4 ms·

Heh, I loved the term "truckers in space", which pretty accurately described some of the characters in Alien - Brett, Parker, Dallas. Speaking of Ridley Scott,

Heh, I loved the term "truckers in space", which pretty accurately described some of the characters in Alien - Brett, Parker, Dallas. Speaking of Ridley Scott, my favorite movie of all time is Blade Runner. I was watching it the other day, and noticed that the incept dates of some of replicants were 2016. Oh boy, Ridley got that one wrong. But they still used payphones too, like in Alien. Remember Deckard calling Rachel from the video pay phone at the bar? So it seems like filmmakers predictions either grossly mispredict the amount of technological progress at the big scale. Everybody thought there would be moon colonies by now, or advanced cyborgs. Or they don't see the technological innovation at the small scale. They can't see things like cell phones, the internet, etc.. I have seen several movies with the 70s or so, with flat screens hanging on the wall. So I guess they ocassionally get things right

rbanffy 12y ago
> So it seems like filmmakers predictions either grossly mispredict the amount of technological progress at the big scale It is said sci-fi is less about predicting the future than to preventing it. I'd go more with the idea it's about showing what can be and helping us finding our way there (or out of there).
- TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
  While some people predicted the Internet, or something like it, no one predicted Internet culture. And I don't think anyone seriously imagined that the Internet would be accessible through a terminal you could carry in your pocket that also worked as a clock, camera, calendar, video and audio phone, calculator, weather forecaster, fitness monitor, games machine, and smart personal assistant. It's debatable if a moon base would have been better. I suppose a moon base would have created cultural changes of its own, but I'm not convinced they would have been as disruptive as the Internet. (And it's just getting started...)
  - lerchmo 12y ago
    I think some of the predictions were probably driven by the expectation of large scale government funded projects, rather than incremental consumer driven advancement.
  - pjc50 12y ago
    Gibson came close to both hacker culture and the first world anarchists ("Panther Moderns" ~= "Anonymous"). And Asimov's "Multivac" has often been compared to the internet.
lifeformed 12y ago
I kind of like all the anachronistic elements in old sci-fi movies. It doesn't really feel like an error; it feels more like a stylistic choice. The chunky CRTs and grimy machinery gives the world character, and makes the world feel tangible. I'd take that over a sterile, Apple-eque vision of the future any day (in my fiction, at least).
- olavk 12y ago
  The sf movie 'Her' has a very Apple-like feel in the production design. Great movie, but of course a totally different feel.

rbanffy 12y ago

> So it seems like filmmakers predictions either grossly mispredict the amount of technological progress at the big scale It is said sci-fi is less about predicting the future than to preventing it. I'd go more with the idea it's about showing what can be and helping us finding our way there (or out of there).

TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
While some people predicted the Internet, or something like it, no one predicted Internet culture. And I don't think anyone seriously imagined that the Internet would be accessible through a terminal you could carry in your pocket that also worked as a clock, camera, calendar, video and audio phone, calculator, weather forecaster, fitness monitor, games machine, and smart personal assistant. It's debatable if a moon base would have been better. I suppose a moon base would have created cultural changes of its own, but I'm not convinced they would have been as disruptive as the Internet. (And it's just getting started...)
- lerchmo 12y ago
  I think some of the predictions were probably driven by the expectation of large scale government funded projects, rather than incremental consumer driven advancement.
- pjc50 12y ago
  Gibson came close to both hacker culture and the first world anarchists ("Panther Moderns" ~= "Anonymous"). And Asimov's "Multivac" has often been compared to the internet.

lifeformed 12y ago

I kind of like all the anachronistic elements in old sci-fi movies. It doesn't really feel like an error; it feels more like a stylistic choice. The chunky CRTs and grimy machinery gives the world character, and makes the world feel tangible. I'd take that over a sterile, Apple-eque vision of the future any day (in my fiction, at least).

olavk 12y ago
The sf movie 'Her' has a very Apple-like feel in the production design. Great movie, but of course a totally different feel.