What the hell happened to Bicentenial man?

[lepat silec]

I thought it the year 2005, we were going to have robots. Hell, I at least a few years from now I thought it was going to be possible. But nope. We still have shitty A.I. Has anything really been invented since 1980? Advancements don't count. Having faster computers, better looking cars and smaller cellphones aren't relevant. I mean REAL inventions. At the begining of the 20th century, lots of stuff was invented.
You're probably thinking "we have hover technology, and lasers". Yes we do, but keep in mind that hover technology is over 60 years old. Hitler even built hovercrafts, and tested them. A scientist in the 50's invented a machine that could destroy all germs. But the scientist died, and his invention lost. Basically, every disease would be deemed curable.
So, what the hell happened? Have people just not cared? Has our youth stopped taking such an interest in reading and school, that we're basically at a stand still for advancements?
Now, I realize genetic technology has come a long way, but no one has really invented anything. Call me stupid, but what invention popped up in the last 20 years? A hydrogen engine idea that was bagged due to greedy gas companies? An engine was invented years ago, that could take air from the sky to run on, and release it being as pure as before. A never ending source. Why are scientists so damn stupid? Discuss.

[Davey Rootbeer]

I liked asimov's works, most of which took place in the mid-21st century (about 100 years afte he wrote them). The first story of "I, Robot" (the book...not the movie...) was supposed to take place in 1998, however...

So, bicentential man wasn't supposed to take place in 1976, but more likely to start in the early 2020's, and end up 200 years later.

He never really saw the shrinking of computing technologies coming, though. In his stories, computers became more powerful, but LARGER, needing miles, and miles of space, even whole planets.


Look at the jetsons, for another perspective. THat series was made in the early 60's, and wasn't so much as a science-fiction work as a graph of what the common american believed would happen in the 'future": Mass simlification (things work by pushing a button...which is....true?) and moving stairs at shopping malls, treadmills, etc, etc. they actually got some of those things right.

And there's no such thing as "ability to kill all germs". All living things are parasitic, and germs that WE emit are used as a defense against attackers, bacteria is used FOR humans' benefit to culture food, to remove dirt, protect some parts of the body, and then there's Penecillin.

So, killing all germs is impossible, it would also kill all life.


I still want my damn hovercar, though.

[lepat silec]

Asimov even believed we'd have robots with human intelligence by 2005. In I, Robot, he says the positronic brain was invented in 2008. Kubrick believed that we'd have colonies in 2001. They based this off of the speed invention went for their times.
It would always be a sufficent enough excuse, just to blame it on me.

[exemplary citizen]

A scientist in the 50's invented a machine that could destroy all germs. But the scientist died, and his invention lost. Basically, every disease would be deemed curable.
Source plz, kthnxbai.

[MST3Kakalina]

i think she's talking about <a href="http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031497.htm">Wilhelm Reich and his orgone accumulator.</a> if i recall correctly, no one ever proved or disproved his work. <small>my friends know about the strangest things.</small>

anyway, scientists aren't stupid. blame the oil companies!

but seriously, Davey's right. people were excited about all of the new technology that would be available so close in the future not based on REAL scientific evidence but speculation. "science is giving us SO MUCH so quickly, it should be able to do THIS!" hell, in Lost in Space, we were sending missions to other planets by 199<b>6</b>.

if you REALLY want something to blame for our lack of technological prowess, blame the collapse of the Roman Empire into the Dark Ages. they lasted what, from 400 AD to the 1400s? 1500s?

think of what we could have done with 1000 extra years.

[Davey Rootbeer]

Back as far as 1000 AD, a device was invented that was able to teleport people and objects from one place to another, and somehow also became able to send people back or forward in time.

and in 12,000 BC, even, there was a highly superiour society than us today, floating high above the clouds, with the science and technology to become it's own eden.

and the world was supposed to be destroyed in 1999 AD by Lavos. And he would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those MEDDLING KIDS, and their frog, too!

[exemplary citizen]

i think she's talking about <a href="http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031497.htm">Wilhelm Reich and his orgone accumulator.</a> if i recall correctly, no one ever proved or disproved his work. <small>my friends know about the strangest things.</small>

Oh! Well, that's easy. The Orgone Accumulator was a load of B.S. It never even worked, or showed any kind of statistical improvement in the people who used it. And if anybody actually believes sitting in what amounts to an insulated box is going to cure their colon cancer, they've got even bigger problems.

my ex-boyfriend's dad had a homemade orgone accumulator in his backyard. it was weird.

[MST3Kakalina]

<small>that's what i don't get about them! i found a diagram on how to make one in a <i>book in my school library</i>, for chrissakes, and it was just...a metal box, with an interior covered with wood. a quick Google turned up mentions crystals and such as well, which would at least make it SLIGHTLY more plausible for me, as i'm a newage crystal flake at heart. but just sitting in a wood and metal box? <b>wtf?</b></small>

[exemplary citizen]

yeah, it's totally off the wall wacky. and if you ask me, he was right to go to jail for advising critically ill people to pass up legitimate treatment in favor of his little refrigerator crate. even weirder is that he named his organization "orgonon".... "orgonon", "narconon"? connection? maaaaaaaayyyybe. sounds a little like a certain cult we all know and love to me.

anyway, ex's dad also had a blanket made of steel wool that was supposed to be some kind of "portable orgone attractor". seems like all that would give you is one hell of a rash.

[MST3Kakalina]

OMG WILHELM REICH WAS <s>L. RON HUBBARD</s> THE TURKEY ALL ALONG!


and from what i understand, he wasn't always ENTIRELY wacky. or maybe noah just painted an overly rosy picture of him...i mean, wasn't he condemning fascism in Europe when no one else really was? and didn't he encourage healthy expression of sexual desire? yeah, so kids don't need any MORE encouragement to go out and bone, but i think acknowledging it instead of condemning it is a good thing.

[Invader Flak]

Back as far as 1000 AD, a device was invented that was able to teleport people and objects from one place to another, and somehow also became able to send people back or forward in time.

and in 12,000 BC, even, there was a highly superiour society than us today, floating high above the clouds, with the science and technology to become it's own eden.

and the world was supposed to be destroyed in 1999 AD by Lavos. And he would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those MEDDLING KIDS, and their frog, too!

I think someone needs their medicine.

The last time I touched a quartz new age crystal, it burned me. I guess my faith in Christ is just too fanatical.

By His will we live!

[Ravenous Monkey]

i think she's talking about <a href="http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031497.htm">Wilhelm Reich and his orgone accumulator.</a> if i recall correctly, no one ever proved or disproved his work. <small>my friends know about the strangest things.</small>

anyway, scientists aren't stupid. blame the oil companies!

but seriously, Davey's right. people were excited about all of the new technology that would be available so close in the future not based on REAL scientific evidence but speculation. "science is giving us SO MUCH so quickly, it should be able to do THIS!" hell, in Lost in Space, we were sending missions to other planets by 199<b>6</b>.

if you REALLY want something to blame for our lack of technological prowess, blame the collapse of the Roman Empire into the Dark Ages. they lasted what, from 400 AD to the 1400s? 1500s?

think of what we could have done with 1000 extra years.

Yeah. They (history channel psychos) say that if the library of Alexandria had not been destroyed, Columbus would've landed on the moon.

Though maybe it's a good thing, as Napoleon could've had laser guns or something God-awful like that.


Also, hovercars were desirable when distances were relatively large for their age, nowadays with the internet, we don't need hovercars. Though traffic might make them necessary, still all the hovercars in Futurama and The 5th element seem to be in gridlock...

[lepat silec]

It makes you just want to go back in time, and fight off the the dumbass barbarians invading Roman, with machine guns.

Or sticks...if you're a really good strategist.

[Chakan]

Advancements aren't always steady, you realize. You just have to patient when a new thing isn't invented everyday. Sometimes there are periods of time where we simply improve our knowledge or current inventions without actually making new ones. And why do we need hovercars, anyway? Hell, people have a hard time driving a vehicle stuck to the ground by gravity properly, just imagine how bad it would be if the poor drivers out there had a vehicle that could fly. Can we say "Death from Above"?

Also, let us not forget that there will be - and probably already has been - a time where our advancement might slow or stop entirely. I can actually foresee a period of time that I would call a "stopgap" where humanity is devoting all its energy, science, and time to a single cause, such as an equation that could make FTL(faster than light) travel possible or what have you. We must also understand that there are physical limits to our expansion. We can only make computer processors go so fast before the wires are melted or destroyed by pushing so much energy through them, not to mention there is a limit to how small those tiny wires and transisters can be.

I recommend Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke for an indication of how we might evolve or advance in the future, and some of the problems we might face. We might eventually reach a point where we can go no further, or we might even become a new being entirely.

[Forever Finite]

that book was heavy on the imagination. what a gloomy description of universal energy.

[MST3Kakalina]

something about that book rubbed me the wrong way.


2001 is a masterpiece, though.

[Chakan]

something about that book rubbed me the wrong way.
I loved it, personaly. It is gloomy, especially since it seems like mankind was "eaten" by that universal energy force, but really, we were simply assimilated into it and became part of it, because we evolved into that universal energy. You have to realize that's how evolution works, even if the logical end seems terrifying. When we evolve, do you honestly think homo sapiens will exist anymore, or be left to exist? We'll probably die out like every other species that has come before us. It is sad, but once you accept it, it's not as heartbreaking or scary, because what comes after will probably be "better", since we helped create that new species.

[Forever Finite]

no, that's not why it was gloomy. i really liked the book, but i felt like the author had a morbid undertone when approaching the idea of living beings becoming an energy. or maybe he did a really good job of illustrating the general human attitude about being swept up into something involuntarily and losing control of our futures.

[exemplary citizen]

something about that book rubbed me the wrong way.
Yeah, "Childhood's End" was... not his best, I thought.

[MST3Kakalina]

I loved it, personaly. It is gloomy, especially since it seems like mankind was "eaten" by that universal energy force, but really, we were simply assimilated into it and became part of it, because we evolved into that universal energy. You have to realize that's how evolution works, even if the logical end seems terrifying. When we evolve, do you honestly think homo sapiens will exist anymore, or be left to exist? We'll probably die out like every other species that has come before us. It is sad, but once you accept it, it's not as heartbreaking or scary, because what comes after will probably be "better", since we helped create that new species.
it's not because it was gloomy; that concept behind the book, i had no problem with. something about the writing style really turned me off. i read it something like 4 years ago, so i couldn't tell you what specifically it was, but i remember working to get through it even though i didn't like the writing.

[KLEIN]

Yeah. They (history channel psychos) say that if the library of Alexandria had not been destroyed, Columbus would've landed on the moon.

Though maybe it's a good thing, as Napoleon could've had laser guns or something God-awful like that.


Also, hovercars were desirable when distances were relatively large for their age, nowadays with the internet, we don't need hovercars. Though traffic might make them necessary, still all the hovercars in Futurama and The 5th element seem to be in gridlock...

Napoleon probably wouldn't have been around. He was only able to get power due to the french revolution. No french revolution, no napoleon.


I heard that the guy who played napoleon in the dynamite movie died. Can anyone confirm this?

[MST3Kakalina]

that's an internet rumour, fueled by the fact that stupid teenagers overquote Napoleon Dynamite and piss off enough people that a lot of people wouldn't mind if John Heder (isn't that his name) died.

[Davey Rootbeer]

"Hey, did you guys hear that John Heder died?"



...Nah...it's just not the same...

[lepat silec]

It's probably not true. Some loser probably started the rumor. What's the likelyhood that right when everyone loves Napoleon Dynamite, Heder dies in a car crash, which was only weeks after the movie was made.

[Chakan]

it's not because it was gloomy; that concept behind the book, i had no problem with. something about the writing style really turned me off. i read it something like 4 years ago, so i couldn't tell you what specifically it was, but i remember working to get through it even though i didn't like the writing.
Ah, I see, but I read it in 7th or 8th grade, so I might not have noticed the "sloppy" or strange writing style, or I just had poor taste, heh. I also remember being deeply fascinated with the subject matter, and so I tore through the book. The funny thing about this conversation, though, is that I remember my friend didn't like the book or how it ended either when I let him borrow it years ago. I'm not sure why that is. However, I have read quite a few oddly written books in my time that I enjoyed, especially since most of the books I've read are science fiction, which tend to have some really wacky writing and themes at times.

And since I'm on the subject of science fiction books, you guys totally need to go out and buy a book called Tomorrow and Tomorrow. It's so awesome, and it's the only book I know of that covers BILLIONS of years of evolution, developement, and even the eventual end of the universe. Plus it has a pretty cool ending, and even romance if you love that sort of thing!

[MST3Kakalina]

i am inspired to make a thread in off topica.


away i go!