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6 votes
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Patrick Stewart didn't want to reprise Captain Picard in a post-Brexit world
23 votes -
William Gibson, the writer who invented ‘cyberspace’ – and possibly the most influential living sci-fi author – on the challenges of keeping up with a reality even stranger than fiction
16 votes -
Devs | Season 1 official trailer
8 votes -
I’ve studied the ‘weirdos’ Dominic Cummings is talking about – I’m not sure he really understands who they are
14 votes -
Doctor Who S12E01 'Spyfall'
What did you think of this week's episode of 'Doctor Who'?
6 votes -
Sci Fi trends over the decades
I've just finished The Sirens of Titan from 1959 (after seeing it recommended here, actually) and something struck me compared to more recent books. A lot of the more technical stuff is kind of...
I've just finished The Sirens of Titan from 1959 (after seeing it recommended here, actually) and something struck me compared to more recent books. A lot of the more technical stuff is kind of hand-waved away. It's not a criticism, just something that stuck out as I was reading. Is this a trend? Do readers demand more details these days? I've read a bunch of sci fi from the 60s until the present day, but I've only really gotten back into it more recently with Sirens.
Perhaps I've read too much Neal Stephenson, who has likely never hand-waved anything away! The Martian also springs to mind, but that's very deliberately focused on the details and keeping it realistic, IIRC.
Spoilers
I'm mostly thinking about the radio-controlling of the Martian army beyond "there is a little box in their pocket" and most of the atmospheric questions beyond how they breathe.
13 votes -
How Star Wars was saved in the edit
12 votes -
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Discussion thread
If you have seen it, what are your thoughts on it?
28 votes -
The Mandalorian | S01E08: Redemption
The Mandalorian and his companions finally confront Moff Gideon. Previous: S01E01+2 S01E03 S01E04 S01E05 S01E06 S01E07
11 votes -
What is fiction? A quest to find a believable universe.
6 votes -
The Mandalorian | S01E07: The Reckoning
Didn't see a post yet so thought I'd make one. An old rival extends an invitation for The Mandalorian to make peace. Previous: S01E01+2 S01E03 S01E04 S01E05 S01E06
11 votes -
Tenet | Official trailer
10 votes -
Jeff VanderMeer, the author of “Annihilation,” brings us fresh horrors with each new book. So why does he remain an optimist?
5 votes -
Star Wars Defined - A look at iconic Star Wars scenes
7 votes -
Skywatch - Cool sci-fi short with a Jude Law cameo
3 votes -
Too many thoughts about Star Wars | Movies with Mikey
4 votes -
Amazon just released 'The Expanse' season four a few hours early
11 votes -
The Mandalorian | S01E05: The Gunslinger
The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the...
The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.
Previous:
11 votes -
How Chinese sci-fi conquered America: The translator Ken Liu has done more than anyone to bridge the gap between Chinese science fiction and American readers
18 votes -
Stellaris Recommends: Sci-fi book recommendations from the team behind Paradox's grand-strategy-in-space game, including notes on prominent tropes and what each book does well.
9 votes -
The typography of Blade Runner
8 votes -
How Lucasfilm’s new “stagecraft” tech brought ‘The Mandalorian’ to life and may change the future of TV
9 votes -
Avenue 5 | Official teaser
6 votes -
The Expanse | Season 4 official trailer
10 votes -
La Jetée (1962)
7 votes -
How Star Wars trailers weaponize nostalgia
6 votes -
“Affordances” - A new science-fiction short story by Cory Doctorow about algorithmic bias
7 votes -
The Mandalorian | Official trailer 2
6 votes -
‘Star Wars’ setback: ‘Game Of Thrones’ duo David Benioff and D.B. Weiss exit trilogy
15 votes -
Moontrap: Target Earth, possibly the worst movie ever made
This is what you get when you search VUDU for free science fiction movies. The plot is banal enough. A spacecraft is discovered in Colorado that is 14,000 years old. A linguist and her lover are...
This is what you get when you search VUDU for free science fiction movies. The plot is banal enough. A spacecraft is discovered in Colorado that is 14,000 years old. A linguist and her lover are hired to read an inscription and then summarily paid and told to go home by the mysterious and unlikeable head of the project, Richard Kontral.
This description in no way does justice to how bad the script is. My first theory was that a rich father gave his fourteen year old son a chance to create a movie for his birthday present. But it's really just a low budget sequel to an obscure cult film called Moontrap.
The lead character, Scout, is played by Sarah Butler who evidently rose to wordly fame in I Spit on Your Grave. Every line that Scout says to the villain includes adolescent sexual insults. The villain is I believe a washed up actor from an old sitcom called The Nanny. This guy is really hard to watch, the acting is as bad as the script.
There's a scene of robots fighting that looks like it was choreographed with Rockem Sockem Robots, a toy from my childhood. If you're a collector of bad movies, this is a true gem.
It was tough to watch, but our free streaming was slim pickings that night. I wanted to watch Day of the Triffids a classic bad movie from the '60's , but got outvoted. At least that movie was based on an interesting SF novel by John Wyndham. Maybe tomorrow night.
5 votes -
Lee Pace, Jared Harris to star in Apple’s Isaac Asimov series ‘Foundation’
11 votes -
Star Trek: Picard | NYCC trailer
13 votes -
‘Battlestar Galactica’ reboot from Sam Esmail in the works for NBCU's Peacock streaming service
12 votes -
John W. Campbell Award is renamed after winner criticizes him
12 votes -
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - D23 special look
11 votes -
Futurology: how a group of visionaries looked beyond the possible a century ago and predicted today’s world
6 votes -
The Mandalorian | Official trailer
8 votes -
Ray Bradbury: Comic Book Hero
6 votes -
‘Matrix 4’ officially a go with Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Lana Wachowski
35 votes -
The Critics Company: These Nigerian teens are making sci-fi shorts with slick visual effects
12 votes -
Eliza review: Startup culture meets sci-fi in a touching, fascinating tale
7 votes -
The Installation: A dystopian science fiction short that imagines the future of big pharma
4 votes -
Tenet official motion picture poster
3 votes -
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy TV series in the works at Hulu from Carlton Cuse & Jason Fuchs
16 votes -
‘The Expanse’ renewed for season five at Amazon
15 votes -
Here are the coolest science fiction weapons of all time, ranked
5 votes -
Hollywood went to the moon first!
4 votes -
Star Trek: Picard | San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) trailer
12 votes -
How would trade and economics work in a space opera setting with FTL travel but no FTL communication?
Here in 2019 the overwhelming majority of all currency is virtual and commerce on any appreciable scale occurs electronically. But consider a sci-fi/space opera setting where reasonably fast FTL...
Here in 2019 the overwhelming majority of all currency is virtual and commerce on any appreciable scale occurs electronically. But consider a sci-fi/space opera setting where reasonably fast FTL is commonplace, but FTL communications are not possible. Obviously one could still "communicate" at FTL with a courier, but you would still be limited to the speed of the courier ship. You certainly wouldn't have instantaneous communication between star systems, meaning there can be no interstellar electronic banking: transactions would take years to complete.
The Traveller tabletop RPG uses exactly this setup: FTL travel is common, FTL communication does not exist. In Traveller you have the Third Imperium minting currency that is accepted essentially everywhere, the currency is Imperial Credits and they're printed on polymer bills. The result is an effectively cash-only economy.
But what if your setting has no centralized government? Do people revert to using gold? Are there fleets of merchant ships schlepping precious metals around the cosmos, as if the American Old West has been transplanted into space? Would they come up with a cryptographic solution? Could something like a blockchain work without instantaneous communication cross the entire network that accepts the cryptocurrency?
What if quantum computing is widespread in your setting, rendering most forms of encryption obsolete? That would seem to eliminate the blockchain based option, FTL comms or not, and once again send us back to needing a fiat currency, or a gold standard.
16 votes