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Whitney Njiru

Student, Maseno University

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What is the most factual or most fictitious representation of science in a sci-fi/ syfy you have watched?

The line between Science and Fiction is thin, and movie and TV productions make it even more blur. It is hard to distinguish the truth; either it already exists or is being worked on in some lab with fiction; no one is headed in that direction or it has been proven not to work. Share on what you have watched or read and your views on the science or fiction behind it.

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Topics: science science-fiction syfy technology television
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    David Hamilton 50+

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    Aug 31 2012: Gattaca was a good choice... but as weird as it is to say... I loved the Cylons in the new Battlestar Gallactica TV series. Didn't even find find the show until Netflix... but I think that was a great blueprint for the emotions human beings will have to deal with, as AI, becomes indistinguishable from human being. Really fun journey as well.
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    Hong-Min Yoon

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    Aug 24 2012: The most shocking and realistic movie about the scientific view of our future was "Gattaca." You may have seen this movie; it is about how the advancement in technology can draw a line between the "Supermen" and "The Miserable Ones" just like segregation.
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    Mats Kaarbö 10+

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    Aug 23 2012: I think the most interesting and factual "science of the future" moment I had was when I realized that the 'replicator' in Star Trek was basically the same thing as the 3D-printer combined with nanotech, is today. In the series they have surpassed their need for money as a result of infinite amount of resources and material made available with these technologies and a single voice command!
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      Whitney Njiru 500+

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      Aug 24 2012: thats true, i am thinking about the single voice command protocol, it needs to be highly sophisticated to be secure and very simple to be usable, that unique balance may be our next Holy Grail.

  • Shane Schuller

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    Aug 18 2012: It has to be all the stupid alien movies. It always shows some weird creatures taking over the world and more so that they creatures.

    Why cant they make decent movies about human aliens, which obviously exist in the galaxy. And leave out violent war scenes. I don't think every race in the galaxy wishes to kill earth race.
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      Whitney Njiru 500+

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      Aug 21 2012: that's good observation but i think it emanates from our fears which are fueled by our human nature for conquest. More so when two new "people" or races have met in our human past, the stronger one always tries to subdue the weaker one. I believe it is this nature that fuels the war-like stance of the movies. If they included a mineral aspect for the motive would be a more realistic notion other than outright destruction and annihilation of the planets inhabitants.

  • george lockwood 20+

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    Aug 8 2012: Barry Hypnosis or guided imagiry can put you on a holodeck sort of I had an nlp trainer who would do that in guided imagiry He used an induction from Silva

  • george lockwood 20+

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    Aug 1 2012: Good LLLLLlawren. However, I believe that things have changed since the Hard Science Fiction of Heinlein, Asimov and others. That was follow the rules of science except for one thing. Look at space travel and spaceships. If you can get the thing to move it will be a long time untill your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-etc.- grandkids arrived. Or as one cartoon I read and lost suggested We had a great trip from womeplace we have forgotten for a reason we no longer know.

  • Barry Palmer 50+

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    Aug 1 2012: I like Star Trek, especially Next Generation. I don't know of any science that could possibly lead to a holodeck with computer generated solid objects, but otherwise it was plausible.

    Love the books of Robert A Heinlein. Within the boundaries of the known science of his day, almost everything he wrote was plausible and very well researched.
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      Whitney Njiru 500+

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      Aug 13 2012: Hi Barry, Star Trek is always a favorite of many for its science stuff and futuristic approach. The writers must have gotten inspiration from Jules Verne future perspective and imagination to creativity. I haven't read on Robert A Heinlein but i think how he would link different existing technology to support his literature would be very important. Good to hear. Will check him out.
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    Gabo Moreno 100+

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    Jul 31 2012: Worst ever: that movie where a guy is looking at a three-dimensional rendering of what would be about ten base-pairs of DNA, someone asks who that is, the guy answers "my girlfriend." Then somebody shakes the model and the guy says "now it's [I-dnot-remember-what-he-said]." Beyond absurd.

    (Now I noticed that the question was not about the most absurd, but about the very best things. Sorry.)
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      Whitney Njiru 500+

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      Aug 7 2012: its ok Gabo, what is the title of the movie? Do you think, we can have such a rendering "i assume it seemed like a hologram" where physical contact would actually disrupt the rendering?
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        Gabo Moreno 100+

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        Aug 19 2012: I do not remember the title of the movie. It was somewhat recent.

        I do think we will be able to disrupt rendering by "physical" contact. It's kind of already on the works, with a bit of success (a derivative is the electronic game-players that respond to your movements).
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    James Zhang 30+

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    Jul 31 2012: Watchmen
    the graphic novel, not movie adaptation.

    Watchmen delved more deeply on the social effects of the existence of superheroes and sci-fi concepts than the actual technicalities. Still one of my favorite stories, ALL the characters were done hella well.
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      Whitney Njiru 500+

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      Aug 7 2012: nice. Any particular portion of the book where the fiction was more than the fact or potential of it becoming a fact.
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        James Zhang 30+

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        Aug 7 2012: It was the most thought out story I've seen in a long while and it used the medium of a comic book exceedingly well. The messages he sent, and the way he portrayed the messages was very masterful. It's one of those stories where it cannot really become a movie adaptation or a regular novel, only as a graphic novel, because things will lose meaning if it took on another form, and really important "hidden" messages would disappear, just like the movie adaptation did.
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    douglas macrae smith

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    Jul 31 2012: I'm a big fan of Iain Bank's "Culture" series of books - where he describes :

    1)downloading the human pysche as a sort of immortality where one may access a sort of virtual afterlife, or reboot into a new body in case of lethal accidents
    2)benevolent rule by 'Minds': a type of sentient AI
    3)'Genofixing' of humans in order to benefit from extra drug glands, different skin colors etc
    4)post scarcity due to ability to create whatever matter desired directly from energy
    5)neural lace: a sort of www or telepathic connection with anyone or everyone at anytime

    All this leading to a highly succesful and hedonistic, but ultimately blase society, life having no more real challenges
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    Lawren Jones 10+

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    Jul 31 2012: My favorite science flub in science fiction is in Anne McCaffrey's "All the Weyrs of Pern," in which she used suction cups in space. Suction cups work by the difference in air pressure between the inside and outside of the cup. In space, there is no air pressure.
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      Whitney Njiru 500+

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      Aug 7 2012: nice, a good folly that we tend to overlook. I hear a special pen was made that could write in outer-space, but why wasted millions when they could use a pencil. Anyway nice observation.
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