One of my most favourite pastimes is losing myself in an engaging film. Although I enjoy a mindless Hollywood blockbuster as much as the next 18-35 year old male target demographic member, it’s the films that drag me away to a whole other world that stick with me. And that’s because my film experiences are all about the escapism factor, with their level of Tesla Patent Pending-success determined by how much they can help me leave the real world behind, if only for the time between credits. Science fiction is perhaps one of the greatest genres of film to help me disconnect and be immersed.
(Image: Andre30c)
I recently wrote a blog entry about whether a specific example of cloning could be a sign of science going too far, and was pleased to receive some rather thought-provoking contentions in the comments section. One particular comment by ‘Dude from Sydney’ got me thinking about the link between science fiction and how it may be inspiring ‘science actual’. When I read this article about a Back to the Future II replica hoverboard, I knew I had to throw in my two cents.
(Image: Sam Hocevar)
Now while I don’t expect us to see Star Destroyers or even hovercars popping up at the local car lot anytime soon, I do believe that mainstream science fiction (read: film, alas I am not as versed in sci-fi literature as I should be) needs to push the imagination factor to warp speed. It wasn’t so many years ago that I was marvelling at the handsfree screen manipulation in Minority Report (since mirrored and upgraded somewhat in Iron Man), only to be pleasantly surprised by the advances in this particular tech for real-world application.
And this is only one example of mainstream science fiction acting as a prophet for the direction that real-world technological advancements take. But I think that the minds behind such texts (films, novels, comics, etc.) are resting on their laurels and need to lift their game. I remember being told at university that nothing we can imagine is truly original, in that it’s based off some sort of reference point in reality. In relation to science fiction, spaceships are ships in space, weaponry is based on the logic of existing armaments and so on.
(Image: James Montgomery Flagg, painted by)
While that particular statement may have more than its fair share of truth, I’m struggling to think of the last time I saw some form of revolutionary tech featured in a mainstream sci-fi film that I wanted to see in the real world. What I want to do with your help in the comments section below, is to see if we can come up with some ideas for potential sci-fi technology that you’d like to see on the big screen, and maybe even one day in reality. It may be as simple as self-tying shoelaces, or as intricate as a completely revolutionary form of transportation – the bigger the better!
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I dig sci-fi books likes its nobody’s business, and I’ve found that the technological ideas there are far more diverse than what you just see in film. Don’t get me wrong - I do love my sci-fi films too - I guess some things are just much easier to portray on the big screen, so they probably stick to a certain group of ‘inventions’.
For me, the greatest sci-fi invention yet to be realised (if it ever can be) is FTL travel. Of course there are a lot of inherent problems with the concept of travelling faster than the speed of light; problems that sci-fi literature and film don’t need to address, because ultimately, it’s all fiction. This invention would open up worlds of opportunity for us (literally!) and is potentially a great solution to all the world’s problems… or at least, a great way to put off actually dealing with them.
I remember once watching a documentary on science fiction (one amongst many) and it came to an interview with one of the producers of Star Trek - The Next Gen. As the story goes Gene Roddenberry once gave Stephen Hawking a tour of the set and a meet & greet with the cast members. When it came time to show Hawking the engine room Roddenberry began explaining the fictional “science” behind warp drive. Immediately upon finishing Hawking is quoted as saying “You know, I’m working on that.”
Awesome.
Sci-fi definitely guides technology, there are countless examples. Too many to delve into. As for pushing the envolope I’ve found that sci-fi comedies seem to be coming up with the more outlandish examples these days. Futurama, for instance, has self-heating hot dogs. It sounds pretty riduculous until you realise we have the same thing with store-bought, fridge-kept coffees. You press the button on the bottom and a minute later you have a piping hot coffee due to some chemical reaction that is unleashed in the bottom of the cup/bottle. Pretty impressive stuff. You’ll see similar things in other spoofs/mockups/satires such as 5th Element and so on.
Personally I’m waiting for the tabletop microwave-style freezer. While there are many insta-cool products out there most of them are extremely bulky, hugely energy inefficient and totally unpractical. Id love to get home with a case of beer and just chuck it in my 2 directional microwave and hit the “beer” button on the chill section of the control pad.
some kind of conbination between a space elevator and a railgun for launching payloads…
one little adressed issue is quantum computers and macro-scale faster than light communications (maby because theyre hard to understand). i think a good movie featuring quantum entanglement to communicate with intersteller (maby fusion/solar sail powered) probes would generate interest in science projects (maby an avatar with robots?)
i liked the tech in GI Joes, but it WAS all based off DARPA projects i guess…
@ Muffin - FTL travel (faster than light travel, for those unfamiliar with the acronym) is one of the recurring sci-fi devices that I find the most interesting… particularly when it still requires multiple ‘jumps’ for spaceships to end up where they want to be. It makes me realise just how massive our galaxy (and sci-fi galaxies) really are! Do you have any other suggestions for things you’d like to see in sci-fi (perhaps an amalgamation of existing things), and perhaps eventually in a real-world application?
@ Shonky Adonis - Wow, that’s an awesome story… a really practical example of sci-fi technology that’s in the works in the real world. I like where your head’s at with the beer example… I’m sure the inventor of that technology would make their fortune out of that!
@ otoko_tenshi - Do you mean a combination of a space elevator and a railgun to launch ordinance (a la, a weapon), or more for a new form of transportation for items? Imagine being able to launch international mail across continents in such a way that would (hopefully) be cheaper and quicker than the current means of international transportation.
The GI Joe tech (in the movie) was pretty interesting, but I seem to recall that a lot of that was also featured in the older cartoons and toys.
@Muffin - We actually have numerous FTL designs, it has become more a question of engineering rather than needing more ideas. In fact a few years ago a German physicist won the American aerospace design of the year award (posthumously), for a paper written 50 years ago describing a valid theory for FTL. It was only recently translated to English, so very few people knew anything about it!
@Shonky Adonis - I have heard of stephen hawking’s visit to ST TNG before but had forgotten how much… hope, that story can fill me with. Thanks for sharing. Also I ABSOLUTELY FREAKING LOVE YOUR BEER IDEA. I want that NOW. I also completely agree with you in regards to sci-fi books being well ahead of film. These books are often so full of future tech that you can forget you are still living in the present.
@otoko_tenshi - I’ve often had the idea of a MASSIVE railgun on the moon, capable of launching payloads all around the solar system. Of course the problem is that you couldn’t fire humans anywhere with it, the g-forces would be much too strong. However, what you COULD do would be to launch your payload, but have a really long bungee cord attached to it, with the human capsule attached to the other end. This would reduce the forces on the human occupants, while still allowing the idea. Yes, this is a silly way of traveling, but wouldn’t it be cool?
Anyway, my more general response to the article follows:
Mainstream science fiction should lift it’s game… I agree. Avatar is actually a great example in the use of it’s “unobtainium”. The idea of their being a particular element that is outside of what we have already seen and that it has any kind of “special properties” is just silly, and a cop out. Mainstream science fiction, i.e films, are generally very shonky on the good technological ideas, and Shonky Adonis is exactly right in saying that pretty much only the comedies do it properly.
That being said, just because an idea hasn’t been presented to the general populous does not mean it’s not out there, and this is where we come to sci-fi books. Books are always going to be superior to movies in terms of ideas, and it’s rather exacerbated in sci-fi. This is why most science fiction readers just go ga-ga over nanotech.
Nanotech has SO many possible applications, that have been quite thoroughly explored in sci-fi, that it’s almost impossible not to get excited about it. Spaceships that build and repair themselves. Quantum computers that make humans look like idiots. Immortality. Ascension to another substrate (i.e transfer of consciousness onto a chip). Furniture that grows itself out of the floor, upon your request… I could go on about the various applications for hours. Yet all of this is achieved by an essentially simple idea. That is, humans being able to control individual atoms. We’re already very close, and it’s only going to be another 5 to 10 years before the idiotic mass become aware of it as well.