13 replies to this topic

[Kombaticus]

Hey guys, let's play a simple forum game where we rate the feasability of different science fiction franchises on a scale and then explain why we think it is realistic or not.

1= Not probable/realistic

5= Very probable/realistic

So for example;

Warhammer 40,000: 1

Reason: Man hasn't progressed much in the year 39,999 AD. Sure, they have space exploration, immortality, gene manipulation and advanced robotics, but this technology could have been discovered tens of thousands of years earlier. It is also mixed with very archaic technology, like swords, melee combat, ballistic rounds...I understand that they were going for a dystopian future, but 40,000 years seems to be enough time to either progress beyond being human or to destroy ourselves.

Feel free to disagree also. Next!

[EVanimations]

Warhammer 40,000: 1

Reason: Man hasn't progressed much in the year 39,999 AD. Sure, they have space exploration, immortality, gene manipulation and advanced robotics, but this technology could have been discovered tens of thousands of years earlier. It is also mixed with very archaic technology, like swords, melee combat, ballistic rounds...I understand that they were going for a dystopian future, but 40,000 years seems to be enough time to either progress beyond being human or to destroy ourselves.

Well, the Imperium is composed of fanatical, uneducated zealots and they consider technology to be magic. They refer to their peak of prosperity and advancement as a "Dark Age", and the fact that they've been slowly regressing since millenium-25 makes it a bit more feasible. Also, the reason they regressed in the first place was because of a galaxy-wide robot war and lots of warp storms.

If this fact stood on its own, I'd put it at about 3, but the fact that the Warp is basically hell makes me put it back to a 1. Warp=Hell is a fun concept, but very unrealistic. Also the fact that two alien factions are stand-ins for elves and orcs, respectively. You can't expect a fantasy game IN SPACE to be very realistic.

Warhammer 40,000: 1

Halo: 2

Holy shit this one makes me mad for real. It seems as if it's taken the UNSC 550 years to do what could've been done in 150. In fact, when I first saw the game I thought it took place about a hundred years from now. But no.

Weapons pretty much look exactly the same besides being gas-powered and having electronic scopes, and we have those now. Architecture looks pretty much the same as well but for a few daring angles here and there. I mean sure, they have super soldiers and junk but in all fairness, we could theoretically make one of those now. Cortana the AI only seems to be about as intelligent as a slightly above-average female. They've only built 2 space elevators, but considering they even had one means they should've been way more advanced.

In 2552 the UNSC should be about on the same level as the Covenant. I understand that they wanted to make the differences between the two factions clear, but it wouldn't have killed them to make the lore take place around 2152. 550 years is a really long time. (i say 550 years instead of 540 because the games were made about a decade ago)

They redeem themselves a bit with FTL travel but that's it.

Unlike Warhammer 40,000, where the Imperium actually has some excuses for being so technologically backward, the UNSC has none and in fact has supposedly been very prosperous.

Halo: 2

Edited by EVanimations, 27 July 2012 - 08:05 PM.

[SG-1]

• Star Wars : 1 - I know its technically not in the future, but if they have the tech to make lightsabers and FTL the whole environment would be different
  
• Stargate : 3 - Again, not future - but if we contacted civilizations like the Asgard and were given their entire knowledge we would have advanced at least our military much more, the Asgard knew how to transfer consciousness so we would have created surrogates for the SG teams. There was one episode where in an alternate timeline * one of my favorite episodes.
  
• Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure : 1 - At least "The air is clean. The water is clean. Even the dirt is clean! Bowling averages are way up. Mini-golf scores are way down. And we have more excellent water slides than any other planet we communicate with."
  
• Star Trek : 1 - They underestimated the human spirit a LOT/didn't have the technology to even show what the future would realistically look like (displays, touchscreens, etc)
  
• Matrix : 2 - More realistically we would have merged with the AI and created friendly AI instead. I don't think sentient AI will be here by the century and if it is we will not have it be a slave to humanity - it will have to choose whether or not to help us. AI would most likely just go to another planet (as opposed to global domination) and live since if it was sentient, it would have some respect for another sentient life form, maybe even be fascinated that it was created by humans; which are not in fact, good batteries.
  
• Planet of the Apes : 1 - I won't even bother explaining why.

[Craven]

Gattaca : 5 - It's already happening. In 1997 it sounded real, but today we have whole issue of picking gender in China, think about what's going to happen in next 10 years.

[NightWolf235]

Mass Effect: 3

What Evanimations suggested about about Halo, works in Mass Effect, It only takes place in the 22nd Century. The Alliance and the Citadel species have FTL, advanced munitions and weaponry akin to Gauss guns, and advanced medical technology like medigel that can heal wounds quickly. Of course there is the fact that almost all of their tech involves Mass Effect fields, whether weapons, shielding, propulsion, transportation, communications, even motorized toothbrushes use them! Not to mention many of it was reverse engineered or built from Prothean ruins and technology.

Granted, they still don't have what we're due for, like AI. But there is actually a reasons why they lack it. For those who aren't fans, nobody in the Citadel uses AI because when the Quarians used it to manufacture the Geth (androids), the Geth ended up gaining sentience and the Quarians freaked out. One asked his Quarian owner questions about the soul and what its purpose was. So, instead of embracing it, the Quarians try shutting down the Geth and then get caught up in war until the Geth reduces their species to mere millions and chases them off their home planet in a rag tag fleet of ships. Frankly if something like that happened to us, I wouldn't be surprised if we choosed to ignore AI.

As for other technology that the Citadel species are behind on, there is a rather eerie explanation for this. The Reapers actually control how species evolve! Not just the current Mass Effect civilizations, but the Protheans and the thousands of species that came before. Basically, the Reapers built the Citadel so that species would find it and use it as a trading hub/capital world/flagship for the center of galactic civilization. Meanwhile, they planted hidden caches of advanced mass effect based technology around the galaxy, so that the species would find them and reverse engineer them. (this is actually how humans got advanced in game!). While they were in Dark Space (outside the galaxy), they left the Keepers to monitor everything and in 50000 years send out a special signal. This signal used the Citadel which was actually a giant mass relay to act as a portal to the galaxy. The Reapers would storm through and kill everyone on the Citadel including, all the leaders of said civilization. Then they would send another signal through the Mass Relays that would shut off Mass Effect fields! in an instant, weapons, armor, propulsion, and shielding would be useless!

In a way, the plan is pretty devious. They would lay secret caches of advanced technology in the galaxy so that species would find them and use it for themselves, until they were dependent on it. The Reapers controlled technological advancement so that no one would stray from the path and develop technology to threaten them!

Edited by NightWolf235, 29 July 2012 - 08:43 AM.

[SG-1]

Gattaca : 5 - It's already happening. In 1997 it sounded real, but today we have whole issue of picking gender in China, think about what's going to happen in next 10 years.

That is about right, check this link out
http://blogs.smithso...what-are-yours/

[eacao]

The Halo universe: 1.
In 2552 humanity stands at a technological level of the 1990s + interstellar starships. They use the same gas-operated weapons of today, they use cars with wheels that drive like today, they are using titanium for everything when nanotechnology is making far superior materials today. They also still use a human (flesh and blood animal) military, when in 540 years robotics would be so far advanced it isn't funny. Bungie's idea for FTL is also very unrealistic. They produce micro black holes and punch a hole into another dimension where it's possible to travel faster than light. Using the (somewhat boring but) relatively plausible idea of a warp drive would add a whole lot of credibility. But the idea of slip-space is just part of the feel of the universe. It makes it unique and gives a lot of play room for exciting stories.

Also, a captain pilots their ships and shouts commands at operators who navigate and direct the ship. This is extremely primitive and inefficient. It doesn't really make sense either since they have sentient AI that are capable of piloting a ship. The covenant as well, it's always confused me looking at the covy timeline. They were interstellar while humans where still medieval. It doesn't really make sense as to why they are somewhat matched by us even though they have been out and about in space for millennia. Bungie made up the story that they are imitative rather than innovative and have copied all of their tech from an ancient alien race far more advanced than either covenant or human, but it still doesn't make sense since the elites got to space on their own, and then stopped after they found forerunner tech.

Starship troopers: 1
Again, nothing is really plausible. Everything is today tech or older + cool features. Gas-operated guns, human soldiers. Human starship pilots. It's the same as Halo - it's part of the feel that humans are in control. The movie would be boring with just AI and robots dominating the enemy. Very unrealistic though.

Moon: 3
I like this movie a lot. I'm not sure whether to give it a two or three, but I gave it a three because it doesn't go so incredibly far out there like a lot of hollywood movies do (I'm pointing at 2012 and battle: LA and Battleships and every other piece of...) and it's based around the economical mining of He3 from the regolith. However, the way the plot evolves and I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but it just doesn't seem practical or economical at all. Again, using robots in place would make a lot more sense, especially since the AI Gerty is already there.

[Craven]

Moon: 4
If it wasn't for human operator of base, the rest seems very plausible.

[Shimmy]

Demolition man: 5

Cryogenic freezing: This could potentially happen
Massive earthquake and world war: Sure, why not
Taco Bell: McDonalds is slowly going out of fashion and Taco Bell are perfectly placed to monopolise.
Self Driving cars: Already nearly there with google
Crimeless society (except in sewer): In a small scale dictatorship with constant surveillance everywhere, sure.
Complete ban on eating salt and having sex: healthier salt substitutes are already available and will only get tastier. As for sex, it's been slowly losing it's novelty since the 80's.
Sylvester Stallone saving the world: It's happened before so don't see why it wouldn't happen again.

[NightWolf235]

Also, a captain pilots their ships and shouts commands at operators who navigate and direct the ship. This is extremely primitive and inefficient. It doesn't really make sense either since they have sentient AI that are capable of piloting a ship. The covenant as well, it's always confused me looking at the covy timeline. They were interstellar while humans where still medieval. It doesn't really make sense as to why they are somewhat matched by us even though they have been out and about in space for millennia. Bungie made up the story that they are imitative rather than innovative and have copied all of their tech from an ancient alien race far more advanced than either covenant or human, but it still doesn't make sense since the elites got to space on their own, and then stopped after they found forerunner tech.

The Covenant can kind of be exempt from this. Their religion on worshiping the Forerunners and going on "The Great Journey" forbid the use of many technologies. This includes AI, which is why they lack them. When the Covenant discovered the Humans used AI, they called it a "Heresy".

Edited by NightWolf235, 30 July 2012 - 04:44 PM.

[Kombaticus]

Cowboy Bebop- 3

This one isn't completely inconveivable, and it is one of the few that doesn't go far enough with the date...it is only 2071, and there are colonies on other bodies in the solar system, like Ganymede and Mars...and they are pretty populated. Other than the concept of "hyperspace" being used to allow for the colonization of other planets, a lot of the concepts seem do-able, mainly cybernetic implants and other not too ridiculous technologies.

[Earth001]

What about the X3 Terran Conflict Storyline which takes place in 2945? But the intro takes place in 2145 in which Terraforming AI has started to colonise the galaxy for humans only to turn rouge. I give it about a 3. But I would like to know from your guys.

[EVanimations]

Hm...cool! I never heard of this game (it's a game, right?) but now I feel like it's worth checking out. Yeah I'd give that about a 3 as well.

[Earth001]

Hm...cool! I never heard of this game (it's a game, right?) but now I feel like it's worth checking out. Yeah I'd give that about a 3 as well.

Yes it is a game. PC game mostly. But it is the most complex space sandbox game you will ever own. If you think the learning curve in EVE Online was bad. Wait till this game. This game is 10x worse in terms of Learning curve. But when you get down to it, the game is worth the try. Also, get the Superbox of this game.