[JenB]

The real SF guys get spacing right; it's not pleasant, but sometimes it's necessary for shipboard discipline. "A starship captain is the last of the absolute monarchs" as Heinlein wrote, and space is cold and unforgiving. The kind of screw-ups that we deal with daily could mean death in space.

[Sam Cree]

I liked the Hyperion books pretty well, speaking of Schroedinger's cat, but can't remember the author.

But I thought they were very well written.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

The kind of screw-ups that we deal with daily could mean death in space

Exactly right... and I agree with you, the real SF people get these concepts right.

I'm going to have to log off for the night, but in honor of tonight's discussion let me post this "night-light" snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope...

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

The kind of screw-ups that we deal with daily could mean death in space.

The Cold Equations, by Tom Godwin, is one of the best stories about this. A real classic. 'I didn't do anything to die for - I didn't do anything'.