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Weird Scientific Theories Proposed in Science Fiction

Sometimes writers present weird scientific fiction theories so abstract and crazy that the audience just sits back, slack jawed, and asks "What is going on?"

By Bethany TiamatPublished 7 years ago 16 min read
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Science fiction can be wacky, especially when weird theories about existence get thrown into the mix. Some sci-fi prides itself on its grounded adherence to scientific law. Hard sci-fi, as it is sometimes called, obeys the laws of theoretical physics (think the Mars Trilogy, Moon, or, recently, Arrival). Other times, writers play fast and quick with the laws, don't explain what is happening, and hope that the audience will suspend disbelief so they can join them on a wild ride. Sometimes, audiences don't mind this (do we really understand how the Death Star can blow up a whole planet? Or care?), but sometimes writers try to justify what's happening with "science." The weird sci-fi theories these writers create range from sound and plausible to so abstract and bizarre that the audience just sits back, slack jawed, and asks "What the hell am I watching?"

Space Psychosis - Firefly

This concept isn't as strange. From a psychological standpoint, it almost makes sense. Many accounts exist of cabin fever on boats driving people into madness. But what if, instead of being trapped on a boat, a person was trapped in space, and all they had to look at was the expanse of nothing beyond their little shell? That's where weird science fiction comes into play.

Joss Whedon's cult-classic series Firefly answers that question in a disturbing fashion. For much of the series, the Reavers remained an enigmatic tribe of people out in nowhere. Though the movie Serenity demystified them by explaining more about them, in the series, we learn about "space psychosis." The Reavers were normal people before they suffered some psychological breakdown from staring out into the infinite expanse of space. It turned them into a murderous, insane cult of fanatics who tear flesh and skin apart, eat human meat, and... other charming things, possibly not in the order you'd expect. It is not so common that a science fiction western explores the potential implications of existential dread in such a disturbing fashion. Nor does its weird theory often it turns out as incredible.

Where Ballpoint Pens Go - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is not a very serious book. This humorous science fiction romp always prided itself on its almost inane sense of humor and crazy logic. At times, weird theories would just pop up as though demonstrating the loonieness of the reality the characters inhabited.

One such example of this would be the fate of ballpoint pens that roll off tables. You know what I mean, right? That pen you keep on your desk that you figure is now collecting dust under your furniture? Well, in The Hitchhiker-verse, the reason you can never find these pens is that, after they roll out of sight, they just pick themselves up and go to a special ballpoint pen planet, populated by retired pens raising families of pens. This is the exact brand of insanity that Douglas Adams brought to the table with his classic series of books. Rest in peace, you mad genius.

Ghost Hacking - Ghost in the Shell

One of the great anime films from the 90s, Ghost in the Shell proposed disturbing, weird theory for future of crime. In the film--and, by extension the rest of the series--humans have become so cybernated that it is hard to differentiate humanity from machines. The human brain has been augmented with mechanical parts to expand the human experience. Many criminals have learned how to hack into the brain in order to alter a person's perspective toward the criminal's own ends. This can be used for information extraction (taking memories and experiences for their own purposes), distorting reality (changing a person's visual inputs for selfish ends), or even the alteration of personality and memories (to use the victim as a puppet).

Many of the theories in this article are very far out. And, while this sci-fi theory is weird... it isn't impossible to dismiss out of hand. There is an unsettling realism behind this concept. The possibility that, yes, this could happen in the future. An individual can extract information from secure government computers and shut down company websites. How can a cybernated human being stand up against hackers after their brains? What self-defense do they have if the government can't withstand an attack? And, if a hacker alters your memories so you aren't you anymore... then what are you?

The World Rests on Turtles - Discworld series

The late Terry Pratchett's Discworld series remains among the longest fantasy sagas ever written. It is a series that prides itself on a spark of madness and humor from which everything else springs almost fully formed. A mad world like Pratchett's could not exist in any sane cosmology, so Pratchett found a simple, weird sci-fi theory to establish that his universe rotated to the beat of its own drum.

Discworld is, in fact, a disc. This disc sits atop four elephants, who themselves stand atop the shell of a gargantuan turtle. This collective holds up the universe. That's it. What's that? That makes no scientific sense? You're asking how the elephants and turtle eat? If they sleep? How they got there? TOO BAD! Discworld is a world that runs on pure imagination. To bring science into it is simply a mad endeavor that will bring you nothing but insanity.

Living Ships - Event Horizon

Event Horizon straddles the line between cosmic horror and science fiction. It presents the possibility of faster than light travel in the form of folding space--a concept that has been proposed by real physicists as a possibility. Of course, the titular ship ends up traveling to some Hell dimension, and, when it comes alive, is sentient.

Now, this is interesting because the ship--a mechanical entity--is alive. It possesses a consciousness. Not a Rogue AI--a common science fiction trope. No, the ship possesses a soul after some experience in another dimension with alternate rules. Because current scientific theory can only account for factors in our current physical space, it is not outside the realm of possibility that, should something from our world enter another universe, that it wouldn't return altered on a fundamental--possibly eldritch--level. This makes the events of the film almost plausible, but the implications are weird enough to make this another one of many weird sci-fi theories worthy of note.

Hybrid Genetics - The X-Files

The X-Files never pretended to be realistic. So why should anyone expect its genetics to make sense? Quick lesson on real-world genetics: interbreeding between species is hard. Dog breeds aren't different species. You can't breed a horse and a tiger and get a torse--a hooved-cat with stripes that can travel forty miles-per-hour. Assuming the genetic material even blends together, the traits don't necessarily add up. Even if they did, many traits would fall under your ability to detect by being overshadowed by the dominant genetic traits. The cool traits, like stripes and hooves? Potentially recessive genes. Real life scientific theories are a little grounded in things that can be, not things that we wish should be.

X-Files acknowledges your reality, and substitutes it with its own. Anything can breed in this world. Aliens? Sure, what kind? Bugs and people? Why not? Anything can and will breed, and, not only will they breed, but the product will be a super-monster that needs to be stopped or is so incredibly awesome that it will leave you shaking with night terrors for weeks. Does it make sense? No. But this science fiction series follows the the most important of weird sci-fi theories--the Rule of Cool: if it's cool, it's in.

Galaxies in Cat Collars - Men in Black

Men in Black remains one of the best blockbusters from the 90s. A quintessential Will Smith film. A great blend of science fiction with popular summer fun. It's also completely looney and out of its mind. Aliens pass through the MiB customs office, and live on Earth without anyone noticing. The whole film treats the surreal and cosmic with a grounded sense of "Eh, whatever."

Perhaps the oddest element in this movie full of weird sci-fi theories about alien and human intergalactic relations is the galaxy small enough to fit on "Orion's Belt." No, not the constellation. A cat named Orion. The whole galaxy fits inside a tiny jewel that can fit in the palm of a person's hand. This all, of course, ties in with Men in Black's central theme: that appearances can be deceiving. Still, galaxies are made up of millions and millions of stars. How can all those stars maintain their nuclear power despite being so small? How does that work? Are we just really large? Was the galaxy once huge but then somehow shrunk down? If so, how? It all just raises too many questions.

Wormhole Pods - Contact

Carl Sagan's Contact remains one of the great first contact stories. First contact being, as anyone who watches Star Trek knows, the short hand for the first communication with another alien lifeform. The recent film Arrival really could not exist without Contact, first. If you have neither read nor seen it yet, do so. It is a masterful film.

While the story on the whole was praised upon release for its sense of realism, the means Arroway, the main character (played in the film by Jodie Foster), takes to talk to the aliens is quite bizarre. It follows logic that only weird science fiction theories can. She enters a pod, after a series of rings spin around her, generates a wormhole. She's sent to an abstract place where she talks to dead relatives on a beach, and... that's it. When she comes back, she can't even prove her experience is real because she couldn't record any of it. So she went through space, experienced a psychic phenomenon... but couldn't prove any of it?

Even odder is that, in the film version of Contact, it is revealed that Arroway's footage from her perspective recorded eighteen hours worth of static, despite the fact she returned through the wormhole immediately after being sent through it. So this wormhole that scientists on earth made resulted in insane time dilation and distortion... and led our heroine to a strange location that she could not record. The issue with this finale from a scientific standpoint is how vague the whole thing really is. We do not understand it, and, thus, cannot quantify it.

Dark Matter Engines - Futurama

Lightspeed has always been one of the great issues for science fiction writers. With the universe being as huge as it is, even if a ship traveled as fast as light it would still take years to go anywhere. How, then, can ships zoom from planet to planet without transcending light speed? Many series attempt to rationalize this. Star Trek and Star Wars both have characters enter alternate dimensions--Warp Space, Hyper Space--to that offers dimensional portals that can take them from one part of the universe to another. The sci-fi horror cult classic Event Horizon features a ship that can fold space. But some explanations fall straight into that category of weird science fiction.

Futurama has the Dark Matter Engine. It was conceived in a dream, and then forgotten in another dream. For the longest time, the engine's origin remained a mystery. It was as though the show told us, "How it works doesn't matter as much as the fact that it works." Most watchers would have been content...until it was revealed that the Dark Matter Engine doesn't move ships at all! Instead, the engines move the rest of the universe around it. Which is... insane sounding, but also an incredible concept. But not as crazy as...

Why Dark Matter Can Do That - Futurama

Once again--a strange concept from Futurama. The reasoning as to how dark matter works the way it works is just as mind boggling as everything else in that series. So the dark matter engines can twist space around the ship. This is because all dark matter is connected to two little particles--both far away. One particle is normal, while the other is a particle of anti-matter. Should the two collide, they'll destroy each other... and, since all this matter is bound together, should the particles destroy each other, ALL MATTER GOES.

This leads to a great line from the series. "Quantam physics means means anything can happen at any time for no reason." This classic science fiction cartoon readily admits that it runs on the rules of chaos. With this backing, anything can be justified. Nothing is truly impossible. Only unlikely. The weird theories you can only dream of? They're logical now. Only slightly improbable Which leads to...

Infinite Improbability Drive - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

On that same note, we have the Infinite Probability Drive--Douglas Adams' insane answer to the light speed problem. He too saw the inherent problem with light speed travel, and came up with a solution almost as insane--if not crazier--than Futurama's solution.

In the series, the drive works by making the improbable happen. After all, when taking into account abstract physics, it is not impossible that atoms can be in two places at once, nor is it impossible that they can't teleport over short distances. Regular Improbability engines are all well and good, but only when one programs it correctly can it become an Infinite Improbability Engine, capable of sending a space ship to the opposite end of the universe in an instant... by making the improbable event of an entire ship teleporting from across space probable. Don't try to understand it. It's best to stop asking questions from this point onward. Weird theories like this don't have to make sense. They just are.

Origin of the Species - Battlestar Galactica

Spoilers follow. Every entry that follows contains spoilers. Big ones. Ridiculous ones. You've been warned.

Near the end of the series, the main characters find a new homeworld, and repopulate the planet. This is their "Earth." Now, the whole time we as an audience assumed that the humans had come from our Earth, but it turns out that, instead, they came from a planet LIKE Earth the entire time, and have chosen this new Earth (our Earth) to repopulate. Together with the Cylons, they interbreed to create a new race of humanity that has overtaken the old planet. Leading to our current history.

Yes. So humanity, rather than being a product of evolution or God or both, originated because aliens and robots interbred. We are just the products of an epic saga. It's... definitely an interesting twist, though a highly controversial one among fans. Especially George RR Martin, who didn't hold back on the criticism. But it is memorable.

The Overmind - Childhood's End

Arthur C. Clark, best known for the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, presents his strangest universe in Childhood's End, which culminates in some of weird sci-fi's greatest moments. In this bleak novel, aliens known as the Overlords come to Earth, and bring about an era of great peace among the human race. For much of the novel, it remains a mystery why these aliens have come to the planet, and why they seem so eager to aid humanity in reaching utopia.

Only when the Overlords' true motives are revealed do things become... strange. The Overlords seek out various alien races throughout the universe, and help them reach the peak of their evolutionary path. This implies that evolution has a distinct path, and is not merely a chaotic pattern of breeding where the creatures that survive pass their genetic material to the next generation. Already odd, but what is this next step in evolution? Is it like X-Men?

No.

The final stage of evolution for countless creatures is unification with a gigantic hive mind known as the Overmind. A collective sentience that can bend space and planets around, and is... completely enigmatic. It is one sentience--the coalescing of various minds flattened into one consciousness. For some bizarre reason, only certain races can join with the Overmind. The Overlords cannot, so they just help other races unify with the Overmind because... reasons? It's a bizarre, almost haunting ending... and I'm not sure even years later if it's a happy or sad ending.

Absolute Terror Fields - Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hideaki Anno, the creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, must've read Childhood's End, since he very clearly based the ending of his science fiction anime series on Arthur C Clark's novel. Only Anno managed to out-weird the already weird theories presented in that novel. Throughout the series, the titular robots, the Evangelions, combat creatures called Angels using an enigmatic field called an AT Field. If one pauses the show at certain points of the series where characters read messages on computer screens, you can tell that AT Fields are short for Absolute Terror Fields.

The fields generated by mankind's division from one another. The fear of being close to people. Of being hurt. These psychological concepts are so intense that they manifest as energy fields. The Angels and Evangelions are able to weaponize it, but, as is revealed in the series's finale, every being generates a field like this. And, if this field were forcibly stripped away... everyone would join in a hive mind. Much like Childhood's End's Overmind. But, unlike in that novel, in Evangelion, it is clear that everyone retains their own sense of self in the hivemind, and are forced to learn things about their peers that they really did not need [want] to know. When the process is reversed at the end of the series, humanity has the option to separate if they will themselves out of the state on their own accord. While this begins to happen in the final scene, it's clear it will take awhile for any individual to separate from the hivemind.

Everything - The Terminator

Time Travel is one of the great tropes of science fiction. While the jury is still out on time travel among the scientific community, it remains well chartered territory in fiction. But, unlike shows like Doctor Who which never make a pretense of following real science, The Terminator has rules. It has a bad future. It has robots. It has machines. Time travel in this series is mechanical.

Though... it also flip-flops. The closed time loop of the first film assures us that the bad future of Skynet is assured. Kyle Reese is sent back in time, and, with Sarah Conner, conceives John Conner, the future savior of the world. The Terminator's attempts to stop John Conner results in his birth. A simple enough time loop.

But then we learn in the sequel that Skynet was based on the remains of the T-800 sent back in time in the first film. Which meant that, if the Terminator never went back in time then Skynet would never have existed, which meant that the Terminator couldn't have existed in the first place. Which meant that Kyle Reese would never have gone back into the past, which meant John Conner would never have been born, which means that--

Let's take a step back.

So Terminator II ends with Skynet being erased from the future. So, okay, the future is flexible, then? Except it isn't, because we learn in the NEXT sequel that Judgement Day is inevitable. It only was delayed by our heroes' actions. So, according to that film, time travel does nothing to change the future. The future will take the course it is destined to take... except the first film directly contradicts this idea because it shows that, without time travel, none of the plot could have ever happened in the first place--

Don't watch this series with any semblance of logic. Forget weird sci-fi theories or whatever you have written in your spiral notebooks. Any charts? Burn 'em. Scientific theory means nothing here, nor does science fiction logic. This series is a mess.

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About the Creator

Bethany Tiamat

I love three things: books with yellowed pages, long walks on beaches with my german shepard Dany, and dishes incorporating fried onions.

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