The military is doing all kinds of projects that seem to draw inspiration from science fiction. On an article I read on Forbes the other day, I saw exoskeletons that looked right out of Halo, tiny flying robots, a super-fast running robot, computer-controlled sharks, super-sonic planes, augmented reality contact lenses, flying HUMVs that can transform and go underwater, and planes that don't ever need to land. You can view the whole photo essay at the link above.
How long do you think it will be before someone builds one of these:
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Have a great Wednesday.
Star Trek had computer tablets. And computers that didn't require keyboards. Now we have those!
ReplyDeleteI think that we have lots of science fiction writers as scientists. They get to bring their imaginations to life. :)
ReplyDeleteI think there's a big ether bank that all possibilities exist.Without knowing it, writers imagination taps into it, as do scientific minds. All things already exist...somewhere in the universe.
ReplyDeleteI do think it's weird, because you watch something like talking computers and warp drive on Star Trek and when some of that stuff goes from fiction to reality we expect all of it too.... no one need die from a automobile accident every again! Thanks to the all new Inertial Dampeners we've installed! We have to have that, because we've also got the tablets they used on Star Trek.
ReplyDeleteIf I hadn't done this topic last year for A to Z, I'd certainly do it this year.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, I'll have to show my older son slushbot; he will be impressed.
ReplyDelete@Alex: That's a good point. Plus I hear NASA thinks warp drive may be possible.
ReplyDelete@Brinda: It certainly seems that way. Or maybe all the scientists get into the field because of a childhood love for science fiction. Either way, I'm glad we have them around.
@Em: That's an interesting idea. I like it. So how can I get some of the more profitable ideas to come out of the ether and into my head LOL?
@Rusty: Great comment, Rusty. I'm so glad you think it's weird just like me.
@Andrew: I need a topic for A to Z.
@Slamdunk: Awesome. Thanks for visiting :)
I agree with Em. We tap into some huge holding tank of ideas. :)
ReplyDeleteOkay, all I could see when I looked at the shape-shift thing was the dancing liquid mass that the guys on The Big Bang Theory made.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about sci-fi OR science, but I'd love to have Rosie from the Jetson's to clean for me. Ooh, and that bot from Short Circuit to hang out with. He was cool.
Wow! That slushbot is totally nasty and totally cool!
ReplyDeleteI wrote an essay in 11th grade English about the technologies I thought we would see in the future. The teacher gave me a C, saying that I was completely unrealistic, yet most of those predictions have already happened.
ReplyDeleteScientists need idea people, enter scifi writers.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that robots are getting more interesting. And, loved Terminator, but wouldn't want to meet that metal guy. Morphing is definitely an asset.
Thanks for the links and the info.
Insects are definitely the future. Hence the need for more entomologists! :D
ReplyDeleteThat is insane and awesome. So they could make some sort of slushbot that can slide under a door, form into a camera, and take a photo of a potential crime scene or something? Think of all the commercial uses for something like this!
ReplyDeleteThat blobby thingamajig is pretty darm creepy! But, yes, cool. Let us not forget that Arthur Clarke invented satellite technology a good fifteen years before it was implemented. Put that in your sci-fi pipe and smoke it.
ReplyDeleteBTW, just got Oculus! Looking forward to reading it.
Catherine Stine’s Idea City
Shifting between liquid and solid can bring scare-inducing thoughts. Sounds like the stuff out of horror movies.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of cool. I mean, for a writer to make stuff up out of pure imagination and then have some scientist come along who figures out how to make it reality. I suppose genius is in the mind of the person who can do both. :)
ReplyDeleteWas it science fiction when Frankenstein was created, or was it horror?
ReplyDeleteNow faces, hands, legs, and arms are being transplanted. This is awesome, and yet, once, only a horror story! Now it's life....
Wow!
Whoa! The slushbot is awesome! I guess it takes someone to come up with the idea, and then someone else to run with it. I do wonder what will come true later on. I'm still hoping for something that can take my thoughts and then type them onto the screen. It'd be so much quicker.
ReplyDeleteOkay, YOU might find that cool. I'm terrified! And yes, Terminator 2 might be responsible, but just the idea of it freaks me out a little...
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's weird because both sci-fi and science are trying to use their imagination to move outside of what's known to what's possible. Science has the technology to eventually make it possible.
ReplyDeleteThat robot looks like a tortellini or dumpling covered in a clear sauce.
I love it! And I even love how all of those things have come a step futher. I've been re-watching Star Trek the Next Generation with my husband and it's been kinda fun to compare the concepts of then to now :)
ReplyDelete@Laura: It almost sounds like a good space opera plot.
ReplyDelete@Daisy: I love BBT! I know that exact episode in season 1.
@Deana: I agree.
@Ted: That's awesome. I shall visit your blog soon. You've been away for a while.
@D.G.: So it's kind of a reciprocal yin yang type thing goin' on, right?
@Elise: I still don't get how you are not creeped out by insects. Maybe that's what makes you such a cool girl.
@Anthony: Oh I'm sure the military has.
@Catherine: Thanks so much for taking the time to read my book. I shall repay the favor.
@Joy: It kinda does, doesn't it. The shark thing is really creepy too.
@L.G.: An interesting thought. I suppose you are right.
@Yolanda: It was horror, I think.
@Cherie: They're almost there. Dragon Naturally Speaking can do 120 words a minute now.
@Hart: It freaks me out too.
@Theresa: Eep. I wonder what it tastes like.
@J.A.: As Alex pointed out, they have iPads.
I'll have to show my Husband Unit the shapeshifting robot. He'll love that. I thought it was a tooth when your blog first came up. I'm glad you didn't talk about teeth though.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a little kid there were predictions that in the future everyone would have a computer in their home. I didn't believe it.
ReplyDeleteI saw a show sometime back that explained how many scientists grew up on Star Trek and Star Wards and how those stories influenced their inventions. So yes, there's a Terminator in our near future.
I think it shows how brilliant lots of writers are. I'm getting a little worried about the animal farm thing
ReplyDeleteI saw the same show Helena saw. I think some of it is that scientists saw this stuff on sci fi and wanted to make it real (the bit on the show about mp3s blew my mind) and some of it is what Em-Musing said. (Since I get to the commenting so late, my comments are usually repeats.)
ReplyDeleteAnother reason to love science fantasy! And another reason why writers should get paid more. ;)
ReplyDeleteDo you think it's weird that so much science fiction seems to become science fact at some point?
ReplyDeleteNot all all. Anything that can be imagined is possible.
Now I'm going to have nightmares about robots that look like Chinese dumplings. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteI'll just be over here giggling about "slushbot"
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting for the Jetson"s flying cars... ;)
ReplyDeleteThat is pretty cool... it's amazing if they could pull it off.
ReplyDeleteIt's not surprising they get ideas from science fiction. But some of them seem like the government goes too far. Like MKULTRA, where they tried to develop mind control. Or when they tried to make a bomb that would turn enemy soldiers gay. True story, Google it
ReplyDeleteNot quite on topic, but I think that slushbot looks like a chinese steamed bun.
ReplyDeleteBut there certainly are some things people would have dismissed as pure fantasy fifty years ago that we can do now. Landing on the moon, for one! And there have been plenty more advances since then.