) Exploit science fiction for educational purposes and as a means of promoting critical thinking; (cid:129) Exploretheinterplayofscienceandsciencefiction—throughoutthehistoryofthe genre and looking ahead; (cid:129) Delveintorelatedtopicsincluding,butnotlimitedto:scienceasacreativeprocess, the limits of science, interplay of literature and knowledge; (cid:129) Tell fictional short stories built around well-defined scientific ideas, with a supplement summarizing the science underlying the plot. Readerscanlookforwardtoabroadrangeoftopics,asintriguingastheyareimportant. Here just a few by way of illustration: (cid:129) Time travel, superluminal travel, wormholes, teleportation (cid:129) Extraterrestrial intelligence and alien civilizations (cid:129) Artificial intelligence, planetary brains, the universe as a computer, simulated worlds (cid:129) Non-anthropocentric viewpoints (cid:129) Synthetic biology, genetic engineering, developing nanotechnologies (cid:129) Eco/infrastructure/meteorite-impact disaster scenarios (cid:129) Future scenarios, transhumanism, posthumanism, intelligence explosion (cid:129) Virtual worlds, cyberspace dramas (cid:129) Consciousness and mind manipulation Barry B. Luokkala Exploring Science Through Science Fiction BarryB.Luokkala DepartmentofPhysics CarnegieMellonUniversity Pittsburgh,USA ISSN2197-1188 ISSN2197-1196(electronic) ISBN978-1-4614-7890-4 ISBN978-1-4614-7891-1(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-1-4614-7891-1 SpringerNewYorkHeidelbergDordrechtLondon LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2013945865 ©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaNewYork2014 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionor informationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped.Exemptedfromthislegalreservationarebriefexcerpts inconnectionwithreviewsorscholarlyanalysisormaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeing enteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework.Duplication ofthispublicationorpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheCopyrightLawofthe Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer.PermissionsforusemaybeobtainedthroughRightsLinkattheCopyrightClearanceCenter. ViolationsareliabletoprosecutionundertherespectiveCopyrightLaw. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexempt fromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication,neithertheauthorsnortheeditorsnorthepublishercanacceptanylegalresponsibilityfor anyerrorsoromissionsthatmaybemade.Thepublishermakesnowarranty,expressorimplied,with respecttothematerialcontainedherein. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) To Janet, the love of my life and wife of my youth, and To Joseph, who had the courage to go where no elementary school teacher had gone before. Preface Science and science fiction have been passions of mine since childhood. But the combinationofthetwo—usingsciencefictionasavehicleforteachingscience—is something that I only began to explore in relatively recent years. We live in an increasinglytechnologicalworld,inwhichitisincreasinglyimportantforpeopleto bescientificallyinformed.Buttraditionalcoursesinscienceatthecollegelevelare usuallygearedtowardstudentswhoarealreadyontheirwaytowardcareersrelated to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics—the so-called STEM fields. Although there are some notable exceptions, most of the offerings in science for students in the fine arts, humanities, and social sciences continue to be watered- down versions of courses intended for science or engineering students. Students whotakesuchcoursesoftendososimplytofulfilladegreerequirementandwitha sense of trepidation. They often complete such courses with no more interest in science than when they signed up. The present work has one primary goal: to makescienceaccessibletoabroadaudience,includingbothnontechnicalstudents andtechnicallyorientedstudents,withaviewtowardincreasingpublicawareness ofandinterestinscience. Content and Scope The content of the book is organized around seven major questions, which are frequently addressed in works of science fiction: What is the nature of space and time?What istheuniversemadeof?Canamachineever become conscious?Are we alone inthe universe? What does it mean to be human? How do we solve our problems?Whatliesahead?Thereisadeliberateprogressioninthesesevenmajor questions, beginning with the most objective (changing perspectives through his- tory concerning the nature of space and time, the fundamental building blocks of matter, and the properties of materials), followed by topics which have both objectiveandsubjectivedimensions(Isconsciousnesscomputable?Isthereintelli- gentlifeelsewhereintheuniverse?What,ifanything,setshumansapartfromother vii viii Preface closelyrelatedspecies?),andendingwithquestionsthatmaybemorecontroversial and speculative (How do we distinguish between science and pseudoscience? How isscience used ormisusedinattemptstosolvethe problemsfacing society? Whatwillthefutureholdforourtechnologicalsociety?).Inadditiontothemajor questions, each of the chapters includes suggestions for further exploration, with morespecificquestionsandreferencestoscientificliterature. Muchoftheemphasisinthisbookreflectsmytrainingasaphysicist.YetIdonot subscribe to the narrow view of science held by Ernest Rutherford, a famous physicistoftheearlytwentiethcentury,whoproclaimed,“Allofscienceisphysics. The rest is stamp-collecting.” A few of my colleagues have an even more narrow view toward science than Rutherford and will tell you that you aren’t even doing physicsunlessyouaredoingtheirparticularbrandofphysics.Whenitcomestoa discussionofwhatisscience,Iamwillingtoembraceconsiderablymorediversity. Yettherearelimits.Aseriousdiscussionofwhatisscienceandwhatisnotscience is also included in this book. Not all forms of human inquiry are rightly included undertheumbrellaofscience. The Approach Sciencefictionisusedthroughoutthisbookasaspringboardfordiscussingboththe fundamental principles of science and cutting-edge science research. Short scenes fromsciencefictionmoviesandtelevisionepisodesarecritiquedinlightofourcurrent understandingofscience.Classdiscussionfocusesondiscerningthelevelofplausi- bilityofthesciencedepictedineachscene.Tothisend,fourgeneralcategoriesare useful. A handful ofexamples fromsome of the best movies turn out tobe solidly basedongoodscience—thethingsthatweseeonthescreenareactuallyknownto happen,essentiallyasdepictedorasdescribedinthedialog.Anexamplethatfallsinto thisfirstcategoryistherelativistictimedilationdescribedintheopeningsceneofthe original(1967)versionofthePlanetoftheApes.Asecondcategoryincludesthings whicharepossibleinprinciple,butbeyondourcurrenttechnology.Thatistosay,it hasn’t happened yet, but there is nothing in the laws of science to forbid it from happening.An example is thesentientandroid,Commander Data, inthe TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation. A third category is stuff that just can’t happen as shown.Muchofsciencefictionmaybelotsoffuntowatch,butissimplyimpossible, andwewillexplorethereasonswhy.Anexampleofthisistheextraordinarilyrapid rateatwhichtheairleaksoutofaninterplanetaryspaceship,afterbeingpuncturedby a micrometeoroid, in the 2000 movie Mission to Mars. Using a reasonable set of assumptions,wewillcomeupwithanestimateofhowlongitwouldreallytakeand concludethatthescreenwriterssimplywantedtoheightenthesenseofexcitementand danger.Afourthcategoryisonethatisgrowingrapidlyasourtechnologyadvances: thingswhichwerepurelysciencefictionatthetimethatthemovieorTVepisodewas produced,butarenowpartofrealityorareexpectedtobecomepartofrealityinthe very near future. When the movie GATTACA was produced in 1997, the Human Preface ix Genome Project had not yet been completed, and the concept of rapid DNA sequencing, as shown in the movie, was purely in the imagination of the writers. It took an enormous government-funded research project 13 years to complete the sequencingofthefirsthumangenome.Full-genomesequencingcannowbedonein about1dayatacostofabout$1,000. Plausibility Checks and Quantitative Estimations Someofthesci-fiillustrationsareconducivetodoingwhatwemightcallaquantita- tive plausibility check. That is to say, by watching the movie scene we can gather enoughinformationtodoaroughcalculationandthendecideifwhatweseecould actually happen or not. In the text I call these Estimation Problems. The objective ineachcaseisnottoobtainaspecificanswer,whichiseitherrightorwrong(thesort ofproblemsencounteredinmostintroductoryphysicstextbooks).Instead,theideais tocomeupwithanestimate,bymakingareasonablesetofassumptionstosupplement theinformationyoucangatherdirectlyfromthemoviescene.Forexample,howmuch power would be required for a handheld weapon, such as a Star Trek phaser, tovaporizeahumanbody?Theanswerthatyougetwilldependonwhatassumptions youmakeabouthowlongthevaporizationprocesstakes(fromwatchingarelevant scene)andaboutwhatthehumanbodyismadeof.Thenontechnicalstudentshould notbeintimidatedbythefrequentuseofequationsinsomeofthechapters.Where calculationscanbedone,exampleproblemsareworkedoutinthetext,andadditional problemsareproposedforyoutoworkoutonyourown.SolutionsfortheseEstima- tionProblemsareincludedinanappendix. Movie, TV, and YouTube References Collectively, the chapters include over 180 references to specific scenes in 130differentmoviesandtelevisionepisodes,spanningover100yearsofcinematic history. In general, but with a few notable exceptions, I refrain from passing judgment on these works from an artistic perspective. Some of the very worst sci-fi movies ever made actually include some rather useful illustrations and are likelytopromotevery fruitfuldiscussions inclass. Each chapter includesalistof referencestomovieandTVscenes,intheorderthattheyarecitedinthetext.The entire collection of movies and TV episodes cited in the text is also included alphabeticallyinappendicesattheendofthebook. Most of the visual material is available on DVD and is referenced by scene numberforeaseinselectingthedesiredsceneforaclassroompresentation.Afew ofthescenesfromthemostrecentTVseriesepisodeshadnotyetbeenreleasedon DVDatthetimeofpublicationorarenotyetpartofmypersonalDVDcollection. Thesearecitedbyseasonnumber,episodenumber,andairdate.
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