In the early sixties I was an avid reader of science-fiction and of “things to come”.
It is very interesting now to consider how many of these things (almost) came true and how many are not going to happen (though this may change: I remember in Galaxy review a serie on “hyper-organized state” by Mark IDon’tRemeberHisName which was making predictions which were wrong in the late 80s and are coming true with the internet).
So what things in the future are you imagining?
I start:
You will go to the airport and there you’ll get into a room with a row of seats.
You just sit down and relax and then , in due time, one of the wall of the room slides open and there comes a plane that gobbles the row of seats.
that’s the way they will find to hasten plane rotation : no more of these pesky passengers coming aboard and spending valuable time to sit down!
I once read a book about trains (I don’t know why I was reading it either) and it said that by the year 2000, there would be “underground” trains that would use tunnels right through the centre of the earth. It said that to get from one side of the earth to the other would take about 40 minutes, and the train would be the same size as the tube and freefall using gravity to propell itself!
Someone has a great imagination! I think that book was written in the '70s.
I’ve spent some time reading older sci-fi. The only early prediction that kind of came true was Clarke’s idea of using satellites for communication…but of course he blew it with regards to predicting the incredible miniaturization of electronics…his geosynchronous communications satellites were staffed with human technicians!
It’s amazing how NO ONE predicted the internet anything like it actually is. And that we would be using computers for doing useless crap like this…they thought we would be using it to solve the world’s problems!
…If the author is lucky or very perceptive. Otherwise it’s just another form of fiction. Like the guy who thought drilling tunnels through the Earth could be paid for (if even possible) by transport costs…
Good science fiction requires good writing, good characters and a good story, plus it uses science to base some of its ideas in fact, and often some artistic license to carry you beyond today’s body of knowledge into believing in what the author postulates. Like faster-than-light travel.
As for the airplane idea, it sounds great but on 9/11 I have to think first of how we have to be paranoid with our aircraft. I’m sure the “security industry” is happy with the idea of squeezing all the passengers through one tiny door to get them all on the plane. For the moving room idea to work, all passengers would probably have to squeeze through a tiny door to get into that room. Same process, just separate from being inside the plane.
It still could save some time though, especially if one plane develops a mechanical issue and others are available. And gate changes would be a thing of the past. We had a gate change on our way home from Unicon (in Dallas) that involved getting on a train plus a lot of walking.
Also on our way home from Unicon (August 13), it took an hour and a half for our plane to get boarded. This was two days after the homemade bomb scare in London, and we were flying to the U.S. from Paris. Aside from the usual heightened security and screenings, just before U.S.-bound passengers boarded their planes, each one was very thoroughly patted down, and every piece of carryon luggage was thoroughly searched. At least we were allowed to have carryons. But due to lack of staff to do all this, the process made our plane an hour and a half late, and as a result we ended up getting home a day late.
Lastly the plane. Not sure how much expense would be involved in having giant doors on the planes but I’m aware there would be technical issues. Passenger jets get inflated and deflated like hard-sided balloons when they fly. The more (and larger) doors you have, the more areas there are that have to be reinforced and hardened to keep a tight seal. Bigger doors would had hundreds of pounds of weight (minimum) to the plane for all the additional hardware and structural elements they would require. But this doesn’t mean it couldn’t be done. I just don’t think it will until we get past today’s security climate.
The plane idea won’t work, simply because of all the weight required to have two sets of structures. There’s a lot more money to be made doing it the way they do now.
If you live in the US, or in some other relatively recently developed place, you owe it to yourself to visit some places that have been settled a LONG time. People are still living and working in buildings that were built centuries ago, and still walk on the same streets that were laid centuries ago. We really don’t change our way of life nearly as quickly as sci-fi writers would have us do.
Although the real technology breakthroughs in electronics have taken most sci-fi writers by surprise.
Used to be most “city of the future” stories had flying cars. I think most folks have figured out by now that there is just no way we could survive if all of our existing drivers had three dimensions to make mistakes in! think about it
I read a pamphlet once that was talking about the future and stuff, one thing it said we would all be using personal helicopters instead of cars by year 2000.
I forgot about the weight part. Add that to the weight of the big door, and you’re talking several passengers’ worth, bare minimum.
Which one? You can still buy one, but the battery problem is still in the way. Weight of batteries gets in the way of efficiency; a good balance leaves you with relatively short range and a few hours to recharge. Today’s electric cars are well suited to commuting and driving around town, but you can’t easily take the car beyond its range for any long trips without long delays to recharge. Assuming there’s a recharging place where you need one.
I’d be happy with a vacation in orbit. No gravity and killer scenery! Plus a lot less distance and less fuel cost to get you in and out of the Moon’s gravity. But the main fuel cost is still the part that gets you up to 17,500 mph to get into Earth orbit. Until we have a catapult or some other means of bringing the cost down…
You can get the solar panels and fingerprint doorlock today if you want. But the average house is already too expensive to include such extras. For wind, a turbine big enough to power your house might need more space than your whole yard (so it won’t hit your neighbors’). Those ones you see up on the hills in wind farms are a lot bigger than they look!
A unicycling friend of mine has installed solar roofing on houses (and businesses). It takes a pretty long time to return on the investment though, so it’s still relatively rare. Best used in places that get lots of sun, like California’s central valley, for good return on investment.
remember when everyone though the world would be perfect after the year 2000? but it didnt happen because 2000 seemed like some far off and long away deadline, and no one tried to meet it because it seemed like it would never come. unless we all come together to try and fix the worlds problems, itll never happen.
