/lit/ - Literature

>Any modern work of fiction that has any alien contact in it requires an FTL travel ability
Take the Peter Watts solution and have the aliens come to us. Blindsight is a hard scifi first-contact story that respects all the laws of physics.

>>10855009
Just being able to travel at relativistic speeds allows for interstellar travel within a human lifetime. For an outside observer it would take a ship traveling at near-light speed ~50 years to travel 50 light years, but the person in the ship might only be travelling for a couple years before they reach their destination. So while we probably still wouldn't be able to make it out of our local galactic cluster, we would still be able to explore the Milky Way and possibly even Andromeda and the Magellanic clouds with relative ease, even without FTL travel. All it would require is a way to accelerate to relativistic speeds, not get torn apart by random dust and debris along the way, and decelerate on arrival.

>>10856099
>Blindsight
Awesome I'll give it a read
But I'm talking about way post first contact. A cluster of space that includes the solar system as well as alien systems that already cooperate diplomatically and militarily. So FTL-esque tech is pretty much required, I just need my handwave to be not disrespectful to the audience.

>>10857980
Most people don't mind FTL in otherwise hard scifi for exactly those reasons. If you go that route, I'd prefer that you don't mention relativity at all, and have "speed of light" be a speed limit relative to an ether. Also, I don't think FTL travel should be weaponized. No hyperspeed ramming, no telefragging. I like the FTL in The Mote in God's Eye where it's only between fixed jump points. That way you can have blockades and ambushes.

>>10858019
>I like the FTL in The Mote in God's Eye where it's only between fixed jump points. That way you can have blockades and ambushes.
Right, so I thought maybe a good idea would be an FTL stations system? If they are extremely expensive and complicated to build there could be only a few scattered around vital points of the cluster, enabling trade routes etc.
It does feel unoriginal as hell tho.

>>10858065
So you need to travel slower than light first to build them? This means the setting has to be very old if it's at all big. Natural jump points avoid this problem.

>>10855009
the bussard ramjet is a beautiful scifi idea that got deflated pretty hard by its mathematics. that said, spacejets are still my favorite interstellar travel idea. That and atomic rockets

FTL doesn't really do it for me. I just don't see it as a part of hard science fiction. I'll take it in loony shit like Stargate but otherwise it's a dealbreaker.

>>10858109
>I just don't see it as a part of hard science fiction
It's not strictly speaking hard scifi, but everybody wants interstellar travel, so just say it's an alternative universe where the Michelson-Morley experiment had a positive result. There's a single reference frame, and Einstein only achieved moderate fame for his work on the photoelectric effect.

>>10858097
>Natural jump points
You mean some natural phenomena that enable FTL travel or a jump? Isn't this even a bigger handwave, or is this a plausible explanation?
>This means the setting has to be very old if it's at all big.
Consider the following: Alien bureaucracy has decided that the solar system has the resources and a sufficiently advanced population to join the alien political sys, and have offered humanity advanced tech, trade relations. etc. in exchange for participation in the construction of an FTL system in the solar system, as a part of an FTL network that is constantly being expended around the cluster.
Is this too much bs?

Question for ITT: best alien-related hard sci fi you've read

>>10858210
It's all hand-waving, but if aliens built it then you have to explain how (or at least know how they did even if you don't say, as in Hemingway's "Iceberg Theory").

>>10858225
Blindsight. I also liked Mission of Gravity, even though it has FTL (just to get to the planet, it's not otherwise important), and the aliens are still a bit too human-like.

>>10858210
>offered humanity advanced tech, trade relations. etc. in exchange for participation in the construction of an FTL system
How did they make the offer before the FTL system was built?

>>10858276
Any bureaucracy with the power of opening solar systems up to trade is most likely a part of a bigger governmental entity that has the resources to send research teams monitoring humanity much before first-contact. Once a certain tech/political level has been achieved said alien cell approaches human leaders and makes the offer.
Did I miss anything?

>>10858276
Relativistic travel from the nearest node. Like >>10856286 is saying, it wouldn't be unreasonable to send out ships from 50-100 light-years away to establish contact and maybe bring supplies. They'd just be missing out on that many years of history during their trip, while only aging a few years.

>>10855009
I recommend this in every sci Fi thread but try Forever War by Joe Haldeman