Do you think they’ll ever make a good movie of Dune? Though I secretly actually kind of like the one with Sting in his fancy underwear. 
The people who lived through the depression were probably ecstatic about being able to afford to buy a 1200 ft^2 house. The people who are now growing up in 3000 ft^2 houses may feel like the future is bleak when they look at being able to afford to buy only a 1200 ft^2 house, if they can buy a house at all, on whatever their pay could be as they enter their jobs and careers.
For whatever reason, people tend to look at the state of things in a relative sense (hence the obsession with college rankings) rather than in an absolute sense. A future that looks worse than it is now, even if it is good in an absolute sense, can drain away people’s optimism. Similarly, if the future looks better than it is now, people may be optimistic, even if it is not so good in an absolute sense.
Good point @ucbalumnus. People judge their world by its perceived trajectory, not on its objective qualities. Objectively, circumstances in the 50s and 60s may have been worse than now, but people had the sense that things were improving. Now, people have the sense that things are deteriorating or declining.
Also, space travel is imperialism and exploration. People are less inclined to celebrate those things unequivocally now because we have, as a society, lost confidence in our own virtue.
Ah, dystopias. Just in time for another Blade Runner movie. The first one wasn’t so popular when it came out, partly because the world wasn’t ready for that much pessimism. Now we are ready.
@Ynotgo What are you doing online? You were supposed to go to the Blade Runner premier today and report back to us.
@mathmom Sting in undies classic. I seem to remember another better version of Dune after that. Yes, the 2014 version. Did you see that
I don’t know if Blade Runner was popular, but I remember being completely blown away by the visuals. It was like nothing we’d ever seen before - it’s easy to forget that because every future looks like that now.
@NJSue I know many NASA scientists who would disagree with the assertion that space travel is about imperialism. Perhaps some corporations have exploitive interests, but most of the people I know want to explore space so they can better understand their place in the universe.
Indeed, Star Trek: Discovery has the much darker theme centered around a major war that got blundered into.
Objectively the new Dune was better, but it was a little boring. The mini-series format served the material better.
@stardustmom – the scientists working on space projects do it out of interest … while the politicians mostly fund those projects for imperial (USSR) or anti-imperial reasons (USA). The Apollo missions were the most obvious example. There’s no real scientific reason to send people into space. Robotic exploration is far less expensive. Politicians funded Apollo to prove to the world that we, the USA, were superior to the USSR. All the infrastructure used was funded by the military (e.g. engines, motors, etc) for ICBMs and espionage. Any science gains were side benefits. BTW, if funding Apollo helped defeat the Soviets, which I think it did, then it was worth every penny.
The military funding jump-started a commercial side to space and we’re barely into that era. If it ends up being profitable then you’ll see explosive growth at some point in the future. Right now it’s simply too expensive to get a metric ton into and out of low Earth orbit (LEO). SpaceX is chipping away at that problem but chemical technology will only get us so far. A revolution in Physics is required to get things really going but I don’t expect that in my lifetime!
@stardustmom I’m really talking about the underlying narrative themes of TV sci fi that made it popular with the general audience, rather than with scientists. Star Trek writers came up with the “prime directive” concept in order to accommodate an uncomfortable awareness that encounters with other cultures usually involves cultural imperialism (or at the very least, groups are changed by cross-cultural exchange). Later on, series such as Firefly and The Expanse are very open about the underlying motive of resource extraction as the primary mass motive for colonization of space, rather than a desire to understand the universe etc. The appeal of TV sci fi, for a lot of viewers, is that it offers cultural myths, not scientific education.
Not just cultural myths, but what ifs. If we keep going down the road we are on, is this the future we are going to be stuck with? What would happen if we made AI’s so intelligent we couldn’t tell them from humans? What would happen if they became self aware? If we could have peace on earth (thanks to a Vulcan intervention!) what could we use that excess energy for? Are we doomed to find fights in the universe instead, or can we just explore? (Star Trek sends mixed messages on that score!)
I think the best sci-fi is based on solid science (like The Martian). Personally, I lose interest in a sci-fi show if it ignores basic scientific principles and wanders too far into fantasy (unless it’s a good comic book movie like Guardians of the Galaxy). For instance, it’s really hard to crack an astronaut’s helmet, yet they always seem to break in the movies.
Of course sci fi grapples with human concerns and explores solutions. Artificial intelligence is a great example of a theme that has been dealt with differently in the past in comparison to the present. 2001, the Terminator series, and sometimes the Alien series have all treated AI as a threat to mankind that needed to be reined in or destroyed. Now we have AI in Humans treated as some kind of servant to be used and abused by humans. Star Trek Next Generation was notable because it treated AI with respect, and probably avoided future calamity in its fantasy universe by doing so. Some might recall “Measure of Man” in which there was a trial to determine whether Data was a person or property.
I hope we can move past the dark vision of our future we see being portrayed now, and see some storylines featuring a future I would want to be in.
I personally HATE “Star Drek,” as I call it, and I am old enough to remember its original go round. However, H and the boys love it. They were out when the new one premiered and asked H to record it so they could watch when they got home and they asked me to sign up for all access. They came home, started to watch the first episode and thought it was so awful that they actually erased the recording! Needless to say, I didn’t sign up for all access.
I haven’t signed up for the new version either. There’s plenty to watch until it becomes available for free.
Orville has been enjoyable though. The gender reassignment storyline was interesting and more thought provoking than I expected from this show. I also like their spin on the holodeck and other Star Trek staples.
Interestingly, a tagline they are using for Amazon Prime’s upcoming “Electric Dreams” series (an anthology series based on Philip K. Dick stories) is “The future is still human.”
I would prefer that our space heroes go into battle in awesome looking powered armor than brightly colored pajamas!
Sci fi is full of wonderful music! Kara’s Theme is awesome! Mass Effect has this!