technology in sci-fi

POSTED BY: est120
UPDATED: Sunday, July 30, 2006 21:54
VIEWED: 12871
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METTASUTRA

Monday, July 24, 2006 9:16 PM

There's something called a Prose Portal in a novel by Jasper Fforde called The Eyre Affair. You can read yourself into anything written: poem, novel, laundry label. The heroine, Thursday Next, gets to meet Mr. Rochester. Gotta be careful to interact with characters when they're not "on" in the story, though, or you end up written into the book, changing the plot. Fforde's hilarious, on the page and speaking in public.

RMMC

Monday, July 24, 2006 9:44 PM

I love those books!! (yeah, there's more: Lost in a Good Book , The Well of Lost Plots and Something Rotten. )

I just don't want to be in the mammoth migratory route.

Am jealous you've got to see Fforde in person.

*******
RMMC

METTASUTRA

Monday, July 24, 2006 10:08 PM

He was delightful. A bit high on himself, but no less funny for it. If I remember, he described an invention: a semi-digital, semi-industrial, semi-mystical process that turned out to be...reading.

Don't know if he can sustain the world he's created; I found each next book in the Thursday Next series to be a little less vital. What do you think?

( Haven't read the latest, the "nursery crimes.")

RMMC

Monday, July 24, 2006 10:35 PM

I started to think and asked myself what was less good about it. My answer was is was more predictable than the first book had been. And I think that part of the reason it may seem so is as the books go on, we're getting more used to the world he created, so it seems a little less shiny, strange and mystifying as we're now able to apply the logic for it's 'verse and get a somewhat accurate idea of what's going to happen.

I already know that the more easily I can predict something in either books, TV or movies (on my first viewing) the less I like it.

Movies that are predictable I simply loathe. They have a new unvarnished palate...they *should* be able to surprise me, and more than just once. There just isn't any excuse for being pedantric and predictable.

TV and books I'll be a little more forgiving to as the more time you spend immersed in the world of said book or TV show, the more time you have to become familiar with it, and more likely to be able to accurately predict a character's response to a given situation. At that point, as I said, I'm willing to forgive a bit more so long as it's presented well.

I feel the Thursday next novels are presented reasonably well. Not a Bradbury or Tolkien level, but above average.

Nope, I haven't read 'Nursey Crimes' yet either. i have hopes of being able to do so later this year.

*******
RMMC

RODWY

Monday, July 24, 2006 11:05 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Causal:
Quote:
Originally posted by Rodwy:
6. Strider from Half Life 2(cause it would be all like "stomp, stomp, stomp" and you'd be all "AAGGGH! help!" And it'd be all "budda, budda, budda" and you'd be all "it's killing me!" and it'd be all "Stab-you-through-chest-with-foot: And you'd be all "oh no I'm dead" Heh heh. That'd be awesome........I mean BAD! That'd be BAD!)

Is it bad that I find this extremely funny?

________________________________________________________________________
I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.

Yes it is very, very bad.

---

http://www.phpbbforfree.com/forums/theinvaders.html

CAUSAL

Monday, July 24, 2006 11:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Rodwy:
Quote:
Originally posted by Causal:
Quote:
Originally posted by Rodwy:
6. Strider from Half Life 2(cause it would be all like "stomp, stomp, stomp" and you'd be all "AAGGGH! help!" And it'd be all "budda, budda, budda" and you'd be all "it's killing me!" and it'd be all "Stab-you-through-chest-with-foot: And you'd be all "oh no I'm dead" Heh heh. That'd be awesome........I mean BAD! That'd be BAD!)

Is it bad that I find this extremely funny?

________________________________________________________________________
I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.

Yes it is very, very bad.

---

http://www.phpbbforfree.com/forums/theinvaders.html

Oh.

In that case, I'm off to confession.

________________________________________________________________________
I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.

FIZZIX

Tuesday, July 25, 2006 12:12 AM

Me's gonna want a TARDIS, but me's also probably gonna have the Doctor on call.

Me's also wanting the Enterprise... D. With original bridge crew of the Original (plus Dr. McCoy and Scotty, of course!), plus special crew members from the D.

Whee.... Oh, I just wanted you guys to think I wasn't a browncoat, Me does want a Firefly. Preferably Serenity.

And Mal's gun.

FIZZIX

Tuesday, July 25, 2006 12:13 AM

Blast the Double postage.

CYBERSNARK

Tuesday, July 25, 2006 2:04 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by micjwelch:
I think an android would be nice. One that doesn't complain much, and would do all my chores for me.

We're halfway there.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71426-0.html

Quote:
Hiroshi Ishiguro is a busy man. Between his two jobs, countless meetings and presentations, his demanding schedule was eating up all his time. So he built an android version of himself to pick up the slack.
[. . .]
"If I could have one at the university, and one at ATR, I would just do all my work from a hot-springs resort,"

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

RCAT

Tuesday, July 25, 2006 4:59 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by BelugasMom:
Ditto Replicators a la Star Trek." More precisely, the molecule recombiner/rearranger thingy machine from a book I can't remember. [I suppose if I describe the plot, SOMEONE on fff will know, so.....story starts out with some hideously rich father having an island made-out of nanotechnology, I think-for his daughter's birthday, then there was a "book", written as her life progressed, reflecting what happened in her life] Anyway, the machine took recombined molecules into whatever you needed, and also you could put waste materials into it, and THOSE molecules would be rearranged into something else.............Anyway, THE POINT BEING, these machine were in every home, even the poorest, so no one went hungry. Basic food stuffs with adequate nutrition were available at all times to everyone. Also, garbage dumps, recycling centers, etc were obsolete because these machine were all over and everyone just "recycled" refuse at the molecular level. PLEASE someone tell me the name of this book......I've been thinking alot lately about it, and all the ideas/inventions/new technologies in it, and I'd really like to have my own copy. OK, sorry, that was a bit long.

Belugas,
I'm pretty sure the book you're talking about is the Daimond Age by Neil Stephenson (a great scifi/cyberpunk author btw).

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