I love old sci-fi
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And the heroes were scientists
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Three Mile Island was a near melt down years before Chernobyl.
And it's a shame that we became scared of one of the greatest technologies we ever created.
Nuclear accidents have killed using the most extreme number 45,000 people. Directly meltdowns have killed less than 100. The middle ground estimates average out around 5,000, but let's give the most extreme number possible for the sake of the argument. These numbers are including projected cancer rates.
Cars annually kill 1.19 million people in comparison.
Even if you were to add nuclear weapon usage to the numbers you'd still barely be close to these numbers. Plus every time there's been an nuclear accident new technologies and safe guards are deployed. 40,000 of that estimated/projected death toll is from Chernobyl.
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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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One of my favourites.
What's this from?
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And it's a shame that we became scared of one of the greatest technologies we ever created.
Nuclear accidents have killed using the most extreme number 45,000 people. Directly meltdowns have killed less than 100. The middle ground estimates average out around 5,000, but let's give the most extreme number possible for the sake of the argument. These numbers are including projected cancer rates.
Cars annually kill 1.19 million people in comparison.
Even if you were to add nuclear weapon usage to the numbers you'd still barely be close to these numbers. Plus every time there's been an nuclear accident new technologies and safe guards are deployed. 40,000 of that estimated/projected death toll is from Chernobyl.
Nuclear energy was subsidized to make atom bombs seem less threatening.
If we'd spent as much on renewables and improving the power grid we'd have been off the fossil fuel addiction years ago.
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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.
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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Three Mile Island was a near melt down years before Chernobyl.
Yes I remember when it happened. It too eroded trust, but in our own country.
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Old sci-fi be like
We've discovered a technology that explores the fundamental truths of human nature, gaze into the black mirror and reflect upon your modern folly.
...Also all the scientists are straight white men and we invented new ways for our women to cook dinner.
Edit: To be clear, old sci-fi is genuinely great. Merely pointing out the funny juxtaposition of nerdy white guys not fathoming any social change in their generally progressive and thought provoking works.
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.
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But their computers are still the size of a room and everyone smokes
Well, we have lots of building-sized computers out there right now.
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What's this from?
"Journey to the Moon", I believe - a silent movie from the 20s (?).
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What's this from?
A trip to the moon. 1902
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PK Dick: Everything's been nuked and there are feral psychics roaming the wasteland stealing people's emotions.
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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.
And then they repurposed the weird-looking salt shakers as medical instruments.
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"Journey to the Moon", I believe - a silent movie from the 20s (?).
It’s the 20s right now. Need the 19-
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It's the future we could have had; if line didn't have to go up.
wrote last edited by [email protected]But line has to go up.
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Me too. My dream home would be inspired by Forbidden Planet
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The year is 2025
And humanity is once again trying to reinvent the wheel -
Nuclear energy was subsidized to make atom bombs seem less threatening.
If we'd spent as much on renewables and improving the power grid we'd have been off the fossil fuel addiction years ago.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Nuclear energy is both sustainable and safe. It was given a bad reputation by the fossil fuel industry to keep us buying oil.
Well here we are. We could have eliminated the vast majority of fossil fuel use by the 1960s when solar and wind energy were in their infancy.
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Even Superman had hover taxis by 1990.
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The year is 2025
And humanity is once again trying to reinvent the wheelAnd failing, but we can't use the old obes anymore. Maintaning them is a crime. So we just gave to roll around on little cubes listening to the axles creak until that heavy smack...
