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Dear /tg/,
how do you make hard sci-fi into something softer, without adding psychic powers, laser swords, and other "fantasy" elements.
basically, I like fairy weirdness, goblin riddles, greek monster, etc that are at home in fantasy/mythology, but like rocketing around in spaceships, having wars, doing mail-runs, etc... but I can't work out how to take that "weird" and put it into spaceships, without making it feel like I'm taking away from the space-ship stuff.
I mean, Cthulhu-stuff is one option, but it can be a bit grim and samey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RHFFeQ2tu4
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSccwmmrS5A
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>>55341408
runaway transhuman cultures with visions of grandeur as they transform the Orion Spur
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>>55341829
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>>55341408
Define 'hard' sci-fi.
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>>55341841
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>>55341851
well, hardest would be no FTL, the Martian-style dicking about, and barely surviving in space.
softer is actually having fights in space or colonising other planets
softerer is colonising other galaxies and maybe self-sustaining space-stations
at some point FTL gets added
at some point phoning another planet is easy and immediate
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>>55341966
No, I wanted to know what the OP considered hard.
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>>55341985
let's say The Expanse, and start moving towards Flash Gordon then.
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>>55341408
Make it AI. Man makes AI. AI makes tech so complex that humans can no longer understand. However, the AI really can't grasp making an AI, so humans an AI coexist in harmony, as they need each other for their mutual continued existence.
The AI does all sorts of seemingly weird stuff by using uber advanced multi physics schemanigans that humans can't begin to grasp. Some humans begin to perceive this as magic, as the humans stop trying to understand and instead make ever better AIs.
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>>55342695
"Uber science" isn't hard sci-fi, it's fantasy in bad drag.
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>>55342695
that's a good idea. I mean, I don't like super AI that much, but weird AI is good, especially given the recent stuff
https://www.fastcodesign.com/90132632/ai-is-inventing-its-own-perfect-languages-should-we-let-it
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>>55341408
Read GURPS Transhuman Space. It has most of what you are looking for and is hard as hell sci fi. You can always change it up if you don't like it, but it's a good place to start. And replace GURPS with something else if you want (even GURPS fans will buy Changing Times and get up to 4e).
You can add FTL to hard sci fi and mostly the Project Rho crowd will be ok with it. (Google "atomic rockets" for details.)
Poof! Done.
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