I\u2019ve been reading Andy Weir\u2019s book \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d and I\u2019ll finish it soon and put out my review (which will be quite favorable).\u00a0 But while working my way through it I was impressed by how the improbability of some of the \u201cscience\u201d in a story doesn\u2019t spoil the enjoyment garnered by its use.\u00a0 After all, the premise of the story requires that Earth send an interstellar mission twelve light years away in order to move the story forward.\u00a0 So, the \u201cMacGuffin\u201d has to be accepted to go forward with the story.\u00a0 But what\u2019s the formula for inventing an acceptable MacGuffin?<\/p>\n
I suppose there are several methods.\u00a0 The simplest is don\u2019t explain anything.\u00a0 Figure out a way for the main character to be unaware of any of the \u201ctechnical\u201d details for the MacGuffin.\u00a0 Maybe he\u2019s a completely non-technical individual; a grade school dropout or a literal caveman.\u00a0 Or the technology is owned by an alien race that we can\u2019t interrogate.<\/p>\n
A more common way is to build up some technology based on a breakthrough in physics and other sciences.\u00a0 And because it\u2019s fictitious the main requirements and advantages of the explanation would be that it\u2019s self-consistent and allows some very convenient short cuts in the plot.\u00a0 This is the avenue Weir goes down.\u00a0 His MacGuffin is both the problem and the solution to the problem.\u00a0 He has built up a scenario that creates an existential catastrophe but also provides a mechanism for solving the problem and also turning the danger into a potential boon.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what\u2019s extremely clever about this plot he\u2019s invented.\u00a0 It mimics the idea of the double-edged sword that some new discovery can be, for example, nuclear energy.\u00a0 That was something that both threatened human extinction and promised the solution to the energy crisis.<\/p>\n
As much as the mechanism Weir invents for his MacGuffin is intensely improbable, still, once accepted as fact, the rest of the story follows logically and satisfyingly from this premise.\u00a0 He has this new \u201cfact\u201d introduced into the world and then spins that world around on it until he gets the wild ride that ensues.<\/p>\n
So now he has interstellar travel at a respectable fraction of the speed of light, a reasonable excuse for an intelligent alien first encounter and throws that together with a likable protagonist who is swept along against his will by this cosmic catastrophe.\u00a0 What\u2019s not to like?<\/p>\n
But what I realize is that I\u2019m going to have to up my game when I write my sequel.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never fleshed out the rationale behind how Connors\u2019 mining drone is able to do what it does.\u00a0 I just sort of waved my hands around and said \u201cabracadabra!\u201d\u00a0 Weir is careful to count up the zeros when he describes the amount of energy that his \u201castrophage\u201d is able to store and discharge as the basis of his star drive.\u00a0 Sure, attributing a neutrino-based energy storage system to a one-celled animal living in the hard vacuum of space in the vicinity of a star is pure nonsense.\u00a0 But he does acknowledge the magnitude of the nonsense.\u00a0 And that does make it fun.<\/p>\n