Jensenman wrote: Ever notice how much the Star Trek 'communicators' resemble a flip phone?
Don't you think Star Trek had at least a little influence on the design of phones? Some engineer at Motorola had to be thinking, 'how cool would it be if it flipped open and closed like they do in Star Trek!'.
confuZion3 wrote:Jensenman wrote: Ever notice how much the Star Trek 'communicators' resemble a flip phone?Don't you think Star Trek had at least a little influence on the design of phones? Some engineer at Motorola had to be thinking, 'how cool would it be if it flipped open and closed like they do in Star Trek!'.
Funny thing is.. if you took a motola flip phone (or heavens forbid an iPhone) back to the sixties to use as a prop... nobody would believe the liquid crystal displays.
mad_machine wrote:confuZion3 wrote:Funny thing is.. if you took a motola flip phone (or heavens forbid an iPhone) back to the sixties to use as a prop... nobody would believe the liquid crystal displays.Jensenman wrote: Ever notice how much the Star Trek 'communicators' resemble a flip phone?Don't you think Star Trek had at least a little influence on the design of phones? Some engineer at Motorola had to be thinking, 'how cool would it be if it flipped open and closed like they do in Star Trek!'.
You're probably right!
I think James Bond and Get Smart were also pretty good at predicting future trends, although they may not fit in here because they're not technically Sci Fi., are they?
I love living in the future.
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy has a ton of hard science based speculation in it. It builds on a lot of what was done by some of the SF pioneers, including asteroid colonies, the space elevator, terraforming...
If you want to narrow down the topic you could just look at the recent DARPA contests to show how researchers are currently going after ideas that are quite literally pulled from Sci Fi / speculation. Things like the space elevator, autonomous vehicles, cloaking, ....
About LCDs: the theory goes back to the late 1800's. IIRC the guy who developed the first practical LCD in 1962 worked for RCA and the brass thought they would have no commercial value. 
Hate to be those guys right now. But there are all kinds of stuff from SF (or what Harlan Ellison insists should be called 'speculative fiction') which have become reality.
Remember the "INFO net" from The Running Man? Somehow I knew Arnold had a hand in this whole Interwebz fad.
Anyone read any books by Dean Ing? Aircraft fiction that seems so very plausible, such as ultra lightweight carbon fiber airframes and pixelated skin for camouflage.
Luke wrote: Do you know of any SciFi films (or books) that integrate real science into their plots? Or, for that matter, any obvious examples of erroneous scifi films/books?
Actually, Firefly did an excellent job of being consistent with the laws of physics. In all the shows, you will notice that there is no sound in vacuum. Also, it stays consistent with there being no faster-than-light travel. They get around it by having all the worlds be terraformed planets or moons within the same solar system. So they can travel very fast, but at sub-light speeds.
JG Pasterjak wrote: I'm not a fan of blurring the line between sci fi and fantasy, or creating sci fi that's rooted in a plausible world then introducing elements of the supernatural just to solve problem you should be solving other ways based on the world you created (Stephen King, I'm looking at you...) jg
haha. I thought I was the only one that realized he is a hack that can't end a story (or I should say... write the last half of one).
Salanis wrote:Luke wrote: Do you know of any SciFi films (or books) that integrate real science into their plots? Or, for that matter, any obvious examples of erroneous scifi films/books?Actually, Firefly did an excellent job of being consistent with the laws of physics. In all the shows, you will notice that there is no sound in vacuum. Also, it stays consistent with there being no faster-than-light travel. They get around it by having all the worlds be terraformed planets or moons within the same solar system. So they can travel very fast, but at sub-light speeds.
That, and this series was so very entertaining and well written that you should buy the DVD's and watch the whole thing then get Serenity, just cuz.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:JG Pasterjak wrote: I'm not a fan of blurring the line between sci fi and fantasy, or creating sci fi that's rooted in a plausible world then introducing elements of the supernatural just to solve problem you should be solving other ways based on the world you created (Stephen King, I'm looking at you...) jghaha. I thought I was the only one that realized he is a hack that can't end a story (or I should say... write the last half of one).
Every King book I read gives me the same reaction. I wade into it with low hopes, little by little it begins to infect me, but I try to temper my enthusiasm knowing that sooner or later he will disappoint me. right about when I start to think "Man, he really has done it right this time..." he pulls out some psychic kid or gives the whole town visions of the future and I drop to my knees, fists raised toward the heavens and scream "Kiiiiiiiiiiing! Daaammmnnn yoooouuuuu Kiiiiiinngg!"
From a distance, a single pistol shot is heard as a flock of birds flies out of a tree, startled by the sound.
jg
Capt Slow wrote: I have always been partial to Larry Niven, though he doesn't always do "hard" Science fiction. Look into his short stories, there are a few there that may be of interest to you. Also check out "Fallen Angels", I think you need to be a bit of a nerd to really appreciate it but I really enjoyed it.
Check out "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" if you want an interesting hard science story!
The Mote in Gods eye is one of the best SciFi books ever, less for the science, more for the sociological "fi"
Jensenman wrote: Ever notice how much the Star Trek 'communicators' resemble a flip phone?
Interesting, but they really missed in some other reapects:
I mean really!!!! What kind of douche would walk around with one of those in their ears!!!?
stumpmj wrote: I'll throw out the Looking glass series by John Ringo.
Ringo is good, but the hard science in the Looking Glass series is due to Travis S. Taylor. That's why all the sequels are credited as a full co-authorship. I still need to read some of Taylor's individual works.
aircooled wrote:Jensenman wrote: Ever notice how much the Star Trek 'communicators' resemble a flip phone?Interesting, but they really missed in some other reapects:
Who would be caught dead with a blue tooth THAT big?
it needs blinking blue lights
GameboyRMH wrote: Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash has a lot of things in it that were near-future sci-fi at the time but are real now (computer-like smartphones and wireless networks, wikipedia/Google Earth/Wolfram Alpha-like applications, a SL-like online world, motorcycle airbag collars, flexible armor, just to name a few).
I just finished re-reading that last night. Man it's good. From what I understand, Google Earth was actually inspired by the "Earth" application in the book. It's a case of a bunch of nerds saying "wow, imagine if that was real! Let's do it!".
You want to talk about cop-out endings, that's Crighton. He's never resolved a climax in his life, he just has everything go away. Andromeda Strain, Sphere, Jurassic Park - they all just fizzle out the same way. He did write one of the scariest books ever, though: Disclosure.
I find it interesting reading older sci-fi and seeing what they missed. Computers and networks, for example. Sure, they had computers. But they were big, specialized machines. Instead, they gave us lots of robots. Cellphones/communicators were covered, but not digital cameras.
I'm with Keith on Crichton. Dear God. That guy wouldn't be able to write a book if it wasn't for deus ex machina..
A great apocalyptic sci-fi would be Lucifer's Hammer. Asteroid strikes the earth thereby putting civilization back a quite a bit. Good read if a bit dated as it was written in the late 70's.
Another entertaining, science based, author would be John Scalzi. Not as hard science fiction as some others mentioned here but very entertaining and timely.
I also enjoy Joe Haldeman for the same reasons as Scalzi. Although Joe never wrote about a human farting and alien to death. (Scene happened in Android's Dream by Scalzi)
Xceler8x wrote: I'm with Keith on Crichton. Dear God. That guy wouldn't be able to write a book if it wasn't for deus ex machina..
I always liked Crichton, though his posthumous work is pretty weak. His best book by far (to me) was his autobiography "Travels" though. I also really liked "State of Fear", mostly because his message upset both environmentalists and naysayers.
Scott R. Lear's lovely wife Ashley teaches whole classes about this stuff. (She's a professor in kollege.) I'd bet she has some killer examples. Maybe we could convince her to get into this conversation...
Andromeda Strain = awesome.
I expect my posthumous work will leave a lot to be desired as well.
I recommend William Gibson's "Neuromancer" and subsequent novels. He published that book in like 1981 and had a lot of smart predictions in it.
Not everything he wrote about exists now, but not much he wrote about seems like it won't still happen in the near future. He also predicted a visual communication network that was basically the internet. He called "The Matrix"
In reply to Xceler8x:
Good point. Scalzi is very good. Friend of mine spent most of a Sci-Fi Con in Detroit bullE36 M3ting with Scalzi practically the whole weekend.
Jensenman wrote: Ever notice how much the Star Trek 'communicators' resemble a flip phone?
I still want mine to make that "finear" sound when I open it.
I can't believe I'm the only guy to have seen "How William Shatner Changed the World" on, I think, Discovery channel. It follows the Star Trek/modern reality theme, and is very entertaining at the same time. Its nine bucks on Amazon right now.
Speaking of the future... he was so ahead of his time I still don't get it.
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