What's your favorite science fiction device (that isn't a weapon)?

[Avianmosquito]

The title says it all. Come here and gush over fictional technology, but make sure to explain exactly why you like it. What makes it work? Is it practical? If so, why and how?

(I think those familiar with me can already (https://68.media.tumblr.com/29b1e180d28340536e061f1b9158736f/tumblr_od0m35eReH1rr75cno1_500.gif) guess (http://img07.deviantart.net/f30c/i/2013/136/8/2/dbz_scouter_by_johnpow66-d65gs8v.jpg) my (https://68.media.tumblr.com/1c6270209433a362f1aa782dbd86ba5b/tumblr_no18zxcX9D1tu0hbzo1_500.gif) answer (http://orig06.deviantart.net/5686/f/2015/118/f/9/f90849956fc10731b322e2a961db57a2-d8ret0n.png), scouters (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTLP02SEYsLtHbMZrYOWMF3QyNwqgB2L vhSr1YESCxUE9IA4Fo8) are (https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1151/images/10566-1-1457035354.jpg) awesome (https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1151/images/10566-0-1457428366.png). Even though they NEVER work in DBZ.)

[Mastikator]

Any kind of FTL propulsion, it opens up the universe to humanity.

A close second is the jetpack, because flying.

[S@tanicoaldo]

https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.151609095.9352/flat,800x800,075,f.u2.jpg

[Jay R]

I asked my wife, and she instantly held up her i-phone, saying, "This is a Star Trek communicator, a tri-corder, a locater, a mapping device, and they are probably figuring out a way to make it a medical scanner as well."

But for me, there is no question. Apollo 11. The younger readers will probably think I'm joking, but I'm not. When I watched it take off, and then saw the Lunar Module land on the moon, science fiction came true. I walked outside and looked up at an inhabited world. No other science fiction moment has ever affected me like that.

[Lord Joeltion]

Well, being an Aasimov fan, I'd have to say the coolest thing we could have would be a Multivac. The pinnacle of technology is for me the Ultimate Super-AI, with universal-scale Internet included. FTL communication, perfect recording of every event of everything in the universe at the same time... the possibilities are greater than infinite. If I could fuse myself with Multivac, I certainly would too.

Now that you brought it up, I always thought the coolest thing in DB were the poi-poi capsules. I wouldn't mind having to carry around my PC instead of my smartphone; as long as I can transport it (and so much more) inside by pocket. I would get rid of backpacks and getting the benefit to carry most of my stuff around in the process. That would certainly improve my quality of life by a >9000%.

PS: If we are talking about colonizing space, I think gravity projectors would present themselves much more useful in the short and long run than FTL travel itself.

[Rynjin]

Dragonball's Capsules.

Need to move house? LITERALLY move your house by putting it in your pocket and setting it down somewhere new. Never haul anything big or heavy again. No need to worry about parking, either.

Way cooler than Scouters.

Honorable mention goes to the Portal Gun from Portal.

[BWR]

I think I'd have to go for the TARDIS. I used to love the sonic screwdriver as well but it has become so corrupted in nuWho that it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. The TARDIS hasn't fared as poorly, though it has taken a battering.

[The Succubus]

Any kind of big red glowing button with a skull on it that sets off loud sirens when you push it. Only good things can happen from such a button.

[AMFV]

Definitely a replicator. Although to be fair conceptually it creates a lot of problems with exactly how the Star Trek universe works. But outside of that in terms of real world utility it's probably the single most significant thing that could ever be invented.

[Goodkill]

the Enterprise complete with captain picard and crew

[Avianmosquito]

I asked my wife, and she instantly held up her i-phone, saying, "This is a Star Trek communicator, a tri-corder, a locater, a mapping device, and they are probably figuring out a way to make it a medical scanner as well."

But for me, there is no question. Apollo 11. The younger readers will probably think I'm joking, but I'm not. When I watched it take off, and then saw the Lunar Module land on the moon, science fiction came true. I walked outside and looked up at an inhabited world. No other science fiction moment has ever affected me like that.

Those are both real, they don't count.


Dragonball's Capsules.

Need to move house? LITERALLY move your house by putting it in your pocket and setting it down somewhere new. Never haul anything big or heavy again. No need to worry about parking, either.

Way cooler than Scouters.

Honorable mention goes to the Portal Gun from Portal.

See, I considered those as well, but the thing that makes scouters a better choice in my opinion is that they fit in perfectly in other settings with minimal adjustment. The capsules simply don't fit in most settings and there's a lot of unanswered questions about them (IE: Where does the stuff go when you've collapsed the capsule, and what would happen if you were inside something when the capsule was collapsed?). Scouters don't have either issue. You could import a scouter to any other science fiction setting regardless of tone with minimal adjustment, which is why I showed a couple scouters moved into a Fallout 4 mod where they still fit in, look great and fill a functional role not too different from their original purpose. (Actually, the scouters are REALLY valuable in that mod, I only use them for two of their four abilities and they are a game changer.)


the Enterprise complete with captain picard and crew

Weapon.

[AMFV]

Those are both real, they don't count.

Well since he was alive prior to their existence, I would say they definitely count. It's a real world realization of an idea that had only existed in science fiction. There's nothing that would count more than that.



Weapon.

Not the whole thing, in fact I think the Enterprise has done more to de-escalate various conflicts than it has engaged in them. I mean technically almost any tech could be used as a weapon, so you're limiting things pretty heavily if you make that argument.

[Knaight]

It depends on how one defines science fiction - the softer it gets, the more ridiculously cool stuff shows up. Here's a scale, with the ends bolded
Fantasy in Space
Replicators, and matter energy conversion in general.
Medical broth (anything involving basically being able to dump people with any medical issue in a tube and have them come out cured).
Tractor beams.
Terraforming tools.
Space elevator.
Biological prosthetics (nerve splicing, growing limbs from cell cultures, that sort of thing, mostly to replace missing limbs).
Powered exo skeletons (for medical and industrial purposes, powered armor is basically a weapon).
Optimistic Engineering Paper in a Real World Journal

[Potato_Priest]

In Schlock mercenary, many ships have fabricators- machines capable of generating most varieties of matter using only huge amounts of energy. I've gotta say that those are probably my favorite.


Not the whole thing, in fact I think the Enterprise has done more to de-escalate various conflicts than it has engaged in them. I mean technically almost any tech could be used as a weapon, so you're limiting things pretty heavily if you make that argument.

Indeed. In fact, Maxim 24 of the 70 Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries (http://schlockmercenary.wikia.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenar ies) (from the comic I was just talking about) has a quote related to this:


Maxim 24: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a big gun.

[Bohandas]

Does it have to be a device? Can it just be a technology?

Dr.Moreau surgery

[2D8HP]

The Time Machine from the .G. Wells novella The Time Machine (I'm pretty sure that I enencountered the "Classic Comics" and Pal movie version first).

I suppose that it really counts as fantasy, but Wells called it "A Scientific Romance" so let's pretend it's science fiction.

Even better would be the Time Belt from David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself.

[Nightcanon]

I asked my wife, and she instantly held up her i-phone, saying, "This is a Star Trek communicator, a tri-corder, a locater, a mapping device, and they are probably figuring out a way to make it a medical scanner as well."

You'll be pleased to know that it is possible to remotely assess cardiac function using a miniature ultrasound transducer that links to an iPhone and measures the carotid waveform.

[Jay R]

Those are both real, they don't count.

Oh, it doesn't count if it's currently real?

OK, then:
My birth until July 15, 1969: Moon rocket. That was the coolest science fiction idea ever!
June 16, 1969 - December 19, 1972: Who cares? Real life is more science-fictional that science fiction.
December 20, 1972 - present: Apollo 11.

[danzibr]

I was reading these posts and I thought hey, nobody's mentioned time machines. Then BWR said TARDIS. Then...

The Time Machine from the .G. Wells novella The Time Machine (I'm pretty sure that I enencountered the "Classic Comics" and Pal movie version first).

I suppose that it really counts as fantasy, but Wells called it "A Scientific Romance" so let's pretend it's science fiction.

Even better would be the Time Belt from David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself.
Yup, I was beaten to it.

[2D8HP]

Apollo 11.


Fun fact: All Lost in Space and Star Trek episodes (the main shows I watched as a kid) were broadcast before the Moon Landing.

Even though I was alive during the Lunar missions, my parents didn't get a TV until thr Watergate hearings so I never got to watch any of it. When I would get up early to watch the Shuttle launches and landings, my Dad would ask me "What's the big deal, it just looks like an airplane?" He just couldn't see the magic in it.

:frown:

As a child I was very interested in Science Fiction and Space Travel (I had more future then!).

By the late 1970's and afterwards in California new books seldom were purchased for school libraries, but they were lots of books from the '60's and early '70's which I devoured, that detailing the moon landings, the Viking mission (how I starred at pictures of red rocks under a pink sky!), and NASA's plans for the space shuttle and lunar bases, and in reading the old books I realized something. The future was behind schedule!

The space shuttle did eventually fly (later than planned), but the lunar bases? Never. Going to Mars was "twenty years from now" when I was a child, and forty years on, it's still "twenty years from now".

There was "Star Trek", (23rd Century!) and "Lost in Space" (1999!) on television, and it was easy to be excited by a "bright future". I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up!
But increasingly in the 1970's and definitely in the '80's the "future" became bleak (Cyberpunk etc.).

Perhaps because I personally have less future left, but I read Fantasy now, and I seldom read Science Fiction anymore, and increasingly on the "sci-fi" shelves, there's "alternate history", and stories that take place in "visions of the future" from the past (Steampunk, Dieselpunk, and Raygun Gothic), rather than stories that take place in "the future".

I miss "the future".

[Mitth'raw'nuruo]

Gap Drive v

[Scarlet Knight]

George Jetson's flying saucer that folded into a brief case.

[Peelee]

Fun fact: All Lost in Space and Star Trek episodes (the main shows I watched as a kid) were broadcast before the Moon Landing.

Even though I was alive during the Lunar missions, my parents didn't get a TV until thr Watergate hearings so I never got to watch any of it. When I would get up early to watch the Shuttle launches and landings, my Dad would ask me "What's the big deal, it just looks like an airplane?" He just couldn't see the magic in it.

:frown:

As a child I was very interested in Science Fiction and Space Travel (I had more future then!).

By the late 1970's and afterwards in California new books seldom were purchased for school libraries, but they were lots of books from the '60's and early '70's which I devoured, that detailing the moon landings, the Viking mission (how I starred at pictures of red rocks under a pink sky!), and NASA's plans for the space shuttle and lunar bases, and in reading the old books I realized something. The future was behind schedule!

The space shuttle did eventually fly (later than planned), but the lunar bases? Never. Going to Mars was "twenty years from now" when I was a child, and forty years on, it's still "twenty years from now".

There was "Star Trek", (23rd Century!) and "Lost in Space" (1999!) on television, and it was easy to be excited by a "bright future". I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up!
But increasingly in the 1970's and definitely in the '80's the "future" became bleak (Cyberpunk etc.).

Perhaps because I personally have less future left, but I read Fantasy now, and I seldom read Science Fiction anymore, and increasingly on the "sci-fi" shelves, there's "alternate history", and stories that take place in "visions of the future" from the past (Steampunk, Dieselpunk, and Raygun Gothic), rather than stories that take place in "the future".

I miss "the future".

If it makes you feel any better, the future was never behind schedule, it just turned into a different road. We have technologies they never even dreamed of on Lost in Space.

You've been through a lot of world events it sounds like. You should still see the magic. I'm talking to you on device that's mostly screen and wirelessly connects to the Internet (which completely revolutionized... well, everything). Even though it's commonplace where we live, it's still pretty damned impressive.

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20101020.gif

[CleverUsername]

Death Star.
Not a weapon. Space station. Yep. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

[Peelee]

Death Star.
Not a weapon. Space station. Yep. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Technically not a space station, since those are, well, stationary. Death Star clearly has a hyperdrive, and at least has enough of a sublight drive to put it in an optimal orbit. I'm loathe to call it a ship, though... how about just "giant laser with a moon-sized building attached?"

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Stargates and/or the flue network. The older I get, the less I like traveling. I'd love a piece of technology that rendered both commutes and air travel instantaneous.

GW

[The Unborne]

I'm a sucker for virtual reality games that seem to play as sideplots until they enlighten the character to some greater purpose of the narrative. I once thought it was just in Ender's Game, but then I started seeing it be used in other works such as The Three-Body Problem.

[Yora]

The most amazing thing to me is fusion power. (With a reactor that consumes less energy while running than it generates.)

It's something we actually know it's possible, we're making steady progress on, and for which there is no good reason why it could never be achived. Yet at the same time the effects are something that science fiction almost never seems to consider. Pretty much all kinds of scarcity in the world are not a lack of the physical stuff, but prohibitively high energy costs to transform it into things we need and transporting them to where they are needed. Energy has always been the limiting factor of what can be done for all of human history.

With mass produced fusion reactors being everywhere, everything would change. It would be much bigger than steam engines or gun powder, perhaps even bigger than agriculture. The cost of making a fusion reactor can be regarded as being entirely energy. Energy to mine the materials, transport the materials, work the materials, and so on. Once you have one fusion reactor you could produce the energy to make more fusion reactors.

http://www.electronicproducts.com/uploadedImages/Analog_Mixed_Signal_ICs/Communications/Unlimited%20Power%20Gif.gif

Of course it can't ignore the limitations of thermodynamics and you still need a fuel, but when the fuel is 75% of all matter in the universe, running out is not going to be an issue.

It's the most fantastic technology with the most far reaching consequences that would be unimaginable in the long term, but the only case where I see it considered is Star Trek, but it very rarely takes a look at the lives of normal people on Federation worlds.

[Peelee]

The most amazing thing to me is fusion power. (With a reactor that consumes less energy while running than it generates.)

It's something we actually know it's possible, we're making steady progress on, and for which there is no good reason why it could never be achived. Yet at the same time the effects are something that science fiction almost never seems to consider.

Damn straight! Forget hoverboards, I want Mr. Fusion. Gimme a few of those I can make a damn hoverboard. Energy inefficiency effectively doesn't exist anymore; what previously required plutonium now only needs a banana peel, a little beer, the beer can, some egg shells and the carton.

I have this rant a lot.

[Kyberwulf]

Transmogifier

[Verdac]

Might just be my bad joints talking but would love some cybernetic implants or nano-infusion for bad joints.

[Lentrax]

Cyberdecks.

A Quantum Harmonizer. (Not sure what it does, but man does it do awesome stuff when you stick it in someone's Photonic Resonance Chamber)

An Electronic Thumb

A Voight-kampff machine.

Whatever tech it took to be able to have streetdocs able to perform perfect plastic surgery in one hour or less.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[Dorath]

Give me the miracle machine or desirovac. Maybe Pym particles, it's a tough choice.

[Bohandas]

*the total perspective vortex

*any device by which something we would consider "supernatural" is harnessed and controlled like any other phenomenon (proton packs and other ghostbusting equipment, the sunlamps and other troll hunting equipment from The Troll Hunter, Hex the arcane computer fron Discworld, the No Chambers from the Dune series, etc) or mass produced as if it were an ordinary thing (the gag factory from Roger Rabbit, the mass manufactured bound-demon powered watches from Discworld, etc)

[togapika]

Holodeck.

Not only can I now have sex with celebrities or fictional characters, but I can turn any tabletop rule set or Larp rule set into an immersive experience. It could also be used to learn a skill from a vastly knowledgeable tutor that would normally cost large amounts to hire.

[AMFV]

Holodeck.

Not only can I now have sex with celebrities or fictional characters, but I can turn any tabletop rule set or Larp rule set into an immersive experience. It could also be used to learn a skill from a vastly knowledgeable tutor that would normally cost large amounts to hire.

You'd also die horrifically when the safeties malfunctioned and the tutor turned murderous.

[2D8HP]

.

Holodeck..


You'd also die horrifically when the safeties malfunctioned and the tutor turned murderous.


Judging by how troublesome and dangerous the holodeck seemed to be, episode after episode, Starfleet personal must've been really dependent (addicted?) to it.

[Peelee]

You'd also die horrifically when the safeties malfunctioned and the tutor turned murderous.

Tutor wouldn't turn murderous. The holodeck malfunctions had characters like Moriarty loaded and running at the time. Already evil, murderous people. Tutor, in the event of malfunction, would continue to tute.

[Lord Joeltion]

*any device by which something we would consider "supernatural" is harnessed and controlled like any other phenomenon (proton packs and other ghostbusting equipment, the sunlamps and other troll hunting equipment from The Troll Hunter, Hex the arcane computer fron Discworld, the No Chambers from the Dune series, etc) or mass produced as if it were an ordinary thing (the gag factory from Roger Rabbit, the mass manufactured bound-demon powered watches from Discworld, etc)
Laughter Energy from Monsters Inc. would be awesome too. Then again, I fear we would spawn a new cross-breed of environmentalists/SJWs attempting to police over what kind of jokes bring the less pollution :smallbiggrin:

You'd also die horrifically when the safeties malfunctioned and the tutor turned murderous.
I would fear more for my safety during Kinky Time, to be honest. You don't want a murderous Black Widow at the worst possible time :smalltongue:

.Judging by how troublesome and dangerous the holodeck seemed to be, episode after episode, Starfleet personal must've been really dependent (addicted?) to it.
You mean you wouldn't?

[2D8HP]

...You mean you wouldn't?


A luxury once tasted becomes a necessity.

They are substances and activities that I do not try for fear of my liking them too much.

[AMFV]

Tutor wouldn't turn murderous. The holodeck malfunctions had characters like Moriarty loaded and running at the time. Already evil, murderous people. Tutor, in the event of malfunction, would continue to tute.

That town in Voyager. The Irish one. I can continue with other examples, because there are several.

[Bohandas]

A luxury once tasted becomes a necessity.

They are substances and activities that I do not try for fear of my liking them too much.

Malfunctions or not the holodeck's still safer than cocaine

[togapika]

Malfunctions or not the holodeck's still safer than cocaine

I'm a part of a group of responsible holodeck users...

[rooster707]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Ahem.

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/kindle.png

[Peelee]

That town in Voyager. The Irish one. I can continue with other examples, because there are several.

Please do, because Voyager was terrible. Anyway, what were the details of that town? Wasn't there some sort of monster or something, and not just "simple idyllic town becomes murderous for no reason?"

[Rynjin]

Please do, because Voyager was terrible. Anyway, what were the details of that town? Wasn't there some sort of monster or something, and not just "simple idyllic town becomes murderous for no reason?"

Wasn't that the one where they were ALL sentient holograms and the people disappearing/being "snatched by a monster" were just disappearing because the power was failing?

[GloatingSwine]

Tutor wouldn't turn murderous. The holodeck malfunctions had characters like Moriarty loaded and running at the time. Already evil, murderous people. Tutor, in the event of malfunction, would continue to tute.

Yes.

With all the doors locked.

Forever.



Now, obviously the best science fiction device that is a weapon is the Lazy Gun.

There had been eight Lazy Guns. A Lazy Gun was a little over half a meter in length, about thirty centimeters in width and twenty centimeters in height. Its front was made up of two stubby cylinders which protruded from the smooth, matte-silver main body. The cylinders ended in slightly bulged black-glass lenses. A couple of hand controls sitting on stalks, an eyesight curving up on an other extension, and a broad, adjustable metal strap all indicated that the weapons had been designed to be fired from the waist.

There were two controls, one on each hand grip; a zoom wheel and a trigger.

You looked through the sight, zoomed in until the target you had selected just filled your vision, then you pressed the trigger. The Lazy Gun did the rest instantaneously.

But you had no idea whatsoever exactly what was going to happen next.

If you had aimed at a person, a spear might suddenly materialize and pierce them through the chest, or some snake's spit fang might graze their neck, or a ship's anchor might appear falling above them, crushing them, or two enormous switch-electrodes would leap briefly into being on either side of the hapless target and vaporize him or her.

If you had aimed the gun at something larger, like a tank or a house, then it might implode, explode, collapse in a pile of dust, be struck by a section of a tidal wave or a lava flow, be turned inside out or just disappear entirely, with or without a bang.

Increasing scale seemed to rob a Lazy Gun of its eccentric poesy; turn it on a city or a mountain and it tended simply to drop an appropriately sized nuclear or thermonuclear fireball onto it. The only known exception had been when what was believed to have been a comet nucleus had destroyed a city-sized berg-barge on the water world of Trontsephori.

Rumor had it that some of the earlier Lazy Guns, at least, had shown what looked suspiciously like humor when they had been used; criminals saved from firing squads so that they could be the subjects of experiments had died under a hail of bullets, all hitting their hearts at the same time; an obsolete submarine had been straddled by depth charges; a mad king obsessed with metals had been smothered under a deluge of mercury.

The braver physicists--those who didn't try to deny the existence of Lazy Guns altogether--ventured that the weapons somehow accessed different dimensions; they monitored other continua and dipped into one to pluck out their chosen method of destruction and transfer it to this universe, where it carried out its destructive task then promptly disappeared, only its effects remaining. Or they created whatever they desired to create from the ground-state of quantum fluctuation that invested the fabric of space. Or they were time machines.

Any one of these possibilities was so mind-boggling in its implications and ramifications--provided that one could understand or ever harness the technology involved--that the fact a Lazy Gun was light but massy, and weighed exactly three times as much turned upside down as it did the right way up, was almost trivial by comparison.

[Bohandas]

Ahem.

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/kindle.png

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's made the connection between Wikipedia and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[2D8HP]

I for one have a hankerin' for some of that delicious....

https://alchetron.com/cdn/Soylent-Green-images-6cf52bbd-4e71-4cb2-b3a8-999c342384f.jpg

[Euclidodese]

Interocitor?

[TuggyNE]

I for one have a hankerin' for some of that delicious....

https://alchetron.com/cdn/Soylent-Green-images-6cf52bbd-4e71-4cb2-b3a8-999c342384f.jpg

Sorry to disappoint you, but that's not sci-fi anymore (https://www.soylent.com/).

(I know of a webcomic artist, thunt, who claims to live almost entirely off Soylent, so as far as I know it's not some sort of elaborate prank.)

[Bohandas]

Sorry to disappoint you, but that's not sci-fi anymore (https://www.soylent.com/).

(I know of a webcomic artist, thunt, who claims to live almost entirely off Soylent, so as far as I know it's not some sort of elaborate prank.)

It's every bit as much still science fiction as the Hoverboard, the Everlasting Gobstopper, and any number of other fantastical items and devices whose names have been co-opted by unrelated mediocre products of unrelated mediocre companies.

[FinnLassie]

The magical ovens and the like that poof out a nice meal out of just some pill or undefined goo. Like, it turns into an actual meal. ... I know, it's some heavy 60's sci-fi dreaming, but damn it, it's so cool.

[ImperiousLeader]

It doesn't shoot, it doesn't kill, it doesn't maim. And it's crap against wood. But a sonic screwdriver is definitely something I wish I had.

[Peelee]

It doesn't shoot, it doesn't kill, it doesn't maim. And it's crap against wood. But a sonic screwdriver is definitely something I wish I had.

I have yet to see it drive a screw.

[golentan]

The Ark from Tuf Voyaging.

Spaceship with FTL drive and artificial gravity, larger than the city I live in and equipped with all of the necessities and pleasures for a crew of thousands.

AI control assist capable of making it operatable by a single person.

Vast genetic library of every organism known to mankind at time of construction. They even recreated at least one dinosaur species.

Cloning vats to produce those organisms, with a psychic leash to keep them from harming crewmembers. The cloning vats have a time-dilation feature allowing their occupants to be brought to adulthood in seconds, or mass produce and deliver organisms to a planetary surface.

A vast menu of modifications which can be installed in any organism created.

Basically, yeah. I and my loved ones could go exploring all across the galaxy, petting elasmosaurs in our olympic sized swimming pool and seeing what's out there from a position of safety.

The story has it having been built as a weapon, but it's clearly a versatile and useful tool independent of that and I would give any two non-essential organs or limbs to get my hand on a single cloning tank, let alone the whole package.

[ImperiousLeader]

I have yet to see it drive a screw.

IIRC, he's mentioned putting up cabinets, so it should be a feature.

[Celticbear]

Fellas, fellas you are all missing the greatest invention in the history of science fiction.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy%2C_english. svg/2000px-The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy%2C_english. svg.png

[JNAProductions]

The T-Gun, from EGS.

Despite having gun in the name, it's not a weapon.

[golentan]

The T-Gun, from EGS.

Despite having gun in the name, it's not a weapon.

Yeah, but it also explicitly is magic.

Magic through the lens of scientific study and application, but still magic. Magic which can choose to stop working because it, as a person, does not feel like playing nice with human beings demystifying it.

[Celticbear]

Yeah, but it also explicitly is magic.

Magic through the lens of scientific study and application, but still magic. Magic which can choose to stop working because it, as a person, does not feel like playing nice with human beings demystifying it.

Yeah. Example: Star Wars, though seen as science fiction, is definitely fantasy. Before any of you say anything, I have two words to say to you: Space Wizards. You can call them Jedi and Sith, but that doesn't change that they are Space Wizards.

[goto124]

But do lightsabers count as an SF device?

[Lentrax]

Fellas, fellas you are all missing the greatest invention in the history of science fiction.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy%2C_english. svg/2000px-The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy%2C_english. svg.png

Umm, no. I didn't.


Cyberdecks.

A Quantum Harmonizer. (Not sure what it does, but man does it do awesome stuff when you stick it in someone's Photonic Resonance Chamber)

An Electronic Thumb

A Voight-kampff machine.

Whatever tech it took to be able to have streetdocs able to perform perfect plastic surgery in one hour or less.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[Peelee]

But do lightsabers count as an SF device?

I count any plot based on technology we do not have available as science fiction.

So Star Wars is sci-fi-fantasy. Both. Not mutually exclusive.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

So Star Wars is sci-fi/fantasy. Both. Not mutually exclusive.

Nomenclature quibble: the forward slash makes them look like they are exclusive (because that's how libraries tag them, suggesting they are separate but shelved together). Maybe use dashes only? As in, sci-fi-fantasy? Or sci-fantasy? Abbreviated to sci-fan?

Which does bring to mind a question I've had: are there any stories that essentially take a "classic" fantasy world with wizards and examines how they'd work in a post-industrial setting? I can only think off the top of my head of 40k, which is unrelentingly bleak and doesn't really examine the societies beyond "everything is crumbling, all the time".

Grey Wolf

[Peelee]

Nomenclature quibble: the forward slash makes them look like they are exclusive (because that's how libraries tag them, suggesting they are separate but shelved together). Maybe use dashes only? As in, sci-fi-fantasy? Or sci-fantasy? Abbreviated to sci-fan?
I don't know what you're talking about:smalltongue:

Which does bring to mind a question I've had: are there any stories that essentially take a "classic" fantasy world with wizards and examines how they'd work in a post-industrial setting? I can only think off the top of my head of 40k, which is unrelentingly bleak and doesn't really examine the societies beyond "everything is crumbling, all the time".

Grey Wolf

I've not read them, but isn't the Dresden files along these lines? Or Harry Potter?

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I've not read them, but isn't the Dresden files along these lines? Or Harry Potter?

I haven't read the Dresden files far enough to know, but HP is definitely not what I'm looking for: the masquerade means that the wizarding world is separate from the post-industrial world, and also stuck in Victorian-age-like stasis. I'm more looking for a world where magic and elves and such exist, but isn't stuck in medieval stasis (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MedievalStasis) but instead has progressed to "modern" times, or even full-blown space-age magitech.

I suppose cyberpunk might work (especially setting were elves and dwarves are around), but as with 40k, I'd prefer a setting that isn't going to depress me as much as reading the news.

ETA: I suppose the Legend of Korra counts, and I did enjoy it quite a bit.

GW

[Bohandas]

I haven't read the Dresden files far enough to know, but HP is definitely not what I'm looking for: the masquerade means that the wizarding world is separate from the post-industrial world, and also stuck in Victorian-age-like stasis. I'm more looking for a world where magic and elves and such exist, but isn't stuck in medieval stasis (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MedievalStasis) but instead has progressed to "modern" times, or even full-blown space-age magitech.

I'd recommend the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony

EDIT:
Oh, and Discworld by Sir Terry Pratchett sort of does this too. As the series goes on the setting progresses from a late medieval/early renaissance setting into the early industrial revolution

[GolemsVoice]

I haven't read the Dresden files far enough to know, but HP is definitely not what I'm looking for: the masquerade means that the wizarding world is separate from the post-industrial world, and also stuck in Victorian-age-like stasis. I'm more looking for a world where magic and elves and such exist, but isn't stuck in medieval stasis (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MedievalStasis) but instead has progressed to "modern" times, or even full-blown space-age magitech.

I suppose cyberpunk might work (especially setting were elves and dwarves are around), but as with 40k, I'd prefer a setting that isn't going to depress me as much as reading the news.

ETA: I suppose the Legend of Korra counts, and I did enjoy it quite a bit.

GW

There's technically the various world of Darkness settings, which you can mix and match. Sure, most of the beings either don't interact with humanity all that often, or are actively avoiding them, but there's mages, fey. demons, all that stuff. Also, since you mentioned cyberpunk, there's obviously Shadowrun.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

There's technically the various world of Darkness settings, which you can mix and match. Sure, most of the beings either don't interact with humanity all that often, or are actively avoiding them, but there's mages, fey. demons, all that stuff. Also, since you mentioned cyberpunk, there's obviously Shadowrun.

Yes, but as I said, if I want to read about a depressing world that seems to be going from bad to worse, I read a newspaper. I don't need a fictional book for that right now.

Less cynically, I've read Gibson and even a bit of Shadowrun and 40k, and I find them too bleak. It'd be nice to see a world that, having magic, has progressed beyond castles and knights, and is NOT heading for eternal darkness regardless of what anyone does.

Let me put it another way: I enjoy steampunk. I'd like something like steampunk, but past Victorian age and it need not depend on the constraint of steam (which, after all, is just magic by another name in steampunk).

GW

[rooster707]

Let me put it another way: I enjoy steampunk. I'd like something like steampunk, but past Victorian age and it need not depend on the constraint of steam (which, after all, is just magic by another name in steampunk).

GW

When you put it like that, The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson fits pretty well. A lot of it is basically steampunk, but with nanotech instead of steam.

[Bohandas]

Yeah. Example: Star Wars, though seen as science fiction, is definitely fantasy. Before any of you say anything, I have two words to say to you: Space Wizards. You can call them Jedi and Sith, but that doesn't change that they are Space Wizards.

Star Trek too. I don't know why everyone always calls out Star Wars on this but never Star Trek. In terms of the sheer number of characters with magic powers (not counting in novels) I think Star Trek has got Star Wars beat. You can't throw a stone in Star Trek without hitting some kind of telepath or shape shifter

[Peelee]

Star Trek too. I don't know why everyone always calls out Star Wars on this but never Star Trek. In terms of the sheer number of characters with magic powers (not counting in novels) I think Star Trek has got Star Wars beat. You can't throw a stone in Star Trek without hitting some kind of telepath or shape shifter

Or the number of aliens that are about as alien as D&D races? For that matter, has Star Trek ever introduced the idea of a progenitor race that seeded the galaxy? Because that could resolve a lot of that issue, and add a nice mysterious history that could also exacerbate relations with some of the species.

[GilbertRobbins]

There is nothing like this.

[Bohandas]

I haven't read the Dresden files far enough to know, but HP is definitely not what I'm looking for: the masquerade means that the wizarding world is separate from the post-industrial world, and also stuck in Victorian-age-like stasis. I'm more looking for a world where magic and elves and such exist, but isn't stuck in medieval stasis (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MedievalStasis) but instead has progressed to "modern" times, or even full-blown space-age magitech.

I suppose cyberpunk might work (especially setting were elves and dwarves are around), but as with 40k, I'd prefer a setting that isn't going to depress me as much as reading the news.

ETA: I suppose the Legend of Korra counts, and I did enjoy it quite a bit.

GW

I recommend Star Trek and Ghostbusters (that's Harold Ramis Ghostbusters btw, not the unrelated Funamation series or Paul Feig movie)

[paddyfool]

Or the number of aliens that are about as alien as D&D races? For that matter, has Star Trek ever introduced the idea of a progenitor race that seeded the galaxy? Because that could resolve a lot of that issue, and add a nice mysterious history that could also exacerbate relations with some of the species.

Yes, they have. Guess what they called them: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Progenitors

[rooster707]

Yes, they have. Guess what they called them: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Progenitors

It's better than Halo, which has the Forerunners and the Precursors. Which, despite having played Halo literally as long as I can remember, I had no idea were separate races until last month.

[Bohandas]

Does [i]Star Trek[i/'s neural neutralizer count as a weapon?

What about HHGttG's Total Perspective Vortex?

[Taro]

The Spice Melange, commonly referred to simply as 'the spice' grants imortality, expanded sensory perceptions and heavy doses led to powerful abilities that include prescience.

[Potato_Priest]

Does [i]Star Trek[i/'s neural neutralizer count as a weapon?

What about HHGttG's Total Perspective Vortex?

To quote Maxim 24 (http://schlockmercenary.wikia.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenar ies), "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a big gun."

[Bohandas]

Yes, but as I said, if I want to read about a depressing world that seems to be going from bad to worse, I read a newspaper. I don't need a fictional book for that right now.

Less cynically, I've read Gibson and even a bit of Shadowrun and 40k, and I find them too bleak. It'd be nice to see a world that, having magic, has progressed beyond castles and knights, and is NOT heading for eternal darkness regardless of what anyone does.

Try the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony

[Spanish_Paladin]

Star Trek replicator, end of scarcity and capitalism.

[Anonymouswizard]

Star Trek replicator, end of scarcity and capitalism.

Assuming you have the energy to run it, of course.

[Spanish_Paladin]

Assuming you have the energy to run it, of course.

Of course, i take for granted the whole scenario that makes replicators viable

[Peelee]

Assuming you have the energy to run it, of course.

Just grab a Mr. Fusion. Which I maintain is the best joke that BttF had, and is woefully underappreciated.

[MrZJunior]

This isn't particularly spectacular, but as I was re-watching 2001: A Space Odyssey recently I noticed that just about every machine or appliance in the movie had some brand name attached to it. I liked the touch of realism it brought to the world and really shows how much work went into that movie.

[Haven]

The omni-tool from Mass Effect is way up there. It's a computer and a mini-fabricator with a sweet holographic interface that shows up on your arm. (It gets turned into a weapon in the 3rd game, but forget those versions.)

[Fri]

Which does bring to mind a question I've had: are there any stories that essentially take a "classic" fantasy world with wizards and examines how they'd work in a post-industrial setting? I can only think off the top of my head of 40k, which is unrelentingly bleak and doesn't really examine the societies beyond "everything is crumbling, all the time".

Grey Wolf

Check Bartimaeus Trilogy. It's basically wizardpunk, with british empire grows on the strength of magic instead of steam, and magic works around summoning (for example, a magical grenade is a sphere of glass with low level spirits trapped inside it). It follows the growth and changes of a young magician, from his start as a harry-poterish child wizard, then as a young adult working in the british government, then as an actual adult at the last book, and his partner, a mid-level snarky spirit who act as second protagonist and narrator.

[Bohandas]

I'm also partial to The Doctor's magic wand technobabble wand sonic screwdriver

[Taro]

Solid ligth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_light).There so much we could do with that!