The very first line: “Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic.“ Scientific rigor might apply in a fictional setting with different laws, but accuracy requires a universe similar to our own.
One of the references linked from Wikipedia wants not some consistent set of laws but also facts about our universe like the moon not having an atmosphere. https://books.google.com/books?id=PiphRocVYRwC&pg=PA187#v=on... Thus a platypus should be closely related to mammals even though it lays eggs. In a different universe different genealogies are possible even with identical physics, but that doesn’t fit our science.
So by “rigor of the science itself” it’s in reference to our science not the stories universe because:
> Existing in a different universe
Any story could work in some theoretical universe. Olympian gods could exist with the right physics and any child learning how the world works is exploring that physics.
> if their current scientific and technical knowledge is still rigorous in the same way that ours is
I think what you’re looking for is Rationalist fiction which cares about the consistency of the setting’s internal rules but not how close the physics matches ours. ‘Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality’ fits as soft science fiction and rationalist fiction. The main character is definitely trying to understand how the world works and carries out many experiments, things just don’t fit our physics.
Meanwhile you can have Hard Science fiction with primitive humans exploring the ruins of our civilization who don’t have the slightest idea of the scientific method. That line between possibility and not is a meaningful line and we came up with words to describe it.
One of the references linked from Wikipedia wants not some consistent set of laws but also facts about our universe like the moon not having an atmosphere. https://books.google.com/books?id=PiphRocVYRwC&pg=PA187#v=on... Thus a platypus should be closely related to mammals even though it lays eggs. In a different universe different genealogies are possible even with identical physics, but that doesn’t fit our science.
So by “rigor of the science itself” it’s in reference to our science not the stories universe because:
> Existing in a different universe
Any story could work in some theoretical universe. Olympian gods could exist with the right physics and any child learning how the world works is exploring that physics.
> if their current scientific and technical knowledge is still rigorous in the same way that ours is
I think what you’re looking for is Rationalist fiction which cares about the consistency of the setting’s internal rules but not how close the physics matches ours. ‘Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality’ fits as soft science fiction and rationalist fiction. The main character is definitely trying to understand how the world works and carries out many experiments, things just don’t fit our physics.
Meanwhile you can have Hard Science fiction with primitive humans exploring the ruins of our civilization who don’t have the slightest idea of the scientific method. That line between possibility and not is a meaningful line and we came up with words to describe it.