nausicaaharris:

i think a far better metric for sci-fi is not “hard” or “soft” or “science fantasy” or whatever but the ease with which one can fuck aliens

from one end to the other, the scale is:

• it is impossible to fuck aliens because we have not found any
• it is technically impossible to fuck aliens because we have not found any, but you can fuck a wide variety of genetically-modified humans
• it is impossible to fuck aliens because no alien species has anything resembling sex
• it is difficult to fuck aliens due to divergent anatomy, but with great care and dedication it can be done
• it is difficult to fuck aliens due to travel difficulties
• it is moderately difficult to fuck aliens, as they are down to clown, but it requires a degree of courage
• it requires no special effort to fuck aliens, because that’s hotter than reasonable levels of biodiversity
• it is easy to fuck aliens, and you are cross-fertile with them because this is a universe with the Strong Hodgkin’s Law
• it is easy to fuck aliens because you are all descended from ancient bullshit progenitors

(obviously there are intermediate stages but i do think this is a useful rubric)

star trek canon goes through 5 of these depending on era and species