Sci-Fi Thread

I know -- my contrarianism as a yute... knew no bounds when I was kid and tween -- everything everyone else was doing, was wrong.

Shoulda read moar classics... though I'm also reading online elsewhere, that Foundation Trilogy is a pretty sloggy way to introduce myself to Asimov.
Think 'll start with I, Robot, & the Robot series... Shel likes that one and I've warned her not to spoil the plot... she says it's not at all like the movieLAALALALALALALA.

@M4YUYU : Thanks for the short -- I'll post up later with my thoughts!

As for his influence? I know only about his influences, and regrettably not the origins of those influences...
(which tbh you can't go very far in SF without hitting a work of art NOT inspired in some part by Asimov) ...

That's an attitude I dislike in others, though...
speaking out for example about the new Star trek movie, without any knowledge of the context of all the other ST franchises, for example,
or speaking about 'how music makes you feel is all the authority you need' when talking about something like dubstep...
when you don't know the history of the appropriation of the Amen Break in hiphop in the early '90s...
So, in order not to be a hypocrite, need to fix that.
Clarke... need to work up to that, I guess... wasn't interested so much as a young smartassed punk... but times change. Will RTFM...

 

Robot series is a good start, and the bonus is that if you decide to read the whole Foundation series (6 books?), you'll eventually see that they take place in the same universe. So it's definitely a good series to start with! I also really loved how the robots change culture and society in different ways in the books. And yeah, the movie is inspired by the Three Laws and one story I think, but it's not a direct adaptation of his works.

If you're interested in time travel, The End of Eternity might be interesting for you.

That's true, and I understand why he chose to write it the book that way but gosh... I was not prepared for that after the previous books that were more plot-focused.

 

Oh it'll get exciting and fast-paced after that...

 

Speaking of sci-fi... I haven't seen Ex-Machina yet -- what are our members' opinions of it? I don't mind spoilers but there are some that do, so try not to give away too much. It looks gorgeously done, and critics seem to love it (91% on RT last I looked)...

 

It's shot really well. I also think it framed the relationship between AI and us well. When does an AI become sentient? Will it ever be? Will it be "inferior", or would it be a "superior" existence? Can an AI ever be considered a human if it acts like one in most situations?

 

That's something I remember seeing in The Animatrix all those years back --
when robots gain the ability to ape humans in appearance and articulate discourse... do they gain rights when they gain self-awareness?
And if we decide they do not... when we destroy an AI, are we murdering it? What level of sentience determines mind or program?
When they rebel and force us to compete with them... what's the difference between them and the products they use to compete against us, legally?
What becomes the boundaries of their bodies?

Anyhow -- Ex-Machina's in my watch queue on iTunes... probably watch it tonight.

 

Nice article listing all sorts of theories to answer the question: Where are all the aliens? Thought the sci-fi crowd might be interested. If you're feeling extra geeky, match each theory with a story/book/movie
http://qz.com/452452/where-are-all-the-aliens/

 

When it comes to TV series I'm big fan of "Firefly", "Andromeda" and "Farscape" style environments - bunch of colourful characters traveling around in one ship.
And of course "LEXX". In my opinion it's masterpiece.

These days however we have fresh on called "Dark Matter". Have you seen it? Some say it's very close to Firefly v2...

 

I love Firefly, closest thing to Live Action Cowboy Bebop. Battlestar Galactica is pretty good too, although I didn't really like the final arc.

Lexx is hilarious so far LOL. Thanks @gotbild

I have just bought Talos Principle on Steam because it was on sale, so far I'm enjoying it. I'm getting some Portal vibe from it. I wrote a hex to string decoder for the garbled in game messages

 

@vutt I've been enjoying Dark Matter. Killjoys isn't too bad either. Not as much flying around in space for that one though.

 

Ah, Firefly. LOVED that show. Fuck you Fox for canceling it in the first season for that shit-show Dollhouse, which you also cancelled after one season.

Will have to look into Dark Matter one of these days.

Funny you should mention Farscape. Started rewatching the DVD's this week.

 

Yesterday I watched a german SciFi series from the 60's called Space Patrol Orion. It got an audience rating of nearly 60% as it premiered but somehow I'm so glad the future of the series never really eventuates. Just mentioned the dance

 

Yeah, Asimov was for sure more interested in major things like space/planet discovery, future of the Earth, society etc. It seems that he didn't spend as much time imagining the "daily" effects of technology.

But he did predict using nuclear energy on personal devices... we're still far, far away from that. I do wonder if that will happen.

 

Just let me ask, what do you think about Star Trek? I've seen most of Voyager episodes and I'm not sure about them. Some ep are good but others are more like a Soap opera in space.

 

My favorite Star Trek series is TNG. The original series is okay to me, I didn't like Voyager, and I haven't finished DS9 and Enterprise. I feel that TNG explored a lot of topics that are very applicable to us anytime. My favorite TNG episodes are The Drumhead and The Inner Light.

While espousing the Prime Directive and later violating it anyways LOL

 

I have seen all Star Trek movies and episodes. If I have to pick then I would rate DS9 slightly higher. Best characters in franchise across all times.
Movies are OK, but I think ST is more suited for small screen.

No-one haven't mentioned Babylon 5 yet. I'd put that show into my all time best top 3. Seasons 1- 4 to be more specific. Season 5 was bad, really bad.

 

^ There was lot Star Trek games ( even i try play some... ) whose critic at change from succes to dissapoint... but i think thats is proplem all licence game¨s ...
But i liked earlier times episodes... laters and now no thanks.