Weird Science: realistic or not?

[Alonsua]

Is the Weird Science skill realistic at all?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Alonsua

Is the Weird Science skill realistic at all?

No.

It's a skill that exists for a particular genre - rather like Expert Skill (Conspiracy Theory) or Ritual Magic.

[AlexanderHowl]

It is not at all realistic, as the side effects of weird technology are excessively unrealistic. I consider Gadgeteer to be much more realistic, especially if it is limited to One Skill Only (-20%), though Quick Gadgeteer is completely unrealistic.

[TGLS]

I'd argue it might be a bit realistic, at least in settings where ridiculously advanced tech exists along side comparatively primitive tech. You'd have to modulate the random side-effect tables to be more realistic though.

[mlangsdorf]

Not particularly. Usually the standard assumptions of your tech level are what they are for a reason. Doing something different often requires access to resources that you don't have.

For instance, in 1870, a Weird Science roll might let a scientist come up with 256-bit public key cryptography. Lacking access to electric or analog computers that can perform the necessary math at a reasonable speed, his new highly unbreakable cryptography system is unlikely to replace simpler and faster encryption schemes.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

For instance, in 1870, a Weird Science roll might let a scientist come up with 256-bit public key cryptography. Lacking access to electric or analog computers that can perform the necessary math at a reasonable speed, his new highly unbreakable cryptography system is unlikely to replace simpler and faster encryption schemes.

Sure. But he might be 70 years ahead of his time and develop a one-time-pad, both practical and unbreakable.

[Alonsua]

It seems that most of you think that it is not realistic... I think so too, but let's see if someone comes to say otherwise.

[mlangsdorf]

12 years ahead of his time, really, since OTPs were first described in 1882.

I would argue about the practicality of OTPs even today, when 12 GB of random noise on DVD costs basically nothing and is enough to encrypt every email you will ever send in your life, and you can have a computer do all the math for you, as well as keep track of how much of the pad you've used. In 1870, when you need a pad of 3 physical pages to encode a letter of 3 pages, and then you had to perform modular arithmetic for every character you write... I guess it's not much worse than any code book of the time, except you don't need to send a different codebook to each person you're communicating with and you don't need to entirely replace all your codebooks every month or so.

Again, a lot of weird science advances are going to run into issues with supporting technology. Trying to implement a 600 PSI superheat boiler in 1870 is a good way to get yourself killed - or if you build it out of enough metal that it doesn't routinely burst, it will weigh so much that it isn't competive with a double expansion steam engine running at a much lower pressure.

[Kromm]

Weird Science is the skill of being ahead of your time because you're invoking the unprovable, the implausible, or the outright supernatural. This means arriving at your results by using or investigating such things as alchemy, animal magnetism, ectoplasm, feng shui, lumniferous ether, mesmerism, orgone, psionics, pyramid power, red mercury, and UFOs. Thus it is unrealistic practically by definition.

It isn't merely about advancing TLx to TLx+1 before its time, or taking an alternate-but-believable path to TL(x+1). It's about TL^, where "^" is shorthand for "Whatever crazy superscience makes the plot work."

[Alonsua]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Weird Science is the skill of being ahead of your time because you're invoking the unprovable, the implausible, or the outright supernatural. This means arriving at your results by using or investigating such things as alchemy, animal magnetism, ectoplasm, feng shui, lumniferous ether, mesmerism, orgone, psionics, pyramid power, red mercury, and UFOs. Thus it is unrealistic practically by definition.

It isn't merely about advancing TLx to TLx+1 before its time, or taking an alternate-but-believable path to TL(x+1). It's about TL^, where "^" is shorthand for "Whatever crazy superscience makes the plot work."

Thank you very much. I marked as unrealistic and will support it with this if my decision is discussed.