Cognitive Engineering

If you’re a fan of sci-fi you’ll know that one of the most important characteristics of the genre is the depiction of a fictional universe. Whether it’s Middle Earth, the Death Star or Arrakis, a plausible setting for events to take place is a key requirement. But do we have to accept a certain level of inconsistency between the fictional world and reality in order for it to work? In this week’s podcast, we discuss fact versus fiction in media and storytelling. Are there rules for fiction that can be changed and ones that can’t? We discuss The Mandalorian, the Rings of Power series, celebrity paradox and construal level theory. Finally, we share some of our favourite fictional universes. A few things we mentioned in this podcast: - TV Tropes: Acceptable breaks from reality https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AcceptableBreaksFromReality - Vice-Admiral Holdo destroys Supremacy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1r36BUY-ZM - Celebrity paradox examples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construal_level_the