Fw: [SHADO] Re: PREDICTING THE FUTURE IN SCI-FI

What is sci-fi if not about predicting the future? UFO predicts a future of being invaded by aliens. STAR TREK predicts a future of space travel and discovery. DOCTOR WHO predicts both the future, present and past (because he can travel back in time and change history). The same applies to THE TERMINATOR, WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE FLY, THE FORBIN PROJECT, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN. . . I could go on.

All The Best,

BRIAN



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: trevor millar <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Cc: [hidden email]
Sent: Tue, 30 March, 2010 22:20:56
Subject: Re: [SHADO] Re: PREDICTING THE FUTURE IN SCI-FI

 
Actually most sci-fi isn't about predicting the future at all, more a sort of oblique critique of society at the time of writing; e.g, Orwell wrote "1984" because he was upset at having to pay more tax to the 1945 Labour government, and because his former gardener met him to tell him that he wouldn't be coming back to work for him because he had a nice new job in a factory, with a union to look after him, earing 20 times what Orwell used to pay him; he then spat on orwell's shoes and said that he had always wanted to dothat!

--- On Tue, 30/3/10, Scott Kellogg <kelloggs2066@ yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Scott Kellogg <kelloggs2066@ yahoo.com>
Subject: [SHADO] Re: PREDICTING THE FUTURE IN SCI-FI
To: SHADO@yahoogroups. com
Date: Tuesday, 30 March, 2010, 16:45

 

Hello all,

There is a good deal of difficulty with predicting the future for Science Fiction, even more so in a series because it's necessary to draw the audience in without throwing them into a world that they won't understand. For a writer, it's useful to introduce one new concept at a time.

To hit the audience with different fashions, different music, different slang, different designs, different technology all at once is disorienting.

Often, it's because the writer only thinks of one new concept at a time.

I've been building up a science fiction universe in my comic strip for 12+ years now, and I don't think that I've had too many inconsistencies. It's the best prediction I can make. Basically, when I started the strip, I had the idea that it was 70 years in the future. So, for comparison, I started looking 70 years into the past. There were enormous jumps between 1930 and 2000, so I took that idea and ran with it. Nevertheless, people are still for the most part driving cars. There are a lot more personal aircraft. People occasionally use slang, but for the most part, they speak in an understandible way, and when they do say something incomprehensible, it's put in context where you can figure out the emotion expressed, if not the meaning. Jonny Freakinouter!

I've borrowed a good deal of inspiration from Gerry Anderson and 2001: A Space Oddysey amongst other things.

Cell phones and computers have largely been replaced by holographic glassesthat allow the wearer to see, project, and even feel a holographic displaythrough an interface direct to the brain. (Some people use this to projectelectronic impulses directly to the pleasure centers of the brain as a newartistic medium.)

Robots are at the same time ubiquitous and rare. For instance, a building is essentually a robot. It can talk, it can think (as much as an AI can think) only it's arms and legs are doors, windows, elevators and sprinkler systems.

As for styles and fashions in clothes music and archetechture? Well, you have to admit, that in some ways a lot of fashion hasn't changed a bit since the 1930s. Businessmen still wear suits. Only the hats and collars have changed. So, some of my characters wear fairly conservative clothes. But, thenthere's the more wild characters who've joined the Neo-Victorian fashion scene. It all depends on the individual, just as archetechture depends on the area.

WMC suggested that all American Archetechture looks Colonial. Well, I'd hazard a guess you WMC lives in the eastern part of Virginia or somewhere similar to Richmond. My experience shows me that architecture varies greatly inthe US. Looking at the architecture where I've lived and travelled, it's all pretty different.

As Lightcudder said, there are lots of things that have developed since the1950's that just couldn't have been predicted at the time. (Hello Internet! Hello computer that doesn't take up an entire building!)

It's all good fun, but is it an accurate prediction?

No.

But, it's the best and most optimistic prediction I can come up with.

Scott
PS. The popular music of the day is called "Bubble Mod"

Scott Kellogg
21st Century Fox: The future's so bright, you gotta wear shades
http://techfox. keenspace. com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





     

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]