Posts: 25314
Threads: 239
Joined: August 26, 2010
Reputation:
156
RE: Happy Back to the Future Day!
October 23, 2015 at 9:37 am
It always annoys me when people talk about whether sci-fi gets it "right" about the future, or poke fun when it gets it "wrong". I think it was Asimov who said that the job of the science fiction writer isn't to predict the future, but to prevent it.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
Posts: 13122
Threads: 130
Joined: October 18, 2014
Reputation:
55
RE: Happy Back to the Future Day!
October 23, 2015 at 10:16 am
As far as preventing goes, it didn't work out so well for George Orwell.
Posts: 30726
Threads: 2123
Joined: May 24, 2012
Reputation:
71
RE: Happy Back to the Future Day!
October 23, 2015 at 10:47 am
That movie didn't predict anything. Watch enough si fi movies and TV prior and after you see similar motifs. This is the same BS I get from Star Trek fans. Not even the "Transporter" is original to that show. I saw a much older si fi black and white B movie where they used the TV static snow dissolve. Si fi shows and movies don't invent anything. The writers and producers get their stories by competing. The real scientists are the inventors. A show or movie being popular does not make it a lab. Si fi fans suffer from the same selection bias and sample rate error as theists.
Posts: 25314
Threads: 239
Joined: August 26, 2010
Reputation:
156
RE: Happy Back to the Future Day!
October 23, 2015 at 11:11 am
(October 23, 2015 at 10:16 am)abaris Wrote: As far as preventing goes, it didn't work out so well for George Orwell.
He extrapolated current trends in the Soviet Union for a cautionary tale about the loss of civil liberties and abuses of executive power. It took cunts like Reagan and Thatcher to use it as an instruction manual. And cunts at Channel 4 to actually give us Big Brother. Hat Trick's Room 101 was ok though.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
Posts: 8661
Threads: 118
Joined: May 7, 2011
Reputation:
57
RE: Happy Back to the Future Day!
October 23, 2015 at 9:44 pm
Really, don't take it so seriously. It's a comedy that also happens to be a sci-fi. It's meant to be a lighthearted, fun, and entertaining view of the future, no an accurate or inaccurate one.
Posts: 43162
Threads: 720
Joined: September 21, 2008
Reputation:
133
RE: Happy Back to the Future Day!
October 23, 2015 at 9:55 pm
The important thing is that those movies kick fucking ass.
Posts: 20476
Threads: 447
Joined: June 16, 2014
Reputation:
111
RE: Happy Back to the Future Day!
October 24, 2015 at 12:59 am
Here I am thinking Bill and Ted's excellent adventure was a documentary!
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
Posts: 6946
Threads: 26
Joined: April 28, 2012
Reputation:
83
RE: Happy Back to the Future Day!
October 24, 2015 at 9:31 am
We're collectively dumber. Companies are marketing contraptions with two wheels touching the ground as hover boards.