Oolite Bulletins

ffutures wrote: ↑Mon Mar 09, 2020 2:21 am

Let's have five SF books, films, whatever, which include deliberately faked religions

Any one of the Goa'uld-worship cults from Stargate SG1 could qualify as a faked religion.

By Crom, I just saw the voice of Darth Vader turn into a snake... ;P

A good question but difficult to put together answers...

Disembodied wrote: ↑Wed Mar 11, 2020 5:30 pm

ffutures wrote: ↑Mon Mar 09, 2020 2:21 am

Let's have five SF books, films, whatever, which include deliberately faked religions

Any one of the Goa'uld-worship cults from Stargate SG1 could qualify as a faked religion.

I think I can accept that one - the Goa'uld version of the Egyptian gods was definitely a faked religion, even if they stole some of the concepts from real religions.

Three to go! Plenty more out there, especially in books.

The Road to Corlay by Richard Cowper . . . . . . The White Bird of Kinship is the religion

spud42 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 12, 2020 10:17 am

The Road to Corlay by Richard Cowper . . . . . . The White Bird of Kinship is the religion

Definitely counts.

Nobody?

OK, two to go, and I can suggest a few possibilities from books:

A self-serving evangelist who becomes the first hereditary religious dictator of the USA
A fake religion created to conceal the technology and activities of a resistance movement
A religion created to obliterate all technology from a colony world
A religion created to keep a world isolated after the collapse of an interstellar empire

That's from only two authors but four distinct "universes"

ffutures wrote: ↑Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:48 pm

A religion created to keep a world isolated after the collapse of an interstellar empire

Is this is the "Church of Science", created by Salvor Hardin in Isaac Asimov's Foundation?

ffutures wrote: ↑Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:48 pm

Nobody?

OK, two to go,

One from Known Space (do I need to add, "Larry Niven"?) : several times he refers to a habit of the Belters to buy material (ships, supplies, whatever) in the name of the "Seventh Church of Rodney", which everyone (including the tax man) took to mean "I'm not saying, and you're already talking to a shell company."
I have a feeling that in one story, it was the 11th Church, which is the sort of meta joke that I wouldn't put past him. But I'm not going to go to the gallows over that one.

The Kdaptists were - by their standards - sincere believers. Flayed-human sacramental clothes and all. Not relevant.

Lazarus Long, in "Time Enough for Love" mentions being a preacher in one of his many asides, but I don't think there was enough supporting material to really qualify. (I checked my copy ; "—but sky merchant was then my usual occupation, Minerva. That caper in which I moved from slave to high priest was forced on me. I had to be meek a long time, which ain’t my style." p130)

Disembodied wrote: ↑Wed Mar 18, 2020 3:22 pm

ffutures wrote: ↑Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:48 pm

A religion created to keep a world isolated after the collapse of an interstellar empire

Is this is the "Church of Science", created by Salvor Hardin in Isaac Asimov's Foundation?

No, but that certainly counts as an answer. One to go!

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:18 pm

ffutures wrote: ↑Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:48 pm

Nobody?

OK, two to go,

One from Known Space (do I need to add, "Larry Niven"?) : several times he refers to a habit of the Belters to buy material (ships, supplies, whatever) in the name of the "Seventh Church of Rodney", which everyone (including the tax man) took to mean "I'm not saying, and you're already talking to a shell company."
I have a feeling that in one story, it was the 11th Church, which is the sort of meta joke that I wouldn't put past him. But I'm not going to go to the gallows over that one.

The Kdaptists were - by their standards - sincere believers. Flayed-human sacramental clothes and all. Not relevant.

Lazarus Long, in "Time Enough for Love" mentions being a preacher in one of his many asides, but I don't think there was enough supporting material to really qualify. (I checked my copy ; "—but sky merchant was then my usual occupation, Minerva. That caper in which I moved from slave to high priest was forced on me. I had to be meek a long time, which ain’t my style." p130)

I think Lazarus Long appropriated existing religions - less work than inventing his own usually. But the Seventh Church of Rodney certainly counts. Which gives you the fifth answer, and makes you the winner.

With regards to the clues:

A self-serving evangelist who becomes the first hereditary religious dictator of the USA - Heinlein, Nehemiah Scudder, Revolt in 2100 - the religion is a vaguely fundamental Christian/Mormon mish-mash.
A fake religion created to conceal the technology and activities of a resistance movement - Heinlein, Sixth Column, can't find my copy to check the actual name of the religion.
A religion created to obliterate all technology from a colony world - David Weber, "The Church of God Awakening", the Safehold series
A religion created to keep a world isolated after the collapse of an interstellar empire - David Weber, The "Mother Church" in Heirs of Empire, the third book of the Mutineers Moon series.

I hurl the virtual gavel in Rockdoctor's general direction.

OK, thinking.

OK, let's try this.
Preamble : last night, I was listening to an audiobook of Niven's "Protector", where comment is made on the absence of an autopilot in the "Outsider's" ship (not delivering spoilers here, I hope). Elsewhere comments were made about the use of automated kitchens, and autodocs are a regular plot element too.
Earlier today, I heard a re-hash of "Brave New World", in which the process of breeding was considerably automated.

The Challenge : give three fields of human activity which SF has not automated at some point.

I've got two specific ones in mind, and a third which is more arguable. But that's limited to my knowledge of SF, and you lot may well know of examples where they have been automated in the SF multiverse. So feel free to argue away if someone makes a suggestion which you know (or think) is wrong. There are four non-starters above, obviously.
Charlie Stross's "Rule 34" has covered a number of the nastier ends of roboticisation.

Third example wins the baton (if it hasn't been argued down after a day). If we can't come up with 3 after a week (midnight GMT at the end of 25th March), the baton goes to the poster of the second example. Or the first, if we're really struggling. Which may be possible.

Stupid over-reaction - can't see robots deciding to hoard toilet paper etc...

ffutures wrote: ↑Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:33 pm

Stupid over-reaction - can't see robots deciding to hoard toilet paper etc...

Counter example : the Berserkers (various authors, but originally woke up Fred Sauberhagen, screaming.
But on the gripping hand, the Berserkers were originally designed by lifeforms, weren't they? I'd have to re-read to check.
Was that a "serious" entry?

Hmm … have any SF writers ever written about robot writers?

Disembodied wrote: ↑Thu Mar 19, 2020 12:55 pm

Hmm … have any SF writers ever written about robot writers?

Didn't Aldous Huxley have "porn writing machines" in "Brave New World"? Or was it ... I've got an image of monochrome suit-&-tie dudes standing around a chattering printer in some 1950s film production. Anyone help me on that?
"Brave New World" remains on my "I really should read" list. I've heard it as a radio play, but never actually read the book.

Asimov in one of the early chapters of "Second Foundation" has the irritating little brat (Arkady?) using a speech-to-text machine. Without Bloody AutoIncorrect. But that's not the same thing by a considerable stretch.
There's another short story from the same era, whose name and author escapes me, something about a "Bard", where the protagonist starts composing a story and the "Bard" machine continues it "in genre". I'm not sure if that was an Asimov, or someone else of the same "Golden Age" era.