Ten... fantasy gadgets you wish you owned Tomorrow is always round the corner in the world of tech, and gadgets that started life in the imaginations of mad folk are starting to become a possibility. Tools that give us superpowers may seem impossible, but ultramobile computing is a reality these days, with commonplace kit that seems more capable than devices Gene …
"Perhaps writers for the new seasons hit a wall one day though and decided to bring it back, as they've featured the handheld tool in an array of episodes since 2005."
Call me cynical if you want, but a wand with an LED on the end and makes a high pitched warbling sound is both desirable as a toy (when backed by an entire TV series showing how cool it is) and incredibly cheap to make, which makes for a healthy profit margin.
using the SS to unscrew some screws. The screws in question were about three inches diameter on the heads, but still slotted screw heads (no posi-drivers in the far future!). He applied the SS side on to the screw heads, more like a sonic-wrench, but it got the job done.
Your picture of the 'Tomorrow People' does not show then wearing the jaunting belts that you are referencing ... the jaunting belts have buckles made of black and white squared patterns (pixels if you will) but I'll forgive you for the Clarissa Macdougall reference in the Lensman section and the Lensman section itself ... ;-)
...what the hey:
Babel Fish. After the infamous tower.
Mind you, Babblefish has a certain charm to it.
I quite agree on the sonic screwdriver, though; it's turning into a bit of a deus ex machina plot device these days. The Doctor is beginning to remind me of a smartphoneaholic*; constantly reaching into his pocket, thinking "there's an app for this..."
Nice roundup. Good stuff...
* I speak as an acknowledged smartphonaholic who HAS the sonic screwdriver app installed...
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and it's called the hydrogen bomb.
Having said which, there are some minor wrinkles regarding the range of its effects, the unavoidable millions of fatalities and unfortunately persistent fallout which still have to be ironed out; but I can say with 100% confidence that you will never have to worry about mobile phones or personal stereos ever again.
It's also great for getting stones out of horses hoofs, warding off dangerous dogs, sterilising river water and attracting attention if you are lost in remote areas.
I'll never forget a time many years ago (before the days of DVD and vhs rental was king) when a friend phoned up the local video rental store wanting to hire Flash Gordon for their kids birthday party and the person at the store asked them wether they wanted to rent the first or second film.
Good job there's no Flash Gordon 2 or the birthday party would have been a real eye opener...
Ah, but if you manage to persuade a GSV to humour you (or better), think of the possibilities. Everything the Culture has on offer.
That's why I would like just this one thing, for everything else, decadent or otherwise, will follow thence.
Of course, if it gets pathologically fixated on you, there could be... err.. disadvantages...
I totally second that one!
"A Lazy Gun is roughly half a metre long, 30 cm wide and 20 cm tall. The Lazy Gun is "light but massy", and weighs three times as much when turned upside down. The Lazy Gun is the only weapon known to display a sense of humour.
When the Lazy Gun is fired at humans, many different things may occur. An anchor may appear above the person, giant electrodes may appear on either side of the target and electrocute them or an animal may tear their throat out. Larger targets such as tanks or ships may suffer tidal waves, implosion, explosion, sudden lava flows or just disappear. When fired at cities and other such targets, thermonuclear explosions are the norm, although in one instance a comet crashed into the city."
What a great article. No doubt all manner of folk will add additional bits and bobs, so here's my tuppennyworth:
Oxy-gum - Marine-Boy's super stick of Wrigley's that allows you to breathe underwater (without an aqualung)!
Sport Billy's Omni-Sack - A bag that can hold ANYTHING!!
X-Wing Fighters and Millennium Falcons! Just because!
The 3DS image is still on a flat screen. It just uses optics to send different bits of the screen to each eye. The image is not projected above the screen, even if it looks it. You certainly can't walk around it or share the image without being quite intimate with others, personal-space-wise.
When 'real' 3D comes out, one wonders what it will be marketed as, since they are fast wearing out the term on what could far more accurately be described as 'stereoscopic'.
Yep, I recall, also, that the "Jaunting" belt was an aid to controlling the innate ability of the wearer. It didn't actually confer the power. Without the belt you were likely to end up in hyperspace...
The series was great initially, but it got really silly towards the end and greatly outstayed its welcome.
Anyone remember the episode where they were chased by enormous pink bubbles? Augh..
"You gotta make way for the Homo Superior
Bowie - '71"
Written allegedly after a chance meeting between Bowie and the creator of the Tomorrow People while he was pitching the show to Thames TV.
I won't say that Bowie must have been into the Tomorrow People... because that joke is just too cheap.
It was certainly a feature packed weapon but I never did understand the point of the replay button.
What are you going to shoot which doesn't get stopped by the first bullet but does get hit by the second bullet?
I suppose if it was really accurate you could keep dinging the same piece of body armour until it finally gives way.
"I suppose if it was really accurate you could keep dinging the same piece of body armour until it finally gives way."
AND ... you can fire all but the initial shot from behind full cover - you only need to pop out to hit the target with the 'tag' (like the Bullseye rifle in Resistance).
It might be debatable whether time travel breaches the laws of physics - I think that would take us into areas of debate about what the laws of physics are.
However, it should be apparent that time travel breaches the rules of common sense. It's for this reason that the only good modern time-travel stories are satires. Silverberg's "Up the Line" is recommended reading for an enumeration of the paradoxes.
Time travel is inconceivable, because positing its existence implies paradoxes - situations where something is both true and false at the same time.
As to whether "inconceivable" implies "impossible" - Rene Descartes thought so, but you are free to differ.
Both the Lens and the jaunting belt were only amplifiers/controllers, you had to have the basic ability for them to work.
I personally would like to see a Tom Baker scarf; one that automatically grows shorter or longer, depending on the terrain (short for tangled vegetation - longer for snag-free corridors)
(Typed wearing my Joe 90 specs)
the Lens was my very first thought, actually, but then, I'm old(ish).
@ ian emery -- Not sure about the jaunting belt, but I think you're wrong about the lens. At the very least, neither Virgil Samms, Rod Kinnison, nor, really, ANY of the patrolmen of "First Lensman" showed any sign of psi abilities before receiving their lenses.
RE: Homo Superior -- Olaf Stapledon apparentlt\y coined the term in his story "Odd John" in the 1930s, although its most common pop-culture usage was probably from Marvel Comics' "X-Men" -- dating from 1963 (Which is where Bowie probably took the reference from -- he was a comics fan). The Tomorrow People producers could have been familiar with either or both of these usages.
#1 Full Invisibility, not chameleon.
#2 Zat Gun. 1st shot stun, 2nd kill, 3rd Disappear
#3 Asgard Beaming technology
#4 The Thinking Front Porch. (in HHGTTG, there was a field of shovels, and every time anyone thinks about a thought a shovel comes out of the ground and wacks them in the face -- perfect for door to door sales and scammers Meanwhile I'll use either the backdoor or beam in and out.)
Peril glasses? Really? All the cool toys from the imagination of Adams and you pick the lame peril glasses? What about the infinite improbability drive? Or the SEP cloak? Or maybe one of the various devices designed to distract you so that you miss when you throw yourself at the ground? Or, heck, even the guide itself (an e-book reader that can tell you anything about anything and is able to puzzle out what you're looking for from a simple question)?
In Star Trek the replicator is what I'd want to have. 99% of the time they only use it as a glorified microwave, but they show that the things can make pretty much anything. Consider that for a moment. Want an iPad? It's yours as quick as you can say "Computer, iPad". Heck even as just a food dispenser it's freaking awesome, in no small part because it also disposes of the dishes afterward.
Oh, and holodecks would realistically be no more addictive than World of Warc....eh... nevermind.
Some other gadgets to consider:
The sarcophagus from the Stargate shows
Zatnitticas, also of Stargate origin
A tasp from Ringworld
The laser suck-you-into-the-computer thing from Tron
I'll stop now....I could go all day listing the gadgets I'd like to have from sci-fi.
Why on earth would you cram into Bill and Ted's TARDIS knockoff - c'mon, a phone box that time travels? - when you could lounge in the near infinite interior of the real thing?
And, while I'm here: WTF? No flying car? If it has to be Media Coupled to pass muster, I'll take Korben Dallas' taxi from The Fifth Element.
First, the transporter renders most of the other gadgets useless. Want money; transport the bank vault contents to your basement. Want to be invisible; transport around continuously. Want to kill someone; move them 10ft underground. Almost any problem can be solved by the transporter.
Second, the Ray Bradbury clone+kill model of transporting isn't the only one possible - linking two points in space via space-time is a more compelling idea. You needn't clone anything, just superimpose the two points in space then remove the imposition leaving the payload behind. Zero time, regardless of distance. Maybe I should patent it.
Third, Holodeck is 80%? Are you serious? To say its in its infancy is to say that protozoa are akin to infant humans. Fuck, all Sony's game portal can figure out is how to broadcast private information all over the net ( Sony engineer: "the ftp logs are full of anonymous"; Shill: "we were attacked by anonymous" ).
Transporters for all.
I pondered this while stuck on a train a while ago: teleportation would potentially solve a lot of issues (aside from the obvious transportation benefits). Imagine harvesting plasma from the sun (and/or sending toxic waste the other way), or setting up a perpetual motion machine by using a gravity well to pull a mass between two portals. You could even harvest "negative" energy - imagine cooling your refrigerator by pulling liquid helium from Pluto.
Of course, you've also got the political and social disruption which would come with freely available teleportation, but that's another story...
IIRC the belts were merely a navigational aid, as per The Slaves of Jedikah (Ohhh look Mr Lucas - I see what you did there) & the creators own original novel The Visitor, where TIM chides Stephen for jaunting into the lab without using his belt in an early chapter.
Jeesh I still remember this crap.
Sorry to spoil the party but tomogram 3D communication, as against hologram, has already been demonstrated using live feeds beaming pseudo holograms into studios!
CNN used the technology provided by an Israeli co. to beam live representations of one of their reporters, Jessica Yellin and Will.I.am of Black Eye Peas fame from the Obama Victory Party in Chicago to their studios.
See:
http://goo.gl/KEFrl
http://goo.gl/52D8W
http://www.virtualvutech.com
and :)))) here
http://goo.gl/TI6cb
These articles from down-under suggests that full live hologram transmission may have already taken place in the Antipodes.
See:
http://goo.gl/qO7ms
http://goo.gl/j1Rxo
I was surprised someone managed to bring up E. E. Smith and the Lensman series, a rather old piece of science fiction (and given our knowledge today, a HEAVY emphasis on the fiction). Still, the very concept of accurate mind-reading in general has a number of moral gotchas, as noted in the article itself, plus there's the potential issue of how to make the system foolproof (as in incapable of being fooled by a tightly-focused mind).
BTW, while there was only one official female Lensman in the series, her 5 children (of which four were girls) all transcended beyond normal Lensmen. Plus there is a Lensman book written by someone else that presented another female.
Once I wasn't sure which I'd want more--a Lens or the powers of the Mule/Second Foundation.
Things missing from the list:
Foundation shield belt.
Dune shield belt (are they compatible?)
Tantalus Field
Slidewalks.
And I'll second the Larry Niven teleportation pads and Krell mind device (suitably modified for humans.) Add to that the Krell power plant and my personal id monster.
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