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What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
The title says it all. Come here and gush over fictional technology, but make sure to explain exactly why you like it. What makes it work? Is it practical? If so, why and how?
(I think those familiar with me can already guess my answer, scouters are awesome. Even though they NEVER work in DBZ.)
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Any kind of FTL propulsion, it opens up the universe to humanity.
A close second is the jetpack, because flying.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
I asked my wife, and she instantly held up her i-phone, saying, "This is a Star Trek communicator, a tri-corder, a locater, a mapping device, and they are probably figuring out a way to make it a medical scanner as well."
But for me, there is no question. Apollo 11. The younger readers will probably think I'm joking, but I'm not. When I watched it take off, and then saw the Lunar Module land on the moon, science fiction came true. I walked outside and looked up at an inhabited world. No other science fiction moment has ever affected me like that.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Well, being an Aasimov fan, I'd have to say the coolest thing we could have would be a Multivac. The pinnacle of technology is for me the Ultimate Super-AI, with universal-scale Internet included. FTL communication, perfect recording of every event of everything in the universe at the same time... the possibilities are greater than infinite. If I could fuse myself with Multivac, I certainly would too.
Now that you brought it up, I always thought the coolest thing in DB were the poi-poi capsules. I wouldn't mind having to carry around my PC instead of my smartphone; as long as I can transport it (and so much more) inside by pocket. I would get rid of backpacks and getting the benefit to carry most of my stuff around in the process. That would certainly improve my quality of life by a >9000%.
PS: If we are talking about colonizing space, I think gravity projectors would present themselves much more useful in the short and long run than FTL travel itself.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Dragonball's Capsules.
Need to move house? LITERALLY move your house by putting it in your pocket and setting it down somewhere new. Never haul anything big or heavy again. No need to worry about parking, either.
Way cooler than Scouters.
Honorable mention goes to the Portal Gun from Portal.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
I think I'd have to go for the TARDIS. I used to love the sonic screwdriver as well but it has become so corrupted in nuWho that it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. The TARDIS hasn't fared as poorly, though it has taken a battering.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Any kind of big red glowing button with a skull on it that sets off loud sirens when you push it. Only good things can happen from such a button.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Definitely a replicator. Although to be fair conceptually it creates a lot of problems with exactly how the Star Trek universe works. But outside of that in terms of real world utility it's probably the single most significant thing that could ever be invented.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
the Enterprise complete with captain picard and crew
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jay R
I asked my wife, and she instantly held up her i-phone, saying, "This is a Star Trek communicator, a tri-corder, a locater, a mapping device, and they are probably figuring out a way to make it a medical scanner as well."
But for me, there is no question. Apollo 11. The younger readers will probably think I'm joking, but I'm not. When I watched it take off, and then saw the Lunar Module land on the moon, science fiction came true. I walked outside and looked up at an inhabited world. No other science fiction moment has ever affected me like that.
Those are both real, they don't count.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rynjin
Dragonball's Capsules.
Need to move house? LITERALLY move your house by putting it in your pocket and setting it down somewhere new. Never haul anything big or heavy again. No need to worry about parking, either.
Way cooler than Scouters.
Honorable mention goes to the Portal Gun from Portal.
See, I considered those as well, but the thing that makes scouters a better choice in my opinion is that they fit in perfectly in other settings with minimal adjustment. The capsules simply don't fit in most settings and there's a lot of unanswered questions about them (IE: Where does the stuff go when you've collapsed the capsule, and what would happen if you were inside something when the capsule was collapsed?). Scouters don't have either issue. You could import a scouter to any other science fiction setting regardless of tone with minimal adjustment, which is why I showed a couple scouters moved into a Fallout 4 mod where they still fit in, look great and fill a functional role not too different from their original purpose. (Actually, the scouters are REALLY valuable in that mod, I only use them for two of their four abilities and they are a game changer.)
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Originally Posted by
Goodkill
the Enterprise complete with captain picard and crew
Weapon.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
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Originally Posted by
Avianmosquito
Those are both real, they don't count.
Well since he was alive prior to their existence, I would say they definitely count. It's a real world realization of an idea that had only existed in science fiction. There's nothing that would count more than that.
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Originally Posted by
Avianmosquito
Weapon.
Not the whole thing, in fact I think the Enterprise has done more to de-escalate various conflicts than it has engaged in them. I mean technically almost any tech could be used as a weapon, so you're limiting things pretty heavily if you make that argument.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
It depends on how one defines science fiction - the softer it gets, the more ridiculously cool stuff shows up. Here's a scale, with the ends bolded
Fantasy in Space
Replicators, and matter energy conversion in general.
Medical broth (anything involving basically being able to dump people with any medical issue in a tube and have them come out cured).
Tractor beams.
Terraforming tools.
Space elevator.
Biological prosthetics (nerve splicing, growing limbs from cell cultures, that sort of thing, mostly to replace missing limbs).
Powered exo skeletons (for medical and industrial purposes, powered armor is basically a weapon).
Optimistic Engineering Paper in a Real World Journal
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
In Schlock mercenary, many ships have fabricators- machines capable of generating most varieties of matter using only huge amounts of energy. I've gotta say that those are probably my favorite.
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Originally Posted by
AMFV
Not the whole thing, in fact I think the Enterprise has done more to de-escalate various conflicts than it has engaged in them. I mean technically almost any tech could be used as a weapon, so you're limiting things pretty heavily if you make that argument.
Indeed. In fact, Maxim 24 of the 70 Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries (from the comic I was just talking about) has a quote related to this:
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Maxim 24: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a big gun.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Does it have to be a device? Can it just be a technology?
Dr.Moreau surgery
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
The Time Machine from the .G. Wells novella The Time Machine (I'm pretty sure that I enencountered the "Classic Comics" and Pal movie version first).
I suppose that it really counts as fantasy, but Wells called it "A Scientific Romance" so let's pretend it's science fiction.
Even better would be the Time Belt from David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jay R
I asked my wife, and she instantly held up her i-phone, saying, "This is a Star Trek communicator, a tri-corder, a locater, a mapping device, and they are probably figuring out a way to make it a medical scanner as well."
You'll be pleased to know that it is possible to remotely assess cardiac function using a miniature ultrasound transducer that links to an iPhone and measures the carotid waveform.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Avianmosquito
Those are both real, they don't count.
Oh, it doesn't count if it's currently real?
OK, then:
My birth until July 15, 1969: Moon rocket. That was the coolest science fiction idea ever!
June 16, 1969 - December 19, 1972: Who cares? Real life is more science-fictional that science fiction.
December 20, 1972 - present: Apollo 11.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
I was reading these posts and I thought hey, nobody's mentioned time machines. Then BWR said TARDIS. Then...
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Originally Posted by
2D8HP
The Time Machine from the .G. Wells novella The Time Machine (I'm pretty sure that I enencountered the "Classic Comics" and Pal movie version first).
I suppose that it really counts as fantasy, but Wells called it "A Scientific Romance" so let's pretend it's science fiction.
Even better would be the Time Belt from David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself.
Yup, I was beaten to it.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
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Originally Posted by
Jay R
Apollo 11.
Fun fact: All Lost in Space and Star Trek episodes (the main shows I watched as a kid) were broadcast before the Moon Landing.
Even though I was alive during the Lunar missions, my parents didn't get a TV until thr Watergate hearings so I never got to watch any of it. When I would get up early to watch the Shuttle launches and landings, my Dad would ask me "What's the big deal, it just looks like an airplane?" He just couldn't see the magic in it.
:frown:
As a child I was very interested in Science Fiction and Space Travel (I had more future then!).
By the late 1970's and afterwards in California new books seldom were purchased for school libraries, but they were lots of books from the '60's and early '70's which I devoured, that detailing the moon landings, the Viking mission (how I starred at pictures of red rocks under a pink sky!), and NASA's plans for the space shuttle and lunar bases, and in reading the old books I realized something. The future was behind schedule!
The space shuttle did eventually fly (later than planned), but the lunar bases? Never. Going to Mars was "twenty years from now" when I was a child, and forty years on, it's still "twenty years from now".
There was "Star Trek", (23rd Century!) and "Lost in Space" (1999!) on television, and it was easy to be excited by a "bright future". I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up!
But increasingly in the 1970's and definitely in the '80's the "future" became bleak (Cyberpunk etc.).
Perhaps because I personally have less future left, but I read Fantasy now, and I seldom read Science Fiction anymore, and increasingly on the "sci-fi" shelves, there's "alternate history", and stories that take place in "visions of the future" from the past (Steampunk, Dieselpunk, and Raygun Gothic), rather than stories that take place in "the future".
I miss "the future".
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
George Jetson's flying saucer that folded into a brief case.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
2D8HP
Fun fact: All Lost in Space and Star Trek episodes (the main shows I watched as a kid) were broadcast before the Moon Landing.
Even though I was alive during the Lunar missions, my parents didn't get a TV until thr Watergate hearings so I never got to watch any of it. When I would get up early to watch the Shuttle launches and landings, my Dad would ask me "What's the big deal, it just looks like an airplane?" He just couldn't see the magic in it.
:frown:
As a child I was very interested in Science Fiction and Space Travel (I had more future then!).
By the late 1970's and afterwards in California new books seldom were purchased for school libraries, but they were lots of books from the '60's and early '70's which I devoured, that detailing the moon landings, the Viking mission (how I starred at pictures of red rocks under a pink sky!), and NASA's plans for the space shuttle and lunar bases, and in reading the old books I realized something. The future was behind schedule!
The space shuttle did eventually fly (later than planned), but the lunar bases? Never. Going to Mars was "twenty years from now" when I was a child, and forty years on, it's still "twenty years from now".
There was "Star Trek", (23rd Century!) and "Lost in Space" (1999!) on television, and it was easy to be excited by a "bright future". I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up!
But increasingly in the 1970's and definitely in the '80's the "future" became bleak (Cyberpunk etc.).
Perhaps because I personally have less future left, but I read Fantasy now, and I seldom read Science Fiction anymore, and increasingly on the "sci-fi" shelves, there's "alternate history", and stories that take place in "visions of the future" from the past (Steampunk, Dieselpunk, and Raygun Gothic), rather than stories that take place in "the future".
I miss "the future".
If it makes you feel any better, the future was never behind schedule, it just turned into a different road. We have technologies they never even dreamed of on Lost in Space.
You've been through a lot of world events it sounds like. You should still see the magic. I'm talking to you on device that's mostly screen and wirelessly connects to the Internet (which completely revolutionized... well, everything). Even though it's commonplace where we live, it's still pretty damned impressive.
Spoiler: I know I'm guilty of this sometimes. And I really shouldn't be. It's amazing.
Show
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Death Star.
Not a weapon. Space station. Yep. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CleverUsername
Death Star.
Not a weapon. Space station. Yep. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
Technically not a space station, since those are, well, stationary. Death Star clearly has a hyperdrive, and at least has enough of a sublight drive to put it in an optimal orbit. I'm loathe to call it a ship, though... how about just "giant laser with a moon-sized building attached?"
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Stargates and/or the flue network. The older I get, the less I like traveling. I'd love a piece of technology that rendered both commutes and air travel instantaneous.
GW
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
I'm a sucker for virtual reality games that seem to play as sideplots until they enlighten the character to some greater purpose of the narrative. I once thought it was just in Ender's Game, but then I started seeing it be used in other works such as The Three-Body Problem.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
The most amazing thing to me is fusion power. (With a reactor that consumes less energy while running than it generates.)
It's something we actually know it's possible, we're making steady progress on, and for which there is no good reason why it could never be achived. Yet at the same time the effects are something that science fiction almost never seems to consider. Pretty much all kinds of scarcity in the world are not a lack of the physical stuff, but prohibitively high energy costs to transform it into things we need and transporting them to where they are needed. Energy has always been the limiting factor of what can be done for all of human history.
With mass produced fusion reactors being everywhere, everything would change. It would be much bigger than steam engines or gun powder, perhaps even bigger than agriculture. The cost of making a fusion reactor can be regarded as being entirely energy. Energy to mine the materials, transport the materials, work the materials, and so on. Once you have one fusion reactor you could produce the energy to make more fusion reactors.
Of course it can't ignore the limitations of thermodynamics and you still need a fuel, but when the fuel is 75% of all matter in the universe, running out is not going to be an issue.
It's the most fantastic technology with the most far reaching consequences that would be unimaginable in the long term, but the only case where I see it considered is Star Trek, but it very rarely takes a look at the lives of normal people on Federation worlds.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Yora
The most amazing thing to me is fusion power. (With a reactor that consumes less energy while running than it generates.)
It's something we actually know it's possible, we're making steady progress on, and for which there is no good reason why it could never be achived. Yet at the same time the effects are something that science fiction almost never seems to consider.
Damn straight! Forget hoverboards, I want Mr. Fusion. Gimme a few of those I can make a damn hoverboard. Energy inefficiency effectively doesn't exist anymore; what previously required plutonium now only needs a banana peel, a little beer, the beer can, some egg shells and the carton.
I have this rant a lot.
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Re: What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?