Category: Science Fiction

Doctor Who Entertainment Movies Tv Shows Science Fiction

‘Doctor Who’ new season trailer asks: Will you be Jodie Whittaker’s best friend?

sudshr47 July 19, 2018

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“All of this is new to me,” says the Doctor. And she’s not alone. 

The trailer for Doctor Who Season 11, starring Jodie Whittaker as the Time Lord’s first female incarnation, was released at San Diego Comic Con Thursday. And while the locations we glimpsed are familiar to any Who fan — quarries, beaches, corridors, the wreck of an alien ship — there’s a distinct freshness to it all. 

Part of that comes from Whittaker’s youthful energy, which makes a distinct change from grumpy predecessor Peter Capaldi. It bubbles out through words spoken in her native Yorkshire accent. (Other than “brilliant!”, the one word she spoke in the final post-regeneration scene of last year’s “Twice Upon A Time,” we’ve never heard Whittaker talk in character as the Doctor before.)  Read more…

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Dear 22nd Century Movies Predictions Science Fiction The Science Of Sci Fi

Every movie about the 22nd century is wrong

sudshr47 July 17, 2018

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NOTE FOR 2018 READERS: This is the second in a series of letters to mark a little-known chronological milestone. According to UN data, average life expectancy at birth in 10 countries now exceeds 82 years — meaning babies born in 2018 have started being more likely than not to see the 22nd century.

What will the world look like at the other end of these kids’ lives, in that not-so-far-off year of 2101? We may already be seeing the answer in today’s scientific discoveries, tech world visions, and science fiction. But in these time-capsule messages to the next century, we also recognize that our hopes and fears will shape what the future will become.  Read more…

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The science behind Star Trek technobabble

sudshr47 July 15, 2018

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This post is part of Science of Sci-Fi, Mashable’s ongoing series dissecting the science (or lack of science) in our favorite sci-fi movies, TV shows, and books.

Star Wars is all action. You know, X-wings and lightsabers and fully armed and operational battle stations. 

Star Trek — at least, the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager — was less … let’s say, explosive. There were a lot of sensor readings. Also, sensible debates. Several episodes centered around academic conferences.

That’s why I love it. The Star Trek franchise isn’t about being handy with a laser pistol. It’s about the power and promise of science, even if the actual science makes no sense. To that end, the writers perfected the art of technobabble — you know, dialogue that sounds scientific when uttered over a control panel but really doesn’t mean much.  Read more…

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The wild, weird and oddly sexy story of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

sudshr47 April 5, 2018

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By now, the plot of 2001: A Space Odyssey — which was released 50 years ago this week — seems etched in stone. Or, if you prefer, laser-cut into a giant black monolith. 

Everyone who’s seen it can recall the basic outline of its four vast, atmospheric, mostly silent acts. (PSA if you haven’t seen it: please remedy that tonight on the biggest screen you can find. This is the legendary Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece,  written with the equally legendary Arthur C. Clarke. It is frequently voted by directors one of the top 10 movies of all time; it has blown millions of minds. Well worth giving it a shot at yours.) Read more…

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Who wants to live forever, asks the book Benedict Cumberbatch is bringing to the screen

sudshr47 February 21, 2018

The world’s richest man made a $42 million investment in a vast clock, now under construction, that is designed to tick away for 10,000 years. Elon Musk sent a car to space that should orbit the sun for millions of years, containing a miniature libra…

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The LifeClock One will help you escape from mundanity

sudshr47 February 9, 2018

 Whether you’re trapped on a futuristic island prison full of blood-thirsty gang members or simply stuck in a two-hour meeting, the LifeClock One might be the watch for you. Inspired by the movie Escape From New York starring Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, the watch is an homage to Plissken’s wrist-worn LifeClock, a device that would trigger the an injection of micro-explosives in… Read More

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Author Nick Montfort tells us how to define the future

sudshr47 February 5, 2018

 Nick Montfort is a professor in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies/Writing and the author of a new book, “The Future.” His book explores “future makers” – people who create the future with their work. It’s a fascinating read and he’s a fascinating thinker in the space. Our conversation on Technotopia started with the Norman Bel Geddes, designer of… Read More

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RIP Ursula K. Le Guin, dreamer of the best dreams

sudshr47 January 24, 2018

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Ursula K. Le Guin, who was arguably America’s greatest living author (and one who hated getting pigeon-holed as a science-fiction or fantasy writer), died Monday at the age of 88, her son has announced. 

The news set off a firestorm on Twitter — not the usual kind, thank goodness, but a sudden flurry of people debating which of Le Guin’s works touches us the most deeply and remains the most relevant. 

Usula K. LeGuin, one of the greats, has passed. Not just a science fiction writer; a literary icon. Godspeed into the galaxy.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 23, 2018

Was it Wizard of Earthsea, the 1968 classic, and its five sequels, which showed the world how to write a wizard student’s coming-of-age story decades before Harry Potter was a gleam in J.K. Rowling’s eye? The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), a truly revolutionary novel about a race of aliens that changes gender at will, which holds up better than ever in 2018? The Dispossessed (1973), which featured the first ever anarchist utopia in fiction, decades before Occupy Wall Street was a thing?  Read more…

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Girl plays ‘Star Wars’ Cantina theme with a pencil, is groundbreaking math genius

sudshr47 January 11, 2018

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What you’re about to watch is the work of a name you should remember: Dani Ochoa. 

Dani, who characterizes herself as “a girl with too much time on her hands” is also, apparently, a goddamn math genius. 

She figured out how to play the Mos Eiseley Cantina theme from “Star Wars.” 

With a pencil. 

While writing.

While writing a coherent and apparently working math equation. 

And not just a working math equation. But a working math equation that produces, yes, the number of the speed of light. A sampling of crowdsourced math-checked, via the Reddit Video thread,  found this:

Yeah, look, we work for a website, half this industry barely squeaked by Algebra 2—we don’t know if the math actually checks out, but sure as hell sounds legit.   Read more…

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