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I love old sci-fi

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  • cruxifux@feddit.nlC [email protected]

    Naomi Klein wrote about how older sci fi was so optimistic and how she thinks the current trend of depressing dystopian sci fi is bad for society, which was an interesting take I thought.

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    wrote last edited by
    #53

    Herzog said 'we are running out if images' and that shit's real.

    Both are saying the fire of our imaginations is dead, and strongly implying that we have forgotten how to even hope.

    And, like... We have. We have forgotten how to imagine better, to want better, to build a tomorrow, because tomorrow is on the far side on this raging river of blood that is rapidly flooding, and the time we could have built a bridge is so very long past.

    And proposing we switch the terror from white to red for five seconds is a thing you're not allowed to say.

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    • T [email protected]

      But their computers are still the size of a room and everyone smokes

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      wrote last edited by
      #54

      Everyone still smokes. Our computers are the size of an apartment block; they make you not xall customer service and have wild new mental illness instead.

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      • G [email protected]

        I agree.

        you can see it in stories as simple as Star trek.

        the after TNG it was about world building and character development.

        then the reboot movie happened and it was about booms, zooms, and dooms after that.

        the only thing that was remotely similar was season 2 of Picard. I haven't watched 3 yet so IDK about it.

        discovery is(and I mean this in the most platonic way), common TV garbage. I get the same feeling from it as I get from any other modern "syfy" show.

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        wrote last edited by [email protected]
        #55

        What about SNW?

        The vibe I'm getting is "we're eager and optimistic, but also, things get bad, the larger landscape is kinda bad and we are trying to hold straight faces?"

        It feels very 2020s.

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        • D [email protected]

          The people writing science fiction were trying to make a living.

          They wrote for magazines and TV shows that depended on advertising. A bunch of midcentury advertisers weren't going to have a Black wom,an President.

          Another thing to consider is how much change you can put into a story and still expect the average reader to keep up.

          There was an article about an early Star Trek episode. One scene involved a couple of lines about a salt shaker. The production team went out and brought a bunch of wild looking salt shakers. [1960's, remember?] None of the 'futuristic' looking salt shakers was any good for the scene, because they realized the TV audience wouldn't understand what that funny looking thing was. In the end they used an ordinary looking shaker.

          thebat@lemmy.worldT This user is from outside of this forum
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          wrote last edited by
          #56

          A bunch of midcentury advertisers weren't going to have a Black wom,an President.

          And neither did 21st century American voters.

          Ba-dum tssssss

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          • C [email protected]
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            wrote last edited by
            #57

            FOC: Robots...

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXhYgprPB9o

            C'mon sucker lick my battery!

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            • C [email protected]
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              wrote last edited by
              #58

              I mean... the one first 1950s sci-fi story I ever read as a kid was The Sound of Thunder. It is and will always be the first thing I think about when it comes to 50s sci-fi. And that story isn't exactly happy or optimistic about humanity fucking around with tech and time, lol.

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                wrote last edited by
                #59

                The more I learn about our modern age, the more I start to feel that the premise of the Matrix isn't such a bad deal at all. Normally, we should be there by now, the machine war ended decades ago.

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                • cruxifux@feddit.nlC [email protected]

                  Naomi Klein wrote about how older sci fi was so optimistic and how she thinks the current trend of depressing dystopian sci fi is bad for society, which was an interesting take I thought.

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                  wrote last edited by
                  #60

                  I think she's right. There is certainly a space in fiction for depressing dystopias, but personally, I think that it is also important to make space for hopeful stories about the future. Else it's just too dark. Our news are depressing, our lives are depressing. Our fiction is depressing. If there isn't much positive stuff to look forward to, then what's the point? In the 1930s, 40s and 50s where war and crisis and recovery was on the menu, fiction tended to be more comforting and hopeful.

                  That's why Disney's Snow White was such a massive success in 1937. It gave people a break from their lives and allowed them to dream themselves away to a different world where everything was a bit simpler, where the downtrodden, yet hardworking and kind herione is rewarded for her efforts in the end. Many people may nor have had that happy ending themselves, but it must have given them some hope to watch a film about someone just like them who managed to pull through in the end and have her worth validated.

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                  • T [email protected]

                    But their computers are still the size of a room and everyone smokes

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                    wrote last edited by
                    #61

                    Our phones are just screens wirelessly attached to computers the size of buildings now. If Altman and Nvidia get their way data centers be the size of sport stadiums by next year.

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                      wrote last edited by
                      #62

                      People are confusing optimism with naiveté. The old sci-fi assumed the rate of progress with be constant or even accelerate. They saw people got to space and moon in what? 20 years? So they thought we will get to Mars by the end of century and beyond our solar system some time after that. They didn't predict the end of Cold War and massive disinvestment from space exploration. But there were plenty of pessimistic takes on the future. In Bladerunner all the animals are dead, in Alien everything is run by evil corporations, in Battlestar Galactica everyone dies, in Star Wars whole worlds are destroyed, apocalyptic visions are common. Getting the dates wrong is not the same as being optimistic.

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                      • B [email protected]

                        Now recontextualize this using modern sci-fi that looks toward multiple centuries from now. Star Trek's egalitarian socialist utopia would never come to pass and the most likely future is that of Frank Herbert's Dune, where nearly 8,000 years from now we have a galactic feudal society where the ultra wealthy fight for control over limited resources while using religion to manipulate the poor into being their cannon fodder.

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                        wrote last edited by
                        #63

                        Foundation is also a sort of techno feudal society.

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                        • A [email protected]

                          Our phones are just screens wirelessly attached to computers the size of buildings now. If Altman and Nvidia get their way data centers be the size of sport stadiums by next year.

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                          wrote last edited by [email protected]
                          #64

                          Hey, my phone can do a lot just being the size of a phone. Running games, reading, voice synthesis and recognition, image and text generation, etc

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                          • E [email protected]

                            People are confusing optimism with naiveté. The old sci-fi assumed the rate of progress with be constant or even accelerate. They saw people got to space and moon in what? 20 years? So they thought we will get to Mars by the end of century and beyond our solar system some time after that. They didn't predict the end of Cold War and massive disinvestment from space exploration. But there were plenty of pessimistic takes on the future. In Bladerunner all the animals are dead, in Alien everything is run by evil corporations, in Battlestar Galactica everyone dies, in Star Wars whole worlds are destroyed, apocalyptic visions are common. Getting the dates wrong is not the same as being optimistic.

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                            wrote last edited by
                            #65

                            The old sci-fi assumed the rate of progress with be constant or even accelerate.

                            https://xkcd.com/893/

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                              wrote last edited by
                              #66

                              Meanwhile, Asimov: We'll have robots that will help us accomplish crazy shit but stupid zealots will keep whining about it and holding them back

                              This is in no way relevant to anything that's happening today.

                              iavicenna@lemmy.worldI D 2 Replies Last reply
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                              • E [email protected]

                                People are confusing optimism with naiveté. The old sci-fi assumed the rate of progress with be constant or even accelerate. They saw people got to space and moon in what? 20 years? So they thought we will get to Mars by the end of century and beyond our solar system some time after that. They didn't predict the end of Cold War and massive disinvestment from space exploration. But there were plenty of pessimistic takes on the future. In Bladerunner all the animals are dead, in Alien everything is run by evil corporations, in Battlestar Galactica everyone dies, in Star Wars whole worlds are destroyed, apocalyptic visions are common. Getting the dates wrong is not the same as being optimistic.

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                                wrote last edited by
                                #67

                                never watched the original series but if you're talking about the reimagined series BSG technically doesn't belong in the list. don't want to spoil why.

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                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #68

                                  as a kid i was so convinced, near the end of 90s i thought "maybe there are huge advancements made but they're saving it for the year 2000 so it'll be bombastic like people have expected."

                                  instead we got fucking segway lol

                                  A underpantsweevil@lemmy.worldU 2 Replies Last reply
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                                  • P [email protected]

                                    never watched the original series but if you're talking about the reimagined series BSG technically doesn't belong in the list. don't want to spoil why.

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                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #69

                                    I also never watched original BSG but I assumed the part about aliens blowing up everything and the war with robots in general was still there.

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                                    • E [email protected]

                                      I also never watched original BSG but I assumed the part about aliens blowing up everything and the war with robots in general was still there.

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                                      wrote last edited by [email protected]
                                      #70

                                      yeah but that's not the relevant part. the list is about pessimistic takes on the future.

                                      also star wars takes place a long time ago so technically that doesn't belong either

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                                      • B [email protected]

                                        What about SNW?

                                        The vibe I'm getting is "we're eager and optimistic, but also, things get bad, the larger landscape is kinda bad and we are trying to hold straight faces?"

                                        It feels very 2020s.

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                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #71

                                        I haven't seen SNW, from what I've seen(clips/reviews) it's probably the most spirited successor to fit todays viewers.

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                                        • S [email protected]

                                          Meanwhile, Asimov: We'll have robots that will help us accomplish crazy shit but stupid zealots will keep whining about it and holding them back

                                          This is in no way relevant to anything that's happening today.

                                          iavicenna@lemmy.worldI This user is from outside of this forum
                                          iavicenna@lemmy.worldI This user is from outside of this forum
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                                          wrote last edited by [email protected]
                                          #72

                                          now take that and replace "robots" with "shareholders". perspective of every single big shareholder today.

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