Skip to main content

Home/ Fantasy and Sci-Fi Writers/ Do devices in steampunk or clockpunk have to follow the laws of physics?
Bill Bittner

Do devices in steampunk or clockpunk have to follow the laws of physics? - 21 views

started by Bill Bittner on 06 Jun 08
  • Bill Bittner
    #1 Bill Bittner on 06 Jun 08
     
    For example, take a clockwork robot. In order to walk on two legs, it would need to process a lot of information. And a clockwork brain may not be able to process this much information, due to friction. Plus, if it's energy source is purely spring-based, such a source would scarcely be enough to make the robot walk more than a few steps, let alone process the information it needs to take those few steps.
  • anonymous
    #2 anonymous on 29 Apr 09
     
    As always, the writer has to understand the social contract with his/her readers in order how "true-to-life" his mechanisms must be. If his readers are willing to follow the story without questioning, your example would be fine.

    It comes down to understanding the genre and making sure your readers know which genre you are working in, early on in the story..

    I walked out on Star Wars when it first hit the movie theaters. I just couldn't take WWII-era designed star fighters that banked against vacuum and whose jet engines roared, again in a vacuum. But then, I thought I was watching science fiction, instead of fantasy.


    Bill Bittner wrote:
    > For example, take a clockwork robot. In order to walk on two legs, it would need to process a lot of information. And a clockwork brain may not be able to process this much information, due to friction. Plus, if it's energy source is purely spring-based, such a source would scarcely be enough to make the robot walk more than a few steps, let alone process the information it needs to take those few steps.
  • Jake Burt
    #3 Jake Burt on 03 Aug 09
     
    There'll always be readers who demand physical realism. In my writing, I've found that the way around it can be a "less is more" approach. The less I go into the physics of something, the more likely the reader is to accept it. What's more, if the characters accept it, the readers will be more likely to, as well. Just make the human interaction with the thing (clockwork robot, steam zeppelin, what have you) believable, and you'll have a believable steampunk creation.

    EDIT: and, now that I read Mike's post, I'd add that if the thing is described in a sensorily satisfactory way, it's going to be fine for the reader. Who cares whether the thing has the processor capability to handle its function? We wanna know that it sounds like what we think it should sound like, that it looks sufficiently cool to hold our attention, and that it smells sufficiently steampunky....whatever steampunk smells like (white pine and axle grease, perhaps?)




    Bill Bittner wrote:
    > For example, take a clockwork robot. In order to walk on two legs, it would need to process a lot of information. And a clockwork brain may not be able to process this much information, due to friction. Plus, if it's energy source is purely spring-based, such a source would scarcely be enough to make the robot walk more than a few steps, let alone process the information it needs to take those few steps.

To Top

Start a New Topic » « Back to the Fantasy and Sci-Fi Writers group