Post by What caused what on Jan 17, 2005 20:31:18 GMT -5
This may be off thread, but with only three other threads...well who cares.
I believe that science and science fiction are totally related.
In fact, I believe the fantasy of science fiction has caused most of our technological breakthroughs. If you follow the old addage, "If you can imagine it...you can create it".
I'll give several examples of ideas that were pure fantasy and then realized with striking similarity years later.
Star Trek! My father hated that show. It was perposterous. Whenever Capt. Kirk wiped out his lil communicator and flipped it open and talked to a ship hundereds of miles away...no static...no delays. With this tiny little hand held device. It was simply not possible.....well, not yet anyway. Today, I have a similar handheld device ...so close in appearance to the original Star Trek communicator that it could not be mere coincedence. I talk to my wife hundreds of miles away...no delays...no static...with this little hand held device.
Then there was the shuttlecraft. It could take off from a planet and fly right into outer space...If my father had hair, he would have pulled it out. You CANNOT do that. Where are the boosters? Where are the ground support people? It takes months if not years of planning just to get a capsule to the moon, let alone just fly off into space.
I wonder what my father would have said if he lived long enough to see the space shuttles we have now.. Not quite as advanced as the ones that amazed me as a kid watching my favorite sci-fi show as a kid, but damn close..
And speaking of hand-held miracle workers...the Star-Trek tricorder was a thing that was pure..PURE..B.S. Were they serious? This wacky little box was gonna tell those guys where they had to go?...what type of terrain was up ahead?..had the answers to all kinds of problems right at your fingertips?....Ya know, I've seen alot of PDAs and hand-held computers lately that could do all those things. Stored database..GPS..mapping programs.
So what was it?...was Gene Roddenberry a prophet? Did he have the ability to see into the future? Or did the imagination of a kid who grew up to be a scientist or a computer wizard sort of meld together and re-create some of the wonders that sparked that imagination as a kid.?
I believe that science and science fiction are totally related.
In fact, I believe the fantasy of science fiction has caused most of our technological breakthroughs. If you follow the old addage, "If you can imagine it...you can create it".
I'll give several examples of ideas that were pure fantasy and then realized with striking similarity years later.
Star Trek! My father hated that show. It was perposterous. Whenever Capt. Kirk wiped out his lil communicator and flipped it open and talked to a ship hundereds of miles away...no static...no delays. With this tiny little hand held device. It was simply not possible.....well, not yet anyway. Today, I have a similar handheld device ...so close in appearance to the original Star Trek communicator that it could not be mere coincedence. I talk to my wife hundreds of miles away...no delays...no static...with this little hand held device.
Then there was the shuttlecraft. It could take off from a planet and fly right into outer space...If my father had hair, he would have pulled it out. You CANNOT do that. Where are the boosters? Where are the ground support people? It takes months if not years of planning just to get a capsule to the moon, let alone just fly off into space.
I wonder what my father would have said if he lived long enough to see the space shuttles we have now.. Not quite as advanced as the ones that amazed me as a kid watching my favorite sci-fi show as a kid, but damn close..
And speaking of hand-held miracle workers...the Star-Trek tricorder was a thing that was pure..PURE..B.S. Were they serious? This wacky little box was gonna tell those guys where they had to go?...what type of terrain was up ahead?..had the answers to all kinds of problems right at your fingertips?....Ya know, I've seen alot of PDAs and hand-held computers lately that could do all those things. Stored database..GPS..mapping programs.
So what was it?...was Gene Roddenberry a prophet? Did he have the ability to see into the future? Or did the imagination of a kid who grew up to be a scientist or a computer wizard sort of meld together and re-create some of the wonders that sparked that imagination as a kid.?