The Science of Star Wars

anonymous lion writes "National Geographic has an interesting interview with a couple of scientists on the scientific reality of Star Wars. For example, related to the cohabitation of humans and Gungans on NabooSeth Shostak states, "So maybe it's possible to share, as long as neither species has the technology to obliterate, enslave, or merely cook and eat each other.""

Comments

Re:Better option

[jspoon]

That's still iffy. Even a neutron bomb will create a lot of heat and spread around a fair amount of un fissioned material. There's an obvious clean solution if you think about it. If you can go into space, just haul in some appropriately sized asteroids to drop on them, a la The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Re:Cohabitation

[poor_boi]

Yeah, it does seem as though the authors are making the assumption that all species are going to beat the crap out of each other.

I think if you just plopped down the Naboo and the Gungans in their pictured state of technological development, with all their gadgets and what-not, they could probably get along.

If we're talking about co-evolution, it seems rather unlikely, unless -- like other /.ers have said -- they consumed extremely different resources and inhabited incompatible / inaccessible areas of the planet.

Had the two races come into contact with each other somewhere earlier down the evolutionary chain, one would have competed with and severely stunded the evolutionary process of the other. That's not to say 'driven to extinction', but rather 'driven stall at a less intelligent stage of evolution'.

But the universe is a big place, and the only life and ecosystems we know are our own. So hey. Yea. It could happen. Why not?

Re:The sad part is

[terrymr]

Tatooine is a town in Tunisia (north africa) near the sahara desert, It's pretty dry and hot there.

Luke skywalkers cave house is an example of the kind of homes you find in southern Tunisia, I forget the name of the town.

Those Jedi robes are worn by a lot of people because of the cold nights in the area.

Lucas recycled most of this into the movie, because it was already there and therefore cheap.

Re:The sad part is

[StikyPad]

I was suspect of your claims (sounds too much like an urban legend), but a quick Google search confirms this.

Here's a great slideshow: http://ianandwendy.com/OtherTrips/Tunisia/Tatooine /slideshow.htm
(Pops up in a new window). Note the Jedi robe in the second to last photo. Hopefully we don't melt poor Ian and Wendy's webserver.

Re:Cohabitation

[bckrispi]

Unless the resources required for two life forms is remarkably different or there is a truly symbiotic relationship...

OBI-WAN : You and the Naboo form a symbiont circle. What happens to one of you will affect the other. You must understand this.

I think that clears up that question. :)

The gungans were ocean-dwelling amphibians. The naboo were urban humans. It stands to reason that there would be a demarcation of the resources that they consumed. Their differences appeared to be totally social. The Naboo didn't trust the Gungans because they kept a standing army. And the Gungans thought the Naboo thought themselves superior.