What are some examples of anachronisms in science fiction literature?

[BWV]

two that come to mind are the students in starship pilot school in one of the old Heinlein books (Starship Troopers maybe?) using slide rules and characters using pay phones in William Gibson's Neuromancer because they did not have cell phones

 

[Bystander]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Asimov always comes to mind in these sorts of examples, particularly the foundation series in which interstellar messages were often written on paper. If I remember correctly there's even a scene where the far future protagonist lands his spaceship on a planet and picks up a local news paper in order to get an understanding of local affairs.

 

[BWV]

Also how many sf books in the 70s and 80s had the USSR not surviving into this century when they plotted out their future timelines (which all seemed to also put FTL travel discovered sometime around 2050)?
I can't think of one

 

[Czcibor]

From Stanisław Lem books:
-radiotelegraphist on a space ship
-a new technology for an astronaut who returned from STL star travel is... something like ebook / audiobook

 

[Ryan_m_b]

This is sort of a achronism: in Niven's Ringworld the hyperdrive on FTL ships requires a human pilot to adjust the course every now and then to avoid stars. They can build interstellar spaceships, reactionless drives and medicine to halt aging but they can't fix up a simple autopilot??

 

[GTOM]

Sorry if it should be another topic (however it is about SF and anachronism), but what do you think about deliberately using anachronism, like the western elements of Star Wars, Firefly, medieval elements of W40k, egyptian elements of Stargate?
Could you imagine anything like that in a harder, exoplanet setting? (Not really live like in an ancient society, but similar names, celebrations, arts.)

 

[Enigman]

https://scontent.fbom1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/s720x720/12002449_492696784242809_6979821642589047030_o.jpg

 

[Vanadium 50]

Also how many sf books in the 70s and 80s had the USSR not surviving into this century when they plotted out their future timelines

And how do you know that by 2050 the USSR won't be back?

 

[Janus]

This is sort of a achronism: in Niven's Ringworld the hyperdrive on FTL ships requires a human pilot to adjust the course every now and then to avoid stars. They can build interstellar spaceships, reactionless drives and medicine to halt aging but they can't fix up a simple autopilot??

Niven covers this by explaining that the mass detector ( the device that allowed one to sense masses while in hyperspace) was psionic in nature( it could only be used by a living sentient mind and could not be tied into any type of automation.). If you were traveling through explored space, you might have been able to set up an automated course to avoid known stars, but in this novel they were traveling well beyond explored space and in a new type of hyper-drive that was much faster. Also, humans did not invent the hyper-drive, but bought the technology from another race and there were quite a few things about it they still did not understand. ( such as why did ships in hyper-drive vanish, never to be seen again, if they entered too deep into gravity well, and what happened to them?)

 

[Janus]

I've read a few older stories set in the "future" where they still relied on vacuum tubes in their electronics.

 

[Hornbein]

It bugs me when future warfare is so similar to World War Two. I would be very surprised if humans would be aiming any weapons visually/manually or the captain be calling "Fire!" Computers would be doing it all. Indeed, the presence of human beings in a warship would be highly undesirable as they and their life support systems are too heavy and vulnerable.

 

[DaveC426913]

I would be very surprised if humans would be aiming any weapons visually/manually or the captain be calling "Fire!"

Two words: Star Trek.

"Captain the Klingon is powering up her disruptors."
"Shields up, Leiuten-" BLAM!

 

[gleem]

I've read a few older stories set in the "future" where they still relied on vacuum tubes in their electronics.

Tubes are more immune to EM pulses. They are still used in high frequency amplification and generation of EM radiation and in audio amplifiers. So they have not as yet completely gone away.

 

[jtbell]

I've read a few older stories set in the "future" where they still relied on vacuum tubes in their electronics.

I happened to re-read Asimov's "The Last Question" (1956) just now. The first section is set in 2061, when a couple of technicians decide to ask the giant computer Multivac the "last question" for the first time.

Multivac fell dead and silent. The slow flashing of lights ceased, the distant sounds of clicking relays ended. Then, just as the frightened technicians felt they could hold their breath no longer, there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype attached to that portion of Multivac. Five words were printed: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

Flashing lights? Relays? Teletype?

If Asimov were writing this story today, he'd probably have the technicians using a Multivac app on their phones.

[added] Although probably not this one:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/multivac-update/9nblggh5x091

 

[DaveC426913]

I envision a great mashup!

Multivac fell dead and silent. The slow flashing of lights ceased, the distant sounds of clicking relays ended. Then, just as the frightened technicians felt they could hold their breath no longer, there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype attached to that portion of Multivac.
I HAVE AN ANSWER.
YOU'RE NOT GOING TO LIKE IT...

 

[Hornbein]

If Asimov were writing this story today, he'd probably have the technicians using a Multivac app on their phones.

They waited in tense silence as the hourglass rotated. Then the screen went blank. Slowly the words formed,

DOWNLOAD KARDASHIAN PORN NOW!

 

[Vanadium 50]

"Captain the Klingon is powering up her disruptors."
"Shields up, Leiuten-" BLAM!

"Captain Picard, the enemy is approaching"
"Mr. Worf, fire at will."
<brzaaap!> <thud>
"No, no, that's not what I meant".

The use of computers in the original series looks kind of funny in retrospect. The artificial voice - Siri can do better. The impact printing on little slips of paper? The blinkenlights?

It bugs me when future warfare is so similar to World War Two.

Read Honor Harrington novels then. Instead of WW2, you get the Age of Sail.

The map in Raiders of the Lost Ark depicts a middle east that never was -but is more in line with 1981 than 1936. "Jordan" didn't exist in 1936.

That said, I think it's worth taking the advice from MST3K: " Just repeat to yourself "It's just a show, I should really just relax."

 

[Hornbein]

The use of computers in the original series looks kind of funny in retrospect. The artificial voice - Siri can do better. The impact printing on little slips of paper? The blinkenlights?

The problem is/was, the audience has to be able to recognize it. If the voice sounded perfectly human, how would anyone know it was a computer?

Star Trek tried using futuristic salt shakers. The audience couldn't recognize it as a salt shaker, so back they went to the trad model. Dr. McCoy got the futuristic salt shakers to use as medical instruments. To me it was funny because my family used those futuristic salt shakers in real life.

I like to imagine that if we ate that food that came out of those machines we'd spit it out because it tasted so bad. The Star Trek people had been eating it their whole lives so they were used to it.

 

[Hornbein]

And how do you know that by 2050 the USSR won't be back?

That's a pretty cool idea. But it wouldn't sell.

 

[mheslep]

Tubes are more immune to EM pulses.

More resistant perhaps than modern solid state electronics, not immune. The advantage of tubes lies with immunity to particle radiation; a voltage surge across a filament can still kill it.

 

[jtbell]

Star Trek tried using futuristic salt shakers. The audience couldn't recognize it as a salt shaker, so back they went to the trad model. Dr. McCoy got the futuristic salt shakers to use as medical instruments.

Haha, I learn something new every day here!

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/shakers2.jpg