I was sitting in the train, with my labtop on my lap. I was watching the film "I, Robot"[1] with Will Smith (to wit[2], Will Smith was the actor in the film, he wasn't sitting next to me watching. (And we wonder why computers haven't learned human speech yet.)) It's extremely loosely based on Isaac Asimov's[3] stories.
There was this scene, where he walks up to a house, flashes his Police Detective Badge in front of a Scanner, and the door opens and a voice welcomes him to the house. It was really awesome, with flashy laserlights scanning the badge, the badge lighting up, and everything.
Well, I closed the labtop, got off the train and upon exiting the station held my wallet against the wallscanner. The wallscanner did *bleep*, indicated the cost of the traintrip and what my remaining balance was, and I went merrily on my way.
Then what I just did struck me.
It leaves me with only one question...
Where are we going?
P.S. And when did Science Fiction stop having original ideas?
References
- [1] I, Robot
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot_%28film%29
- [2] to wit
- http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-wit1.htm
- [3] Isaac Asimov
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov
To elaborate on your P.S. (and something which I spent some time pondering).
ReplyDeleteSay you're a dad, and you're proudly watching your little shrimp growing up to be a Geek to surpass her parent/teacher.
But... what would she be 'Geeking' in? You and I grew up in a time when computers were mythical machines that required arcane knowledge and the "confidence of the initiated".
The generations before had radio, electronics, mechanics/machinery, steam, there has always been some kind of "cutting edge of technology" where The Geek (by whatever name) would find fertile ground for their ideas and room to flourish in their own right.
Yet... today I am missing this. Either there is no 'edge' like the ones I describe above, or I'm getting too old to see the one forming at the horizon.
One thing is for sure, the area of digital technologies (software & hardware) no longer qualifies. While one can still excel in it, it is no longer the playground of the Initiated.
And, as you stated, even Science Fiction seems to be having a hard time coming up with the truly original and fantastic-yet-not-outright-impossible.