Ya know, this actually got me asking that question now. What happened if ALL of the old (1980’s-ish) sci-fi movies realized the invention of the internet, like Star Wars. This could be a good comic week idea!
Well Star Trek was post eugenics wars where the earth was razed so they didn’t bring it back on the rebuild. Babylon 5 had massive lag to anywhere and was a quasi military diplomatic base. Space 1999 was a military base and their ping went way up after the first episode.
After all, humankind was still pretty much in the ruins after the wars when the first contact happened. Interstellar Communication can still be tricky in DS9 times, if you are a civilian (pretty sure Kasedy Yates mentioned something about that) so a quadrant wide web would still be considered futuristic. As for the earth? Maybe. We don’t really get to see a lot of it.
Captain Kirk: All right men, this is a dangerous mission and it’s likely one of us will be killed. The landing party will consist of myself, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and Ensign Ricky.
I for one would have thought baldness and acne scars would have been a thing of the past. You never (almost never?) see prescription eyeglasses (Geordi’s TNG visor doesn’t count) and I don’t recall any futurarians even wearing standard casual sunglasses.
What other icons of our modern age are missing (things that would eventually be more extreme and commonplace)?
More elaboate body piercings and mods (Like the ‘bumps’ inserted under the skin…why not plexi-windows to see internal organs and such?), 3-D holographic tattoos (even Futurama has these), personal devices implanted into the body (teeth, wrist, bio chips – that’s the one I want…don’t make me get my knowledge the hard way, just let me plug in a f#ckin’ skill set!).
Expand this into a whole “Futurist Bug” series (I like the name already).
Criswell: And remember, my friends, future events such as these will affect you in the future!
One other thing, it is also possible that physical imperfections (such as baldness, acne, etc.) would be sought after in world of physical flawlessness (who the hell knows?) as an escape from uniformity.
I just pray the ship doesn’t run Windows. Though I imagine if there really were intergalactic starships and space wars, a huge part of the combat would be hacking into enemy ships and disabling the weapons, opening the airlock, silently changing course for the sun, etc… everything would likely be computer-controlled, so he who controls the computer wins.
Also reminds me of a popular scifi question: why are computer screens in the far future worse than they are now? What happens to all the LCD panels?
In ST:OS, although they had faster than light communications, messages still took weeks to cross interstellar space and sometimes, they were beyond that as well. Even so, the power it took to send such a message was enormous so it was probably like ship’s radios circa 1910 i.e. short text messages.
At best “the internet” would just be localized to particular ships, stations, systems and worlds. There would probably be picket ships, like in the pre-telegam era, that would be just big flying databanks moving information faster than light between worlds.
It is a matter of some interest to uber-geek historians of science fiction such as myself that at best no more than a bare handful of science fiction authors predicted anything close to the internet.
Science fiction, like all literature, reflects its own era. Science fiction tells us nothing about the future but it does tell a great deal about the extended world view of its day. In the 1920s Hugo Greensbeck era of “scientifical romances” the stories reflect then scientifically current ideas of eugenics, non-darwinian progressive evolution, and the presumption of a “scientific” socialistic planned society.
ST:OS was a projection of the old school Democrats New Frontier America into space. Bold, self-confident and even self-righteous, a society that believed in it’s ability to prefect itself and do anything. In the original series, the Federation was such a perfected society that if you wanted some adventure, you had to head to the “final frontier.” Even the frontier motif was a statement about American optimism and its view as an every growing and changing society.
In the sixties, computers were big centralized things and the science fiction of the day only seems to have thought of them as in the future getting every bigger and bigger. They never seem to have thought about them getting smaller and smaller and more ubiquitous. Likewise, they also only thought of information and media as getting more and more concentrated.
That’s why personal computer and the internet caught everyone by surprise. They were a complete cultural reversal of everyone’s stereotypes about computers.
Season Two of “The Orville” features a character addicted to internet porn who almost destroys the ship with malware– which is weird as you’re more likely to get that from a church site made by a volunteer than a porn site maintained by a professional.
As always, I marvel at the expression Adam can put into hands with a few pen strokes.
Ya know, this actually got me asking that question now. What happened if ALL of the old (1980’s-ish) sci-fi movies realized the invention of the internet, like Star Wars. This could be a good comic week idea!
Oooooh! Yeah! Please Adam?
The Internet and Star Trek/Babylon 5/Space 1999 etc. That could be seriously fun. 😉
Well Star Trek was post eugenics wars where the earth was razed so they didn’t bring it back on the rebuild. Babylon 5 had massive lag to anywhere and was a quasi military diplomatic base. Space 1999 was a military base and their ping went way up after the first episode.
crap, 3 years to late for that comment xD
After all, humankind was still pretty much in the ruins after the wars when the first contact happened. Interstellar Communication can still be tricky in DS9 times, if you are a civilian (pretty sure Kasedy Yates mentioned something about that) so a quadrant wide web would still be considered futuristic. As for the earth? Maybe. We don’t really get to see a lot of it.
Come to think of it, Mega Man asked the exact same question…
Oh wait, that’d be Mega Man Battle Network.
Ah, Adam. You always ask the best questions.
Love it! And a very good point.
Recently discovered your webcomic, and am really enjoying it thus far. Also, “Silly kitten. You’re not a starship” may be phrase of the day! 🙂
Nom, nom, nom.
Thanks. Wasn’t sure if folks would get the joke.
I love Spock Bug!
He’s going to be first off the shuttle in the next landing party.
ideally with a red shirt.
We just met the red-shirted Bug. Guaranteed to be dead in less than 5 minutes.
Captain Kirk: All right men, this is a dangerous mission and it’s likely one of us will be killed. The landing party will consist of myself, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and Ensign Ricky.
Ensign Ricky: Ah, crap.
“Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a member of the Geek Squad!”
This comic…seriously…you make my day.
Love this stuff.
Great observations, Adam.
I for one would have thought baldness and acne scars would have been a thing of the past. You never (almost never?) see prescription eyeglasses (Geordi’s TNG visor doesn’t count) and I don’t recall any futurarians even wearing standard casual sunglasses.
What other icons of our modern age are missing (things that would eventually be more extreme and commonplace)?
More elaboate body piercings and mods (Like the ‘bumps’ inserted under the skin…why not plexi-windows to see internal organs and such?), 3-D holographic tattoos (even Futurama has these), personal devices implanted into the body (teeth, wrist, bio chips – that’s the one I want…don’t make me get my knowledge the hard way, just let me plug in a f#ckin’ skill set!).
Expand this into a whole “Futurist Bug” series (I like the name already).
Criswell: And remember, my friends, future events such as these will affect you in the future!
And for the record, everything should have been viewed on a “Minority Report” type display, or at least a HUD, like present day fighter pilots use.
One other thing, it is also possible that physical imperfections (such as baldness, acne, etc.) would be sought after in world of physical flawlessness (who the hell knows?) as an escape from uniformity.
Somewhat OT but I found this quote just this AM —
“If the Ferengi were to breed with the Borg you would get Scientology!”
I want a Scientology Bug!
I seem to recall an episode were the Enterprise was brought low by a computer virus, the previous ship that had it exploded.
This definitely happened in Deep Space 9. The crew accidentally tripped a Cardassian program to lock down Tarek Nor, which is what DS9 used to be.
Of course it exists–facebook simply turned into the Borg. Where else would you find folk who are utterly bereft when dsiplaced from the collective?
I found this quote just this AM –
“If the Ferengi were to breed with the Borg you would get Scientology!”
Blow it up, indeed!
I just pray the ship doesn’t run Windows. Though I imagine if there really were intergalactic starships and space wars, a huge part of the combat would be hacking into enemy ships and disabling the weapons, opening the airlock, silently changing course for the sun, etc… everything would likely be computer-controlled, so he who controls the computer wins.
Also reminds me of a popular scifi question: why are computer screens in the far future worse than they are now? What happens to all the LCD panels?
with a title like that i would watch it. even thought i don’t really like star trek
“Spock, Quick…dump the Nortons…and…reload the Kaspertisky IS. Those…kittens…are out of their minds!” :p 😉
In ST:OS, although they had faster than light communications, messages still took weeks to cross interstellar space and sometimes, they were beyond that as well. Even so, the power it took to send such a message was enormous so it was probably like ship’s radios circa 1910 i.e. short text messages.
At best “the internet” would just be localized to particular ships, stations, systems and worlds. There would probably be picket ships, like in the pre-telegam era, that would be just big flying databanks moving information faster than light between worlds.
It is a matter of some interest to uber-geek historians of science fiction such as myself that at best no more than a bare handful of science fiction authors predicted anything close to the internet.
Science fiction, like all literature, reflects its own era. Science fiction tells us nothing about the future but it does tell a great deal about the extended world view of its day. In the 1920s Hugo Greensbeck era of “scientifical romances” the stories reflect then scientifically current ideas of eugenics, non-darwinian progressive evolution, and the presumption of a “scientific” socialistic planned society.
ST:OS was a projection of the old school Democrats New Frontier America into space. Bold, self-confident and even self-righteous, a society that believed in it’s ability to prefect itself and do anything. In the original series, the Federation was such a perfected society that if you wanted some adventure, you had to head to the “final frontier.” Even the frontier motif was a statement about American optimism and its view as an every growing and changing society.
In the sixties, computers were big centralized things and the science fiction of the day only seems to have thought of them as in the future getting every bigger and bigger. They never seem to have thought about them getting smaller and smaller and more ubiquitous. Likewise, they also only thought of information and media as getting more and more concentrated.
That’s why personal computer and the internet caught everyone by surprise. They were a complete cultural reversal of everyone’s stereotypes about computers.
Long comment. Better lay off the cold meds.
I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER RULES!
Season Two of “The Orville” features a character addicted to internet porn who almost destroys the ship with malware– which is weird as you’re more likely to get that from a church site made by a volunteer than a porn site maintained by a professional.