History Mohs / OneBigLie

* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': Tends to limit itself to 'theoretically possible but difficult' technologies, such as [[PettingZooPeople genetically enhanced sapient animals]], {{terraform}}ing, AI and [[HumanPopsicle cryonics]]. Even artificial gravity is absent (as the name suggests), and though the Dangerous and Very Expensive ([[FunWithAcronyms D.A.V.E.]]) Drive enables interstellar voyages measured in ''days'', it is explicitly ''not'' {{Casual|InterstellarTravel}} -- Planet Jean was colonized by slower-than-light ships carrying {{Human Popsicle}}s, and WordOfGod is that D.A.V.E. journeys also require freezing because it uses a sort of reverse TimeDilation that only reduces the travel time from an outside perspective.

* ''Series/The100'' has radiation poisoning affect people and animals in ways that don't match up with real life science, but which serve to advance the story. However, all the technology used in the series is stuff we might not have invented ''yet'', but which could conceivably be invented in the very near future.

* ''Series/{{The 100}}'' has radiation poisoning affect people and animals in ways that don't match up with real life science, but which serve to advance the story. However, all the technology used in the series is stuff we might not have invented ''yet'', but which could conceivably be invented in the very near future.

* ''Webcomic/{{QuestionableContent}}'' is basically a slice of life comic, but with advanced Artifical Intelligence that has reached the singularity. Several of the major characters are themselves AI, and the rights of AI entities in the context of larger society is a running theme

** While ''Who'' taken as a whole is ScienceInGenreOnly, the "pure historical" stories (and one pseudohistorical, "The Time Meddler") of William Hartnell's tenure belong here. Everything in them is scientifically plausible (if not necessarily historically accurate), except for the existence of the alien time traveller that bought them there in his MagicFromTechnology time machine (and, in "The Time Meddler", the existence of a second alien time traveller with his own time machine). The focus remains on the historical setting and how the characters interact with the time travellers, with the direct implications of time travel technology itself - altering history - being present as a background theme and the primary theme of several ("The Aztecs", "The Massacre", "The Time Meddler").

* RobertCharlesWilson's short story "[[http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/08/divided-by-infinity Divided by Infinity]]" takes the idea of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_suicide_and_immortality quantum immortality]] (a legitimate -- although not universally accepted -- implication of quantum mechanics) and starts running with it. It is shifted off the hardest end of the scale by [[spoiler:the otherdimensional books at Ziegler's bookshop]], however.

* The horror film ''Film/{{Unfriended}}'' uses a supernatural version of this. The technology and social media in the film are presented exactly as they existed in 2014-15, such that, when they starts diverging from such, that is a clue that the One Big Lie -- in this case, the existence of a malevolent ghost -- is affecting the proceedings.

* ''Film/TheRocketeer'' similarly goes on a jet pack whose exhaust is cool enough that it doesn't roast the wearer but has enough thrust to launch them in the air. One of the realistic implications is that in order to control the flight, one needs a rudder (in the form of a helmet), something HowardHughes couldn't figure out.

* ''Literature/TheExpanse'' uses only one real physics assumption, and that is the Epstein Drive: an extremely fuel-efficient and powerful engine that allows ''relatively'' prompt travel throughout the solar system, so that trips take days or weeks instead of months. That is, until [[spoiler: the alien protomolecule gets discovered, which is something that warps time and space, generates stable wormholes, and does other things that go beyond the laws of physics.]]

* ''Literature/{{RCN}}'' has the Matrix, a web of {{Alternate Universe}}s into which ships transit to travel faster than light, whose physics require ships' sails to be set by hand or with hydraulics (since any electrics could affect the ship's course). Everything else is at best Mohs/SpeculativeScience: ships and missiles are propelled by matter/antimatter annihilation and all the physics are kept consistent.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': The Big Lies are gravity/inertia control, faster than light radio communications (and possibly travel, albeit still of the "several days to go between stars" variety - precise distances and travel times are rarely stated), and [[spoiler: PsychicPowers]].

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': The Big Lies are gravity/inertia control, faster than light radio communications (not travel), and [[spoiler: PsychicPowers]].

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** Other films [[FanonDisContinuity diverge from the first two]] in various ways, and become somewhat less hard as a result. Things like the chestbursters taking on features of their host, super-rapid growth into adult aliens, stealth warships, etc etc require disbelief to be suspended somewhat higher. Novels and comics set in the Aliens/Predator extended universe inevitably follow the RuleOfCool and the authors are not usually interested in detailing the consequences of their ideas.

** It also has the titular avatar project, which allows humans to project their minds into na'vi bodies, and the na'vi's ability to connect their minds to those of their mounts with their fibre-optic ponytails. If one considers the brain to be essentially a computer, this is all just about justifiable in a science fiction context, as informational exchange does make evolutionary and possibly technological sense. The remote control of the avatar bodies stretches plausibility the most, but without it there would be no film.

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* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': Tends to limit itself to 'theoretically possible but difficult' technologies, such as [[PettingZooPeople genetically enhanced sapient animals]], {{terraform}}ing, AI and [[HumanPopsicle cryonics]]. Even artificial gravity is absent (as the name suggests), and though the Dangerous and Very Expensive ([[FunWithAcronyms D.A.V.E.]]) Drive enables interstellar voyages measured in ''days'', it is explicitly ''not'' [[CasualInterstellarTravel Casual]] -- Planet Jean was colonized by slower-than-light ships carrying {{Human Popsicle}}s, and WordOfGod is that D.A.V.E. journeys also require freezing because it uses a sort of reverse TimeDilation that only reduces the travel time from an outside perspective.

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* ''Literature/TheExpanse'' uses only one real physics assumption, and that is the Epstein Drive: an extremely fuel-efficient and powerful engine that allows ''relatively'' prompt travel throughout the solar system, so that trips take days or weeks instead of months. That is, until [[spoiler: the alien protomolecule gets discovered, which is something that warps time and space, generates stable wormholes, and does other things that go beyond the laws of physics.]]

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* Isaac Asimov's Literature/TheCavesOfSteel and other works involving ThreeLawsCompliant robots use artificial consciousness (a "positronic" brain made of an iridium alloy) alongside much simpler (and in some cases, now outmoded) technologies. Although artificial consciousness may someday be achieved, a mass-produced and highly portable one that is economically more viable than human labor ''or'' simpler electronic automation is not very plausible. Again, since the stories are concerned more with the psychological and sociological consequences of robotics than with the technical aspects, the stories do not particularly suffer for this One Big Lie.

** Energy weapons - particle[[note]][[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_%28particle%29 Tau particles]], which indeed demonstrate a penetrating ability at petaelectronvolt energy levels[[/note]] accelerator the size of an assault rifle and backpack-mounted WaveMotionGun that can rip apart matter on the quark level[[note]]its namesake, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluon gluon]], is an elementary particle that mediates the strong nuclear force between quarks, thus being essential to the existence of the atomic nucleus by allowing the formation of hadron particles like protons and neutrons[[/note]], both powered by an ultracompact fission reactor that can somehow utilize depleted uranium as fuel.

* VideoGame/FrontMission operates on the same principle as ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'', but most of the time the [[MiniMecha Wanzers]] are portrayed as so inhuman, they seem like a glorified WalkingTank ([[SubvertedTrope which don't have to walk]] - they could easily be [[SpiderTank quadrupeds]], HoverTank torsos, or even plain tank treads). The mecha seems mostly to justify the game mechanic of SubsystemDamage on a comprehensible level. ''Gun Hazard'' and other spinoffs treat the [[AMechByAnyOtherName Wanzers]] as more floaty and have wackier science like an extremely wide SpaceElevator, but this is one of the few series that treat reality better than MetalGear.

* ''Film/Inception'' posits what would happen if humans could use technology to construct, control and enter each others' dreams. The entire plot comes from that sole technology, although TheRules of dream-traveling are mostly RuleOfSymbolism.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': The Big Lies are gravity/inertia control and [[spoiler: PsychicPowers]].

'''Mohs/OneBigLie:''' The author invents one (or, at most, a very few) counterfactual physical laws and writes a story that explores the implications of these principles.

Back to Main/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness.

* The ''Film/IronMan'' movies use the Big Lie of the miniaturized Arc Reactor, a palm-sized power source that, in the words of the first movie, can "power [a] heart for fifty lifetimes... or something bigger for fifteen minutes." You can also consider the PoweredArmor that the Arc Reactor powers as the Big Lie instead, as its capabilities are beyond what's possible in real life and this is the technology that the movies explore the consequences of - namely, that every military in the world wants one and every arms dealer wants to sell one. Or you could consider the repulsors to be the Big Lie. The whole thing is softened considerably in the context of the other Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse movies, though, as they imply that the reactor is based on a Mohs/ScienceInGenreOnly alien artifact.

* ''Literature/TheExpanse'' uses only one real physics assumption, and that is the Epstein Drive: an extremely fuel-efficient and powerful engine that allows ''relatively'' prompt travel throughout the solar system, so that trips take days or weeks instead of months. That is, until [[spoiler: the alien protomolecule gets discovered, which is something that warps time and space, generates stable wormholes, and does other awful, ''awful'' things to the laws of physics.]]