Through a Scanner Dorkily: Sci-Fi Blunders

[UncleDes]

Nothing dates science fiction quicker than its vision of the future.

Just been reading a couple of classic books that exemplify this:

Lord of Light - Everyone's smoking!

Neuromancer - Everyone's excited about 3MB of RAM!

What other howlers have you seen?

Des

[flutegirlrockz]

Well acording to 2001 a Space Odyssey we were supposed to have reached Jupiter 7 years ago and so far it dosn't look likely that we're going to reach Mars anytime soon.

[johneffay]

What other howlers have you seen?

When Isaac Asimov's technicians or pilots have to do a tricky calculation, they usually reach for their slide rules...

[voilodian ghagnasdiak]

1984 signs on the tower of the Ministry Of Truth proclaim...

"War is Peace,"
"Freedom is Slavery,"
"Ignorance is Strength."

Strong yet underestimative foresight George.

[Governor of Rowe Island]

When Isaac Asimov's technicians or pilots have to do a tricky calculation, they usually reach for their slide rules...

Same with Heinlein's fiction. I remember in 'Starman Jones' they keep book after book of tables.

The whole premise of Space 1999 is pretty gone too.

[Nathaniel]

WHERE IS MY JETPACK!?!?!

[David Mosley]

Presumably we're not talking about using an Apple Mac Powerbook to cripple an alien invasion fleet, right?

Computers that still use punchcards or 'Winchester' hard disks are another thing altogether.

[UncleDes]

Presumably we're not talking about using an Apple Mac Powerbook to cripple an alien invasion fleet, right?

No, Dave, that would be the "nuke the fridge" moment in an otherwise entertaining movie.

Computers that still use punchcards or 'Winchester' hard disks are another thing altogether.

Yeah. Steampunk is deliberately excluded here, as it reinterprets the past, not "wildly misjudges the future".

Des

[Dead-Air]

Actually, and I don't think this takes away from the fun of this thread, but I don't believe the purpose of science fiction is to correctly predict the future. It's to explore possible futures, and it doesn't date a book like 1984 that what it predicted for 1984 hadn't completely occurred at that particular date. The warning is still very valid.

There are books like Earth by David Brin that did an accurate job of predicting the Worldwide Web, but if you look for discrepancies in it, you will surely find many more than actual realities that came to be.

The way I read science fiction books where the author has missed out on an important technological revolution, but still provided a strong story (say the use of "tape" for entertainment and education in C.J. Cherryh's Alliance/Union books) is to view it along the lines of one of Mike's alternate timestreams.

[Governor of Rowe Island]

I agree, DA, I see things like 2001, The Forever War, The Expendables series, etc, etc, as alternate futures/presents. They are what happened when things went slightly differently.

[Dorian-Hawkmoon]

Obviously you can't blame a SF writer for not having predicted the world Wide Web (with a few exceptions like James H Schmitz, also, who depicted a similar system) or the fall of the USSR ( how many "sovietic" agents, colonies, etc. in the far future, obviously on alternate Earths), or 9/11, and so on. You could as well blame Leigh Brackett for not having depicted Venus and Mars as we now know they are (Her alternative Venus and Mars are among the best in worldbuilding. I'd have loved her Venus)
To me, the real blunders are:
- Aliens identical to humans save a trifling detail or two;
- Instant linguistic comprehension between beings of different planet, time and space without explicitly mentioned use of translators, babel-fishes or similar devices;
- Ancient weapons or devices unused for millennia that function perfectly the moment they are activated ( As in dan Simmon's Endymion, when a portal unused for generations starts to function the moment Endymion operates it.Energy leakages, wheather decay aren't considered)
and similar mistakes.Not to mention the VISITORS TV series, where a girl was conceived in the intercourse between an human woman and an alien reptiloid...

[J-Sun]

The Cybermen, to the best of my knowledge, never did atatck the Earth in 1986. I waited up all of Dec. 31st, 1985, just to make sure I wouldn't miss that. Sadly, apparently I should have been at the South Pole.

I'm still waiting on my subscription to the Karkus as well.

[UncleDes]

Not to mention the VISITORS TV series, where a girl was conceived in the intercourse between an human woman and an alien reptiloid...

D-M this counts as a spoiler

....in that V ruined my appetite for US Sci-Fi series for years.

Des

[In_Loos_Ptokai]

non est gustandum

D-M this counts as a spoiler

....in that V ruined my appetite for US Sci-Fi series for years.

Des

but then I say that about practically every US SF and/or other film, TV show, and almost every book. I was blown away with "American Beauty", because I wasn't previously aware that US studios were capable of doing that sort of film. Written US SF gets a waiver, because they're not all Military SF, which I now regard as some sort of pernacious infectious meme.

Swordfish was cringeworthy. Matrix was empty-headedly enjoyable. And there was that all-time anus horribilis of a fantasy film in thei eighties, with those metallic cyborgs and those one-eyed cyclopeans, and that plot that stopped me from trying my hand at wriitng fantasy out of a well-founded terror that anything i produced would be that ghastly ... It really is terrible how the US film industry insists on trying for Darwin-Award-worthy plots.

[UncleDes]

but then I say that about practically every US SF and/or other film, TV show, and almost every book. I was blown away with "American Beauty", because I wasn't previously aware that US studios were capable of doing that sort of film. Written US SF gets a waiver, because they're not all Military SF, which I now regard as some sort of pernacious infectious meme.

Swordfish was cringeworthy. Matrix was empty-headedly enjoyable. And there was that all-time anus horribilis of a fantasy film in thei eighties, with those metallic cyborgs and those one-eyed cyclopeans, and that plot that stopped me from trying my hand at wriitng fantasy out of a well-founded terror that anything i produced would be that ghastly ... It really is terrible how the US film industry insists on trying for Darwin-Award-worthy plots.

What did you think of Babylon 5?

Des