Why are so many sci-fi's set set close to now, when the technology clearly won't exist?
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Tuesday, December 4, 2007 22:12
VIEWED: 12199
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...Which is why I like Trek; it's not supposed to be 'right around the corner'...
And in my mind Blade Runner takes place in 2119 Chrisisall
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Do you mean that we don't have all those things? 
http://www.scienceagogo.com/
According to this site we probably have a bussard fusion reactor withing ten years, and I read somewhere that a man with a patent for a flying car has his first production flying car out this year, so some of these sci-fi stories weren't too far off. I think the primary differences between the technology level of science fiction and reality is that in the 1950s and 60s the profit potential for thspace travel was obvious and the risks were easy to ignore, but in reality, while the profits for space exlploration can be pretty substantial, the risks are too substantial at this time.
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Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
...Which is why I like Trek; it's not supposed to be 'right around the corner'...
And in my mind Blade Runner takes place in 2119 Chrisisall
No... not right around the corner AT ALL!!
"First Contact" (the movie and the event)was in like 2063( 55 years and change)
which puts "Enterpise" ( capt. Archer et al.) 100 years later, 2160's
then add about 70 years for TOS : approx 2233
and TNG,DS9, VOY approx another 70 years, or roughly 2303(begining of TNG)
so granted the bulk of the trek that we know is in the 24th century, but, according to them we have a (1) functional warp drive in only 55 years from now!(and a global thermonuclear war between now and then)
Also, in the ORIGINAL story line (late 60's)
Kahn and his fellow genetically engineered supermen had taken over the earth by the early 1990's, and had been launched in to space in suspended animation on board the Botany Bay in around 1997.
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Quote:
Originally posted by optimus1998:
according to them we have a (1) functional warp drive in only 55 years from now!(and a global thermonuclear war between now and then)
Also, in the ORIGINAL story line (late 60's)
Kahn and his fellow genetically engineered supermen had taken over the earth by the early 1990's, and had been launched in to space in suspended animation on board the Botany Bay in around 1997.
I am undone
.Only Firefly holds Chrisisall
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Actually, the Eugenics Wars did happen. It was only thanks to Gary Seven that most of the world remains ignorant. Things won't be declassified until WWIII.
http://www.amazon.com/Eugenics-Wars-Vol-Noonien-Singh/dp/0671021273 The Eugenics Wars, Volume 1
http://www.amazon.com/Eugenics-Wars-Vol-Noonien-Singh/dp/0743406443 The Eugenics Wars, Volume 2
http://www.amazon.com/Reign-Hell-Exile-Noonien-Singh/dp/0743457129 To Reign in Hell
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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Thanks for the links CS! I did not know....
Must get more books Chrisisall
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Of course back when 2001 came out, space travel was really taking off, fuelled by the cold war. Man hadn't landed on the Moon yet, but we were about to, and within a decade of setting out to do so. Back then a man flight to Jupiter in the year 2001 would have seemed a reasonable explanation. It failed to take into account the swing from interplanetary flight to exploring low earth orbit, and the thawing of the cold war, not to mention the national trauma in America represented by the Challenger disaster.
Remember that with man's return in Clarke's sequel 2010, Russia is still America's cold war adversary, and a major super power. Who knows, if there hadn't been major sociological, political and technological shifts after the moon landings, perhaps we would have gone to Jupiter by now?
If we'd really put resources into it, there's no reason we wouldn't have a base on the Moon right now, it's not really beyond present day technology.
I'm more worried that the trend seems to more closely mirror that speculated by the book "The Self-Destruction Syndrome".
More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
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Yeah, predicting the future is a tough thing to try to predict. On the BACK TO THE FUTURE 2 DVD, Robert Zemekis said that he never really wanted to go into the future with the franchise, because he himself wasn't a fan of "glimpses into the future" because you could never truly predict it and that by the time you reach the dates, you're inevitably let down. So with the future part of BTTF2, they intentionally made it as outlandish as possible, although if you think about it, some of the things they have predicted I imagine will be commonplace by 2015. Maybe not hover technology or hydrating pizzas, but the big tv screen that you can watch multiple channels on will most likely be here in 8 years. And the interface set up where you can do business and be fired in your living room I think is being done already, if not widespread. And one little visual gag has already happened ten years ago. When the DeLorean lands in the alley, you see all these bundles of laserdiscs as garbage. By 2015, it'll probably be Blu-ray and HD discs.
And also, I agree that maybe having a moon base wouldn't be too far fetched. In that recent Tom Hanks IMAX moon doc, they say that the computers they used to guide the Apollo space missions had as much information space as a pocket calculator today. I think that if a calculator can get us to the moon, then all the supercomputers that NASA and the NASA-like organizations put together can definitely get us to Mars and beyond. I mean, you hear about flights up to the ISS all the time, and Richard Branson's already taking reservations for commercial flights into space, even if it's only just to go into orbit.
But in general, you never really know how the future's going to go. I mean, if you compare 2007 to 1907, the people in 1907 would have their minds blown at what the world is like now. So maybe in 2107, the stuff we have today will be nothing compared to what the people in 2107 will be used too. And with technology advancing so much in the last 20 or 30 years or so, maybe we will live long enough to see this kind of stuff. Heck, if the Mayan's and my friend is right, we might be seeing a big change on Dec 23rd, 2012.
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I was just talking to my Mom who lived in Germany during World War 2 and in her town there were no automobiles and work was done by horse. She mentioned that all of the developments and to you and I it may seem like technology is lagging, but to my Mom we are in those sci fi settings we all claim were wrong. I just love it when my mother's microwave oven speaks to her. Just like out of the Jetsons.
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We can't even drive cars on the ground w/ out smashing into things all over the place, the powers that be came to realize that allowing us in flying cars would be a nightmare.
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