I�d like to know to what extent you think Science Fiction does inspire the development and/or design of technological innovations?
Introduce your own personal theory by adding a post here.
Some examples, just so that you�ll know what I mean: - Transplantation surgery/Mary Shelley/ Frankenstein/1818 - Submarine/Jules Verne/Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea/1870
da Swede
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Well I read where the bridge design of the USS Enterprise was used for office space concepts or some such thing.
The Hypospray.
I'd like to see a Dermal Regenerator!
The idea that a two white american men, a black african american woman, an asian man, a russian man, a scottish man and an half-breed alien can live and work togther as equals and for the betterment of each other and their fellow humans!
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Let's see...
Communicators.....Cell Phones PADD's............PDA's Data Crystals.....CD's and DVD's
I'm just waiting for the android women. But with my luck they would all be Harcourt Fenton Mudd's wife. Then I'd have to pawn her off on Jason.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Are you trying to get us to write your dissertation?
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Also, while I'm all for yay-go-happy-Star Trek, communicators did not inspire Cell Phones. The telephone inspired cell phones. Making them mobile was such a blindingly obvious thing to do that it would have happened exactly the same with or without Trek.
And "data crystals"? You sure you don't mean "small painted bits of wood"?
Posted by Fleet-Admiral Michael T. Colorge (Member # 144) on :
There were TOS versions of the CD and floppy disks during that episode where Spock, Kirk, and a very lost McCoy were in... reminds me of Iconian Gateways though.
I do remember when the US military studied the bridge of the Enterprise and go figure Berman and Braga studied a US submarine to make the new NX-01.
I'm still waiting for the transporters that remove clothing for ya...
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
"Introduce your own personal theory by adding a post here."
Typically, people introduce themselves here before they start issuing directives in their first post. Just a friendly heads-up.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Hmmm, not sure if this entirely fits your criteria but there is Arthur C. Clarke and his proposal about geostationary satellites. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke Posted by SWEDE (Member # 1499) on :
Hmmm... Seems like I might have missjudged one or two things. Maybe even three. So, lets set the record straight.
--> PsyLiam: No, I am not writing a dissertation. So you are welcome to the topic, if you feel up to it. I just happened to be pondering on this question at work one day and thought that it might be something other people had dwelled on too. Ergo: a suitable topic for discussion in a forum like this.
--> Cartman: Thanks for the friendly advice! Granted, I didn�t spot a manual to this forum. (Not that I would have read one if I found it.) Calling my request for personal theories "issuing directives" seems a bit harsh though. But totally in character ;-)
Personally, I�d argue that a book that doesn�t contain any technological innovations of some sort just isn�t Sci-Fi. And since the development speed of our society seems to be forever accelerating, I thought writers perhaps had a hard time keeping up. Naturally, I�d like you to prove me wrong again.
But my frist question is the one that interests me the most. I�d like to see a time line similar to this one http://www.btexact.com/docimages/42270/42270.pdf but based on when a Sci-Fi author introduced a new innovation.
da Swede
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
quote:Personally, I�d argue that a book that doesn�t contain any technological innovations of some sort just isn�t Sci-Fi.
That's a serious misconception, science-fiction stories can just as well be about great environmental changes or life on other planets, it doesn't have to be connected to technology at all, in the same sense that there is more to science than technology.
And just so you know, I don't think you're the only swede on these forums, I'm sure I've seen two or three around here at times, so maybe "a Swede" would be more accurate. They're probably too busy romping around at IKEA or eating meatballs to chip in just now, but I guess time will tell.
As for writing a timeline of devices or concepts (with entries of both their published theories and their latter manifestations) would lead to a lot of cross-references and links. For instance, Robert Heinlein used powered exoskeleton armor in his "Starship Troopers", and about three years ago a strap-on aluminum powered exoskeleton prototype was developed for hospital use, enabling nurses to triple their strength to carry sick patients. So that would be two entries separated by about 50 years. How would you apply the format of that .pdf timeline you linked to in this case?
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: Also, while I'm all for yay-go-happy-Star Trek, communicators did not inspire Cell Phones. The telephone inspired cell phones. Making them mobile was such a blindingly obvious thing to do that it would have happened exactly the same with or without Trek.
And "data crystals"? You sure you don't mean "small painted bits of wood"?
SHeeessshhh..... I bet you believe that you can fit more space inside a police box than the actual volume of the space that the said police box takes up too! Posted by Grokca (Member # 722) on :
We have a crappy restaurant in town called Dixon Hill's, does that count?
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
quote:Originally posted by WizArtist II: SHeeessshhh..... I bet you believe that you can fit more space inside a police box than the actual volume of the space that the said police box takes up too!
The space inside the police box was over there, so it made sense.
Posted by HerbShrump (Member # 1230) on :
I'm not finding 1 particular web stie with a list of all (or many) of the realities we deal with today that were originally concepts in Scifi.
However, when you do a Google search for "science ficition reality" you come up with a number of hits on particular subjects: Military drones/robots, smart weapons, biotechnology, etc...
I did, however, find this article I thought was of interest:
quote:Originally posted by Nim': As for writing a timeline of devices or concepts (with entries of both their published theories and their latter manifestations) would lead to a lot of cross-references and links. ... So that would be two entries separated by about 50 years. How would you apply the format of that .pdf timeline you linked to in this case?
Exactly. There would also be the problem of cases like Dune, Foundation, or even whole subgenres like alternative history which wouldn't neatly fit into the model.
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
Well, if one chooses a thing from Dune, one wouldn't put down the year 12334 but 1965, the date of publishing, as conception. Otherwise Star Wars would be a mite hard.
Who was the first author to come up with energy shields? Off the top of my head I'd say "War of the Worlds" had the oldest ships with tank-repelling shields.
I'm mentioning it because that is an invention we've almost managed to build now, a tank with a plus-pole in the front and a minus in the back, charged with so much electric energy inbetween that an incoming RPG-7 rocket explodes without detonating its shaped charge through the hull.
Posted by SWEDE (Member # 1499) on :
Just like Nim' suggests I�d be more interested in when the invention was mentioned in fiction in the first place rather than the time lag between concept and realization of it. Inventions that are yet to be realized shouldn�t be excluded from such a list.
da Swede
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Alfred Bester wrote a minor background character named DR @tkins who gets a page from his "electronic mailbox".
It's just a one-liner at a party (in the book) but it's pretty far-thinking considering the book was written in the 1950's.
I think that while the cell-phone was a logical progression, the flip-phone owes a bit to TOS.
Man, I'd buy a nice TOS-style cell phone.
Posted by MarianLH (Member # 1102) on :
Didn't Jules Verne once describe something akin to a fax machine?
Marian
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I dont know: he had a bitchin' submarine and a very Hunley-esque torpedo/harpoon thing in 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.
That book alone probably inspired generations of sub-designers, if that counts.
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