This is such an interesting topic to me.

The idea of what is "believable" and what is not in a field where suspension of disbelief is so key. https://twitter.com/DanDanTransient/status/1199421247886483456

I think about this with responses to my novel Dark Saviors.

A story with insect like robots hunting humanity, armored power suits, and human-AI interfaces.

And with all that the two things I often get told:
1. Women aren't soldiers, so one of my two protags is unbelievable
2. The targeting tech doesn't work that way so it's unbelievable as a premise

Let's look at these statements.

1. Ladies in Combat.

They are in the 2018 when I wrote it and there is no reason to think their presence won't expand.

But let's say that maybe women aren't in the military or combat trained, are you going to tell me it's easier to suspend disbelief about her power armor then it as about her gender?

Like fighting insect robots is doable, but being a lady isn't?

Make that suspension of disbelief and lack of belief fit without being sexist....

I'll wait...

I mean I'm not waiting, cause I know.

The second main argument is that sensor tech doesn't work that way, so let me tell you a story (spoiler , military and private sensors work this way).

I was planning a casino build/remodel and in doing so was researching the benefit/negative effects of automated bathrooms with blow-dryers instead of paper towels. The casino wanted cost and environmental impact.

My gf was like, "well if you do that get better sensors" which lead to a conversation about the fact that she needs to get a paper towel manually to get sensors to work.

Which led me to research why (still for casino guest impact)

What I found was a series of videos of soap dispensers and other ir tech that just couldn't see dark skin.

Which lead to me asking vendors and culminating in a surveillance expert explaining to me that the hardware has an issue with Dark skin interfering with recognition, but also

the software has its own racial biases. they can't quite get straight that means Asians start to get impacted. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2124313/chinese-woman-offered-refund-after-facial-recognition-allows

Which lead me down a rabbit hole of diversity (lack there of) in tech and how huge an impact this is having on people that don't share my light skinned and white coded privileges.

I started to think how this would work in a terminator style apocalypse. What if skynet couldn't see dark skin? Well everyone left to fight would be dark that's for sure.

So I started imagining the scene a boy the crowded airport, surrounded by strangers until they, the robots, came, with gunfire, and left him standing looking at the only other dark faced survivor. and I couldn't get it out of my head until I wrote the first chapter of DS.

but I started to worry, is this even possible? won't they fix this hardware issue? Surely someone cares.

so I wrote slowly the core story fussing over the realability of insect robot sensors. But caring more about a fun ride.

and as I got closer to the end, I saw a news article. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/3/5/18251924/self-driving-car-racial-bias-study-autonomous-vehicle-dark-skin

Now you'll notice the Fitzpatrick scale, which is key to the reflectivity issues and why it's not just dark but mostly just dark skin impacted, and the reason why using doll skin (yes they used doll skin) didn't work as replacements for those people within specific labs.

Water content, that stuff it's all important, and the sensor hardware we have decided on needs a specific set of parameters (mostly light skin). But a fix is being worked on I'm sure.

The hardware issue has been understood at least since the early 90s

Let that sink in nearly 30 years and the bulk of instituting the tech the problem has been known

It was expensive to replace when it was a few doors and they repeated that refrain until its literally everywhere

Reading all this I immediately began on lab scenes explaining the tech, the faults, and the verbiage I saw in all these tech forums that spiraled into racism every time. It was difficult to write all that unveiled racism and tech research entwined

I've pulled those scenes since, but they frame it in my mind for me. that this adventure survival story is rooted in reality.

And yet I get told "it cant work that way" by people who likely don't realize it already does. https://twitter.com/DanDanTransient/status/1164659605932130305?s=19

A great podcast that mentioned my novel and the tech issues I discussed here was done by @NHC_Gigi https://twitter.com/DanDanTransient/status/1183061911711039488?s=09

I just realized this is a really long thread so to bring it back to focus, let us explore what we are willing to believe and what we aren't.

Cause I really think women should be more believable in fantasy than dragon's.