Originally Posted by southwest88
OK, I'm not much into scifi. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Gibson, Neuromancer, a few others, 20, 30 years ago. A little Star Trak early on. The Day the Earth Stood Still was great.
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OK, I'm not much into scifi. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Gibson, Neuromancer, a few others, 20, 30 years ago. A little Star Trak early on. The Day the Earth Stood Still was great.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler
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Much sci fi predicted what we would be doing in the future - or it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Of all SF, Star Trek probably had the greatest influence on the most people. Communicators = cell phones. Replicator = 3D printers and beyond. Huge numbers of people went into aeronautics, physics and computer tech because of Star Trek. People are currently researching the science behind the transporter, warp drive etcetera. Roddenberry painted a world of unlimited possibilities, without poverty and without capitalism, where we explore the universe, because we can. A world where someone runs a restaurant, not for money, but for the joy of making people happy. It's a compelling vision.
In quoting my post, you affirm and agree that you have not been goaded, provoked, emotionally manipulated or otherwise coerced into responding.
"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”
Mahatma Gandhi
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So did the Bible predict a lot. And Nostradamus. And Marx.
I think it's compelling because it's you all's vision of heaven on earth.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler
IMPress Polly (08-12-2015)
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Do you find dog eat dog compelling? It's a survival technique, but is it our destiny to always be scratching out a means of survival, when we could be using the same abilities to do things that are so much more worthwhile. We could be extending our knowledge and travelling to other universes. Beyond feeding ourselves, clothing ourselves and having shelter, the rest is ego. There is more than money to feed ego. Success is how we define it. We currently define it with money, but that is just symbolic of success. It is not immutable.
In quoting my post, you affirm and agree that you have not been goaded, provoked, emotionally manipulated or otherwise coerced into responding.
"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”
Mahatma Gandhi
IMPress Polly (08-12-2015)
Senior Member
No worries, sci-fi is an acquired taste. Although the way stuff (nanotech, cybernetics, gene-splicing, etc.) keeps hopping off the page, I would think everybody would want to @ least scout the territory, see what might be coming up next.
Which Day the Earth did you prefer? The original B&W, or the recent remake? I preferred the B&W, seems to me the storyline was kept simple & straightforward - although they never did show Gort's true nature, either. I thought the remake spent an awful lot of time & energy on side stories - distractions to the main event, as it were. Pretty pix, nice SFX, good casting - but there's only so much audience attention available - you have to point it in the right direction.
IMPress Polly (08-12-2015)
Overlord
I think as we grow increasingly more urbanized, we will start to see a Star Trek-like society emerge.
"Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most — that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least."
- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926), five-time Socialist Party candidate for U.S. President
IMPress Polly (08-12-2015),Peter1469 (08-12-2015)
Senior Member
This is commie talk.
People are only motivated by money. They're certainly not motivated by prestige, work ethic, self improvement, family or curiosity. That's why people stop working after they get rich... after they get about $3 million in the bank, people totally lose their desire to work.
CreepyOldDude (08-12-2015)
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A WINNER IS YOU!!southwest wrote:
If you have cheap power on demand, you can go wherever you want in the 'verse. If things locally aren't to your liking, you fabricate a ship, supplies, recruit like-minded staff, colonists, etc. & off you go. Conflict requires people or factions fighting over the same resource. Once it become easy to move off & start over, with a good chance of establishing a regime you're happy with - Who would want to stay & slug it out with no guarantee of winning in the long run?
Nobody has yet offered a compelling answer to this point that I've seen.
And this. *points upward*Dr. Who wrote:
Much sci fi predicted what we would be doing in the future - or it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Of all SF, Star Trek probably had the greatest influence on the most people. Communicators =cell phones. Replicator = 3D printers and beyond. Huge numbers of people went into aeronautics, physics and computer tech because of Star Trek. People are currently researching the science behind the transporter, warp drive etcetera. Roddenberry painted a world of unlimited possibilities, without poverty and without capitalism, where we explore the universe, because we can. A world where someone runs a restaurant, not for money, but for the joy of making people happy. It's a compelling vision.
Science fiction has shown a remarkable capacity to not remain pure fiction. A lot of genuinely great ideas and inventions began as science fiction.
It's an essentially post-market state of affairs in the sense that most all production occurs for use rather than for exchange. THAT's a fundamental change that's likely to happen well within this century. At anything resembling its current rate of growth, for example, the non-profit sector will encompass most of the world economy by mid-century. In other words, we'll probably be living largely post-capitalist that soon, although market economics will continue to exists on the periphery. Now imagine 100 or 200 years from now. Do you think we'll still be using market economics at all then?Ethereal wrote:
I don't see how that could be considered a post-market economy, especially when the technology that will make it possible is being developed largely by private sector firms.
Some day a generation of human beings will come along that looks back on this time as simple, barbaric, and backward, much as we do ISIS. That's what I think.
Peter1469 (08-12-2015)
Senior Member
The modern replicator is an updated version of the Philosopher's Stone. The stone was said to turn base metal into gold (eliminating want) and provide immortality. The first mention of the stone was 300 AD...how's that for early sci-fi?
Through all of our running and all of our cunning, if we couldn't laugh we just would go insane. - Jimmy Buffett
Peter1469 (08-12-2015)
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Dog eat dog? That's a Progressive misrepresentation of Herbert Spencer's survival of the fittest misunderstanding of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Destiny? Evolution is not progressive but random. The problem is man cannot redefine man.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler
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