Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro
Whether technology of mundane providence but marvelous performance, such as Nautilus' superbatteries, should be classed as superscience is a more meta question. There have been many similar arguments here where people have wanted to apply the superscience label, when for example the performance of mundane spaceship rockets has been optimistically enhanced for narrative reasons, or looking at X-ray lasers which just combine two existing mundane technologies in an optimistic manner.
It looks like we need a new label for mundane but cinematic technology, as I'd prefer to save the superscience label for the real comic book or space opera level of impossible technology.
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I'm not sure that that's the case.
Consider a parallel case: Superman or the Hulk can pick up a tank, or even a battleship, and hold it over their heads. A realistic structural analysis would suggest that that much weight on the surface area of two hands (even two Hulk-sized hands) would put a hole through the hull and result in the battleship dropping (or perhaps some other structural failure). But that doesn't happen. Why not?
One option is to say that Superman isn't really using his physical strength; he's telekinetically applying force to the entire lower surface. That's an in-universe explanation that involves giving him an extra and quite different power. I believe that John Byrne used that explanation, back in the day.
Another option is to say that Superman is strong enough to lift that weight, so he can do so, and we aren't going to analyze strengths of materials, because this isn't that kind of story. He can lift battleships because he's incredibly strong; most of his abilities are normal human abilities scaled up (originally, in the first Siegel and Shuster stories, all of them).
Of course in a campaign, you can choose either option. But if you choose the first, you're giving Superman or the Hulk the special power to lift massive objects without threatening their structural integrity. If you choose the second, you're not; you're just not letting the physics police interfere with your story, in which that's just how superhuman strength works.