Interesting, but it's not the sort of article I was expecting. Doesn't make it bad, of course.

Number five only counts in one way: Technology cannot beat mans determination.

And yet, still no flying [affordable] cars.

That's actually a pretty good list.

I'd write something much longer, but my Soylent Green is just about done cooking.

About the space tourism, though, I'm thinking of that (from a US perspective) as more of a science failure. Yes, if you can afford $20 mil you too can go up into space...

... in a Russian rocket.

Balls.

Near-pandemics? Near pandemics? So when a couple hundred people around the world get sick it's a near-pandemic? Guess the CDC will have to ban Aunt Sally from making her famous potato salad because she night leave it in the sun and cause a near-pandemic...

Haoie: And yet, still no flying [affordable] cars.

Low earth orbit and not THAT expensive.

It's not the future, we don't have a black president...yet.

1984 & Brave New World are missing.
Only 91 years left this in century
/2099 is the last year of the century
/plenty of time left

Just to show my support for #5. When 9/11 happened, and the first plane struck the World Trade Center, I look at the guy next to me on the factory floor and said, "I just heard on the radio, some idiot just flew a plane into the World Trade Center." The thought that it could be the first part of a terrorist plot didn't even enter my mind until reports of more highjackings started comming on the radio.

Nothing about artificial hearts or other organ transplants?

Nothing about mega-materials?

#5 wasn't exactly Sci-fi

/Was reading it on 9/11

What a bogus article! No mention of Xenu or his extraterrestrial body thetan assault!

Espertron: What a bogus article! No mention of Xenu or his extraterrestrial body thetan assault!

That's so 75 million years ago!

TaGirl_Keri: 1984 & Brave New World are missing.
Only 91 years left this in century
/2099 is the last year of the century
/plenty of time left

Wrong. 3000 is the last year of the century, 3001 begins the next century. There was no year "0"

1, 2, and 3 I can see.

4 and 5 are total bullshiat.

The Lone Gunman pilot episode aired on 03/04/2001. So I guess the author is technically correct on #5.

Haoie: And yet, still no flying [affordable] cars.

Because, until we have some sort of actual anti-gravity and full 6" precision computer control in a 30mph crosswind, it is a dumb idea.

wmdkitty: TaGirl_Keri: 1984 & Brave New World are missing.
Only 91 years left this in century
/2099 is the last year of the century
/plenty of time left

Wrong. 3000 is the last year of the century, 3001 begins the next century. There was no year "0"

You both fail.

/2100

Webmasters who can't mark up HTML properly, editors who don't proof-read - more likely than you think!

and the Weenerser on that site didn't read the basic premise... that it was about what MAN had done.

lol, welcome to modern high school education.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more the author may have a point about 9/11. Not the attack itself - hijacking a plane with boxcutters is about as low-tech as you can get without being Amish - but the era that 9/11 ushered in.

So much sci-fi involves a dystopian future where certain truths about American civil liberties and cultural values are turned on their head because of fear and paranoia. And while we're not quite there yet, it's not for lack of trying.

If you'd told me in 2000 that in 8 years we were going to have hundreds of people, including some American citizens, held without charges or any hope of a trial or habeas corpus proceedings, I would have told you you're full of shiat. Same goes for the push to wiretap everything, half of the power that the PATRIOT Act potentially confers. Same goes for the idea that a large political faction would buy into the idea that painful and mindwarping interrogation tactics aren't torture as long as they don't leave a mark, or the sometimes apocalyptic tone that our War on Terror takes on, or the "You're either with us or against us" mindset.

This country went batshiat crazy at the end of 2001, and it's only now beginning to wake up from a seven year nightmare of government arrogance, attempts at Big Brother tactics, and just plain evil-overlord governance. In fact, Dick Cheney acts an awful lot like I'd expect the authoritarian villain of a bad sci-fi movie to act.

Science Farktion: About the space tourism, though, I'm thinking of that (from a US perspective) as more of a science failure. Yes, if you can afford $20 mil you too can go up into space...

... in a Russian rocket.

Balls.

They Soyuz has a better safety record than the Space Shuttle you know. The last fatal accident was back in 1971 and that was only because the Russians cut corners and the crew didn't have pressure suits. Had they had pressure suits they would have survived.

The other one was the first manned test flight of the spacecraft and the parachute system failed. That was only a test flight of the spacecraft itself and not a mission flight so one can question as to if that one should count.

Soyuz (1967-Present)
------------------------------
Flights: 95
Failures: 4 (2 non-fatal)
Failure Rate: 4.21%

Cosmonauts Flown: 228
Fatalities: 4
Fatality Rate: 1.75%

Shuttle (1981-Present)
------------------------------
Flights: 116
Failures: 3 (1 non-fatal)
Failure Rate: 2.59%

Astronauts Flown: 692
Fatalities: 14
Fatality Rate: 2.02%

Soyuz Failures:
Soyuz 1 (1967), Soyuz 11 (1971), Soyuz 18A (1975, Non-Fatal), Soyuz T-10A (1983, Non-Fatal)

Shuttle Failures:
STS-51L (1986), STS-83 (1997, Non-Fatal), STS-107 (2003)

Link (new window)

Ooh, esplosions! (new window)

wmdkitty: TaGirl_Keri: 1984 & Brave New World are missing.
Only 91 years left this in century
/2099 is the last year of the century
/plenty of time left

Wrong. 3000 is the last year of the century, 3001 begins the next century. There was no year "0"

Wrong. Time is a simultaneous 4 corner square that rotates to a 4 day time cube within 1 - 24 hour rotation of Earth. The academic brainwashed mind is corrupt and can't comprehend Cubic magnificence.

9-11 isn't science fiction, it's science fact, everyone says so.

/Giuliani'd

Um.....cell phones, personal computers, da interweb.....

Am I the only geezer on the web who was a kid in the 70's

Raging Thespian: wmdkitty: TaGirl_Keri: 1984 & Brave New World are missing.
Only 91 years left this in century
/2099 is the last year of the century
/plenty of time left

Wrong. 3000 is the last year of the century, 3001 begins the next century. There was no year "0"

You both fail.

/2100

My point remains, there is no year "0", therefore the starting year of the next millennium is 3001.

/I should have caught that mistake, myself.
//disappointed.

carnifexpuer: It's not the future, we don't have a black president...yet.

Jim Briskin hasn't been born yet.

wmdkitty: My point remains, there is no year "0", therefore the starting year of the next millennium is 3001.

On this point you are correct. That whole "no year zero" thing always bugged the hell out of me.

Water beds. No one realizes that they couldn't be patented due to RAH.

What's up with a supposed science fiction site giving credit for The Andromeda Strain to A&E??

Haoie: "And yet, still no flying [affordable] cars."
youpeoplearecrazy: "Because, until we have some sort of actual anti-gravity and full 6" precision computer control in a 30mph crosswind, it is a dumb idea."

....Or a common gyrocopter that doubles as a ground vehicle.



The PAL-V personal air/land vehicle

There was no year "0"

Tell that to Doc Brown.


/December 25th, 0000
//couldn't find screencap
///but would have hotlinked

Raging Thespian: On this point you are correct. That whole "no year zero" thing always bugged the hell out of me.

Seriously. Anybody with two bits to rub together knows that you always index off of zero. Apparently, our calendar was designed by Visual Basic programmers.

Where are my sex slave robots?

Man, it is amazing what CRAP the mods will green-light.

Wow, denial of service hack - yeah, that is really SCI-Fi stuff - NOT!!!!

Crosshair
Shuttle Failures:
STS-51L (1986), STS-83 (1997, Non-Fatal), STS-107 (2003)


from the wiki article on STS-83: This mission was originally launched on April 4, 1997, and was intended to be on orbit for 15 days, 16 hours. The mission was cut short due to a problem with Fuel Cell #2 and it landed on April 8, after 3 days 23 hours.

So you're going to ding them a point because a glorified battery didn't work quite right? That's pretty harsh. Also, why don't you count this as a failure - looks to me like the crew came within a hair's breath of being a smoking hole in the ground on that one.


Anyway, the shuttle can carry 24,400kg to LEO. The Soyuz spacecraft can carry basically zero payload (the crew doesn't count as payload for the shuttle, so we don't count it for Soyuz) but its launcher can put 7300kg into LEO. So each shuttle launch could theoretically be lifting three whole Soyuz inside its cargo bay.

So I'm not sure a "count the number of launches" comparison is very useful.

Crosshair: They Soyuz has a better safety record than the Space Shuttle you know.

Yes! All hail the Chief Designer! We must bow down to the superior Soviet/Russian technology.
Stupid Americans can never, ever build anything as great as that which comes out of Mother Russia.
YGBSM.

First, both vehicles have about the same (if we include only the published incidents) 'crew loss'. ~2%.

Second, Soyuz and the Shuttle are vastly different vehicles. Built for vastly different purposes/missions.
The Shuttle cannot fly anything near the frequency of Soyuz, but the Soyuz cannot lift 1/10 of the weight or volume of the Shuttle.

VW Beetle vs semi-trailer.

/last fatal accident - 1971
//close calls - many
///for example, TM-5 in 1988

Tofu: Crosshair
Shuttle Failures:
STS-51L (1986), STS-83 (1997, Non-Fatal), STS-107 (2003)


from the wiki article on STS-83: This mission was originally launched on April 4, 1997, and was intended to be on orbit for 15 days, 16 hours. The mission was cut short due to a problem with Fuel Cell #2 and it landed on April 8, after 3 days 23 hours.

So you're going to ding them a point because a glorified battery didn't work quite right? That's pretty harsh. Also, why don't you count this as a failure - looks to me like the crew came within a hair's breath of being a smoking hole in the ground on that one.


Anyway, the shuttle can carry 24,400kg to LEO. The Soyuz spacecraft can carry basically zero payload (the crew doesn't count as payload for the shuttle, so we don't count it for Soyuz) but its launcher can put 7300kg into LEO. So each shuttle launch could theoretically be lifting three whole Soyuz inside its cargo bay.

So I'm not sure a "count the number of launches" comparison is very useful.

Why don't you claim your wang is 15" at the same time? Either could be documented. Citizen moon rockets have no bearing on payload. They are to fly Brit Spears (or her Celeb equal, you know what I mean) to space.

Space shovel missions are to move things into orbit.

Both are different. People who compare the two are assholes.

I am amazed that in the last two days I have accidentally seen the space station twice. To be able to step out the front door and see this point of light floating across the sky, and knowing that it is occupied by people who are furthering the endeavor of exploration and knowledge is a wonderful and curious thing.

See if the space station will be entering your neighborhood over at the Human Space Flight page.

btfoom

I'm with ya. Terrible article, written by an idiot, signifying his retardation.

Flying planes into buildings was in a Tom Clancy novel FFS.

The LHC? Almost as impressive as the SSC would have been, if it had been finished 15 years ago as planned. Space tourism? Who in the mid-70s would have predicted such a wild thing happening, while we NEVER EVEN RETURNED TO THE MOON AND ARE MORE THAN A DECADE FROM DOING SO.

btfoom: Man, it is amazing what CRAP the mods will green-light.

Wow, denial of service hack - yeah, that is really SCI-Fi stuff - NOT!!!!

Do you remember that show Inspector Gadget? Where crime solving genius Penny had a computer that was as small as a book but it doubled as encyclopedia and communication device?

I somehow could forgive the cyborg-dad and the long-suffering anthropomorphic dog, her book was so ridiculously far-fetched to me when I was a kid.

Now I have access to wikipedia on my cell phone.

Tell me that isn't cool.

Bacontastesgood: Flying planes into buildings was in a Tom Clancy novel FFS.

Crashing the stock market with a computer virus was in the same book too, IIRC.

I can't remember if that was the one where Mr. Clark and Ding Chavez kill an airplane full of people by blinding the pilot with a flash of light.

That was pretty sick.

/Tom Clancy fan back in the day

#5 does not count.
What scientific breakthrough allowed 9/11 to happen?

From wikipedia: "Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology."

9/11 was a crazy day. People always think there was a conspiracy behind it, but what actually happened is the conspiracy.

A lunatic madman brainwashed a bunch of people into going on a suicide mission. They came to America and adapted to our society, living quietly amongst us. Then one day they simultaneously hijacked 4 planes. They destroyed two skyscrapers and blew up part of the pentagon. The result was widespread fear and two wars.

How can people think of something even more farfetched than that?

The first thing I thought of.