# Stupendous Stupidity in Science Fiction (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932 "2009-08-27T17:57:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/101 "2009-08-28T22:54:06Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > For that, may you be [nibbled to death by cats](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ66wHRhe2U). šŸ˜ƒ [Yiddish]May you stumble through life as a blind horse in a dark ditch at midnight.[/Yiddish]I _like_ cats. They would neverā€¦ow! Hey! Stop! ---
**Author:** ![wunderkammer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ed8c4c/32.png) [@wunderkammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wunderkammer)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/102 "2009-08-28T22:55:55Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > 1. Apollo was a real Greek god. > > 2. Who? 1. But he wasnā€™t a real Greek. 2. Nobody ever believes me! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/103 "2009-08-28T23:08:26Z")
> [@wunderkammer](#): > > 1. But he wasnā€™t a real Greek. He didnā€™t pay his fraternity dues? ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/104 "2009-08-28T23:38:37Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > To be fair, _Signs_ was not a science-fiction movie proper. It was a parable. Complaining about realism in a parable is like pointing out that a camel is too large to fit through the eye of a needle; it means you didnā€™t get it. > > _Independence Day_ ā€“ science fiction flubs aside, how about the idea that, before the humans ever knew about the force fields, they still thought air-to-air missiles with tiny warheads would bring down a 15-mile-wide metal object as complex as a city? Thatā€™s like expecting to sink an _Iowa_-class battleship by waiting for the toaster to pop up. To be fair, the air-to-air missiles with tiny warheads part was a parable. You didnā€™t get it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/105 "2009-08-28T23:44:50Z")
> [@](#): > > To be fair, Signs was not a science-fiction movie proper. It was a parable. Complaining about realism in a parable is like pointing out that a camel is too large to fit through the eye of a needle; it means you didnā€™t get it. To be fair, they didnā€™t say it was a parable, and it looked like a science fiction movie. To be given an ill-thopught-out parable when you were expecting a science-fiction movie ā€” especially considering that it _cost_ as much as a science fiction movie ā€“ is a perfect reason to complain loudly and to throw things\* at the screen \*like M. Night Shyamalan. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/106 "2009-08-29T01:39:48Z")
> [@shantih](#): > > ARGH!! Seriously, do you mind? Iā€™ve got things to do this morning! If Iā€™m still flipping through TV Tropes when my kids get back from school, Iā€™m sending them to you to fix their lunch.[/SIZE] No kidding. That was possibly the most evil post Iā€™ve ever seen on the Dope. _shudder_ Okay, back on the topic of slamming Star Wars. Er, bad science. That first movie of the prequel trilogy. They take a submarine _through the planetā€™s core_. Okay, sure; whatever. They end up in a lake/canal/river/whatever, adjacent to the Nabooian capitolā€¦ which leads to a waterfall that drops _down_ from there. _How did their sub get UP the frackinā€™ waterfall!?!_ Also, how did water pressure at the planetā€™s core not crush their submersible and all of that ridiculous Russian-Doll-predator chain? ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/107 "2009-08-29T02:16:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Thatā€™s like refusing to wear a seat belt, so that youā€™ll be thrown clear in the event of an accident. The entire asteroid burning up in the atmosphere is precisely what youā€™re trying to _avoid_. > > Still, blowing it all to smithereens, if you do it early enough, would probably guarantee that many or most of the smithereens would miss Earth. Wouldnā€™t the act of blowing up the asteroid actually dissapate some of the forward kinetic energy? It doesnā€™t seem right that all the fragments would continue on with the same combined force as the original object. Blowing it apart has to cause some of the energy to be lost, even though there are more particles. Iā€™m not saying it would be a good idea, but energy must be lost, and maybe the combined result of the smaller pieces after would be preferable to the one large object. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/108 "2009-08-29T02:28:45Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Didnā€™t they show that in Episode III, in the battle with General Grievous? Where the gremlins are knocked off the space ship because of the wind? They were fighting low enough that ships were falling out of orbit. Maybe they were still in the upper reaches of the atmosphere? > [@Miller](#): > > My problem with that scene was that if an enemy is going to get close enough to your mine so you can release a bunch of little robots who will disassemble his ship, why not skip the robots and just pack the mine with explosives, which will also disassemble his ship, only much more quickly and finally. I assumed they were weapons to be used exclusively against non-clone fighters and freighters, if they may have good salvage (like a Jedi general as another hostage/P.O.W.). ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/109 "2009-08-29T02:57:08Z")
> [@ghardester](#): > > Wouldnā€™t the act of blowing up the asteroid actually dissapate some of the forward kinetic energy? It doesnā€™t seem right that all the fragments would continue on with the same combined force as the original object. Blowing it apart has to cause some of the energy to be lost, even though there are more particles. > > Iā€™m not saying it would be a good idea, but energy must be lost, and maybe the combined result of the smaller pieces after would be preferable to the one large object. Some of it, sure, but depending on the mass and approach speed of the asteroid, it might not amount to much. We discussed something like this a while ago in a GQ thread titled ā€œCan We Shoot Nuclear Missiles Into Space?ā€; [hereā€™s a post I made](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11340066#post11340066) with a few rough numbers. Basically, assuming a huge several-miles-wide doomsday rock with a mass of about 10[sup]15[/sup] kilograms approaching at 60 km/s, even _ten thousand_ 50-megaton nuclear warheads couldnā€™t reduce its kinetic energy by more than 0.05%. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/110 "2009-08-29T03:06:58Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It makes little difference if they ā€œburn upā€ or not; the energy still gets delivered; rather like expecting a shotgun blast to the face at point blank range to be less lethal than a rifle bullet. To use an analogy; suppose a mountain is dropping on you. Something breaks it into gravel just before it lands on you. Are you any less dead? > > Like **Chronos** says, breaking it up will only do any good if itā€™s far enough away that most of it misses. And with enough force that the fragments donā€™t just arrive in formation. I think your analogy is flawed. Part of what makes a bullet lethal is that its kinetic energy is packed into a very small package. If you took that kinetic energy and spread it out across the entire body, it would require a doctor visit, but probably not a visit to the morgue. Itā€™s exactly what body armor does, in fact. It spreads the kinetic energy of the bullet outā€¦leaves a nice bruise, but is much less lethal. Edit: I just saw the post by Stealth Potato, which seems to show that a few nukes wouldnā€™t be able to affect the mementum of something as large as what was represented in the movie. I still donā€™t think the idea is compeltely without merit, thoughā€¦what are our other options? ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/111 "2009-08-29T03:23:25Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#): > > I think your analogy is flawed. Part of what makes a bullet lethal is that its kinetic energy is packed into a very small package. If you took that kinetic energy and spread it out across the entire body, it would require a doctor visit, but probably not a visit to the morgue. Itā€™s exactly what body armor does, in fact. It spreads the kinetic energy of the bullet outā€¦leaves a nice bruise, but is much less lethal. Another of my posts in that topic contains a roughly computed estimate that the kinetic energy of that same doomsday asteroid, sunk into the atmosphere as heat, would increase global temperatures by an average of maybe 3000 degrees Celsius. :o A simplistic analysis, certainly, and probably a lot of that heat would be radiated outward instead of being _all_ absorbed by the atmosphere, but still it would likely turn the planet into an oven. Thereā€™s just no winning with a rock that size on a collision course with the Earth. The bullet analogy is imperfect because a bullet kills a person by puncturing their squishy parts, and spreading the energy out can certainly prevent a piercing wound. Similarly, breaking up an asteroid will prevent the asteroidā€™s mass from puncturing (or even hitting) the earthā€™s surface, but thatā€™s not what would kill us anyway. The massive release of heat and particulate matter into the atmosphere is what would do us in, and you still have that. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/112 "2009-08-29T03:53:40Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > Another of my posts in that topic contains a roughly computed estimate that the kinetic energy of that same doomsday asteroid, sunk into the atmosphere as heat, would increase global temperatures by an average of maybe 3000 degrees Celsius. :o > > A simplistic analysis, certainly, and probably a lot of that heat would be radiated outward instead of being _all_ absorbed by the atmosphere, but still it would likely turn the planet into an oven. Thereā€™s just no winning with a rock that size on a collision course with the Earth. The bullet analogy is imperfect because a bullet kills a person by puncturing their squishy parts, and spreading the energy out can certainly prevent a piercing wound. Similarly, breaking up an asteroid will prevent the asteroidā€™s mass from puncturing (or even hitting) the earthā€™s surface, but thatā€™s not what would kill us anyway. The massive release of heat and particulate matter into the atmosphere is what would do us in, and you still have that. Thatā€™s why I used the example of a mountain falling on you. A bullet kills because itā€™s a relatively small amount of energy ( you can fire a gun without being knocked over by the recoil, after all ), concentrated on a small area in a short period of time. An asteroid, like a mountain falling on you is lethal due to the sheer amount of energy involved. ---
**Author:** ![Absconditus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Absconditus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absconditus)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/113 "2009-08-29T07:31:15Z")
> [@](#): > > In the original Buck Rogers movies, everyone was wearing boots and capes and button-in-the-back shirts, except the cub reporter who had a pinstripe suit with bow tie, pleated trousers and a Dick Tracy hat. Besides the button-in-the-back shirts, I have to defend the merits of such a universe on account of its [style](http://www.geocities.com/buckrogers_nz/images/captain_buck_rogers_wallpaper1024.jpg). The man depicted above isnā€™t stupendously stupid, heā€™s on a mission; a mission to kickā€“and getā€“some [ass.](http://www.geocities.com/buckrogers_nz/images/simply_erin_wallpaper1024.jpg) ā€¦Ok, maybe he looks kinda ridiculous. But heā€™s an OG in terms of the swashbuckling, space opera hero. Genuine OGā€™s get free passes. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/114 "2009-08-29T22:47:37Z")
> [@The\_Falling\_Reverend](#): > > Have you ever been watching or reading your favorite space opera when you notice a mind boggling act of dumbassery? My examples Im trying to make a case that Aliens should be included. Send out a squad of Marines to investigate a planet and yet have no starside back up, as in the spaceship is completely automated it seems. Every team has its weakest link, meet the lieutenant, hello weakest link. Instead of being somewhere useful like actually with the combat team, this guy is in the rear inside an armored APC watching everything from camera feeds to Bio-metrics. Way to inspire the troops, when you have to tell em to hold off using the real firepower. One , sending out a wet behind the ears LT seemed kinda stupid. I get that as far as the Marines knew it was just a colony that had dropped off the net and someone had to go knock knock. Sounds like a reasonable mission for a first time LT, but this guy did not seem , um mentally agile enough to go with a fluid situation. No one informs the drop ship to button up or provide some sort of security for it. Again, boring duty and usually ends up hunting some native fauna but they seemed way to complacent for a Marine gunship crew, on a planet that has dropped off the comm nets and the population has mysteriously vanished Now we have a big reactor that when you remove the cooling , goes off with the fireball of a forty megaton fusion bomb, has no sort of failsafes. (Actually I would have perfered if they removed the safeties and so forth) , what did that reactor contain that would generate that explosion. Weapons loadout. 10 mm armor piercing , along with those crew servoā€™d heavys and flame throwers, (the book says automated manjacks too). Just what the average marine fire team needs for visiting a colony of humans thats dropped off the net, the fact that the above mentioned reactor must be in the specs and no one thought of it. It takes a merchant marine officer to notice and ask the big question. Loved the movie , but somethings ā€¦ Declan ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/115 "2009-08-29T22:53:09Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > Im trying to make a case that Aliens should be included. > > Send out a squad of Marines to investigate a planet and yet have no starside back up, as in the spaceship is completely automated it seems. > > Every team has its weakest link, meet the lieutenant, hello weakest link. > > Instead of being somewhere useful like actually with the combat team, this guy is in the rear inside an armored APC watching everything from camera feeds to Bio-metrics. Way to inspire the troops, when you have to tell em to hold off using the real firepower. > > One , sending out a wet behind the ears LT seemed kinda stupid. I get that as far as the Marines knew it was just a colony that had dropped off the net and someone had to go knock knock. Sounds like a reasonable mission for a first time LT, but this guy did not seem , um mentally agile enough to go with a fluid situation. Iā€™m sorry, but you donā€™t think this has ever happened IRL? An inexperienced, unprepared officer getting in over his head? ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/116 "2009-08-29T23:28:37Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > I hate to detract from a Star Wars geekfight, but I need to mention a science-fiction stupidity that I recall from another series. > > In the original V, the aliens land, announce they are from Sirius, and put on sunglasses against the brightness of our sun. Hello? Sirius? About 40 times brighter than our sun? > > The aliens are LYING about their system of origin and NOBODY called them on that! > > (My fiance at the time did not understand why this upset me. Not that she didnā€™t understand why I was upset at a TV show, but that she could not understand that Sirius is a real star, and people really, really know how bright it is. Needless to say, the marriage did not occur.) How do you know that his planet is so close to Sirius that the brightness level is greater than here on Earth? I mean, any planet that could sustain life around Sirius would have to be damned far away. Might also be under a permanent cloud bank, a la the way Venus was described in the old Burroughs era novels. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/117 "2009-08-29T23:30:56Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > What can I say? The reason Iā€™m not married to the young lady at the time is my jumping up and down and screaming about Star Wars in the theater. I was taking physics courses at the time. Sorry about that, but hereā€™s something with a better outcome: Wasnā€™t there some general releae movie that involved a submarine and an iceberg? (Maybe someone can cite the movie, because Iā€™ve never seen it, and canā€™t recall anything else this one reviewer said about it.) There is supposedly a dramatic scene in which chunks of ice from an iceberg started to fall down on the submarine, endangering the crew. Now, just think about that for a whileā€¦ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * **ICE FLOATS! ICE _FLOATS!!!_** Thatā€™s what one of the science ā€œguysā€ (ā€œBad Physicsā€ site, maybe?) yelled out during the scene. It wasnā€™t a deep concept at all, and everybody in the theater immediately realized the silliness of the scene and cracked up! ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/118 "2009-08-29T23:30:58Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > And spacecraft maneuver with control surfaces in space. :rolleyes: What control surface? If you mean the ā€œwingsā€ on the X-wing fighter, thatā€™s not a true wing. Itā€™s a way of positioning the jets so that more precise control is able to be had, since they are separated from each other. šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/119 "2009-08-29T23:50:33Z")
> [@True Blue Jack](#): > > Now, just think about that for a whileā€¦ Maybe it was heavy water. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/120 "2009-08-30T00:05:24Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Maybe it was heavy water. But if the ice was made from heavy water, surely the ice would **explode!** when it hit something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932.md?page=7)