Why Science Fiction is So Cool

Here’s one example of why Science Fiction is so cool – the ‘Ousters’ method of interrogation.

“But the fact was that the civilians and captured troops had been found flayed open and pinned down on steel trays like frogs in a biology lab, their organs bathed with nutrient fluids, arms and legs efficiently amputated, eyes removed, and their minds readied for interrogators’ questions with crude cortical comtaps and shunt-plugs jacked directly through three-centimeter holes in the skulls.” – Dan Simmons, Hyperion.

I’m not certain that even Captain Kirk or Colonel O’Neill would be able to withstand something like that.

Of course the definition of “withstand”, especially as it applies to a Science Fiction story, is open to debate and I’m always interested in your thoughts.