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not a model question but more of a scifi buff question

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not a model question but more of a scifi buff question
Posted by DURR on Saturday, September 3, 2005 1:27 PM
how much do you think past scifi has contributed to real life
examples please [#offtopic
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Posted by DanCooper on Saturday, September 3, 2005 3:38 PM
I read once that the guy who came up with the mechanisme for automatic sliding doors, got the idea by watching Star Trek.
And another article I read a couple of years ago, or it may have even been in a documentary on TV was about scientist who 'invented' the photon engine (soon to be tested in a sattelite, or maybe even already in use) also got the idea from the same series.

So... maybe next : Beam me up, Scotty ???

On the bench : Revell's 1/125 RV Calypso

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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 4, 2005 8:48 AM
Not to mention our cell phones that flip open like communicators.
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 4, 2005 12:09 PM
The artificial satellite used for communications relay, by Isaac Asimov. He also invented what may be interpreted as the internet search engine. 'Multivac' access stations were available to all in several of his stories, to be used in the same way we use Google etc. Multivac being a mega supercomputer.
If you go back far enough you'll find televisions, mobile phones, camera phones, flying cars, VTOL aircraft, the list is endless.
It seems that if a writer can think of something, eventually it will be invented.
One interesting story I remember involved a group of engineers being shown a film of a man using an anti gravity back pack, they were then told a rival country had invented it, could they match it? Well they did, only to find out that the film had been a fake!
Pete
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Posted by davros on Sunday, September 4, 2005 1:44 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by albertsponson

The artificial satellite used for communications relay, by Isaac Asimov.


Wasn't it Arthur C. Clarke that first proposed that?
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  • From: México
Posted by SteelSnail on Sunday, September 4, 2005 2:58 PM
From: http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/robotics/universal/
"The word robot comes from the Czech word robota, meaning drudgery or slave-like labor. It was first used to describe fabricated workers in a fictional 1920s play by Czech author Karel Capek called Rossum’s Universal Robots. In the story, a scientist invents robots to help people by performing simple, repetitive tasks..."
Maybe today's industrial robotic arms wouldn't exist without this play and Asimov's work.
Although they aren't automated the UAV are a good example of Sci-fi to real life.
Does some one know if the rail-gun idea comes from Sci-fi?
I think it has to be useful first of all. What good is an anti-matter weapon if it's least effective than an assault rifle?
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  • From: Washington State
Posted by leemitcheltree on Monday, September 5, 2005 10:00 AM
Hey - has anyone read anything by a guy named Vules Verne?
The Nautilus was powered by a nuclear reactor, he prophesied the SCUBA concept and many other incredibly far-fetched and fantastic ideas (for the time) that we see and experience everyday in our lives.
There are some in our scociety (Verne, Asimov, Bradbury, Dick and about a thousand others) that just don't think the same way we do......man, they're OUT THERE........and I'm glad they are.

Cheers, LeeTree
Remember, Safety Fast!!!

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Posted by cmtaylor on Monday, September 5, 2005 1:23 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by davros

QUOTE: Originally posted by albertsponson

The artificial satellite used for communications relay, by Isaac Asimov.


Wasn't it Arthur C. Clarke that first proposed that?


Yes, in 'Wireless World' in about 1947
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here; this is the WAR ROOM!
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, September 5, 2005 2:12 PM
Well, sci-fi spawned something that might happened. The Arthur C. book Rama and Rama II and III possibly suggested that "orbiting world" space station that many NASA nerds have fantasies of today.My 2 cents [2c]
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Posted by Prince of Styrene II on Monday, September 5, 2005 5:29 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by DanCooper

So... maybe next : Beam me up, Scotty ???

Hate to break it to you, but transporters exist. Now. They've already transported an atom.

"Hold the weapons, Daddy. I'm going to go get my monkeys." The Dutchess of Styrene

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, September 5, 2005 8:45 PM
I'll throw in another book. "Fahrenheit 451" written by Ray Bradbury in the 1950s. Many of the ideas in that book are now things today.
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, September 5, 2005 9:17 PM
Microwave oven. In old books they have an "instant breakfast"....... kinda like a Chimi Changa in a microwave. Only that takes a minute. Damn technology.
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, September 8, 2005 3:45 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by Prince of Styrene II

QUOTE: Originally posted by DanCooper

So... maybe next : Beam me up, Scotty ???

Hate to break it to you, but transporters exist. Now. They've already transported an atom.


Yeah,I read an article on that awhile back.Dont think I'de want to try it out though no matter how advanced they get with it in the future.Thats something our generation might be leary of at the present but a few generations from now it might be the norm.Who knows?
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, September 8, 2005 11:35 PM
Oops, of course it was Arthur C Clarke. The rail gun, I've read of it being used to launch ships from the moon in a couple of stories. There are also references to hand held 'needlers' in stories. These guns shoot a group of very small projectiles by some sort of electomagnetic force, I presume. You could also shoot a 'slug' how to power the thing is another matter.
Pete
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  • From: Utereg
Posted by Borg R3-MC0 on Friday, September 9, 2005 4:46 AM
How about lasers, they are in "all" the sci fi books, where they are used as weapons, I think this inspired to use them as such in real live as well (fot instance the airbore laser by Boeing)

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 1:15 AM
Well, there have been all sort of theoretical contributions. In addition to what was mentioned for Verne, as early as 1873 he also postulated electric clocks, electric lighting, electric heating elements and stoves, wetsuits, and submarine warfare. HG Wells in 1899 (in When the Sleeper Awakes) proposed automatic doors, TV (portable sets at that), air condtioning, Video recording, air warfare-including bombing and dogfighting. Hugo Gernsback came up with solar energy cells, synthetic fibers, geothermal power generation, voiceprint ID (Ralph124C41+ published in 1925).
As far as actual inventions, Robert Heinlein described waterbeds and mechanical waldos (in the short story Waldo) in enough detail that folks actually went out and built them (in another story he described what we've come to call "dirty bombs" hope no one builds one of them). I'm sure there's more.

Al
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Posted by forbiddenplastic on Thursday, September 15, 2005 10:25 AM
I think pretty much all of our real-world constructs started with someone's inspired creativity. Nothing advances our technology, medicine, and understanding of ourselves as much as our ability to dream and to build on that dream. Star Trek is just one product of that ability. Nobody just gets up one day and decides to build the Pyramids, or invent the laser, or invent cane sugar. There's always a creative "leap" and a willingness to explore the unknown that drives the fantasy and to discover the answers to all those "What if" questions.
Model On!
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Posted by TommyHawk on Thursday, September 15, 2005 11:33 AM
I read a book in 4th grade ('84 or so), that talked all about shopping electronically. People would scroll through screens of different products, reading and comparing info about each, etc. At one point the parents in the story physically went down to a bike shop to look at and pick out a bike for their son, "just for fun, just like in the old days", and the store employees couldn't believe it.

Voila - the internet!
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Posted by overkillphil on Thursday, September 15, 2005 3:35 PM
I remember reading a book in 2nd or 3rd grade about a kid who was bugging his dad for a robotic/android buddy. Dad said he couldn't afford it because he needed a car phone to run his business. In this reality a walking talking quasi sentient android cost as much as a car phone. That's not what I'd call good visionary sci-fi.
my favorite headache/current project: 1/48 Panda F-35 "I love the fact that dumb people don't know who they are. I hope I'm not one of them" -Scott Adams
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Posted by Wolfp on Thursday, September 15, 2005 6:57 PM
I was reading in a naval periodical that railguns are on the way, they finally figured out how to reduce the size of the capacitors to support the weapons system and they are to be mounted on surface ships. Chugs like 200 gal of gas per shot though. Once production begins, its only a matter of time until its reduced to hand held size if there is a requirement. Of course, its going to suck carrying around the 20 gal gas tank on your back, not to mention legs lined with batteries, and capacitors under your arm pits. Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

J.B. http://photobucket.com/albums/a303/jbrunyon/

    

On the Bench: !/350 TOS Enterprise; 1/72 Tie Interceptor

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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 16, 2005 10:01 PM
Yeah....electronic shopping.... sounds like eBay to me!
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 7:39 PM
read an article in a local paper that said a group of scientists would have a working medical tricorder in the next 5 to 10 years. thanks Bones
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  • From: Perth, Western Australia
Posted by madmike on Monday, September 26, 2005 12:20 AM
They are considering installing railguns into the next generation of tanks, bit of work to do to make them of appropriate size though.

Computers perhaps? Not 50 years ago, SF hero's (EE Doc Smith's stories amongst others) were still using slide rules.

Scientists have also developed nano-robots
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." - Galileo Galilei
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  • From: phoenix
Posted by grandadjohn on Monday, September 26, 2005 10:26 AM
The Phaser of "Star Trek" fame have been developed and early versions are being field-tested in Iraq
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  • From: Rowland Heights, California
Posted by Duke Maddog on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 3:10 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by grandadjohn

The Phaser of "Star Trek" fame have been developed and early versions are being field-tested in Iraq


Is that for real? I'd like to see pics of that!
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  • From: phoenix
Posted by grandadjohn on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 8:30 PM
Haven't found pictures, but read it in the newspaper, it is not a small device yet and is only capable of incapacitating an individual by making is skin "hot"
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Posted by Duke Maddog on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 12:11 PM
Wow, I'll have to be watching for mopre news on that. Man,Tomorrow has arrived!

Now if we could get artificial gravity and faster than light engines; I'd love to go visit Mars before I die!
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  • From: phoenix
Posted by grandadjohn on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 6:39 PM
Me too(saw a special on PBS were they are starting to develop matter/anti-mattter engines), in the mean time if I find anything else I will post it
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