Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Let's begin with an idea that's appeared in many science fiction books, such as Simmons' "Rise of Endymion", Brin's "Heaven's Reach" and Banks's "Consider Phlebas". The basic concept is a swarm of solar satellites that would theoretically capture most of the sun's energy, but in fiction the concept has been expanded to theorize a globe of solid matter completely enclosing a star, capturing ALL the star's energy. What is this called?
2. Here's another science-fictional idea that's theoretically possible. Sometimes called a 'skyhook' or an 'orbital tower', the idea is to run a cable from Earth through a geostationary point to a counterweight way out into space, so you'd have a way to quickly and cheaply get things into orbit and out of the planet's gravity well. What is the name of this concept, found in Robinson's "Mars" trilogy, Niven and Barnes' "The Descent of Anansi" and Heinlein's "Friday"?
3. A popular idea in science fiction is a spacecraft propelled by light--huge mirrors catch photons or solar winds from the sun, or light beams from Earth, and move the ship. The idea appears in Niven and Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye", Boulle's "Planet of the Apes" and Clarke's "Sunjammer". What is this idea called?
4. Another science-fictional concept which may actually happen someday is the idea that we humans create machines that are actually more intelligent than us--and then THOSE intelligences create more intelligent beings still, and so on, until, according to writer Vernor Vinge, "the human era will be ended". What is this concept called in books like Stross' "Accelerando", MacLeod's "Newton's Wake" and the Culture books of Iain Banks?
5. A concept that's been around since 1959 has become more popular in recent fiction now that it's getting closer to reality. Examples include the Borg of "Star Trek" and their assimilation technology, Crichton's novel "Prey" and its microscopic robots, and Bear's "Blood Music". What is the scientific term for the controlling of matter on an atomic level or a molecular level?
6. An 'electromagnetic catapult' is a frequent idea in science fiction. The theory is that a series of electromagnets propels a payload at high speeds in order to fling it into orbit or into space. The idea was first written about in Munro's "A Trip to Venus" in 1897, in which an 'electric gun' shot passengers from Earth to its sister planet. What is an 'electromagnetic catapult' better known as?
7. It doesn't look like we'll ever be able to break the speed-of-light barrier, so trips to other stars will take a LONG time. Which science-fictional technique (popular in many, many books, including Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep" and Niven, Pournelle and Barnes' "The Legacy of Heorot", and films like "Alien" and "Austin Powers") would allow us humans to make it to Alpha Centauri without dying of old age a fraction of the way there?
8. In early science fiction, giant animals were common (whether through chemical experiments such as those found in Wells' "The Food of the Gods", or nuclear testing as in "Them!", or just prehistoric creatures coming back to life, as in "The Deadly Mantis"), but science fiction authors rarely use the concept anymore. Which scientific principle are giant bugs and bunnies forbidden by?
9. One of the insoluble (so far!) problems in science fiction is the lightspeed barrier. Some ingenious ways around the problem are space warps and black holes, tesseracts, multiverses and so on. But one scientific theory from the 1960's has given sf authors new hope--the concept of a subatomic particle that actually travels faster than light. Found in Benford's "Timescape", the graphic novel "Watchmen", and books by Dan Simmons, Alastair Reynolds and Isaac Asimov, what is the faster-than-light particle called?
10. Where would science fiction be without mechanical creatures? From Shelley's "Frankenstein" all the way up through Hollywood's "The Terminator", robots (like R2-D2) androids (like Commander Data) and cyborgs (like the Six Million Dollar Man) have become so important to the genre that it's hard to imagine sf without them. So--which science fiction author coined the word 'robotics' (not robot)?
Source: Author
john_sunseri
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
crisw before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
