Isaac Asimov Correctly Predicted 2014 Tech in 1964

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Take a world-class science fiction writer in 1964 and ask him to write down what he envisions for the future 50 years hence. Isaac Asimov’s predictions have some uncanny accuracy and are pretty amazing.

Here’s the thing about science fiction: It’s often more about the present than the future. Unencumbered by the details of today’s world, science fiction can make audiences think about modern issues without getting bogged down with the details and prejudices that might make them less open-minded.
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but he wrote or edited more than 500 books, fiction and non-fiction alike.
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Oh hey, you write a lot of shit and eventually something about the future will be true!!!

And yeah... doesn't seem like he got much right at all, oh hey self prepared meals... gee never saw that in a cartoon or anything. 3d movies of robots? Wow he was totally the futurist!
 
Here’s the thing about science fiction: It’s often more about the present than the future. Unencumbered by the details of today’s world, science fiction can make audiences think about modern issues without getting bogged down with the details and prejudices that might make them less open-minded.
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Like Star Trek TNG < DS9 < Voyager, the same theme hashed over and over ad nauseum: girl power, minority power, and gay power not necessarily in that order! :D

Its one of the downsides of sci-fi. If you're just interested in a futuristic landscape with space ships and exploring the unknown, you'll have to bite your tongue and accept that the military will be viewed as grabasstic braindead retards, and the crew will be made up of a half-black half-vulcan, half-latina half-klingon, native-American, and female captain struggling between command and femininity reminding you that its OK to be Gay, while waffling back and forth now and then trying to decide if there isn't or is currency in the future as Star Trek can never seem to decide or bother to explain why people do crappy unrewarding jobs no one else wants to do in their socialist utopia if they can replicate everything they'd want and live as a God in a holodeck paradise.
 
BladeVenom said:
Seems like he was wrong more often than not.
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Whats interesting to me is how they massively overestimated mechanical advances, at least in everyday goods, and yet greatly underestimated information technology and computer prowess in general.

The 1960s vision of today would have us living with virtually unlimited energy with flying cars and the like, but nothing more powerful than a TI-86 computer without even the concept of how something like the internet could revolutionize the transfer of ideas and social interaction, heh.
 
Ducman69 said:
Like Star Trek TNG < DS9 < Voyager, the same theme hashed over and over ad nauseum: girl power, minority power, and gay power not necessarily in that order! :D

Its one of the downsides of sci-fi. If you're just interested in a futuristic landscape with space ships and exploring the unknown, you'll have to bite your tongue and accept that the military will be viewed as grabasstic braindead retards, and the crew will be made up of a half-black half-vulcan, half-latina half-klingon, native-American, and female captain struggling between command and femininity reminding you that its OK to be Gay, while waffling back and forth now and then trying to decide if there isn't or is currency in the future as Star Trek can never seem to decide or bother to explain why people do crappy unrewarding jobs no one else wants to do in their socialist utopia if they can replicate everything they'd want and live as a God in a holodeck paradise.
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Your rant outlining "one of the downsides of sci-fi" represents very little of the science fiction I remember. Star Trek was a TV show, and not really like much other Sci-fi from Asimov's era and beyond. Roadside picnic was the inspiration for STALKER. It's pretty bleak... as is anything that inspires Tarkovsky like Solaris. Similarly, Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama is about our likely inability to understand other intelligences. Asimov's own Foundation series was nothing like that. And Dune... come on.

I didn't feel like DS9 did much of what you wrote. TNG had some of it, but it was written in the 80's/early 90's. The TV alternative was what... Melrose Place? VOY they were just trying harder for a general audience by shoehorning in random stuff.

Kinda seems like you wanted to make that rant and crammed in sci-fi around it.
 
Ducman69 said:
Like Star Trek TNG < DS9 < Voyager, the same theme hashed over and over ad nauseum: girl power, minority power, and gay power not necessarily in that order! :D

Its one of the downsides of sci-fi. If you're just interested in a futuristic landscape with space ships and exploring the unknown, you'll have to bite your tongue and accept that the military will be viewed as grabasstic braindead retards, and the crew will be made up of a half-black half-vulcan, half-latina half-klingon, native-American, and female captain struggling between command and femininity reminding you that its OK to be Gay, while waffling back and forth now and then trying to decide if there isn't or is currency in the future as Star Trek can never seem to decide or bother to explain why people do crappy unrewarding jobs no one else wants to do in their socialist utopia if they can replicate everything they'd want and live as a God in a holodeck paradise.
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And here I thought they explain that over and over.. basically humans evolved out of that sort-sighted crap.
 
Yeah there is a lot of wrong there, more than there should be.. 1964 is not that long ago... The person writing the article must be very young to be impressed any.
 
This guy reminds me of how Arthur C. Clark helped us invent satellites and stuff. It's amazing how sci-fi writer's imaginations can become reality once the technology catches up with the dreamer's imaginations.
 
Oh cmon, like you could watch Avatar and not smell the liberal propaganda machine in full swing. The noble savage, the evil white man with his blind capitalist ambition, disorganized aggressive military forces killing for the sake of killing, and save the rainforest all portrayed by gigantic smurphs.

Just commenting that its their favorite venue, just as the quote says because the idea is that they can instill an idea in an alien environment avoiding preconceived notions. And regarding Dune, that's actually another great example, as he was trying to portray terrorists in a positive light, I mean the Islamic template for the fremen religion was pretty damn blatant IMO, and the "spice" was clearly oil.

That isn't to say that EVERY sci-fi movie steps to an obnoxiously politically correct left-wing drum beat, but its a popular genre for those types of directors for the reason specified in the quote. The older the sci-fi, the less pronounced it is, with the peak IMO right around the late 90s. The new Star Trek movies for example I didn't find were politically charged at all, so I think people are finally getting tired of it... compared to the old "save the wales" Star Trek, LMAO!
 
Uvaman said:
And here I thought they explain that over and over.. basically humans evolved out of that sort-sighted crap.
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You're absolutely right, they do. :)

They do explain it over and over... and over and over, that's my complaint. Every other episode has the same theme hammered home ad nauseum.

I'm a capitalist too, but that doesn't mean that I enjoy watching cold war propaganda films about the evils of socialist Russia until my nose bleeds. Most people I don't think pay enough attention to connect the dots, but perhaps that's the idea is that it can subliminally affect the public if repeated enough (and/or they're just uncreative, heh). After all, the marketers clearly buy in to that logic trying their best to push their products on screen these days... you may only see the soft drink or cell phone or car for a few seconds, but if its associated with a positive experience, you may be more receptive to it when you see it in a showroom/store. ;)
 
Ducman69 said:
Like Star Trek TNG < DS9 < Voyager, the same theme hashed over and over ad nauseum: girl power, minority power, and gay power not necessarily in that order! :D

Its one of the downsides of sci-fi. If you're just interested in a futuristic landscape with space ships and exploring the unknown, you'll have to bite your tongue and accept that the military will be viewed as grabasstic braindead retards, and the crew will be made up of a half-black half-vulcan, half-latina half-klingon, native-American, and female captain struggling between command and femininity reminding you that its OK to be Gay, while waffling back and forth now and then trying to decide if there isn't or is currency in the future as Star Trek can never seem to decide or bother to explain why people do crappy unrewarding jobs no one else wants to do in their socialist utopia if they can replicate everything they'd want and live as a God in a holodeck paradise.
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I hear ya. As PC as things have become, you're probably as far off as some would believe. I can see this happening if we actually make it that far without PCing ourselves into oblivion.
 
"what’s with all the dreams of people living in windowless caves of steel? It makes us SAD. "

Hehehe

It's interesting the intense dislike some ethnic groups have of nature
 
Ducman69 said:
Whats interesting to me is how they massively overestimated mechanical advances, at least in everyday goods, and yet greatly underestimated information technology and computer prowess in general.

The 1960s vision of today would have us living with virtually unlimited energy with flying cars and the like, but nothing more powerful than a TI-86 computer without even the concept of how something like the internet could revolutionize the transfer of ideas and social interaction, heh.
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That's not too surprising. The 1960's were all about mechanical advancements - space rockets, moon landings, massive apartment blocks a la Corbusier built by machines etc. Computers were just clunky scientific tools. Computers entered scifi in the late 70's and by the early 90's it was all about genetic engineering...
 
And Orson Scott Card wrote the short story "Ender's Game" in 77, then expanded it to a full book in 85.
The children played games and did their school work on touchscreen tablets.
The internet was the primary source of data sharing, communication, breaking news, forums were used to further idealism and gain political backing....
Population control was a big issue.

You can really look at any work any scifi author has done and point out so many things they've gotten right to this point.
But as far as scifi guys go, Card is the only one I've ever read that really went into the importance of the net in society as such a large part of our lives.
 
Ducman69 said:
Like Star Trek TNG < DS9 < Voyager, the same theme hashed over and over ad nauseum: girl power, minority power, and gay power not necessarily in that order! :D

Its one of the downsides of sci-fi. If you're just interested in a futuristic landscape with space ships and exploring the unknown, you'll have to bite your tongue and accept that the military will be viewed as grabasstic braindead retards, and the crew will be made up of a half-black half-vulcan, half-latina half-klingon, native-American, and female captain struggling between command and femininity reminding you that its OK to be Gay, while waffling back and forth now and then trying to decide if there isn't or is currency in the future as Star Trek can never seem to decide or bother to explain why people do crappy unrewarding jobs no one else wants to do in their socialist utopia if they can replicate everything they'd want and live as a God in a holodeck paradise.
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What you describe has equivalencies in todays world and Star Trek had 'Latinum' and 'Credits'
 
BBA said:
What you describe has equivalencies in todays world and Star Trek had 'Latinum' and 'Credits'
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Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't. From Kirk to Picard, they have said that money does exist and that money doesn't exist in the future multiple times. Sometimes gold is valuable, sometimes gold is a worthless metal. Star Trek writers like to praise socialism and communism, but in the end could never figure out how the economy would work without currency and so fell back on latinum and credits. Its quite comical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkLxFLOW9ew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MUVGTdXkzk
 
Ducman69 said:
Oh cmon, like you could watch Avatar and not smell the liberal propaganda machine in full swing. The noble savage, the evil white man with his blind capitalist ambition, disorganized aggressive military forces killing for the sake of killing, and save the rainforest all portrayed by gigantic smurphs.
That isn't to say that EVERY sci-fi movie steps to an obnoxiously politically correct left-wing drum beat, but its a popular genre for those types of directors for the reason specified in the quote.
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Great description of Avatar :)

The leftist slant to most modern sci-fi movies has gotten so bad, it ruins most the movie. Stargate Universe is prime example of a series that was destroyed by all the left PC being shoveled into the scripts.
 
nutzo said:
Great description of Avatar :)

The leftist slant to most modern sci-fi movies has gotten so bad, it ruins most the movie. Stargate Universe is prime example of a series that was destroyed by all the left PC being shoveled into the scripts.
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Wow... .just fucking wow... whenever something doesn't work it's always the lefts fault!

How about Stargate Universe was destroyed because it had a lot of show time that was boring as all fuck due to how slow it ran.
 
Well actually it did have a lame effeminate stuff which no doubt contributed to its boring

It was obviously trying to mirror Battlestar reboot's critical success. However, Battlestar was lame as hell, whereas SG:1 had been going on 10 years. They just got old

Today's media and culture are completely left dominated. The right is reeling and retreating on all fronts. So if the media approved of Battlestar, Battlestar is left approved. If SG:U is emulating Battlestar, SG:U is left skewed

And yes, boring as all fuck
 
I'm always disappointed we don't have the dish-washing and hospital robots as predicted in Heinlein's The Door Into Summer. The concept of a drafting robot is funny since we got CAD instead.

Asimov himself never expected computers to go where they did... he ret-conned them into the later Foundation books and "hoped nobody noticed" (or something like that).
 
Whatever. I haven't seen any androids walking around or taking over giant, interstellar empires. Right now, the robots we have would even kinda mess up the basics like hugging a cat or making pancakes from scratch for me.
 
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