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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.""
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.""
Doesn't that qualify more as "The Sociology of Star Wars"?
Look, normally I am against genocide, but if I found a pile of gungans on my planet... nuke the fuckers.
...by the Bad Astromer. Still, I can never get enough of nitpicking sessions on Hollywood science. :-)
That's all you need to know about the "science" of Star Wars.
Something I never understood: in the first movie, the Death Star blows up Alderaan. Then at the end, the Death Star is moving in on Yavin. How did the Death Star get to the Yazin system? Are we to assume that it can movie around at light speed?
The sad part of this is, that my dad and I once had this conversation a couple of years back (related to the original 3 Star Wars). He always kept nit-picking at them, explaining to me that Luke should have two shadows (if I remember correctly Tattooine had 2 suns, I could be wrong). I guess thats what I get for having a physics teacher for a father.
YOU'RE WINNER !
Another lame blog
did i miss something.. i ... i though starwars was about making money..
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
> 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.
What a crock. Forget the tech and look to morals and clue for the answer. How many countries on THIS planet have the tech to "obliterate, enslave or cook" most of the rest of the population? Obviously it isn't a techological limit. And besides, those Gungans appeared to have a fair bit of tech themselves.
Democrat delenda est
We can't even get on with others that have diffent skin and cultures than us, let alone genes...
Lets say the republic is 10,000 years old (as is alluded to in the movies). Thats mean they've had 10,000 years to turn Us and them to just Us. Culture shares a large part in that, The europeans went from backward thridworld area continually warring with itself to a fairly unified entity in less then 1000 years. It's not hard to imagine, given 10,000 years the various races of the republic would start identifying themselves as a hetrogenous whole rather then a group of distinct peoples.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
The secret's out, people. Now everyone knows that Star Wars is not actually "hard" science fiction!
At least they didn't do a study or anything.
There was a book published with this exact title many, many years ago.
2 209584/103-6435152-7840603?v=glance
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/031
In short, there's no science in the movies at all. None. And everyone should know that.
So Obi and Qui Gon find Anakin infested with force bacteria. Qui Gon says he's make a good Jedi. Yoda says hell no he's to freaking old. The kid is what? four.
Well, spoiler coming, turns out that wasn't the best idea. As Yoda predicted he went to the dark, a bunch Jedis got it in scenes reminiscent of the original Godfather.
Somehow Obi makes it. Hooks up with Luke eighteen years later and says, basically, screw it four years old may be too old to be a Jedi but eighteen is no problem. No freakin way a half assed jedi could get turned to the dark side and make things even efffin worse. I'll train Luke.
Fake science I can live with, clear jedi incompetence is a bit harder.
Human civilization is approx. 4000 years old. In that time we have pretty much closed the technology gap of the vairous tribes of humanity. We can all forge metal, we can all make things move via petroleum based products, we can kill each other with projectiles ect...
In 10,000 the technology gap of a community of star systems that communicate with each other woudl also close. So it's not such a huge issue. Technology doesn't have to spread directly, even the rumor of something being possible can send other cultures into a frenzy to find out how. The stories marco polo brought back from china were more useful then the inventions and products he brought back. It sent europe into a frenzy into trying to mimic these items.
In the proccess of trying to mimic these products they derived their own innovations and advanced further. Over 10,000 this would equilize the technologies of the various intelligent life forms. As for the robots, perhaps innovation in robot designed leveled off long ago and even 100 year old droid are useful. Or AI requires some rare material that is now in short supply so even old droids must be maintained.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Check out the The Force Skeptics Page:
In a galaxy far, far away a long time ago.
You can't argue with history. noobs
In the future there will be homosexual robots
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.
Are they trying to imply that Star Wars wasn't real?
I suppose they didn't really have light sabers, either?
What next, Darth Vader's voice was dubbed?
I'd better lie down a while.
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
They make a few good points, but they're missing some of the Star Wars facts. A few that come to mind:
1. Yoda knew Luke was coming. It wasn't coincidence that he lost control of his fighter and landed in Yoda's back yard. That was the Force. They mention that it might be the case, but aren't sure. Well, it is.
2. There's very little or no liquid water on Tatooine, which they say. But they neglect the fact that this is obvious. Uncle Owen runs a moisture farm, which collects water vapor through a series of vaporators spread across the desert. They grow crops underground in tunnels.
3. Chemists correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the molecular weight determine where oxygen might occur in an atmosphere? If Tibanna, a gas used in heavy blasters in the Star Wars galaxy, weighs more than oxygen, isn't it very possible that there would be oxygen above it? Maybe it's something that's common in the upper atmosphere (we see mining pods floating around), but is breathable in its natural form, sort of like how nitrogen makes up a good part of our breathable atmosphere?
4. They totally copped out on Coruscant. They worry too much about the location. I'd figure that all this intense development on Coruscant might have started long before anybody decided it would be the seat of galactic government. Sure they risk a lot by being there, but you don't want to make the trash on the other side of the outer rim fly all the way across the galaxy, do you? Location, location, location!
5. I don't think Hoth is right in the asteroid field. The Falcon had to fly for a while before they got to it, and eventually (it seems conceivable that the trip took weeks) made it to Bespin. Even at sublight speeds, space vessels in the Star Wars galaxy have got to be pretty fast. All kinds of junk from space makes its way to Earth's atmosphere every day, and it hasn't stopped us from developing civilization. I don't see why the occasional small meteorite would stop animals from living on Hoth.
It seems that for a couple of scientific types, those guys didn't really ask enough of the right questions. That's all I've got.
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Yeah, it seems like their assumption is that if one race can kill the others, they will. I don't think that should be taken as a given.
...but not nearly as dumb as I'm starting to sound with these Star Wars posts.
It does happen in the Star Wars galaxy. The Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk shares its system with Trandosha, home of the reptilian Trandoshans. Trandoshans make a hobby out of killing Wookiees and wearing their fur.
So it can go either way, but to take it as a given that one species will kill the other one for the hell of it is kind of dumb...
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The other is stating that an advanced civilization would shun planets for artificial habitats. For an astronomer, he seems unfamiliar with the fact that the universe is largely cold, empty space with nasty hazards and such. Why would a race automaticly want to go live in space?
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
There was also a National Geographic 'Science of Star Wars' TV special on (I think) Discovery HD. It was basically a 3-hour infomercial with no useful information, at least not for anyone who makes any reasonable effort to keep current in tech.
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what i never understood was the scientific reasoning behind how a "long time ago" in a "galaxy far far away" a species identical to humans (so much to be called by the same name IIRC) evolved and is technologically superior by probably a few centuries to a millenium to us. Anyone have any ideas?
Move Sig, for great justice.
A bullet in your head and the head of every other prepubescent idiot who thinks it's KEWL to troll places like Slashdot would be a really good start.
Oh, sorry. I thought that you said, "What can I do to make the Internet better".
I agree with king-manic that technological gulfs, while huge, could be reduced significantly through interstellar trade. What is more signficant -- and I never see mentioned in these types of discussions -- are the huge gulfs in intelligence and mental abilities. There are going to be species out there that are vastly more intelligent or have incredible memories. In the movies and TV shows, all aliens have pretty much the same brainpower. That's just unrealistic.
Consider the following scenario: a race of technologically advanced reptiles are being attacked by intelligent insects from another world. The insects are more intelligent than the reptiles and have the same level of technological development. The reptiles are fucked unless they can get some help. They approach a world called Earth that contains intelligent bipedial mammals named humans. These mammals show promise but are relatively young and do not have sophisticated technology. They also are highly unpredictable and warlike. Knowing the risks, the reptiles make an offer: if the humans agree to enter the war by serving as tactical officers onboard their warships, the reptiles will provide the humans with advances in medicine, communications, power generation, and warp drive. Humans, eager for a chance to obtain technologies necessary to solve problems on their planet, leap at the chance. The highly-logical insects are used to the methodical, logical battleplans of the reptiles and are baffled by the unconventional tactics of the humans. They are quickly and easily defeated. Fearing they have created a monster, the reptiles quickly sever ties with the humans but not before they have transfered a signficant amount of technological know-how. Within a few decades, humans become a threat to the very reptiles who kick-started their space exploration.
Technology gaps are easily solved. Huge gaps in cognitive function are what make long-duration star wars unlikely.
GMD
watch this
I admit it: i was waiting for a Star Wars story so i could finally post this link (and yes, it is obligatory). That guy's a genious.
Indeed, the science in question is called "accounting".
What keeps me going is my inertia.
The Museum of Science in Boston is opening a Science of Star Wars exhibit in October. They've been building it for 2 years! It's going to be huge and very cool. The website is here: http://starwars.mos.org/>
As much as the next scientist, I like to find ways to conduct outreach and bring science to the public. But I have my limits, and Star Wars is about as far from science as you can get. There are plenty of other, better vehicles. We may as well do the "science" of Sex and the City or the "science" of American Idol. Really.
Lucas and/or some non-scientific Hollywood writer types made some shit up that they thought would fly. It's just dumb for scientists to sit around and come up with justifications for it after the fact when so much of it is so dumb to start with. It doesn't serve the cause of education.
Professor of Astronomy, Author of Spider Star & Star Dragon (Tor)
It does not make sense.
After the last star wars movie, my friends and I spent twenty minutes outside of the theater arguing whether Naboo was an apartheid state.
The only conclusion we came to is that we're total geeks, and we needed to stop before anybody noticed.
Star Wars has racism. Look at the Wookiees! Even Leia uses a racial slur ("walking carpet") to refer to Chewie, and Chewie doesn't get a medal. Even worse, Wookiees are enslaved by the Empire. Imperial crews are all human, even though the Rebels are willing to work with Wookiees, Mon Calamari (Ackbar), etc. Organized crime is filled with ethnic minorities such as Hutts, Rodians, and Twi'leks. (In American history, whenever a new ethnic minority immigrated over, they got involved in organized crime when overwhelming prejudice against them locked them out of legitimate jobs. This is why New York has an Italian mafia to this day.) As another poster has commented, KOTOR has more of this.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
According to this book, tauntauns generally live in underground caves and grottos pretty well stocked with lichens. Remember, Lukes died out in the open at night, they werent built to survive much on the surface.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
1) It's fiction. And a movie. 20 minutes of silent space battle would be boring. It works in Firefly because it's not 30% of the screen time. Maybe they have little AIs in the spaceships that make Surround Sound representations of the events around the ship to aid in navigation. Who knows?
2) What's with the sociology? Repulsorlifts! Lightsabers! Blasters! FTL! That's what we want.
3) It's become amusing how rapidly the "we don't know that yet so it's impossible" crowd jumps out. Sure, it may be the case that we eventually conclude that none of these "effects" are possible in the real world. But what kind of a world can be made in a place where people never research antigravity or FTL or "force fields" 'cause it's all just presumed to be "impossible?"
The "anti-explorers," we'll call them.
Heck, the next-to-last episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise" actually had a zoomed-in camera shot of a Carl Sagan memorial on mars.
By contrast, the gem of "Stars Wars" is not the technology but, rather, is the philosophy: the battle between good and evil. One of the themes of that battle is that good will triumph if you stick to your ideals. In the original trilogy, the Force was available to all, and Obi Wan Kenobi even offered to teach the Force to Han Solo, but the swashbuckler was too arrogant to accept the offer.
Notice how "Star Wars" I and II rather sucked after Lucas tried to inject all that technology into the movies. First and foremost is that concept of midichlorians (which turned the notion of Jedi into some sort of snobbish club into which you are born -- if you inherit midichlorians in your blood). Then, Lucas packs every scene with speedsters (air-borne cars), special effects, etc. All that technology just smothered what little philosophy was there.
300 years from now, the original "Star Wars" trilogy will still be watched by our descendents. The philosophy of "Star Wars" has made it timeless.
I cannot say the same for "Star Trek" or the "Star Wars" prequels.
And Leia, Obi-wan puts her where she'll become a princess, because her mother was a queen. Fer crying out loud, a princess is a princess only because she can document her lineage and everyone will know it! Way to hide her, Obi-wan!
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Yoda's fears about Anakin turning to the dark side were a self-fulfulling prophecy. In their distrust, the Jedi held Anakin down in every way they could, instead of embracing him as the chosen one. The Jedi were poor masters.
Anakin was born as a slave on Tattooine, conscripted into a Jedi slavery where he could not rescue or even visit his mother, and finally sucked into Sith apprenticeship under Sidious. He was always somebody's slave, never free to follow his dreams and wishes. Luke may have felt tied down on the farm, but at least he wasn't a slave. He lived with family, had friends, and got to fix and fly spaceships for fun. Yoda never sensed fear in Luke, only recklessness: a fearlessness that comes from living free.
Obi-Wan totally let Anakin down. Qui-Gon would have let Anakin rescue his mother, the Council be damned. Then Obi-Wan lies to and manipulates Anakin's innocent children to try to undo his mistakes. I'm surprised he waited for Luke to grow up, rather than taking him to Dagobah at age 3.