LoginWhy the science fiction popularity here?
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jclements
18 years, 6 months ago at Dec 13 13:45 - This 'Science Fiction' group enjoys the largest group membership on the site. 'Science Fiction and Fantasy' is third. Is SF really that popular with the general populace or is it just that the group that enjoys SF also enjoys generating lists of media and viewing the lists of others?
coyoteblue
18 years, 6 months ago at Dec 13 13:56 - What makes you think this site is representative of the general population?
VIP jclements
18 years, 6 months ago at Dec 13 15:13 - I'm sure it's not, but why SF and not history, philosophy, political science or anything else?.
On an unrelated note: You have an amazingly large movie collection.
On an unrelated note: You have an amazingly large movie collection.
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Deleted
18 years, 6 months ago at Dec 13 19:19 - Because most of us are nerds. I mean look at the top DVDs owned: The Matrix movies, LOTR, Star Wars, etc.
coyoteblue
18 years, 6 months ago at Dec 13 20:26 - Yep, I do have a large movie collection. There's plenty out there bigger than mine, though. I like to think mine has a breadth lacking in many, though by the time you get to these numbers that may not be true.
mildlydiverting
18 years, 6 months ago at Dec 17 18:17 - Yep - the site is early adopter geek. Early adopter geeks, as a general rule of thumb, have base default taste set on stun. Err, sorry, on Sci Fi.
It's like del.icio.us - the group of people who used it are in to web development and geekery, so it has become a very useful tool if you're interested in webdev and geekery... as sites like this aggregate more data over time, I'd expect to see a slow normalisation of this kind of data quirk?
I think there is, also, a related tendency in 'collect the set and categorise' amongst some Scifi fans; I'd love to know what the sociological root of that one is!
It's like del.icio.us - the group of people who used it are in to web development and geekery, so it has become a very useful tool if you're interested in webdev and geekery... as sites like this aggregate more data over time, I'd expect to see a slow normalisation of this kind of data quirk?
I think there is, also, a related tendency in 'collect the set and categorise' amongst some Scifi fans; I'd love to know what the sociological root of that one is!
VIP jclements
18 years, 6 months ago at Dec 18 11:29 - MD, that's very close to the curiosity behind my original post. I wonder from where does that "collect and categorize" motivation come?
The group of geeks with which I'm familiar don't seem to fit the profile suggested by the 'Top Rated' and 'Top Owned' book sortings. Of course, there are the scifi/fantasy dorks (like me) but there are many more who eschew the fantastic for primarily WWII history, mysteries (eek), eastern philosophy, and even pure technical literature.
Then there are the outliers who don't read for pleasure at all. My boss is one of the smartest people I've ever met (having considerable success at one of the top five engineering schools in the world and with life in general) and he only reads for work. I understand that with a large enough sample all opinions are possible, it's just that I previously thought that if anything was going to deny that rule, it would be the enjoyment of a good book.
The group of geeks with which I'm familiar don't seem to fit the profile suggested by the 'Top Rated' and 'Top Owned' book sortings. Of course, there are the scifi/fantasy dorks (like me) but there are many more who eschew the fantastic for primarily WWII history, mysteries (eek), eastern philosophy, and even pure technical literature.
Then there are the outliers who don't read for pleasure at all. My boss is one of the smartest people I've ever met (having considerable success at one of the top five engineering schools in the world and with life in general) and he only reads for work. I understand that with a large enough sample all opinions are possible, it's just that I previously thought that if anything was going to deny that rule, it would be the enjoyment of a good book.
Anonymous
18 years, 6 months ago at Dec 19 16:47 - "I'm sure it's not, but why SF and not history, philosophy, political science or anything else?."
Sci-fi and, say, philosophy don't really stand a direct comparison, though. Philosophy will always lose out to sci-fi, simply because sci-fi is entertainment, whereas philosophy isn't, and has all sorts of connotations attached with it (that it's awfully cerebral, for instance). I personally wish that interest in philosophy was more widespread.
As for why sci-fi is so popular here, I don't know. But you might as well ask "why publicly list my DVDs, books etc., for no real good reason?", too.
(And I would say that, whilst sci-fi may indeed be terribly popular here, it's by no means an accurate reflection on the tastes of the public at large. In fact, I would go so far as to say most of the general public despise sci-fi).
Sci-fi and, say, philosophy don't really stand a direct comparison, though. Philosophy will always lose out to sci-fi, simply because sci-fi is entertainment, whereas philosophy isn't, and has all sorts of connotations attached with it (that it's awfully cerebral, for instance). I personally wish that interest in philosophy was more widespread.
As for why sci-fi is so popular here, I don't know. But you might as well ask "why publicly list my DVDs, books etc., for no real good reason?", too.
(And I would say that, whilst sci-fi may indeed be terribly popular here, it's by no means an accurate reflection on the tastes of the public at large. In fact, I would go so far as to say most of the general public despise sci-fi).