PREDICTING THE FUTURE IN SCI-FI

Predicting what the future will look like in Sci-Fi is extremely difficult, but I would like to pose the question: Why is it difficult?

Why is it so difficult to predict what people's clothes will look like, what shape & design cars will be, etc. Sci-Fi has got it cringe-makingly wrong so many times.

Let's analyse and discuss it (unless it's already been covered previously).

All The Best,

BRIAN


     

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I think that mostly science fiction writers don't really see the unbelievable conservatism of people when it comes to fashions.  They are people whoare hungry for the future - and don't really realize that most of the populace has a horrible loathing and fear of such.

I look at the USA - most new construction is designed to look 'colonial' but it's been a LONG time since we've BEEN 'colonial.'  Why not use new design thoughts and new materials to make living spaces?  Simple conservatism of thought, of course.

(Thinking about UFO, I'd guess given that when the show was made mini skirts were popular, it is more 70s than now :))

--- On Mon, 3/29/10, Brian Serridge <[hidden email]> wrote:

From: Brian Serridge <[hidden email]>
Subject: [SHADO] PREDICTING THE FUTURE IN SCI-FI
To: [hidden email]
Date: Monday, March 29, 2010, 8:27 AM

Predicting what the future will look like in Sci-Fi is extremely difficult, but I would like to pose the question: Why is it difficult?

Why is it so difficult to predict what people's clothes will look like, what shape & design cars will be, etc. Sci-Fi has got it cringe-makingly wrong so many times.

Let's analyse and discuss it (unless it's already been covered previously).

All The Best,

BRIAN


     

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



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

I agree, but it's also a fact that science has moved on incredibly fast since the 1950's if not before. Look at the Lucky Starr series; with Mercury having one side that faced the Sun constantly and Venus being covered in seas. Isaac Asimov (it was him wasn't it!) wrote the stories based on the known facts of the time. Boy did he get it wrong! And when you look back at some of the thing from Thunderbirds - phones on your wrist, VTOL aircraft... and these were considered suitable for 2065 ( or whichever year you prefer your Thunderbirds to be in- I don't want to get into that arguement!) And now iPods, iPhones,
 
Let's be honest No-one would have predicted those!!

I have a set of quotes somewhere about scientific advances and how useful they will be. I'll go and root them out from my office to post later. ! (surprisingly interesting !)
Oh yes' SHADOs hyperconic planes .. they got those wrong didn't they! Pity really. I'd travel more if I could get to places faster!
LtCdr

--- In [hidden email], wmc <wmamascman@...> wrote:
>
> I think that mostly science fiction writers don't really see the unbelievable conservatism of people when it comes to fashions.  They are people who are hungry for the future - and don't really realize that most of the populace has a horrible loathing and fear of such.
>
> I look at the USA - most new construction is designed to look 'colonial' but it's been a LONG time since we've BEEN 'colonial.'  Why not use new design thoughts and new materials to make living spaces?  Simple conservatism of thought, of course.
>
> (Thinking about UFO, I'd guess given that when the show was made mini skirts were popular, it is more 70s than now :))
>

UFO did get it a bit wrong predicting 1980 which looks oddly like 1969:).

However, UFO's 'offspring' - Space 1999 - got it coincidentally almost right. They predicted people in flares in 1999 and I when was in Munich in 2001at the Olympic stadium, I saw teenagers walking around in flares the like of which I haven't seen since about 1974:)- you remember - flares that could topple you in a high wind!. Who'd have thought that retro fashion would have made flares popular at the end of the 20th Century?.

I like Asimov's view of the solar system better.... I refuse to believe the dissappointing way it all REALLY turned out!
Stan Weinbaum & Robert Heinlein forever!....

Dave H.



-------------------------------------------------------------




----- Original Message -----
From: Lightcudder
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 1:27 PM
Subject: [SHADO] Re: PREDICTING THE FUTURE IN SCI-FI



I agree, but it's also a fact that science has moved on incredibly fast since the 1950's if not before. Look at the Lucky Starr series; with Mercury having one side that faced the Sun constantly and Venus being covered in seas. Isaac Asimov (it was him wasn't it!) wrote the stories based on the known facts of the time. Boy did he get it wrong! And when you look back at some of the thing from Thunderbirds - phones on your wrist, VTOL aircraft... and these were considered suitable for 2065 ( or whichever year you prefer your Thunderbirds to be in- I don't want to get into that arguement!) And now iPods, iPhones,

Let's be honest No-one would have predicted those!!

I have a set of quotes somewhere about scientific advances and how useful they will be. I'll go and root them out from my office to post later. ! (surprisingly interesting !)
Oh yes' SHADOs hyperconic planes .. they got those wrong didn't they! Pity really. I'd travel more if I could get to places faster!
LtCdr

--- In [hidden email], wmc <wmamascman@...> wrote:
>
> I think that mostly science fiction writers don't really see the unbelievable conservatism of people when it comes to fashions. They are people who are hungry for the future - and don't really realize that most of the populace has a horrible loathing and fear of such.
>
> I look at the USA - most new construction is designed to look 'colonial' but it's been a LONG time since we've BEEN 'colonial.' Why not use new design thoughts and new materials to make living spaces? Simple conservatism of thought, of course.
>
> (Thinking about UFO, I'd guess given that when the show was made mini skirts were popular, it is more 70s than now :))
>





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

Rats. I can't find them. I can't find anything in the mess that is my office/art room. I do recall that one was from IBM on the lines that only five supercomputers would ever be needed.
I'll have to find them now or it will drive me mad - well madder than I already am!

--- In [hidden email], "Lightcudder" <l.oatridge@...> wrote:
>

> I have a set of quotes somewhere about scientific advances and how useful they will be. I'll go and root them out from my office to post later. ! (surprisingly interesting !)
> > --- >

There was a program on history or some similar channel how Star Trek
predicted the future. It showed classic scenes and todays equivalent of
science.

One fact, their communicator, our flip cell phone.

Bruce

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 glasses that allow the wearer to see, project, and even feel a holographic display through an interface direct to the brain. (Some people use this to project electronic impulses directly to the pleasure centers of the brain as a new artistic 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, then there'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 in the 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 the 1950'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

My husband found the quotes.. men are useful sometimes!
Thought you might like to see some of them. Explains a lot about why Sci-Fiwriters get predictions wrong!

1949 Popular Mechanics 'Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons'

1977 Ken Olsen, President, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp 'There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home.'

And finally;
1981 Bill Gates '640K ought to be enough for anybody.'

Makes you think doesn't it!! There are more but I thought these were the most interesting and topical! If these guys can get it so wrong, no wonder mere writers mess up!
LtCdr

>
> --- In [hidden email], "Lightcudder" <l.oatridge@> wrote:
> >
>
> > I have a set of quotes somewhere about scientific advances and how useful they will be. I'll go and root them out from my office to post later. !(surprisingly interesting !)
> > > --- >
>

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 <[hidden email]> wrote:


From: Scott Kellogg <[hidden email]>
Subject: [SHADO] Re: PREDICTING THE FUTURE IN SCI-FI
To: [hidden email]
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









     

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As I recall, the original Battlestar Galactica used up-to-date (for 1978) real computers on the bridge. Unfortunately, not a good idea as computer technology goes out of date very quickly. Star Trek: The Next Generation opted for touch-screen backlit displays which seem to retain their 'futuristic'qualities a bit longer. However, I do like the computers in UFO, which fill entire rooms:).

I wonder how the UFO movie will deal with this?. Today's average cellphone probably has more memory capacity than the wardrobe-sized spool machines back in '69, so if SHADO has a supercomputer, I wonder how it will look sincebig isn't necessarily powerful nowadays.

There was a quote from Remo Williams, the Adventure begins. He is walking through a room with what looks like old style reel to reel machines like you see in UFO.

He makes a comment that he thought they make them smaller nowadays
he was answered, those are the smaller ones, but allot more powerful then their 40 yo counter parts.

Disneyworld has a attraction called Carousel of Progress. The last scene was changed several times to reflect what their future is. The current last scene talks about hi def tv and 'laserdiscs'

Also 1/2 of Epcot is called Futureworld. Disney has considered changing the name away from Futureworld to get away from having to update it.

Bruce
----- Original Message -----
From: virgil64
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 3:21 PM
Subject: [SHADO] Re: PREDICTING THE FUTURE IN SCI-FI





As I recall, the original Battlestar Galactica used up-to-date (for 1978) real computers on the bridge. Unfortunately, not a good idea as computer technology goes out of date very quickly. Star Trek: The Next Generation opted for touch-screen backlit displays which seem to retain their 'futuristic' qualities a bit longer. However, I do like the computers in UFO, which fill entire rooms:).

I wonder how the UFO movie will deal with this?. Today's average cellphone probably has more memory capacity than the wardrobe-sized spool machines back in '69, so if SHADO has a supercomputer, I wonder how it will look since big isn't necessarily powerful nowadays.






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

On Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:21:28 -0000
"virgil64" <[hidden email]> wrote:


> I wonder how the UFO movie will deal with this?. Today's average
> cellphone probably has more memory capacity than the wardrobe-sized
> spool machines back in '69

Yes, many times more memory in fact.