Most realistic futuristic hardware in SF

[flynn]

Just mentioned in fav Special effects how I always considered the Hardware (not strictly speaking a special effect) i.e. Spaceships, Drop Ships, Weapons, Computers and Everyday Objects in the first 3 Alien films as having a realistic functional appearance to them. <br /><br />Some films/ shows try something wacky impractical to lable the point "Its from the future"! Anyway, so when have you all been impressed by a piece of hardware in Science Fiction?<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>

 

[larper]

Babylon 5's Starfuries <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Vote </font><font color="#3366ff">Libertarian</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[nuaetius]

Besides the Jump gates and alien tech I think Babylon 5 has to take the cake.

 

[ashish27]

The display screen in StarTrek

 

[lsbd]

the communicators in ST:TOS...used a flip-up cell phone lately??

 

[junkheap]

Still can't use a cell phone to call up the space shuttle or ISS at FTL communication speed, though. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <br /><br />How about the PADD's that were introduced in ST:TNG?

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

I'd rate the Space 1999 Eagle transporters pretty highly as a realistic piece of hardware. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>-----------------------------------------------------</p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask not what your Forum Software can do do on you,</font></p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask it to, please for the love of all that's Holy, <strong>STOP</strong> !</font></p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

The converse of this thread would go to Dark Star.<br /><br />Spacesuits obviously made from vacuum cleaner parts and muffin tins !!<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[gulcrapek]

How about BSG's Vipers? And comm system and other things along with it...

 

[docm]

<font color="yellow">the communicators in ST:TOS...used a flip-up cell phone lately??</font><br /><br />Interesting you should mention that given that Martin Cooper, the father of the cell phone, says that the ST:TOS Communicator was his direct inspiration for inventing a mobile telephone. <br /><br />Today I can open a tiny flip phone far smaller than a Communicator, press one button and the voice dialer can get me in touch with anyone in my directory; family, friends, the studio, 911, the bank or by saying "Information" virtually anyone on Earth I need to talk to. It even has a speaker-phone mode. <br /><br />Probably the best example of science fiction becoming reality given how it's changed the entire world of human communication. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[flynn]

Common theme really with the mobile phone, its funny how many "futurologists" missed the desire to communicate and how it would evolve when they made their visions for the future. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>

 

[spacefire]

the loaders in Alien....exoskeletons are becoming a reality.<br />Every tech in that movie had a certain matter of fact quality. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[spacefire]

I also liked the first warp ship in First Contact...a cruise missile with warp drive on it. i can't remember how they got back to Earth, did the Vulcans pick them up? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[docm]

It wasn't a cruise missile, that's too short at only 5.56 m, but a converted Titan II - an ICBM which was also used to boost the Gemini's.<br /><br />Phoenix.... <br /><br />Phoenix cockpit.... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[PistolPete]

The one technical glitch in the movie is that the last Titan II silo was decommissioned in 1987. The silos were imploded and filled in, in accordance with the START 1 treaty. The only intact silo remaining is the one at the Titan Missile Museum south of Tuscon, AZ. The silo does have a missile in it, but the silo door has welded half open with a glass enclosure over the open half.<br /><br />Oh, and there were never any Titan II silos in Montana. The only active silos in Montana are Minuteman III silos.<br /><br />The fact that there isn't a working silo with a working Titan II in it puts a bit of a cramp in the whole "Phoenix rides a Titan to space" plot line. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />Incidentally, the Titan Missile Museum is where they filmed Star Trek: First Contact. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[ashish27]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p> the communicators in ST:TOS...used a flip-up cell phone lately?? <br /><p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />In Enterprise, the worst ST series, Archer and his men used the Motorola Moto-Flip to communicate among themselves! <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /> <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[PistolPete]

I wouldn't say it was the worst. I thought it was far better than <i>Voyager</i>, anyway. The problem with the technology in <i>Enterprise</i> is that, to a certain extent, there are many technologies today, especially in the area of computers and communication, where current technology is perilously close to equaling the technology of TOS or even surpasses it. This was something that the writers of TOS could never have anticipated (why would everyday people need a computer, anyway? <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> ). So in order for <i>Enterprise</i> to seem less technologically advanced than TOS, they ended up with some technology that was underwhelming for a scifi show.<br /><br />Oooh, Captain Archer has a flat panel display for his computer. Guess what, so do I! <img src="/images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Remember, according to the ST timeline (as sloppy as it is), first there were wars in the 90s against the Augments (of whom Khan Noonien Singh is prominent). Following that, again in the 21st century was the Optimal Movement, which ended up in a global thermonuclear war (involving IIRC 37 nations) - mercifully limited, without terminating the species.<br /><br />It was probably many decades before technology began to reappear all over the globe again. There may have been odd gaps due to having been forced to re-invent, re-discover, or re-build the infrastructure necessary, for all of our little tech toys we have today.<br /><br />Just a thought.<br /><br />By the way, I am aghast that I know all of this. Sign me up for the Nerd Brigade too, please. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[PistolPete]

I never bought that line. The numbers don't quite add up. The Phoenix flew in 2063, the Enterprise launched in 2151, that's an 88 year gap. In the past 25 years we've gone from those infamous monochrome green screens to the aforementioned flat panel displays. My cell phone has better graphics than the computers of a couple of decades ago. If they've been able to build the infrastructure to build warp drives (and apparently rebuild San Francisco in the process), then they've had plenty of time to surpass all of our current technology.<br /><br />Now how much of a nerd do you have to be to know that there was an 88 year gap between First Contact and Enterprise? <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Why none whatsoever. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> Merely trying on a few petty rationalizations about the schizophrenic timeline, is all.<br /><br />Not possible, of course. But amusing trying to figure it out. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[lampblack]

<font color="yellow">the communicators in ST:TOS...used a flip-up cell phone lately??</font><br /><br />Or how 'bout those fancy turbolift doors that would OPEN AUTOMATICALLY when one approached them? Anyone been to a supermarket -- or to Wally World -- lately? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#0000ff"><strong>Just tell the truth and let the chips fall...</strong></font> </div>

 

[PistolPete]

Yeah, Roddenberry definatly undershot when it came to Star Trek tech. The problem is can we truly predict that far into the future? IOW can we honestly predict any technology that is more than a couple of decades in advace? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

I thought the recording devices at one point looked a lot like the 3.5" floppies. Other data crystals may be precursors of holographic storage people have been working on. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>-----------------------------------------------------</p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask not what your Forum Software can do do on you,</font></p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask it to, please for the love of all that's Holy, <strong>STOP</strong> !</font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

I always cringe when I see all the analog displays for chronometers <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[chyten]

<b>Or how 'bout those fancy turbolift doors that would OPEN AUTOMATICALLY when one approached them? Anyone been to a supermarket -- or to Wally World -- lately? </b><br /><br />"I don't think [in 2070] there was a single power door on Luna" -- Manny in <i>The Moon is a Harsh Mistress</i><br /><br />Perfect example of what was wrong with 1950's vision of the future.