Amph ITT We Discuss Where Sci-Fi and Fantasy Got it Right/Wrong

According to Reign of Fire we should have dragons by now.

 

2001: No bases on the Moon nor any manned missions to Jupiter as of, well, today.

Back to the Future 2. If we don't have any flying cars or skateboards as of now, I kinda doubt we'll have them in the next two years.

 

The science fiction of the 20th century was all about escaping the bonds of the earth. The sci fi of the 21st century has been much more about the doom of the human race, but much of it coming from the wrong direction (e.g. alien invasion or quirky geological disaster).

Space exploration is the one consistent thing that almost everyone got wrong. In the 1960s, I don't think anyone in the U.S. would have doubted that by 2001 we would be approximately where that movie put us - a permanent manned presence on the moon, routine civilian transport to and from low earth orbit, a manned exploration effort capable of moving people to and from Saturn. Instead, we've been stuck in low earth orbit for nearly half a century. Our global space-faring capacity can't keep even a handful of people orbiting the earth at any one time.

On the plus side, we have avoided being taken over by intelligent machines, so far. We've avoided global thermonuclear war, so far. Our population problem is pretty severe, though not yet as bleak as that predicted by "Soylent Green." Although of course the population growth we do have is enough to put us on course to empty out the oceans of edible life, deplete our global freshwater reserves, force catastrophic global warming.

We have not been contacted by extraterrestrials, which suggests that faster than light travel is probably impossible. We're likely stuck in "normal" space for all time and without the energy resources of an entire solar system at our disposal, we will likely never escape earth or colonize any other part of our solar system, let alone populate extrasolar worlds.

Sci fi got it right that we would eventually discover earthlike worlds orbiting other stars. That seems inevitable. But no matter how many of these planets we discover, they will likely remain tantalizingly out of human reach for the remainder of our existence as a species.

My sincere belief is that's the fundamental mistake of classic sci fi. We are sentenced to imprisonment on our home planet for the life of our species, as is any intelligent life in the universe. For all practical purposes we are utterly alone, and there is no help for us other than what we can do to create a sustainable path for the human race on our home planet by limiting our population and by limiting and maximizing the efficiency of our consumption of limited resources.

Sci fi is correct to point out that we have had the capacity to commit species suicide for nearly 70 years, an ability that improves with each passing year as we add the results of carrying capacity overreach to the self-destruction toolbox. The survival of the human race will be determined this century, and redetermined periodically thereafter. If we hit 10 billion people by 2050, we are likely doomed as a species. The soylent green future is still the one that looks most realistic.

 

NASA never sent a family into space to colonize Alpha Centauri in 1997, and which became lost shortly afterwards.

The Moon never blew out of Earth's orbit on September 13, 1999 (and thank goodness for that).

A genetically-engineered superman named Khan Noonien Singh never ruled 1/4th of the Earth from 1992 to 1996, shortly escaping exile into space (Although Greg Cox's Eugenics Wars novels posits how they could've happened in the background of real-world history).

That's science fiction for ya.

 

I'm still hoping for a flying car one day ...

 

Jabbadabbadooooom!

 

It's the terrible burden of seeing the world clearly. I don't wish it on anyone. Self-delusion is the most pleasant of all human pursuits.

 

I don't see why it's such a downer. It’s a high-protein feed for farm animals, insulation for low-income housing, a powerful explosive and a top-notch engine coolant. And best of all, it’s made from one hundred percent recycled people!

 

Nah, I mean, it makes the tragedy easier to wear and huggably soft, not any less tragic.

 

War Games: The U.S. government has not put its nuclear stockpile into the hands of a self-aware supercomputer
On the Beach/Dr. Strangelove/Etc.: Superpowers have not yet killed off the human race through all-out nuclear war.
Total Recall: No full-sensory virtual reality, no colony on Mars
The Matrix/Terminator: no revolt of intelligent machines.
AI: no AI.
2010: The Year We Made Contact: the Soviet Union didn't make it to 2010.
Demon Seed: No attempt by evil AI to impregnate a woman
Blade Runner: some success at genetically engineering life forms.
The Day After Tomorrow: no ice age and super-cold whirlwind storms brought about by global warming
Armageddon/Deep Impact: we have not yet developed the technology to destroy or divert incoming dinosaur-killer sized meteors. Nothing expected within the next 50 years, but still not something to put off.
The Core: we do not have the technology to explore the earth's core
Contact/and everything else: no contact with or evidence for extraterrestrial intelligent life
Star Trek/SW/BSG/etc: no warp drive, no hyperdrive, no ftl jump
2001: no moon colony, no manned exploration of the solar system
Looper/Timecop/etc. No time travel
A Boy and His Dog: no telepathic dogs (bummer)