Can Science fiction ever get the Science right?

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Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 8:56 pm

Lovers of Science Fiction films, you views wanted.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24518305

Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 9:13 pm

Have you ever read Jules Verne? In a number of particulars, his predictions were quite accurate.

Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 11:30 pm

I don't really care if it is scientifically accurate - that's why we call it fiction.

Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 11:42 pm

H.G Wells along with Verne predicted in their books torpedos, tracked armoured vehicles, laser beams and chemical / biological weapons etc even before the 20th century started. Readers at that time time must have thought they were a bit eccentric!

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 6:49 am

I agree with Bruin and Esox. The OP's, Fo'andles' post was clearly about Science Fiction, but confusingly had a link to an article about Science Fiction Films.

Sure, Hollywood (there are other global film makers) sometimes gets it wrong, and sometimes gets it right.

The Carrie Ann Moss picture in zero G, with pristine hair - hell, I've known people with the same hairstyle hang upside down in full 1 G without a hair out of place. In this case the physics of hairspray/gel was portrayed correctly.

But this is rather off the point. Or is it? Both films and books of the genre show elements of correct (as we understand it today) science. But these things are so couched in metaphor, so colored by the storyteller's whims and need to keep the plot moving forward as to be indistinguishable from real science - except perhaps to the keen observer who is science minded to begin with.

Then again, we've the writings of the "past" and of the "present" - it's easy to spot something that foreshadows science of the present in past writings - but does anyone think that Captain Nemo's Nautillus contributed in any way to the creation of nuclear powered submarines? Jules Verne was careful to not mention what powered the submarine in specific terms - it was if I recall well - powered by some science unknown to the rest of the world and concealed from it, lest it fall into the hands of the unscrupulous (whoever they might be).

A more recent book that I read Digital Fortress, strange as it seems, the science - cryptography specifically, was about 50 years behind the times - to me it made the main characters - supposed experts come across as dimwitted dupes. Yet it was commercially successful. Weird.

Anyhow, the long and the short of it is, the answer is yes.

And no.

It depends where and how you look I guess.

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 8:21 am

I don't know about the science but it can definitely predict fashion trends.

Take Space 1999 for instance. How did they know in the early-mid 70's when the series was made, that flares would have gone out of fashion but come back in again around that time? Confused

Except in Denmark and Canada that is. Where they never went out of fashion from the 60's. Wink

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 10:26 am

Star Trek did invent the mobile phone.
And almost totally eradicated obesity, I can only remember the tribble seller as being very overweight. (no doubt there were more)

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 11:24 am

@piecrust

Ive not long finished reading 20,00 leagues, the Nautlius was at least partially powered by solar panels. Jules Verne was indeed a man ahead of his time.

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 12:18 pm

I can put up with pretty much anything in sci-fi film and TV, except for one thing that drives me to setting stuff on fire fury.

The parsec being used as a measure of velocity.

(and yes I am looking at you, Space 1999)

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 12:25 pm

^^^Thank goodness Han Solo got it right, when he used parsecs to measure time. Rolling Eyes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bosSsgzgenA

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 1:22 pm

I agree that loads of sf is laughable when it comes to the science involved but there are also a lot of exceptions.

My favourite example at the moment: I'm a big fan of Charles Stross who makes some real efforts to try and retain some aspects of scientific plausibility and serious speculation based on what we know now (errrr, taken to the extreme in some cases). Actually i wonder if there are any other eater members who read Stross, seems like there may be some natural overlap (I am thinking especially of his "Laundry" series).

EDIT: Duh I didn't pay attention to the word FILM.
In penance I will go and watch Starcrash (1978).

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:28 pm

Arthur C Clarke nailed satellite TV, and Ive seen an original 1960's Star Trek communicator, that was pretty much the same design as my 1990's Motorola flip phone.

Lots of Sci Fi had people with an all purpose information tablet that is pretty much what my iPhone is.

No sign of my silver suit, thank goodness, but where is my hoverbike?

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:34 pm

Here you go Roy:
Aerofex dust blower

just don't drive it near me, my eyes are very sensitive to dust.

(Rework, shmework - it looks ready for the road)

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:47 pm

Well at least the makers of the UFO TV series (1970) got it right in predicting that all submarine crew members would nowadays be wearing string-vest uniforms...

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 4:41 pm

^ I was more of a Gay Ellis man myself. Even conkers lost their appeal sometime around 1970. They just didn't cut it anymore. Wink

Sci-fi writers did get life on the Moon right though: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24523203

In a rare case of sanity, they are bring it back. I hope they still aim to explore the complex inter-family relationships from the original series. And are not tempted to dumb down the challenging story lines and demanding dialog for a new generation.

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 6:21 pm

Arthur C clarke's contribution to satellite tv was making it affordable by conceiving the idea of Geostationary satellites. The equatorial orbit they inhabit at approximately 38,000 km from the surface of the Earth is still known as the Clarke belt in his honour.
Aliens was another interesting one. They were spot-on with the helmet cameras, network centric warfare and evil megacorporations, but nobody realised we wouldn't be able to smoke in a meeting.

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 6:27 pm

A wise Scot once declared 'Ye cannae change the laws o' physics!' Smile

However, most scifi has to wriggle around the impossibility of traveling faster than light problem, otherwise it would take thousands of years to get anywhere significant.

Which is why we have hyperspace, warp speed etc etc.

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 6:35 pm

and Guild Pilots... Wink

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 10:36 pm

I don't worry about the accuracy of Science Fiction but try to enjoy it for what it is, entertainment. Yesterday while attempting to keep the couch from flying toward Rigel 7 I had the opportunity to watch Prometheus and Event Horizon. Twas a good afternoon.

Now if you are looking for some fine reading, you can't go wrong with Ray Bradbury's 'The Martian Chronicles' or John Windham's 'The Kraken Wakes.' I've read both countless times.

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 5:26 am

I dearly hope that Star Trek isn't right about the future. If so we will all die whilst sitting in front of the computer when it explodes as someme walks past on the street outside. We would be nice thin corpses though as someone pointed out.

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:06 pm

/\/\ That reminds me, when I visited EMP in Seattle, the gift shop had a T-shirt with an unknown Star Trek yeoman in a red shirt, you know the one that always got killed first when they beamed down to a planet, rather than a regular cast member. There was a pair of crosshairs over him, the caption was 'Dead man walking'. If anyone knows where I can get one let me know.

I note that Haynes now do a manual for the USS Enterprise.

OT, in 'Independence Day', they fly up to an alien ship and plug in to infect their computer with a virus. Where TF did they find a compatible lead? Is USB truly 'universal'?

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:22 pm

Roycropper wrote:

OT, in 'Independence Day', they fly up to an alien ship and plug in to infect their computer with a virus. Where TF did they find a compatible lead? Is USB truly 'universal'?

And it was just lucky they'd adopted windows 8 as their OS.

Re: killing off disposable crew members. Sticking with Space 1999. They started off with 311 inhabitants on Moonbase Alhpha and at least four were killed in every episode by some means or other. Martin Landau and Barbara Bain would be the only two left alive at that rate of attrition. They would have had to reestablish mankind all on their own, which is probably why they stopped at two series.

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:57 pm

Captain Pugwash wrote:

Except in Denmark and Canada that is. Where they never went out of fashion from the 60's. Wink

I read that!

Personally, I don't hope that Blake 7 is about the future. Because by god, the scenography was ugly!

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:54 pm

Inspector Gadget wrote:

Star Trek did invent the mobile phone.

And floppy disc and USB drives. iPad tablets, Sliding doors, video conferencing, transparent aluminium (yes, this is actually true), Google glass, diagnostic beds, touch-screen interfaces, bluetooth headsets, voice activation, GPS......................................

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:30 pm

They had communicators in Forbidden Planet. Albeit with a USB cable connection to their utility belts.
And The Krell had invented sliding doors before succumbing to the monsters from the Id. Smile

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