Impractical technology in science fiction

[4est_4est_Gump]

Klingons use disruptors not phasers. The Federation possess phased energy weapons discharging nadions. Disruptors break the molecular cohesion of the target. Different technology. Klingons are very much into tradition and culture. There is a time to shoot down your enemy and another to gut him with a Qis.

Same difference. I had a life...

 

[Hard_Rom]

Same difference. I had a life...

A boring mundane one with the key word being 'had'.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

A boring mundane one with the key word being 'had'.

If you call fighting at the international level boring and mundane, that's cool with me. At least I wasn't role-playing my "victories..."

 

[Rightguide]

Science fiction, is for the most part, impractical or presently unavailable technology, fiction.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Science fiction, is for the most part, impractical or presently unavailable technology, fiction.

But (unlike phlebotinum) not all fictional technology is the same. Some could conceivably work IRL, some couldn't even with heavy blackboxing.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Pretty amazing what tech SF has predicated that came about. Certainly has impressed enough geeks and nerds to go into the sciences and come up with cool shit. Not just tech shit either. A black female bridge officer. A bit ahead of our time at the time.

He's white on the right side!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi7QQ5pO7_A

 

[rocket_surgery]

Lots of tech in Star Wars in impractical or impossible but Star Wars isn't science fiction so it doesn't count. They make no attempt to explain any tech whatsoever. You're supposed to just go with it.
Know what always bugged me about SW? The bay doors on the Death Star are always open. At first you think "force field" but you see ships going in and out all the time and nobody gets sucked out into space. WTF? Should be Stormtroopers floating all over around that thing.
Plus when they tell Porkins to eject. Eject where? The only thing around is that big space station you're currently trying to blow up.

Star Trek on the other hand is pure sci-fi and most of what they do is plausible. A few exceptions of course because it is tv/movies after all. Even the human/alien hybrids are explained at one point that kind of makes sense in a Star Trek kind of way.

 

[Hard_Rom]

SF force fields can be set very selective. ST deflector screens will keep micro meteors away but allow picking up special hydrogen to fuel the warp drive. Conceivable in SW SF to have a force field that would permit the passage of large massive objects yet stop small ones like gas molecules.

SF or Space Opera little to differentiate.

SW is Dune anyway. And their Holtzmann shield generators are quite selective on what passes through.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Lensman Arms Race:

This is what happens when (nation-)states attempt to prove that My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours or build a Bigger Stick.

If a military conflict goes on long enough in a high-tech setting, each side will be struggling to become and remain stronger than the other - often by producing better equipment and weapons. Sometimes, this process of Serial Escalation goes way over the top (especially with Soviet Superscience).

Truth in Television, naturally, with first and last decades of the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union as the Trope Codifier and the inspiration for many Arms Races in fiction. As a result, these Arms Races usually have rapid inventions of Nuclear Weapons-parallels, Space Weaponry, Mutually Assured Destruction, and other Cold War-era tropes. The Trope Namer comes from E. E. “Doc” Smith's Lensman novels. Over the course of a decades-long struggle (that was only the surface of a deeper, eons-old war between cosmic beings using mortals as pawns), Civilization and Boskone went from ordinary starship battles to star-powered lasers, antimatter bombs, planets used as missiles, antimatter planets used as missiles, faster-than-light missiles, faster-than-light antimatter planet missiles...

 

[KingOrfeo]

SF or Space Opera little to differentiate.

Space Opera is widely recognized as a subgenre of SF, distinguished by the singing.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Space Opera is widely recognized as a subgenre of SF, distinguished by the singing.

True space opera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmQGO5U2n6s

 

[KingOrfeo]

The Most Impractical Sci-Fi Technologies that We Still Want.

Starting with the lightsaber. And apart from being impossible, really, what use is any kind of sword in an environment where ranged weapons exist? There's a reason why soldiers no longer carry swords in combat.

 

[Rightguide]

How about traveling at the speed of light or the fantasy "warp speed."

 

[Jamiegeo]

Can anyone shed some light on how Startrek and starwars etc tackled
Asswiping? The terrible Demolition Man movie used "3 sea shells".
Has toilet paper been retired? Or is it jetisoned nilly willy throughout
Deep space?

 

[oggbashan]

Lensman Arms Race?

"I've got a gun."

"I've got a bigger gun."

"I've got an even bigger gun."

and so on to:

"I've got a weapon planet to squash your planet."

"I've got two planets to squash your weapon planet."

Or as heard in any kid's playground.

 

[phrodeau]

Can anyone shed some light on how Startrek and starwars etc tackled
Asswiping? The terrible Demolition Man movie used "3 sea shells".
Has toilet paper been retired? Or is it jetisoned nilly willy throughout
Deep space?

Jean-Luc Picard used a bidet.

 

[KingOrfeo]

How about traveling at the speed of light or the fantasy "warp speed."

That is probably impossible, which is not the same thing as impractical.

 

[Rightguide]

Can anyone shed some light on how Startrek and starwars etc tackled
Asswiping? The terrible Demolition Man movie used "3 sea shells".
Has toilet paper been retired? Or is it jetisoned nilly willy throughout
Deep space?

Public toilets in Japan spray your asshole clean and blow dry it off as well. Might be something like that. Check it out here for a laugh:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilets_in_Japan

 

[Ms_Ann]

http://www.oreillyauto.com/flux-capacitor.html

 

[KingOrfeo]

Public toilets in Japan spray your asshole clean and blow dry it off as well. Might be something like that. Check it out here for a laugh:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilets_in_Japan

The Japanese are a very inventive people, but there is something deeply warped in their minds.

 

[KingOrfeo]

http://www.oreillyauto.com/flux-capacitor.html

Impractical in that it won't run without plutonium, which is not only rare and restricted but perhaps the most dangerous substance to handle in the world, based on chemical toxicity alone.