Sci-Fi in the 21st-Century

I've mentioned before how sci-fi in the 20^th-Century was rarely set far enough in the future to make anything all that plausible. While we've come an incredibly long way (technologically, if nothing else) in the last 15 years, we really didn't progress that far in almost any other 15 year span - ever; our recent technological advances are pretty awesome (in the literal sense) in that regard.

Dealing so much with the Dark Conspiracy material these last several weeks, I've been confronted with it time and again. While Dark Conspiracy is very obviously fictional, it is based on many loosely plausible concepts - that is, it is a "dark future" game in which one of the fundamental precepts is that many of the things involved could come true. Most of this is meant to lend verisimilitude to the game, but also to allow a little social commentary and the like to be injected through the extrapolation of current events - many "what-if" and "worst-case" scenarios are in play. This is true for most science-fiction works (though Dark Conspiracy falls firmly in the realm of science-fantasy [often denoted as SFF]).

One of these niggling issues is raised sidewalks and transportation between buildings. Now, projects such as these are not altogether unbelievable - in fact, they are somewhat likely, given time - and that's the problem: Dark Conspiracy was set a mere 10-20 years in the future, not 30-40 or even 50-100! As we all know full-well, fixing existing sidewalks on land often takes 10-20 years, and constructing new ones (in established areas) takes even longer. This is true today, and has been so for many years.

So why don't sci-fi writers and creators take this into account!?

My DirecTV was shut-off Tuesday. Without it, I get only one channel: ABC! (Now who amongst you wishes to argue that God does not, in fact, relish mocking me?) I have been making-do quite well with Hulu. I mean, it's not only possible, guys, I (to this point) prefer it! Instead of spending much-wasted time searching for decent fare to watch - especially throughout the day and over the weekends - I now spend an hour or so queuing-up an entire day (and night)'s worth of scheduling. I even set blocks to have on in the background while I do other things - stuff in which I am barely interested or have already seen several times - while I do chores or read, etc. So far, it's working-out wonderfully, but on to the point:

Hulu is a sci-fi fan's dream come true; it has a wide and extensive selection for us geeks and I have been taking advantage of it at every turn, queuing-up stuff I've never before seen, old favorites, movies, and more. And this led me to an old childhood favorite I have not seen literally since I was a (very) little kid - kindergarten age - Buck Rogers of the 25^th Century.

And it's a hell of a lot better than I was afraid it would be! But, again, not the point.

You'll see all sorts of props which might make you laugh out loud - tanning beds used as sleeping pods, string lighting, that damned Twiki - and Gil Gerard's smarm literally wafts offscreen and right into your living room (I took out the trash, washed all the dishes in the house, and emptied the catbox twice before I realized it was his cloud of smug), but all that aside, the 1979 Buck Rogers TV series is pretty good fare! Erin Gray's hot and (almost as good), it's the 25^th-Century! Whatever semi-plausible elements it aspires to are made that much more believable by the fact that it's 500 years in the future - not 15!

I realize 1999-2000 were "cool" years in which to set things back in the 1980s, and that the political climate made nuclear war a somewhat logical possibility, but flying cars? Moving sidewalks? Dark Conspiracy suffers even more because it's set in a somewhat Post-Apocalyptic ecological world which includes these things. I mean, these things aren't even feasible today, and even if they can be accomplished, no one's going to accomplish them in the next 10-20 years - no one's even considering them! And no real anything is going to change that.

I mean, no matter what else happens - all the 500+% increase in crime and whatever else you throw at it - moving sidewalks/monorails between buildings some 60' in the air just ain't gonna happen in the next 50 years, yet these works want us to believe they not only could, but did, take place a mere 20 years from now.

In short, you already know that, regardless of whatever you get right, you're bound to get much more wrong, so why date yourself right out of the box?

Just venting a little...

© C Harris Lynn, 2009