One of things that never fails to irk me is underestimation of the size
of the galaxy. No sci-fi super-villain is content with ruling a few solar
systems, or even a chunk of a spiral arm. Oh no, they have to rule
the entire galaxy. This always gets my goat because the galaxy
is huge beyond imagination. The Milky Way galaxy has some 200,000,000,000
stars, at least that many planets, and is 90,000 light years across. Running
an empire on that sort of scale would require near-instantaneous teleportation
and communication, and then you would have to deal with controlling a population
of trillions with access to a galaxy-wide transportation network and Internet.
But I'm over-analyzing, because none of the shows or books that misuse the
notion of "ruling the galaxy" give the reality of the situation a smidgen of thought.
"If you understood everything I said, you'd be me" - Miles Davis
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell
"Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government." - Lenny Bruce
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Homer Simpson
