Hard on Soft Science: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Starship Troopers (novel)|Starship Troopers]]'', [[Robert A. Heinlein|Heinlein]] goes on at length about how flawed 20th century psychology was/is. However [[Characterization Tags|Future!]]Psychology teaches nothing but "hard truths"... by the ''math department''.

** Another Robert Heinlein example, from the "Notebooks of Lazarus Long" in ''[[Time Enough for Love]]''.

* Discussed and subverted in [[Michael Crichton]]'s [[Sphere]]. One of the [[Jerkass]] physicists asks what somebody from such a useless field as psychology is doing on the mission. The psychologist protagonist points out (perhaps only to himself, it's been a while) what terrible people skills the average physicist has. It turns out the psychologist is {{spoiler|the only one mentally stable enough to handle the nigh-omnipotence the title sphere gives without killing everyone.}}

** Also discussed in another Crichton novel, ''Timeline'', where there is an even starker contrast as it's between a physicist and a ''historian''. Perhaps deconstructed, since the physicist protagonist solves problems in the present, while the historians solve problems in the past.

* Inverted in [http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=231 this] [[Hark! A Vagrant]] strip. [[H. G. Wells]] seems a little hard on ''hard'' science.

* One ''[[Girl Genius]]'' strip involves a mad social scientist griping about the fact that the Sparks who go into the hard sciences get all the funding.